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“Given time and discipline, you can get used to just about anything,” says the mother of one of my on-line students. Even rebel tanks rumbling through the neighborhood, firing shells over the roofs, did not deter her kids. 

This American family lives in Tajikistan, where Teresa, the mother of three, ages 4, 9, and 13, teaches her kids at home. The oldest, Nate, reads classical Greek and ecclesiastical Latin, speaks the local dialect, and is teaching himself Russian. For help with the few subjects Nate and Teresa can’t decipher together, he enrolls in an on-line course taught by a tutor like myself; I help him with epic literature. He studies in a virtual classroom where his fellow students live in destinations as far-flung as Tokyo, Alaska, New York, and England. 

This arrangement is more affordable than you might think. You’ll pay a tutor for work on a single subject a total of about $150 for two hours of tutoring per week for 16 weeks. 

For freedom and field trips
In California, the number of home-schooled students is now double that of those attending private schools. Canadians and the Britons are not far behind. 

In France and Germany, however, it’s frowned upon. When you bring up the subject, someone inevitably demands how any parent with any scruples could do such an awful thing to his own offspring. A child should be “socialized” with other children, the logic goes. Both the French and German governments have recently passed laws to restrict homeschooling by their own citizenry (though no such worries exist for noncitizens). 
But whether you decide to teach your children at home because you want them to enjoy individualized attention, because, as in the case of  Teresa’s family, it’s the only education they’ll get, or because you simply want the freedom to live and travel anywhere with your family … you’re likely to agree: The kids will benefit from greater intellectual freedom, better academic performance, and superior extra-curricular activities. 

Nate and his mother recently toured the Kremlin on a weekend layover en route to Tajikistan from California, for example. They completed a unit on Russian history, learned some of the language, and then visited. Not bad. 

The world as classroom 
Why not treat the world as your child’s classroom? Nate’s parents are not particularly well-off. But by bringing their kids along on business trips and extended stays overseas, they have provided their otherwise average achievers some invaluable real-world experiences. 

There are difficulties, even sacrifices, inherent in this lifestyle. Particularly in a developing country like Tajikistan there are hassles with technology and fragile political systems. This past spring, one of the locals in Nate’s town wired his own house for cable by cutting out a 100-foot section of the main telephone line that connects the town to the rest of the world. It was five weeks before the repairs were complete and Nate could get back on-line to participate in class. 

Admittedly, things may not always go smoothly. But the benefits far outweigh the inconveniences. 

Homer at sea
If you’ve always dreamed of packing up and setting sail but figured you’d have to wait until the kids were grown, think again. Wouldn’t you rather have read Homer’s Odyssey while crossing the Atlantic on a sailboat? 
“Boat schooling” is what one British family of four did to keep the kids afloat academically between ports of call. They simply mailed in their essays and exams when they reached the Caribbean. The sea isn’t a bad outdoor classroom for studying some Ptolemaic astronomy and reading the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Conrad, and Melville. 

This small school with an enrollment of two receives standardized grading, a full curriculum with professional support, and all necessary evaluations and records for re-integration at any time into the British school system. 

Tutoring…and traveling
If you teach or have always wanted to teach, your options just got more interesting. These days, you can trade staff meetings, spit wads, and lunch duty for street-side cafes and ancient ruins. I have. I live in rural France with my wife and work as an itinerant tutor.

The market for private tutoring services like mine, delivered via the Internet, is increasing every year. You might consider it academia’s answer to telecommuting. To me, it is really more a return to the old ways. Name anyone you think of as greatly educated, from Plato through Abraham Lincoln. You’ll find few who went to public schools. Those great minds were generally educated in the home by private tutors, perhaps with just a few fellow students … and they were usually well-traveled. Sound familiar? 

I was introduced to this niche by a friend who has been something of a pioneer in the field. Fritz Hinrichs of Escondido Tutorial Services recently spent a couple of weeks teaching from our place in France. He started a local, private tutoring business about five years ago, but he quickly expanded onto the Internet and now has students all over the globe on waiting lists for his courses. Before coming our way, he spent three weeks in Greece and Italy; from here, he headed for London and Basel. He’ll teach next term from Switzerland.

Reflecting something of the general sentiment in alternative-education circles, Fritz remains proudly qualified but staunchly uncertified. Yet many of his students are being accepted into colleges at around age 16. One of his first students recently entered Harvard without a standard diploma, signifying, among other things, that “alternative” education is becoming less and less alternative.

Private lessons 
If it’s in your budget, you can seek out a private tutor like another friend of mine, Jon Andreas, who provides the face-to-face professionalism you would expect at a private school. One family of four from California got the travel bug not long ago and opted for a six-month luxury cruise with Jon in tow to teach the two children, eliminating the need to cram their travels into the kids’ complicated year-round school schedules. 

Finding the right private tutor for your children is a bit like mate selection. Unfortunately, I know of no “dating services” that connect parents with the right person to teach their children. But just about any established tutor will be able to refer you to competent colleagues. I was hired after answering an ad for a position posted on the job board at my graduate school. International students are often more familiar with this type of education, and they make tremendous tutors. 

There’s no reason to think, however, that you can’t do the teaching yourself. Most homeschooling parents do and produce terrific results. If you’re rusty on plant biology or geometric proofs, don’t worry. You’ll find a tremendous number of resources available: Thousands of tutoring, consulting, and curriculum groups exist. There is so much information out there, in fact, that the trick becomes sorting it all out. 

The “boat schoolers” I talked about earlier use one of the better services I’ve come across: the World-wide Education Service, based in the United Kingdom. It is one of the oldest such services, dating back to 1887. This organization provides a comprehensive service, which includes not only books, teacher guides, and all the administrative support but also legalization, standardized evaluations, and professional counsel. The group does all the very unromantic liaison work between the British government and client families based around the world. Even though the World-wide Education Service is a U.K. service only, I recommend you look at its materials and offerings as a gauge for something comparable in the United States. 

Two well-established organizations in the States will provide an American parent with all the legal and academic help necessary to begin homeschooling. First, visit the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) Web site so you can begin to understand just what sort of legal hoops you must jump through at your local level. The organization is openly Christian, but it maintains a diverse and well-defended clientele. Membership in the HSLDA costs only about $100 per year.

On the academic side of things, begin with the Calvert School, which provides complete instructional support for parents. The Calvert School offers a variety of services from curriculum sales to full support. A complete set of course materials and support for your sixth grader runs about $600. You teach. 
For many more options, plug “home school” into your Internet search engine and begin filtering through the approximately 1.5 million sites and services available.