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PARENTS are increasingly resorting to teaching their children at home - particularly in Perth.

Latest figures show an 11 per cent rise in the number of children who are home-schooled in the metropolitan area compared with last year.

This year, 1068 children are registered as home-schooled in the city and 606 in regional and remote areas.

This compares with 962 metropolitan children and 605 country children last year, and 916 and 548 in those categories in 2007.

Kay Maccione, a Homebased Learning Network committee member, said she taught her nine-year-old intellectually gifted daughter Jessica at home because her school class ``wasn't accommodating her needs''.

She recalled being in Jessica's classroom as a helper and saw her daughter trying to write a story, but having her hand up for most of the lesson.

``She wanted the spelling of interesting and complicated words,'' Mrs Maccione said. ``But she was criticised for not having completed a significant amount of work.

``In a home-schooling environment that situation probably wouldn't have occurred.''

Most home-schoolers thought teachers did a good job, but it was difficult to address individual needs in classes of 30 or more. Types of home-schooling ranged from structured lessons and classes to a ``natural schooling system'', where students learnt from parents and experiences, with little or no textbook work.

Home-schooled children socialise with others through networks for group language, sport and performing-arts classes.

Mrs Maccione said studies showed the best students usually came from homes where parents were involved in their education.

Education Department principal policy officer Siobhain Milbourne said it was a national and global phenomenon that parents wanted to explore different kinds of education. But many eventually returned to traditional schooling.

Education Minister Liz Constable was not worried that more parents were choosing non-school-based education, saying that was a ``parental choice''.

``Home-schooling is a legally established form of education in WA that is closely monitored by the Department of Education,'' Dr Constable said.

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