High school homeschooling hits new high

For some high school students in Windsor-Essex back to school doesn't mean leaving the house.

A growing number of parents are choosing to homeschool their children in Ontario.

It jumped to 1,057 high school students in 2010-11 from 575 in 2005-06.

Jill Huschilt is currently homeschooling her two youngest daughters.

She and her husband decided to teach their five children to give them a good Christian and academic foundation.

"We felt that we could concentrate on some of those aspects better," said Jill. "For example, when they were younger we had a Bible time [where] we read God's word every morning and discussed that before they started their day and they wouldn't have been able to do that in a public setting."

Jill's 14-year-old daughter Tabitha said she enjoys learning in the comfort of herpink bedroom surrounded by stuffed animals and family photos.

According to local school boards about 125 children in Windsor-Essex are homeschooled.

The superintendent of education at the Greater Essex County District School Board said it's hard to get an exact number on the homeschooled population.

Sharon Pyke said not all parents who homeschool notify the board as required.

"We do not have any policing mechanism in terms of finding out what students are in school and what are not," said Pyke. "We really rely on our community partners and rely on our citizens of Essex county to notify if they are seeing students of school age that are not in school."

Clinton Beckford is the dean of education at the University of Windsor and he has mixed opinions about homeschooling.

"School is not only about the delivery of the curriculum. It's also about social development, it's difficult, if not impossible to determine how effective homeschooling is," said Beckford.

But for the Huschilt family, homeschooling seems to be a success.

Their son is a navy engineer and two of their daughters are in university studying nursing and aeronautics.