I have considered homeschooling many times. My son is only 25 mos now, but I always seem to be interested in possibly doing this.

What prompted your decision to homeschool.

Sara

I don't homeschool but a good friend does. She started homeschooling because her oldest dd was having learning difficulties and the school couldn't give her enough extra help. That was about 16 years ago, her youngest dd has always been homeschooled and they love it. They have always had the kids involved in outside activities ( sports at the Y, church groups, etc) and are in a homeschooling group ( I am sure "group" isn't the right term though ).

HI, I'm new to these boards but thought I'd answer you question about homeschooling. Ü My husband and I have been homeschooling our children for 4 years now and our whole family loves it! I am a former public school teacher who could see first hand how the schools were failing to educate many of our children. My own children are very curious and smart and had a love for learning before they entered the public schools. Unfortunately, there were not programs available to kids who were "ahead" and because of this, my children were getting bored in school. There were also many things being taught that our family feels are not appropriate and did not sit well with us. Our children are actually the ones who begged us to homeschool them and they are doing much better now. They have the freedom to really explore and learn things in depth here that they were unable to do in a public school setting. They can advance at their own pace and we can cover a lot more material that the public schools can. It also allows the boys to pursue their music, drama and other activities which they enjoy more fully. All 3 of the boys have scored very high on the standardized tests that I give them each year but more importantly, they are growing into Godly young men who have learned to serve others. I forgot to add that homeschooling has also given us the opportunity to volunteer as a family with outreach programs in our community.

Hats off to all of you who homeschool!

I was only able to do this with mine for a short time...Got divorced and had to work two jobs to support me and kids...but even in that short time I could see how rewarding it was for the kids and me.

Seeing how the public school systems are these days, I can honestly say, that if I were still raising little ones, and was in the position to be a SAHM, my kids would never see the inside of a public school classroom. Not to knock all school systems, but it seems the government has tied their hands on so many things, and it seems to be a glorified day care center instead of a place to get an education, anymore. There is so much violence in our schools, now, that it is scary to send your kid to one.

Hope I did not offend anyone, JMVHO.

Beth

I homeschool for mainly religious reasons.

Also, I want to avoid undue temptations and bad influences on my children.

And I want to control what they do and don't learn.

Dd is 7 and reads on a 4-5th grade level. There's no feeling like being able to say "I taught my child to read." :)

First let me say there are wonderful schools that have great teachers. Our oldest son is a gifted teacher and teaches at an excellant school.

Our reason for homeschooling is because of our children's special needs. The school in our district could not provide the services Justin needed when he was ready to start school. So we began the homeschooling journey.

I also knew that one on one worked far better for Justin than a classroom full of children. That has proven true over and over again.

We also school at home because I want our kids to be taught our beliefs and values, something they would not have gotten in a public school. We did not have the money for private school.

Anyone else....

We started homeschooling because the school system was NOT teaching our dd the same beliefs and values that we have. There was also the "bully" problem and the "peer pressure" to deal with which we felt were leaving some real emotional scars on dd. Dd is also "advanced" mentally but very immature emotionally and we felt that she would have a better chance to mature and be mentally challenged with homeschool.