A school day may be 7 to 8 hours long. While you don't have to have school days of that length, it does take time to instruct, complete assignments, set up projects or demonstrations, and travel for field trips or connect with other home schooling families. Teachers spend hours preparing lessons and documenting their students' progress. While your class will be much smaller, you still need to do those things for your children. If the state you live in requires certain forms of documentation or certain tests for home schooled children, you must also complete those. As home schooling families are a small segment of the population, it will also take time to find resources and support.
There are many products and services available to assist the home schooling family, including but not limited to prepared curricula, conferences and consultants to share ideas and improve teaching techniques, and online courses for students. Not all of these things are necessary, but they can save you time and labor, or help you become a better teacher for your children. And unlike conventional schools, where costs are covered by public and private funding, the costs of home schooling your children are shared with a small group or paid solely by parents. Home schooling families can also suffer a loss of wages, if a parent leaves the workforce to home school. Some home schooling families are single-income households to begin with, but a transition to a single-income budget plus any home schooling-related expenses can be difficult.
Some states or school districts require testing or work portfolios of home schooled students. These tests and portfolios prove that home schooled children are receiving an education comparable to children in public schools. They may need to be completed one or more times per year. Home schooling parents may have to meet some of the same curriculum standards that conventional schools must adhere to. Making sure that these requirements are met requires diligence. You must stay abreast of changes in regulations, or risk having your children deemed truant. Even if the state or school district does not ask you to provide a portfolio or make testing mandatory, organized lesson plans and documenting your child's progress make it easier to ensure that your child is getting the best education you can offer.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 2.9 percent of children had any home schooling in 2007. Stereotypes about home schooled children persist despite the increase of home schooling families. These stereotypes can be positive, including beliefs that home schooled children are well behaved and intelligent, but more are negative, including beliefs that home schooled children lack social skills or are poorly educated. Stereotypes about parents who home school include beliefs that home schooling parents are overly controlling, opinionated or that they are religious fundamentalists. Home schooling families work to fight these perceptions, but if your community is not supportive, changing attitudes can be a difficult process.