When 18-year-old Allison Conley was in Grade 4, her parents did something few New Brunswick parents ever even contemplate.

They took her out of school and began teaching her at home. For Allison, it was a turning point.

"I was excited about it," she recalls. "I missed my friends at first but I was in other activities, like Pioneer Girls and gymnastics and I go to church. So, I had friends. I even had piano lessons."

Through an Anglican church youth group, the teenager went to Mexico. She played sports. She even went to a prom.

A national study released earlier this year debunks the popular myth that homeschooled children are somehow stuck at home all day.

Despite that latest study, and other research that shows homeschooled kids actually score higher on standardized academic tests, enjoy greater self-esteem, and demonstrate considerable leadership skills, homeschooling remains on the fringes of New Brunswick's educational scene. Neither the provincial Department of Education nor teachers' associations in New Brunswick seems keen to promote homeschooling.

Department of Education spokesman Steven Benteau said last week the province encourages all parents to enroll their children in the public school system. And Mr. Benteau said the province does not test these homeschooled children and is not aware of how well they perform on standardized tests.

"There isn't a whole lot more that we can do," said Mr. Benteau. "The resources we have for the public education system we spend in the public education system and not on things that are going on outside."

New Brunswick teachers similarly tend to laud the opportunities offered by the public school system versus those offered by homeschooling parents.

"There are many options available in the public school system that would not exist in a homeschooling environment for specialists, music teachers, and programs offered that require a special expertise to teach," said Brian Bawn, president of the 5,200-strong New Brunswick Teachers' Association.

Not so, counter homeschooling experts. The latest national study, conducted by the Canadian Centre for Home Education, surveyed about 3,800 home-schooled children across Canada. And, according to that study done by an organization dedicated to research and training, homeschooled children take part in an average of eight extracurricular activities every year. The most common are music and swimming lessons, field trips, Sunday school and church programs.

The results of that survey were no surprise to Norman Brown, president of Home Educators of New Brunswick. He and his wife, Arlene Brown, are homeschooling all six of their children and are convinced it's the best way to pass on their Christian faith and give their kids a top-notch education.

The couple's 17-year-old son, Tim Brown, agrees. The teenager describes homeschooling as a privilege that's allowed him to meet people from all walks of life.

"We've gotten used to socializing with a wider group of people," he said. "I play some hockey with my family but during the winter, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I also used to go to the arena and played with college students."

A U.S. citizen living with his family in St. Stephen, Tim Brown is hoping to become a lawyer and one day run for Congress. It's an ambitious goal but homeschooling experts maintain children educated by their parents in this way usually have better school grades, are coveted by U.S. universities, and more often are equipped with solid leadership skills.

"On standardized tests nationally, they score 30 percentile higher," said Mr. Brown. "It's incredible."

Since 1989, studies have indicated homeschooled students may demonstrate greater leadership abilities. In 1997, for example, a four-year study of 180 students at Bob Jones University found homeschooled children scored higher in campus leadership activities than students from either the public school system or private schools.

So far, the number of students being homeschooled in New Brunswick is still relatively small. In the United States, the Home School Legal Defense Association estimates there may be as many as two million homeschooled children. In Canada, homeschooling experts peg the number at close to 80,000.

In New Brunswick, though, homeschooling is still in its infancy. At the Department of Education, Mr. Benteau said only 267 students were exempted from public schools by the education minister last year, down from 560 kids for the 2002-2003 school year. At Home Educators of New Brunswick, spokesperson Carolee LeBlanc said there are many more children being homeschooled than those tracked by the province. She pegs the number of homeschooled students in New Brunswick at about 1,000.

"There are a number of underground families that don't register with the government," she said. "Some, for religious reasons, feel the government does not have the right to direct the education of their children."

Religious conviction is certainly one of the top three reasons cited by parents for choosing to homeschool children in New Brunswick.

"They want their kids to have solid values as opposed to relativism. They want their children to share their faith," said Mr. Brown, himself a Christian pastor. "Other people do it because they are having trouble reading, for example. So they've taken their child out and found a program that works for them. And then there are people who are homeschooling for the academic excellence of it."

On the downside, homeschooling demands an enormous amount of time and energy from the parent teaching these children and puts even more pressure on the breadwinner to provide for everyone. In a typical homeschooling family, only one parent goes to work outside the home.

"It's not like people are banging down the doors wanting to do this," said Ms. LeBlanc. "There's a financial commitment. You've pretty much got to have one parent staying at home."

At the Browns', homeschooling has meant very careful budgeting. Although the family does own a home, Mr. Brown makes do with a 20-year-old van and Ms. Brown bakes her own bread.

On the upside, though, homeschooling provides amazing freedom. In Miramichi, Andrea Rennick is homeschooling her son and two oldest daughters. For them, the organized, nuts-and-bolts part of the school day only goes on until about noon - and the dress code is, well, very casual.

"I like them to be dressed by lunch but if they're having a pajama kind of day, I don't fight it," said Ms. Rennick. "They don't sit at a desk either. They sit where they're comfortable."

When Ms. Rennick and her husband, Ron, decided to go the homeschooling route, his family was fine with it. But her relatives and one of her close friends were shocked.

"They thought we were a little nuts," Ms. Rennick admits. "My best friend was, like, 'Why do you want to be around your kids all day?' She couldn't wait for school to start."

Homeschooling isn't for every family. But homeschooling parents say school supplies and other costs associated with teaching children at home only amount to about $700 per year. That's only about 10 per cent as much as is spent in public schools, a fact that's raised the interest of the Fraser Institute in homeschooling.

In March, Fraser Forum, a publication of the Fraser Institute think-tank, carried an article by a former teacher who now homeschools her children. In her article, entitled The Choices Families Make, Homeschooling in Canada Comes of Age, former teacher Deani Van Pelt went so far as to suggest provincial education officials should pay more attention to homeschooling.

"The homeschooling model of delivering an effective and cost-efficient education deserves the recognition of policy makers," she wrote. "Perhaps education policy makers should be paying more attention to the innovations suggested by this model."