Ok. I know my daughter is not yet 3. But day by day I see the public school system becoming all that I don't want her to be a part of. There's so many reasons. I've been doing some research, and I am putting serious consideration into homeschooling our kids. DH says he will go along with it if I can show him adequate oppotunities for the kids to be socialized. His main concern is that the kids won't have an opportunity to be out there with people their own age running around being kids. I know there are many many clubs and city team leagues etc for sports and the like.

I was not homeschooled, so I have no idea what the experience was like for homeschooled children.

For those that homeschool, how do you feel about it? Pros and cons please. What prompted your decision to do so, and do you intend to continue homeschooling through graduation?

For those that WERE homeschooled, how did you feel about it? Pros and cons please :) Also, did you feel that there were enough opportunities for you to be around your peers in recreational settings?

I know this could have gone in the Parenting forum, but I thought it might do better here as there are bound to be members that were homeschooled yet are not parents.

Anybody NOT homeschooled but wish they were/think they'd have done better if they were?

Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to answer my questions.

:)

My mom just homeschooled each of us for like pre-K & Kindergarten, because she felt we could learn more at home. We did as well... we were all reading at 3, placed in Gifted, and when put in school we tested grades higher but my mom didn't want to skip us for social reasons. I'm really grateful to my mom, because we got amazing 1 on 1 attention from her and she truly did spend every day teaching us, not just at home doing whatever. A couple yrs of her life really put us ahead for the rest of ours (L) My cousins kids are in Kindergarten and it's a shame what she is not learning there. I want to take her home with me and teach her!
For elementary we were placed in private school, not public, if that matters in it all!

i wasn't homeschooled, but i went to a HS full of hypocrites and it had a really ****ed up social system (including the administration) that just ended with me having horrible problems throughout HS. i was miserable, and i hadn't really thought about it till you posted this, but i probably would have done a lot better being homeschooled. my parents are much more rational than 9/10ths of the teachers/admins there. of course, HS is rough on a lot of people.
had i been homeschooled i probably could have gone at my own pace, as well, and done a lot better. i work faster than most students and my grades dropped out of sheer boredom.

:shrug i dunno if that helped since i wasn't but there ya go:)

My mom just homeschooled each of us for like pre-K & Kindergarten, because she felt we could learn more at home. We did as well... we were all reading at 3, placed in Gifted, and when put in school we tested grades higher but my mom didn't want to skip us for social reasons. I'm really grateful to my mom, because we got amazing 1 on 1 attention from her and she truly did spend every day teaching us, not just at home doing whatever. A couple yrs of her life really put us ahead for the rest of ours (L) My cousins kids are in Kindergarten and it's a shame what she is not learning there. I want to take her home with me and teach her!
For elementary we were placed in private school, not public, if that matters in it all!

So you feel as if those few years of homeschool gave you a leg up? Did you like being home studying with mom every day? Do you even remember?? :lol Just out of curiosity, was your private school a religious school?

i wasn't homeschooled, but i went to a HS full of hypocrites and it had a really ****ed up social system (including the administration) that just ended with me having horrible problems throughout HS. i was miserable, and i hadn't really thought about it till you posted this, but i probably would have done a lot better being homeschooled. my parents are much more rational than 9/10ths of the teachers/admins there. of course, HS is rough on a lot of people.
had i been homeschooled i probably could have gone at my own pace, as well, and done a lot better. i work faster than most students and my grades dropped out of sheer boredom.

:shrug i dunno if that helped since i wasn't but there ya go:)

Thank you answering so honestly. I have watched the way the public school system and their policies/administration has affected my younger cousins. One of them was kicked out of 2 elementary schools. He then had a :quote reputation :quote with the county school administration and even when he WASN'T in the wrong, he was still punished and treated poorly. 2 of them came out of HS hooked on oxycontin, still trying to get out from under it, but sadly failing. They've been out now for 2 and 3 years. One of them somehow came out unscathed. None of them are going to college. I just want more than that for my children and I kind of feel like God is showing me an opportunity to give them more, but I want to make sure it's the right thing to do.

We just recently decided to homeschool our oldest - a variety of reasons, but mainly because his school isn't giving him the necessary means to excell (he has a developmental disorder) and they're just sliding him through. True, while some subjects aren't possible for him to grasp - others, he's genius at, and in some ways PS just held him back ... in other ways PS left him behind.

But, yes, more and more PS is unsafe for children far and near - shootings, drugs, bullying, child molestation...the list of downfalls is quite long - it is no longer an ideal environment for a safe and sound education.

