Home schooling has come a long way. From the early days when parents merely passed on what knowledge they had, perhaps sometimes supplemented by instruction from an itinerant tutor, it is now an acceptable alternative to institutionalized education and is a legal alternative for parents in all fifty states.
While Home Schooling allows parents to decide, within certain prescribed parameters, what and how they will teach their children, it is always advisable to work with a recognized home school curriculum. There are many home school curricula available; all with different approaches and philosophies to education and the teaching and learning process. What every home school curriculum has in common is that is works towards ensuring that at the end of the home schooling process, a child has achieved a sufficient level of knowledge and developed the cognitive skills to enable him or her to function successfully in the outside world. Among the popular home school curricula parents can choose from are (in alphabetical order):