Home schooling is not about staying at home.

Most home-schooled children in Western Pennsylvania are exploring the community and beyond, attending classes for home schoolers at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Science Center, the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, libraries and nature centers.

One constant for some of them is PALS Enrichment, which meets weekly in the Wilkins School Community Center, Charleston Avenue, Swissvale.

"If it were about staying home, just me and my children, I wouldn't be doing it," said Anita Hager, coordinator of the PALS program. "What we have here is a community."

Ms. Hager and her three children -- Werner, Elisabeth and baby Arianna -- come from Monongahela. Most participating families live in the East End.

PALS stands for People Always Learning Something. During one hour, there were classes in French, Mandarin, math probability, optical illusions in art, a drama class preparing an alternative form of Cinderella, and a preschool class offering some creative chaos.

PALS is one of two groups of secular home scholars in Allegheny County. The other, Free Minds, meets at North Park Lodge.

There are other area groups of home schoolers whose common focus is religion.

At PALS, on any Wednesday during the normal school year, there are about 75 children -- loosely grouped by age from 3 to 5, 6 to 9 and 10 to 13 -- taking several one-hour classes over a four-hour period.

Classes last 10 weeks and there are two terms a year. Parents and others who would like to teach a class -- they would receive a small stipend -- put forth a proposal, and if enough families register their children and pay for the class, it's a go.

At least six must enroll; 10 is the cap. Each class has a teacher and a parent helper, with access to an extensive resource library.

Alan Scheller-Wolf, of Squirrel Hill, has a daughter, Lauren, in the program.

"Our perspective is that we've been home schooling Lauren since birth," he said.

He teaches two math classes, probability and one in which he uses "The Number Devil," a book about a boy who is bored by math and receives visits in his dreams from a mathematician, with whom he goes on adventures every week.

"We read a chapter a week and play different games and do activities based on the adventure," Mr. Scheller-Wolf said.

"The probability class is fun. All the kids know 'Deal or No Deal' [a TV game show] and we go from there."

Mr. Scheller-Wolf is a professor in the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. That is a much different environment from PALS.

"I look forward to Wednesdays," he said. "It is definitely much less structured here. At the university, I know where I'm going, but here you start to teach something and the kids head off in another direction, and you need to go with them."

Ming Rui, of Regent Square, has two daughters in the program and teaches Mandarin.

"The earlier, the better," she said.

She begins with 3-year-olds, listening to and speaking Mandarin, doing brush paintings, and sampling Chinese food. She likes the children to get a solid base and progress at their own speed.

"I am much closer to my own children now that we do home schooling," she said. "I feel that with home schooling, one half-hour spent on math is the equivalent of two hours in school. Now they have time to read as much as they want."

Mrs. Rui is pleased with the classes offered for enrichment.

"In one class called 'Making Noise,' they make an instrument every week. They learn writing from a student from Pitt and probability from Alan.

"Here, there is no foul language, no aggressiveness, no bullying and no cell phones. Here, parents are very involved. Older children play with young, all ages."

Ms. Rui is a customer service representative on weekends for US Airways. Her job allows her to take her children on long-distance field trips.

"We went to Boston to walk the Freedom Trail and to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell."

Ms. Hager's two older children, as do some others in PALS, participate in Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, in Midland. The Hager family is reimbursed by Pennsylvania Cyber for attending the PALS Enrichment program.

"That is a huge help for the parents who do Pennsylvania Cyber," she said.

In 1988, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed Act 169, amending the Pennsylvania School Code to allow parents or guardians to home school their children as an option to compulsory school attendance.

The curriculum is loosely defined in the law, but the children must take the same standardized test in third, fifth and eighth grades as do public school children.

The law requires that the person responsible for instruction submit a proposal for the year, then a log of daily instruction, a portfolio of the child's work, and results from the standardized test and the evaluator's report to the superintendent's office of the school district in which they live by June 30 of every year.

Districts do not issue high school diplomas to home-schooled students, but a student may get a diploma by taking the GED test or by taking 30 credit hours at an accredited post-secondary institution, such as Community College of Allegheny County, and submit that information to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. There are several state-approved agencies, as well, that can issue diplomas.

The law requires that English (including spelling, reading and writing); arithmetic; science; geography; history and a few other subjects are taught at the elementary level.

High school curriculum requires four years of English, three years of math, science and social studies, and two years of arts and humanities.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Allegheny County had 970 home schooled students in the 2006-07 school year, with 188 of those students in the city of Pittsburgh.

Anna Donohoe, of Forest Hills, who graduated from home schooling last year, will attend Carnegie Mellon University this fall, majoring in linguistics.

In home schooling, she taught herself many things.

"You need a context to show why something is necessary and helpful to you. Once you realize that something is a steppingstone to something that you are passionate about, you'll do it quickly, without much help.

"I flat-out refused, up to the age of 13, to do anything related to grammar. But when I decided to be an exchange student, and would be speaking German, I realized I didn't know how to conjugate anything, and I dove into grammar.

Ms. Donohoe attended Community College of Allegheny County at age 16, and presented her transcripts in college applications along with their portfolios.

"My portfolio," said Ms. Donohoe, "showed the books I had read, the DVDs I had watched, museums I had visited, programs I had listened to on National Public Radio. It shows a lot about a person, the depth of their development, more than a 'B' in American history."

PALS Enrichment has openings for the fall session. Go to www.palsenrichment.org/pages/home.php.