Getting involved with a homeschool group in your state/county/town might be ideal - or you can consider starting your own. I've heard of groups who do everything from pizza parties and movie nights to organized field trips with parents and students to the zoo and other places for collective learning experiences.

Homeschooling has benifits of you making your own schedule - you don't have to school from 8:00 - 3:00. You could begin at 11:00 ... go until 4:00 ... or do it in the evening.
In fact, break down the PS educational day and the equivelent of time spent learning at home could be as little as 3-4 hours...leaving a lot more time for all sorts of other things that are equally important.

Switching for me, though, has been a bit stressfull ... years of being use to the older two being gone during the day has changed how we do things.
And I'm also in a bit of selfish conflict over what I'm wanting to do with the rest of my life - as it stands, I'm putting off my goals for college ... at least for a while - when the kids get older, depending on how the PS system continues to evolve, I might just HS and attend college at the same time.

These years of our son being in school have left us a bit blind as to how he really thinks and functions on an acedemic level - and after having him home and seeing the outcome of grade-level testing we've done I'm surprised that the school really expect us to believe 'he's doing fine' when he can't actually count real money (and other things along the 3rd grade level ... he's in the 4th)

PS isn't always the best idea for all children, to begin with ... sure, it might be ideal for student who love the socially active day. But for kids like our oldest who have problems having a normal conversation, PS can be humiliating and stressfull. If you're unhappy or uncomfortable you're simply not going to be able to focus and think like you need to.

Since we took our son out (it's only been just about a week) he's become a very happy, very talkative child, and his artistic skills have exploded into an amazing talent. While we're still waiting to be able to order all of our school materials I have been making up lessons and activities to keep him busy - and he flies through them like they're nothing. A bit of correction or explanation on a difficult subject and he understands it, moves on.

WE haven't stepped into a full HS routine, but from the way it looks I feel that perhaps at the end of this semester we'll take his brother out and HS him as well...

All that being said - it's just a fact that in almost every state HS'ers outperform PS'ers for state-wide exams.
That alone speaks volumes for the benifits of HS'ing.

*edit*
Financially -
For us, per child, lunch at school costs over $300.00, and there are pictures, field trips, uniforms (yeah...big bonus to HS'ing - clothes don't matter!!) etc etc ... Add all that up and we spend over $800.00 per student every year for PS on top of our own family outings to the zoo and so on.
And, well, heck, I'm just a Mom who eats leftover dinner for lunch the next day and always wears PJ's so some of those expenses don't even exist for us on the HS end *shrug* ... so, really...it's just more affordable for us to HS ... especially in the future - PS expenses x's 4! UGH!
Ok - I'm convincing myself the longer I write about it that I just need to HS all all the kids :)

And I'm also in a bit of selfish conflict over what I'm wanting to do with the rest of my life - as it stands, I'm putting off my goals for college ... at least for a while - when the kids get older, depending on how the PS system continues to evolve, I might just HS and attend college at the same time.

That's a great idea, and HSing will give you the flexibilty you would need to attend classes if you choose. There are also so many college programs available online :yes
All that being said - it's just a fact that in almost every state HS'ers outperform PS'ers for state-wide exams.
That alone speaks volumes for the benefits of HS'ing.

:yes Another aspect of the "leg up" I'm trying to provide.

Thank you so much for such an indepth answer. I'm so glad HSing looks like it'll work for you. I used to get so overwhelmed at the thought of HSing, but in the last few months it's really become something that I know I could do...almost something I feel like I NEED to do.

I feel like I must sound so silly. But really it feels like every time I turn around there's another reason not to expose my child to all the aspects of PS that would do little more than HINDER her education...not enhance it.

kelly homeschools her oldest, you should ask her :D

Jen homeschools too...and Debra I believe. I'm asking EVERYONE :D

I'm not just interested in the homeschooler viewpoint, I'm interested in the perspective of those that actually were homeschooled too.

Covering all the bases you know :yes :)

Yes, and these benifits of HS'ing are the reasons why the number of HS'ers nationwide has jumped into the millions.

