AmyL

When I was a public school teacher, I thought the same thing: that it'd be better to keep them in schools for the elementary years then pull them later. Now that I've had time to evaluate that more personally, I see it the other way around. The elementary years are when the foundation skills are being taught. Is it better for my boys to learn in a group of 20 (or more!) children, or in a group of one or two? We don't move on to other skills according to a fixed curricular calendar at home school. We keep working on things in as many different ways are needed until a skill is learned.

I've heard the whole character development/lack of interaction thing too many times to count. Honestly, if you look at the values kids learn by going to school, do you really think they're better than what you're teaching at home? And by 'school', I mean the whole school experience....riding the bus, bullies between classes, etc. Teachers often teach lessons that I agree with when it comes to values and morals, etc. But they often do things I strongly disagree with. Why confuse my children that way? Why subject them to split loyalties? That doesn't make sense to me.

I'm not bashing public schools. If I hadn't have had twins, I'd have taught for many more years...I loved my job. I'm not saying that homeschooling is the one and only answer for all families. There is no such monster.

I am saying that to make a generic statement that homeschooling is a bad choice for all is wrong. And a tad judgmental.

Homeschooling started gaining ground in the US about 30 years ago, and really took off after that. We now have a generation of adults who've been home schooled and are living to tell about it. It's very interesting to look at graduation rates, career choices and stability, test scores, social successes/failures, and more statistics for these young people.

While home schooling isn't perfect (heck, it's totally different from family to family), it is a viable option for great success. Each family needs to make that decision based on what works for them.

If it's all right to mention here, I wrote a 5-part series on how to get started homeschooling on my blog that may be helpful. In the first installment I list a lot of web sites that give a lot of information about the subject.