They've won national spelling bees, earned perfect college entrance test scores and created their own field trips, dance studios, choirs and proms.

Home-schoolers seem not so far off the beaten path anymore. Some even participate in an online curriculum, complete with standardized tests and a Utah-certified schoolteacher — a sort of public-school, home-school hybrid.

"I've home-schooled for 14 years, and when I first started, people thought we were wacko. I don't live on a compound, I don't have different religious beliefs ... I just wanted to spend more time with my children," said Laura Belnap, director of Washington Online and former director of Utah Online Academy.

"The stigma is beginning to dwindle. I'm finding we're not getting children who are not academic; we're getting kids who are very academic, musicians and athletes, because they can't fit in a traditional school model."

Today, some of Utah's estimated 50,000 home-schooled children and families will gather in downtown Salt Lake City for the Utah Home Education Association's annual convention and curriculum fair, featuring workshops, speakers, a teen session and about 80 exhibitors featuring books, educational toys and materials.

The event runs from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Salt Palace Convention Center. Tickets for workshops are $45 per adult, $55 per couple and $10 for teens; those just wanting to walk through the fair will pay a nominal fee, association president Jon Yarrington said.

"There are so many things coming out every year that are innovative and help (students) to learn faster," in world languages, for instance, Yarrington said. "Anyone remotely interested in education would be crazy not to come and go through the fair and see the latest innovations."

Visit www.uhea.org for more information and scheduling.

Home-schooling ranks have swelled nearly 30 percent since 1999, from an estimated 850,000 to about 1.1 million nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. That's 2.2 percent of the country's school-age population.

"When it started, it was only the very bravest and staunchest of souls that would dare do it. But anymore, it's become quite a normal thing, I believe," said Yarrington, who home-schooled four of his six children, one of whom earned an associate's degree by age 18. "It works. We've had wonderful success in our family with it, and we're just normal people."

West Jordan mom Alison Maynes says she started home schooling when educational needs of the oldest of her six children were not met in the public school.