Education at home

Home-schooled students have more activities as their numbers have grown in North Carolina

Nine-year-old Bogdan Padua worried he would be lonely when his mom wanted to pull him out of public school to teach him at home.

But like many students in the fast-growing home-school community, Bogdan isn't isolated. Now being home-schooled for the second year, he plays hockey, takes science and history classes at a church home-school cooperative and builds LEGO robots with a local team.

"I was pretty sad because I thought I would miss my friends," Bogdan said. "But I like it. Now I have even more friends."

In the two decades since North Carolina legalized home-schooling, the number of students being educated that way has mushroomed from 800 to 65,000 in 2005-06.

At the same time, a growing social network has emerged to connect parents and children who are learning outside traditional classrooms. Local businesses from the ice-skating rink down the street to the historic Jamestown settlement in Virginia offer daytime programs for home-schooled children. And as educational companies tap the growing market, the choices of books and materials can seem overwhelming to parents.

"The hardest thing has been educating myself about what's available and choosing what's best for my family," said Aleksandra Padua, Bogdan's mother, who also teaches her 6-year-old daughter at home. "There's so much good stuff out there that I'm always second-guessing myself. I think the temptation is to get too busy with activities."

The scene has changed dramatically from what Ernie Hodges found in 1984 when he started home-schooling his children in Winston-Salem.

"We had curriculum companies that wouldn't sell us textbooks," said Hodges, president of North Carolinians for Home Education, an advocacy group. "All of the sudden, the dollars speak."

Hodges helped form a home-school basketball team in the 1980s. Now there is a statewide league with 40 teams. Triangle home-schoolers have access to sports teams, marching bands and clubs.

The Garner Ice House holds a skating academy that draws more than 100 home-schooled children every Tuesday. Manager Jo Ann Creech said the rink made a few adjustments for them, such as offering discounts and playing songs by Christian bands instead of only mainstream hits.

"It was an avenue that we wanted to explore, tapping into the home-school units that are around," Creech said. "But they are so busy, it was difficult for us to find one solid day in the week that we could accommodate them."

Hodges said the increasing options for home-school students to learn and socialize make it easier for parents to eschew traditional public schools, and the growing popularity of home-schooling has helped erode the image of home-schoolers as nutty.

"The biggest difference is that people don't look at you like you've lost your mind," Hodges said. "They don't castigate you and question your judgment as a parent."

Religious faith remains a primary motivation -- almost 70 percent of those North Carolinians who home-school their children consider themselves "religious schools."

Many, however, have tired of other aspects of a public education. Laura Passner of Garner struggled to think of the right word to explain why she is teaching her two children at home. "Oh, what is it they are always complaining about?" she said. "Oh yes, redistricting."

Cary parent Missy Inglis plans to keep her 7-year-old daughter at home next year rather than send her to a year-round school that would put her on a different schedule from her older siblings.

Aleksandra Padua tired of the 40 minutes her son spent every day going to and from school and the other time wasted during breaks in the school day.