And I also see HS'ing being benificial for my education, as well. I'm not all that great with grammer and spelling - my math is shakey. Having to teach these things will force me to learn and grasp these facts as well. Face it - it's been a long time since any of us have been in school, we could all use a refresher :D

I'm not very organized, either, and I tend to laze around and do nothing and waste my day.
So HS is my means to become organized ... having our son home during the day already has kept me more on task. "You read this book, I'll do my laundry, we'll sit down and talk about the story when we're both finished." When he's done with his lessons (which, I tell you what, he flies through - he blew through what I planned to be 4 hours of work in less than two.) he can play with his brother and sister and do whatever he wants.
I've actually gotten more housework done while he's here than when he was at school - there's no wall to hide behind, I can't be lazy and get away with it :giggle

Yes, and these benifits of HS'ing are the reasons why the number of HS'ers nationwide has jumped into the millions.

And I also see HS'ing being benificial for my education, as well. I'm not all that great with grammer and spelling - my math is shakey. Having to teach these things will force me to learn and grasp these facts as well. Face it - it's been a long time since any of us have been in school, we could all use a refresher :D




I was made painfully aware of just how long it's been since I was in school, by watching last weeks "Kid Nation". They had to put 7 presidents in order - any random 7 past presidents :no I was like...psh...right. Even DH was laughing - there was no way we could have done that! :lol

:yes

We've been watching Kid Nation with the boys, as well - they love it! And, yeah, there's no way I could have done that, either. :rofl

All these 'basics of school' are things that are benificial your whole life - but if you don't use it, you lose it.

How do you divide fractions, again?

:yes

We've been watching Kid Nation with the boys, as well - they love it! And, yeah, there's no way I could have done that, either. :rofl

All these 'basics of school' are things that are benificial your whole life - but if you don't use it, you lose it.

How do you divide fractions, again?


I think it's got something to do with finding a common denominator...or maybe something about a reciprocal. Oh I will be needing a refresher :rofl Or maybe you multiply before you divide...oh dear. :giggle

LOL ... math.com is proving to be very useful!!

I did some of my kid's testing as well, I was shocked to find that eventhough it's 4th grade stuff - I still got a lot wrong!

That being said - I've read some homeschool-mom blogs and i've gathered that a lot of parents out there seem to only be a week or so ahead of their kids, lesson wise. So you don't have to already know everything from heart to be a good parent/teacher (sounds good to me)

I homeschool Alex. I chose to for a few reasons, one of them being the schools politics and rules, I just didn't agree with a lot of it. I was also worried about having to make him change schools in the middle of the year when we transfer.

I think him having the 1 on 1 attention with me is helping him learn more effectively. It has been a challenge though. I have to teach him while the other 2 are napping because they don't understand and distract him. He is also very impatient and sometimes doens't want to do his work, but I just stay firm with him.

i was homeschooled in late elementary because of the bad district we were in. i was only in "school" for like 3 or so hours a day and learned at my own pace

Ok... well, I don't know if this will help...but, I went to public school k-9th grade. Our elementary and middle school were small country schools with about 10 children per class and 2 teachers in each room, so all the students pretty much got one on one attention...and then when I went to high school it was a different story...huge class sizes, no help from teachers...so mom took me out of school and I did a coorrespondence class which meant I got books and tests in the mail, read the material, and did the work myself. I finished the last four years of high school in 6 months. I scored really high on SAT and ACT and went to college 2 years early. My younger brother did pretty much the same thing, graduated a year early, and joined the army. Mom is homeschooling my 13 year old brother right now because where they are has terrible schools.

Ok... well, I don't know if this will help...but, I went to public school k-9th grade. Our elementary and middle school were small country schools with about 10 children per class and 2 teachers in each room, so all the students pretty much got one on one attention...and then when I went to high school it was a different story...huge class sizes, no help from teachers...so mom took me out of school and I did a coorrespondence class which meant I got books and tests in the mail, read the material, and did the work myself. I finished the last four years of high school in 6 months. I scored really high on SAT and ACT and went to college 2 years early. My younger brother did pretty much the same thing, graduated a year early, and joined the army. Mom is homeschooling my 13 year old brother right now because where they are has terrible schools.

That's very similar to how I graduated highschool at 16 :D

I've homeschooled DD (11th grade) and DS (9th grade) on and off since they were in K and 1st grade. We've always used the ABeka program. I'd either homeschool them or they'd go to a private school that used the program. When they were in the 5th and 7th grade I decided to homeschool only. I started using the DVD series of ABeka. When they got in HS we began to used the accredited program with the DVD's.
There are many reasons why we chose to homeschool. One that has been a contant is the fact that we move around as a military family. It was easier on the kids if they didn't have to change schools and curriculum often.
Socialization hasn't been an issue with us. Actually, it isn't for most homeschool kids. DS plays sports, has friends in the neighborhood (some are homeschooled and some go to public school), he attends Sunday School (Youth group) and Church, and is in a leadership position with his martial arts class. DD babysits, has friends, drives a car to the mall, attends Sunday School (Youth group), helps out in Awana, etc... My kids are able to socialize with people of all ages, not just the ones in their peer group. They get tested every year. Their scores are always well above average.
There are some awesome homeschool groups out there for activities. It just depends on how much the homeschool family wants to get involved.
There are always pros and cons for each situation. We just found that the pros out weighs the cons for our family.

