Question My child seems to be having problems adjusting to school. I'm considering home schooling -- what are your thoughts on the subject?

Answer: Home schooling can be a good alternative to in-school education. It has aspects that hold great appeal for parents, including increased flexibility and an opportunity for daily parent-child bonding.

But there are also significant challenges -- for both parent and child -- and you should be fully aware of them.

Among them, for example: While you can do as much enrichment, and of any type, as you see fit, you will still be required to teach your child the same content, and assess your child using the same standardized tests, as the schools use. Periodically, you'll be required to submit portfolios of your child's work in order to prove that your child is meeting state educational standards.

Other constraints include finances. Home schooling often means that the teacher/parent can't work outside the home. And you'll have to work extra hard to ensure that your child has frequent access to peer relationships (which come naturally through school) and to appealing extracurricular activities.

The lists of pros and cons are lengthy, and we encourage you to do some research online or at your local library.

But, even more so, we encourage you to explore the reasons your child is having difficulty adjusting to school. Have you worked with your child's teachers and school administrators to try to determine the roots of the issue? Creating a strong and productive home-school connection can help smooth your child's path through school.

Bottom line: Home schooling may seem like an easy answer, but it's a huge undertaking. If you go that route, we hope it will be for positive reasons, not because you're turning away from an unaddressed, and perhaps solvable, problem in your local school.

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