There are many advantages, and many homeschoolers learn new ones each day by the Lord's grace. Some of those include:

• Spiritual training opportunities
• Opportunities to greatly influence children in dealing with life and social situations by being their role model as well as their instructor.
• Children receive one-on-one instruction.
• Parents get wonderful opportunities to watch their children grow and share the precious moments of their childhood.
• The families strengthen in a unit that provides much more stability and opportunities to glorify the Lord.
• Children respect adults and are much better equipped to have well thought out conversations with their elders.
• Children's confidences are not challenged and thus their spiritual gifts are given much more room to develop.
• Children can take an active part in their learning and explore areas that interest them more intently than they could in public school.
• Destructive elements of false teachings, temptations, and negative peer pressure can be controlled.
• Scheduling is more flexible allowing the parent to meet the needs of each individual child as well as allowing wonderful opportunities to serve their communities as the Lord provides.
• Scheduling also allows for vacation times to correspond with Dad's work.
• If a child becomes sick, he needn't worry about losing ground that becomes very hard to make up while the rest of his classmates continue on ahead.
• Children suffer much less illness at home than those going to school.
• Socialization is much broader. Children get opportunities to fellowship with people of all ages allowing them to develop abilities of expanded communication skills.
• In today's current world, our children are much safer. Our little ones do not fear being shot in class, pressured to partake in drugs, or abused by the local bullies.

Yes! In the state of West Virginia, we fall under Chapter 18, Article 8, Section 1, Exemption B. There we find two options for homeschooling. Subsection a allows us to homeschool with the assistance and approval of the Board of Education's office. Most of us homeschool under Subsection b which makes us our own individual unity as long as we compile with four requirements. These are:

• That the person providing instruction give a notice of intent to homeschool with the name and address of each child of compulsory school age to the board. If one is taking their child out of public school, they must give notice two weeks prior to the board. Our Wood County Board interprets this law to mean that homeschoolers must give a notice of intent each year two weeks prior to the beginning of public school.
• The person providing instruction must submit satisfactory evidence of a high school diploma or a formal education of at least four years higher than the oldest child being educated. However, for the school term of 2000-2001, the four years higher requirement has been dropped until the state has further investigated whether homeschooling families really need such a restriction. However, a high-school diploma is still required.
• The person(s) providing instruction must outline a plan of instruction for the ensuing school term. The law does not say we must give this outline to the Board office, but the Wood County Board does ask for this outline. The Board likes for you to tell them the curriculum you use as well, but the law does not stipulate specifically the need to do this. Since many of us use a variety of sources, most of us only inform them that we will teach the subjects required by law using a variety of sources.
• The person(s) providing home instruction will obtain an academic assessment for the child for the previous school year by either taking an annual standardized test by an authorized person other than the parent, or by having a narrative done by a certified teacher on a child's portfolio stating that the child has shown progress at his or her level, or by other means mutually agreed upon by the parent and the Board. All assessments will be on the five core subjects of language, reading, math, social studies, and science. All assessments will be turned in to the Board no later than June 30^th of that school year. If the child is tested and his composite score falls below the 40^th percentile, the Board will notify the parent of the need to remediate the student and outline all the services available to help the parent with that objective. If after two calendar years the student is unable to increase their composite percentile score above the 40^th percentile, he will be required to take the child out of homeschool.

No-one knows you child better than you. No-one loves your child the way you do. God has given you your children and has directed you to teach them His Word. He equips you to handle the job. Your loving one-on-one instruction is more focused on your special learner. This keeps you on top of any misunderstandings or difficulties your child is having. This is impossible for even the best of school teachers. A room of 15 to 28 children prevents them to focus on just one child. Even if you haven't training on educating children, you are already much better equipped to give a higher quality of education just because of these mentioned factors.

Don't worry, most public school teachers do not know everything at first either. You learn right along with your children. Your curriculum will give instructions, and just like your teacher counterparts, you have the opportunity to read ahead and plan how to instruct your little ones. Furthermore, homeschoolers have many sources to gather information from. There are some wonderful magazines and books available. There are also conventions, workshops, seminars, and local and state support groups. The Christian has an extra advantage, for the Lord promises to give us wisdom if we seek Him for it. "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him." James 1:5-7

This seems to be a very common question, which usually baffles most of us who homeschool. Exactly how much socialization does the public school offer? Children are given a 45 minute lunch, with 25 minutes of that to eat lunch usually in silence. The remaining time is quickly used for lineups and single file marching to and from the playground. What time children do have to play is usually very limited. What they pick up from the playground in that limited time seems to undermine quickly teachings from Christian homes as children learn about fighting, cursing, selfishness, and various other playground skills. Most children are not given any additional recesses. In class the children are required to remain silent unless speaking directly to the teacher. The public has realized that socialization skills are not being achieved in their public schools and are trying to develop ways to improve upon this. The new buzzword for many is cooperative learning. Homeschool children are socializing all day long with either parents, siblings, neighbors, other homeschool children, or church members. The only thing we are missing in this arena from public school is the negative socialization that many of us count as an advantage to have eliminated from our children's lives.

We know that not all are called to homeschool, but those of us who are do not believe that children are equipped to handle spiritual battles that most adults will themselves never have to encounter. We do not believe that there has been enough time to build our little ones up with a strong spiritual foundation that will give them the tools to fight daily spiritual warfare they face in the public arena. Many of us have tried to work outside the home while our children went to public schools and know first hand the lack of time and energy to actually teach the Word of God on a daily basis. Many of us have also learned first hand how hard it is to teach little minds about our faith when the popular majority surrounding our children daily, with more active hours with them than we actually had, did not believe. We do not state that no-one could accomplish this feat, but we know we could not. The challenge therefore was how to obey the Lord in regards to our children and not homeschool. Many of us knew we could not, and thus we are homeschooling in obedience to the Lord's command in our lives. We feel this obedience will actually produce strong spiritual lights unto the future world who will be skilled in shining the Lord's glory. They will then be equipped to face temptations and follow the straight paths of the Lord, teaching others of Him, giving an answer in and out of season of their faith and hope, and thus leading others to obey the gospel.

Homeschooling is a life style. We are always learning and finding ways to turn everyday events into educational experiences. The actually textbook learning differs from home to home. The average seems to be about three hours a day. This does not include the time our children our reading, exercising in play, or exploring the wonderful creations of their Lord first hand. Many homeschoolers believe that this hands-on learning is where our children learn the most, but again, each home is different. The actual time depends greatly on how you schedule your day, your special child, and what additional subjects above the five core ones you wish to teach.

Many subjects can be taught jointly. Language, Social Studies, Science, Bible, and various others can be done together with expectations being adjusted depending on the child's abilities. Math and reading are usually more focused for each grade level, but can be taught while the other children are working on assignments from their other classes.

Currently, many colleges are actively seeking homeschoolers since our students are known overall as being mature, active learners, creative scholars, and highly prepared academically. Homeschoolers should prepare a thorough transcript of high-school level work, award diplomas, and specify graduation dates in preparing for college entrance exams. Occasionally, GED tests are required by some colleges.

On the average, homeschoolers score higher on the annual standardized tests than the public school children. In academic competitions such as national spelling bees or national geography bees, our homeschool children are often the winners above the best of their public school counterparts. Speaking academically, our children are learning as much or more than the public schools. If one considers all the valuable things they learn that is not considered academics, such a Bible and life skills, are children are learning far more than they ever could in a public school setting.