I was homeschooled through 11th grade, when i went post-secondary. I always was given plenty of opportunities to socialize, and pursue whatever i was interested in. I wouldn't recommend through high school, simply because subjects become harder, but ps is pretty open these days, and allows kids to attend only certain classes. we were in family co-ops with 10-20 other families, and we took trips together, field trips, got together once a week for learning modules, etc. PM me if you want to know more!

I'm considering homeschooling. The school district we're in is good but they are doing some things I just don't agree with. Although, I do some homeschooling as we do a lot of work here at home too. It helps that both boys love to learn. Good luck Becca! I think it would be beneficial seeing as we move a lot and you never know how far ahead/behind she may be of the other kids in the school when you move.

I would love to HS Aaron but Adam won't even let me talk about it, since Adams dad is an educator, its not something that I can even bring up, because to him it would be putting his dad out of a job. I guess its a good thing the schools around here are decent...

Ladies thank you so much for all of the wonderful points you've made. Dawn I'm really sorry Adam is so blind to all of the possibilities available to Aarons educational future. That would be really hard, not even having it open for discussion :no

I really REALLY appreciate you all taking the time to share your stories and your experiences/feelings about homeschooling :)

I was homeschooled my whole life. I really enjoyed it and there really isn't anything that I would've wanted changed. Of course like every kid there were days that I didn't want to do school, but my Mom tried to make it fun for me and my brothers and over all it was really good for us. My parents homeschooled me and my 3 brothers because they saw our training and teaching as their responsibility. They both grew up in the public schools and felt like they learned more bad than good and didn't want that for us.
As far as socializing....I grew up in Holland Michigan. In that city and the surrounding cities they had A TON of things for homeschooling kids to do as far as sports go and field trips. We also had a HUGE what we called "yard party" with tons of our friends like 3 times a year. We did get together with them individually quite often too. It's just up to the parent how often they want the child to get together with friends.
I hope this was helpful. Out of all my homeschooled friends (and I have a lot) I can honestly say that not ONE of them has ever complained about being homeschooled. They have all been grateful to their parents for caring enough to stick it out even when things got hard!
Also, my Mom said that you can usually find a homeschooling network in your area...people that will help you out with any questions. Also times when some of the families are going to do a field trip etc...

I don't have kids but one of my good friends here she is a teacher but decided to stay home with her children. Now she's HSing her oldest (8 yo) she makes it fun and her daughter loves it! they do belong to a HS group on the area. She brings her to my house for 2 hrs on thursdays and I teach her spanish. I think having that 1 on 1 personalized education is so beneficial. We make it fun and she learns pretty fast.
Me and J have talk about this for when we do have kids and we will either have our kids in private school or HS them.

I do remember and I did like it, very much! So did my brother. We might be nerdy kids, but we were so into reading and learning. And with my brother, she helped him to concentrate and learn how he needed to learn... if that makes sense!
I do feel like it gave us a leg up, for sure.
And it was a Christian private school.

All I'm going to say is that I had an absolutely miserable education experience from middle school all the way through highschool. I don't know if I would have wanted to be home schooled either though. But the schools that I went to were absolutely ridiculous, and so were most of the students that attended them.

I say if you feel like you can adequately home school your kids, then go for it. :yes

Becca~I don't homeschool anymore however I am still all for it! If my kids weren't at such a good school & if DH was here to help some, I'd still do it in a heartbeat!

If you do a search on here, there are a bunch of homeschool links that I have shared. I'll see if I can dig it up for ya!

:xfingers & if you need anything, let me know!

I was homeschooled until I graduated high school.
Honestly I loved it. I had a lot more free time than my friends who went to traditional school. As far as socialization went I was able to do volunteer work, I took dance lessons, I sang in a choir, I was part of a drama club, I played baseball. There are a lot of activities offered by gym's, rec centers, museums and countless other places for kids. There are also a lot of homeschooling groups around. The one in our town hosts a coop once a month, where the kids get together for PE and arts and crafts.

