Academic performance and the chance to spend more time with children are two of the main drivers for parents' decision to teach their children at home.

About 80 percent of parents who home school say they believe home schooling offers their child an education that is of higher quality and more challenging, and three-quarters of families said they home school to spend more time with their children, according to a survey conducted by Calvert School, a distance-education curriculum provider for pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students.

Parents considering home schooling often worry about being effective home teachers. Many turn to a curriculum that supports their efforts with daily, step-by-step lesson plan, textbooks, workbooks, activities, assignments and supplies. These tools, coupled with placement testing to ensure the student is being academically challenged and academic support in the form of testing and teachers who can provide guidance, can bridge the gap between parent and teacher.

More than 1.8 million school-age children in the United States are educated in their homes, an increase of 38 percent since 2002, a Calvert School survey reported. Mothers perform about 95 percent of home instruction, the study found.

Families participate in home instruction for various reasons. Besides academic performance and spending more time with children, people home school their children to meet the child's individual needs. Home schooling appeals often to children who are gifted, need remediation, have social or physical conditions, or participate in activities such as performing arts or athletics that require a more flexible lesson schedule.

For most families, a typical home-schooling day can take between two and six hours, depending on the age of the child. Most families spend less than $900 a year on home schooling per child, the Calvert School research found.

A good home-school program should include lessons in all subject areas, including reading, grammar, composition, mathematics, science and history as well as art history, drawing and music.

"Homeschoolers tend to be well rounded because they develop a love of learning," said Jean C. Halle, president of Calvert School's home schooling program. "They also tend to be involved in many activities because they have more free time than school students."

Halle suggests that homeschooling families choose an integrated curriculum, where, for instance, the study of history would tie to reading selections and topics for compositions. This approach ensures the child is developing higher-level thinking skills.

"What makes home schooling so appealing is the quality time a parent spends not just watching their child's understanding of the world increase, but participating each day in that development," said Jean C. Halle. Nearly 500,000 children have been educated using Calvert School's program since 1906.

At that time people home schooled primarily because they lived in remote areas, often as missionaries, members of the military or the diplomatic corps. They wanted an American education and Calvert School started sending them the lessons taught in its prestigious private school in Baltimore, Md.

Now, parents choose to homeschool to improve their children's academic success and to take a more active role in their children's development.

"Home schooling," Halle explained, "offers families the reward of valuable time together -- which can be priceless."

For more information on home schooling, visit www.calvertschool.org or call 1-888-487-4652.