Did you know that some of our most famous presidents and inventors were homeschooled? Abe Lincoln, George Washington and Albert Einstein all were schooled from home.

In this Assignment 13 project we explore homeschooling in Taylor, Wisconsin. Why do parents choose that path and how do they overcome certain stereotypes.

The Joyce Moldenhauer and her husband first made the decision to homeschool their three kids back in 1995.

“I think the big reasons would be that we wanted to be involved in our children's education and watch them grow and learn academically, and we saw that as a privilege to do that at home,” Joyce Moldenhauer says.

At the time the family was living in Alaska a state Joyce calls homeschool friendly. She says her two older boys, Josiah who is now in college and ninth grader Zachary who now attends Blair-Taylor High School, both started transitioning into public school around seventh or eighth grade.

“The opportunity was available if you homeschooled, to take one or two classes in the public school, so Josiah was in band, p.e., computer class,” Joyce explains.

This is Zachary’s second year in a public school; he says he wanted to be around more kids his own age. But even though attending public school was his choice, it still came with a lot of adjustments.

“It was pretty different, having a locker, having five different teachers, compared to just one. Yea, it was really different,” Zachary tells us.

But for Zachary’s younger sister Maria, she tells us she is still content to be schooled from home, via DVDs called A Beka Academy.

“Yea maybe when I’m older like in ninth grade maybe, but I’m fine homeschooling right now,” she says.

“It's from down in Florida, they tape their classes all year long, and it's just like you're in the class, because they’ll say OK student watching, what do you say,” Joyce says, explaining how the A Beka Academy works.

But when it comes to exposing your children to some of the ugliness of the world, is homeschooling too sheltered? A middle and high school guidance counselor in the Altoona School District says it really depends on each family.

“It really depends on the parent, just as in education each kids experience depends on the teacher and who they have, the same thing goes for homeschooling,” counselor Heather Burich Holle says.

For Joyce it's a balancing act, “bottom line is we can’t protect from all that, they have to learn how to stand on their own two feet and we try and teach them that at home,” Joyce tells us.

Socialization is another hotly contested argument when it comes to homeschooling. Do home schooled kids spend enough time with other kids? Counselor Burich Holle says that argument is mainly a myth.

“I see that probably being more as a stereotype. I typically really find that most of our homeschooling kids tend to be very involved, they tend to be in extra curricula’s and so they are just very well rounded individuals,” Burich Holle says.

And Joyce says really that's what she wants for all her kids, and it seems they've enjoyed both their homeschooling past, and their public school present.

“I enjoyed it while I had it, I guess it's nice to have the best of both worlds,” Zachary says of his experience.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, just fewer than 20,000 students were homeschooled in the 2010/2011 school year.