I believe that being homeschooled allowed me to have a lot more opportunities than if I had gone to traditional school. I was able to pursue things at my own pace, and I really enjoyed the flexibilty of it. I have several friends who were put into public school after being homeschooled, and they asked their parents to go back to homeschooling.

HTH!

Is there any diference on a homeschooled kid vs a school graduated kid when it comes to apply to college and all that?

I homeschooled my daughter for one year in elementary. We moved to Chicago for 3 months so I could take a class and I didn't want to put her in the school system and then have to take her out again to move back to the East coast. We loved it. We joined a homeschool club. We had a curriculm. We did all kinds of activities. The homeschool club was given a building at a park in Oak Park, Il. So the club painted murals on the wall in the building and held meetings there. The club also went on field trips together and had special classes and educational movies. Some homeschool clubs also have programs from your child to take PE with other homeschoolers. Educationally, my child did well, because it was one on one. Just to give you an example she is now in the 11th grade and today I just received a copy of the National Honor Roll Book from Spring 2007, because she is in it. So taking the year off from traditional school didn't hurt her. When I enrolled her the following school year. I put her in public school and she was fine. However, when we moved to Florida she hated school and didn't enjoy it at all. Then again I guess I wouldn't enjoy school either if I was in a class with 50 other students and half of the lesson was taught in English and then it was retaught in Spanish. That is hard on a child. So I took her out again and put her in Catholic School and she loves it. She has really excelled.

Homeschooling worked for me, but so does private school.

For those that WERE homeschooled, how did you feel about it? Pros and cons please :) Also, did you feel that there were enough opportunities for you to be around your peers in recreational settings?

I enjoyed it. I was able to go at my own pace, which meant that I skipped several grades, and then took several extended "vacations," which left me at the same age as my peers when I did enter public schools (for high school). I had plenty of opportunities to socialize... I was in a theater group, figure skating lessons, swimming lessons, piano recitals, Girl Guides (like Girl Scouts)... there were plenty of other kids around.

It was fantastic when I was younger. I started school at 4, I was only in "class" from like 10am-1pm (don't remember exactly when I ended, but around there). My parents had workbooks and whatnot for me, so it wasn't just them talking out of their hats.

When I should have been starting 4th grade (so, I was 3rd grade aged), I got into a beautiful Canadian Distance Education learning program (those things are fantastic, but I don't know if the States has anything like it?), which was homeschooling with coursebooks and a "teacher" that came to visit once every six months and see how I was doing. I was also bumped into 5ht grade instead of 4th. And it was easy. I had lots of fun.

As I got older though, my motivation really waned. So, if you're gonna do this, be prepared that you might have to keep your kids seriously on track sometimes, and at others they may do it all themselves. That's how I was at least.

I really enjoyed public high school, however. I don't know how far you're thinking of homeschooling your kids, but I advocate public or private high schools, rather than homeschooling. It was just a stage of my life where I needed to learn how to work like that, how to deal with teachers and "peers" and to be able to deal with it when things weren't fair or easy, or it was stupid bs that I didn't know why I was bothering with.

There's my long homeschooling story for you. Hope it helps.

My only other piece of advice. If your children end up being like me (in that they can skip grades and keep a pretty rapid pace up - I discovered I could do a school year's material in three-six months), don't let them get too far ahead. I mean, sure, if you wanna homeschool them all through high school and they are done with all twelve grades by like, age 12, that's fantastic. But, I'd encourage you not to let them run off to college any younger than 17-18. I have seen a lot of my homeschooled peers really crash and burn from being too young and too smart, and the pressure... it's not pretty. Let them travel, or read and relax, or something other for a few years, if they get ahead. That's just IMO, anyway.

Oh, and, BTW: I graduated 1/329 in my high school class, and I got into some pretty fantastic schools for college. I always got fantastic recs and people telling me how "independent" I was, and what a hard worker. I pretty much attribute all of that to my homeschooled education.

DB was home schooled and did like it because he could learn what he wanted to learn, when he wanted to learn it. however, he is very shy and to himself and I think that has a lot to do with being home schooled. If you do it, make sure they are involved in activities, make them be involved.

I would say DB turned out pretty good from being home schooled considering he is a Nuke and he is a darn good boyfriend! :giggle

I was never homeschooled...I was an Army brat and moved around from school to school , some good, some pretty shitty....until my junior year of high school when my dad retired. Through all that, I maintained A's and B's, graduated in the top 10 of my class, and learned valuable social skills and street smarts.

