Home-schooled basketball players score points.(THE GOODNESS OF AMERICA)(National Christian Homeschool Basketball Championships)

Many people not familiar with home schooling think that it means the students will miss out on the social activities and athletics that make for precious school memories. In reality, however, as more and more students are schooled at home, their parents have organized many student activities usually associated with established schools.

"As the home-school movement has gotten older, there has been much more demand for extracurricular activities," observed Ian M. Slatter of the Home School Legal Defense Association.

When asked why he and his wife, Stacey, the daughter of Frosty Westering, a four-time championship football team coach at Pacific Lutheran University, chose to home-school their children, Gary Spani, who played nine seasons for the NFL Kansas City Chiefs, replied: "Our Christian faith is number one why we did it."

The 300 teams that traveled to Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma, on March 10-15 for the National Christian Homeschool Basketball Championships (NCHBC) were proof that home-schoolers can have the full high-school experience.

The championships, held at Southern Nazarene's 5,000-seat Sawyer Center, received widespread attention, including coverage in the March 16 New York Times that spotlighted ...