Preschool is a time of rapid growth and development. While the preschool curriculum is designed keeping in mind the physical and intellectual developmental characteristics of 2 – 5 year olds, there are certain milestones that most preschoolers should achieve before they begin kindergarten.

How do you teach young children? What do you do all day? How do you provide a "stimulating environment"? These questions are asked frequently by parents of young children who understand the immense magnitude of what it means to take responsibility for their child's education.

Colleges and universities frequently ask two questions about home schoolers: (1) Are home schoolers eligible for financial aid without obtaining a GED or passing an ability-to-benefit test? and (2) Can a university admit a student with a home school high school diploma who is under the age of compulsory attendance and still retain its eligibility for federal funding? The answer to both questions is “Yes.” This analysis of the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1998 explains what post-secondary schools could require of home school applicants and how homeschooled students are eligible for financial aid.

A number of issues which affect home education are currently being discussed in New York State government.

Hamilton Grange National Memorial, located at 287 Convent Avenue, preserves the home of founding father Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton commissioned architect John McComb Jr. to design a Federal style country home on a sprawling 32 acre estate in upper Manhattan. This house was completed in 1802 and named "The Grange" after the Hamilton family's ancestral home in Scotland, but served as his home for only two years.

You might be a homeschooler if...your school bus is a nine-passenger van...or your biology class curriculum consists of watching your baby brother's home birth...or all the signatures on your graduation diploma end with the same last name. Josh Carden shares his insight into the homeschool lifestyle.

As home schooling grows as a movement, there is increasing politics from anti-home school forces to try to interfere with or legislatively control home schoolers. This has come to include legislative attempts to force home school students to take standardized tests along with public school students. But mandatory testing doesn't work in public schools, and it won't work for home schoolers.

Cheryl Seelhoff continues her look at the history of homeschooling by examining the importance of the HSLDA's response to H.R. 6, a House of Representatives bill addressing issues in elementary and secondary education. The HSLDA warned that this bill might require certification of home educating parents, in contrast to the opinions of other members of the homeschooling movement.

This brief uses data from the 2003 National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) to estimate the number of homeschooled students in the United States in 2003 and to discuss the reasons parents decide to homeschool their children. The brief also shows that the number of homeschoolers, and the proportion of the student population they represent, has increased since 1999.

As the number of high school students who are homeschooled continues to rise, leaders in high school sports across the country face growing interest among these students and their parents to play sports on their local public school teams. Interest continues to build in homeschoolers’ participation on public schools sports teams. In some states, that option exists, although the requirements vary from state to state with some states requiring part-time enrollment in the local school. In other states, the debate continues as to whether homeschooled students should be allowed to play on the local high school team alongside students who attend classes at the school all day long.