With that said, I would never home school my children. Speaking from experience, I think it is entirely possible for children to get a good education from public schools. I think success in public schools starts at home.

I believe socialization and street smarts are absolutely REQUIRED to live in today's world, and in my opinion, home schooling can potentially ROB ur child of those valuable lessons.

I've seen a lot of military families fall into the home schooling thing because of excessive moves and what not, but I think it bothers the parent more than the children.

DB's oldest children were homeschooled by their mother for several years...although I believe she was very lazy about it, and did not really know what she was doing....those children became anti-social and naive. The oldest being 18, graduated, and refuses to work....refuses to go to college.

I dont think that home schooling is always the right answer.

I might add that I moved around to many different school and I think that it has made me a much more outgoing person and I am up for change...so :shrug

I was homeschooled for 3rd grade. My older brother and sister were having trouble in school, so my mother decided to homeschool them. I was asked if I wanted too, and since I am very close to my sister & couldn't imagine going to school without her I decided I also wanted to be homeschooled. My parents used a Christian based program.. I can't remember the name however. personally, I liked it. There was also a homeschool program in the community. They held classes for homeschooled kids like art, dance, writing, and things like that. I loved going there and I would recommend finding something similar if you homeschool your kids. This allowed me to still learn and be surrounded by my peers, even though I was taught at home. Another thing my mom did to get us out of the house was rec. sports. We had always done this but my parents let me and my sister do cheerleading this time (we weren't allowed to do this before because how much money it costs). Also, we went on field trips. At the time we were in the VA Beach area so we were close to Jamestown and Willaismsburg.. so we were able to go to those as field trips. Also, since we didn't have to "take leave from school" we were able to go to Disney World in Orlando in March (prices were cheaper and it wasn't as packed). That was a huge plus for me.
There were rules. We had a certain time we had to wake up (I can't exactly remember, but I'm sure it was like 8 or something) We were given about 30 minutes to eat breakfast and watch some TV. We weren't allowed to "go to school" in our pajamas. We had to wear regular school clothes. So my mom made it as close to actual school as she could.
The best thing was that I could go at my own pace. I was a quicker learner than my sister and brother and was able to finish all of my work by march or february - 2 or 3 months before the final test. I had learned so much that if I wanted to skip the 4th grade I could have, but opted out since that would have put me in the same grade as my sister.

That's about all I can remember. Overall, I didn't mind it.. but ABSOLUTELY keep your child involved in sports and other activities. There are some high schools (my hs in japan allowed this) that if you were homeschooled you could still play on one of the teams (I THINK all the students had to do was take one or so classes at the high school).

Hope this helped!! :)

There are many reasons why we chose to homeschool. One that has been a contant is the fact that we move around as a military family. It was easier on the kids if they didn't have to change schools and curriculum often.
Socialization hasn't been an issue with us. Actually, it isn't for most homeschool kids.

Well said!

We're homeschooling through high school. I joke about my 2nd, 3rd and 4th educations that I'm getting (as each child goes through a grade I do too in a sense lol) You'll be surprised at what comes back to you; at what you "catch" this time around that you didn't when you were in school yourself; and to watch your children bloom in front of your eyes is amazing! I cannot tell you how many things I would have missed out on if they had been in a classroom than at home.

Here's the secret to homeschooling though - you have to want and enjoy being around your own children :lol Do we have our days? Of course we do but like Leigh said the pros for our family outweight the cons.

I have yet to meet any homeschoolers that have socialization issues. That is my biggest pet peeve as a homeschool mom; that stupid "socialization" question :rolleyes

ETA: my daughter says she's going to homeschool (she's 8th grade) and my boys have said they more than likely will (I encourage them all to discuss this issue before getting married to someone).

Also just wanted to add I agree with making it fun, especially when they are younger. If you are stressed out, your children will be stressed out and therefore it won't work. I've seen people give up and it's sad b/c if they would just relax and enjoy it I think they'd be able to hang in there kwim?

I would love to HS Aaron but Adam won't even let me talk about it, since Adams dad is an educator, its not something that I can even bring up, because to him it would be putting his dad out of a job. I guess its a good thing the schools around here are decent...

That's a shame. One of my biggest supporters has been my brother, who has been a public school teacher for the last 30 some years. In those 30 years he's seen the public school system take a huge dive. His son asked to be homeschooled (very smart kid and he felt that the school day was wasted for the most part) but in the end he stayed in school (same school my brother teaches at)