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I would love to, but it's for selfish reasons. I want to spend all that time with my LO! But I know it would be best for her if she went to school, plus my husband doesn't want us to homeschool, so that's what we'll do.

Nope. I agree with you that school is about much more than the academics. It's where kids learn how to interact with other kids. Plus, I would never feel confident enough in my ability to academically prepare my kids for high school/college!

No. To be honest, I think it’s completely irresponsible that just anyone is allowed to home school their kids. 99.999% of the time people with only high school educations don’t have the knowledge and resources to teach every subject, especially advanced science and math – which is why teachers specialize in certain areas and not everything at once. (Heck, my husband has a PhD and isn’t qualified to teach advanced math and science!)

I think home schooling should be looked at like a real career – do you have the education, experience and credentials to teach elementary school? Middle school? High school? If not, maybe it isn’t the best idea to step into that professional position for your child.

No, it's not for us. When my niece and nephew are doing their homework -they are 8- my brother calls me for help and sometimes I have to Google! Who remembers all the stuff you were taught in elementary school? Granted if I were to home school the responsible thing to do is to brush up on the curriculum.
Just as there are those who thrive in that scenario there are those who do NOT. So I think -hope- the parents make the best decision for their CHILD and not themselves.

I agree with @yoursilverlining: If you were to home school you should be made to take a yearly exam of some sort to make sure you are qualified to teach your children. Just because a parent may *think* they are does not mean they are.
I know there's a huge support group out there for parents who home school. In the like there should be some sort of "governing" body that makes sure the children are properly educated.

I would home school, but most likely won't. We shall see!

On my mom's side of the family, my siblings and I were actually the only ones to go entirely through public school. All of my cousins have been at least partially home schooled. One set of cousins home schools until around middle grade, when the kids have the option of continuing independent study or enrolling in the public school (they've all chosen to go to public school). One of those cousins is now attending Yale.

Another set of cousins also home schools until around HS, but that aunt isn't a great teacher. One of my teenage cousins can hardly read.

The idea that kids aren't socialized through home schooling is ridiculous. I've never met a poorly adjusted home schooler. (Just some quirky ones, lol) Poor home schooling boils down to the fact that a lot of parents aren't cut out for the job, and shouldn't be taking that huge responsibility on.

I'll probably put my kids in public school...ideally, an excellent public school or private school. I HATED school and want my kids to have a good experience, but I really value the work that educators do.

@babynumber1: I'm not mad and don't take this the wrong way, but yes you sounded a little judgy and obviously don't know all the facts about homeschooling and seem to be basing your experience off of one homeschooling family you know.

I will admit there are many families who homeschool who probably shouldn't; who are not intentional about allowing their children to meet other kids/families, learn societal manners and graces, etc. BUT they are more an exception to the rule.

I was homeschooled my entire life. Yup, from preschool to 12th grade. No, I didn't love it all the time, but most kids hate public school too. But I am so glad I was homeschooled now. I was protected from things a first grader doesn't need to know, but that does't mean I grew up a dunce. Obviously there is a time and place for that knowledge, but being homeschooled gave my parents the ability to control when I was immersed in certain things, and gave them the ability to explain it to me on their terms. When it came time for me to learn about sex, drinking etc, I learned about it the way they wanted me to and that shaped my entire view on it.

As for the academic part - my parents don't have college degrees either but they were more than equipped to teach us. Homeschooling fosters independence. They taught us up to the point where we started doing and learning the material on our own. By middle school, I could easily work through a textbook by myself, and my parents would just check my work at the end of the day. It really require little involvement for them unless I was struggling. When I did struggle with math, my older brother helped me and at one point they hired a math tutor. I was allowed the same academic help as someone in public school.

It made academics more fun too. My parents loved incorporating hands-on learning. We took a lot of field trips, instead of the typical math, science, english, history etc EVERY DAY we were allowed to focus on what we wanted to learn. It was really only once we got to high school that we HAD to do all the subjects, but we had learned all the other things through field trips or on our own volition anyway.
I graduated high school with a 3.7 GPA and college with a 3.3 GPA, in no way did it make me ill-equipped academically

As for socially - I have always had a lot of friends. We were a part of several homeschooling groups/co-ops in the past where I met other kids and we took classes together taught by our parents. We also were really active in our church and I met a lot of people there. Homeschooled kids are also able to participate in any school event in their district, so I was in sports when I was younger too and met a lot of people that way. I got my first job at 16 and made even more friends there.

I would definitely consider homeschooling my kids. At this point, I'm planning on it. But I am open to something else since I know I want to go back to work so we can buy a house, which would make it nearly impossible for me to homeschool.

I think homeschooling is a really great thing and it doesn't take a masters degree to do it right.

I was homeschooled for ten years and I had an incredible experience--and lots of friends!
I couldn't imagine my childhood NOT being homeschooled. I was so close to my siblings, we only did school for three hours a day, and everything was super hands on. By the time I went to public school (9th grade) I was far beyond my peers, and I ended up skipping up to the 10th grade after two weeks. I graduated when I was barely 17.

We were a part of a homeschool co-op. Once a week we would meet with a bunch of other homeschool families and children our own age and take fun classes. The ones I remember were dissection (loved that class), sewing, advanced sports, photography, etc. I made tons of friends through that and I am still in contact with many of them.

My family was also very involved in our rather large church. There were TONS of kids in my Sunday School classes that I got to socialize and hang out with. Even though I was homeschooled, I went to plenty of birthday parties and little girl sleepovers.

Learning to socialize, learning to share, and learning to be a good friend were never struggles for me.

As Miss Spunkin said, you are allowed to participate in any of the sports/activities in your school district when you are homeschooled. In elementary I took up band and choir, and in Jr. high and high school I was a cheerleader, ran track and played soccer. I graduated my high school as valedictorian of my class.

I would absolutely 100% homeschool my children if I felt like it was right for my family at the time. I don't want to commit to anything now because I just don't know where we will be 5 or 6 years from now!

Edit: I want to also add that all four of my siblings are advanced academically due to being homeschooled. I think you are free from a lot of distractions when you are homeschooled, and ALL of your time is spent learning (unlike public school where I think a good three hours of every day is wasted). We were well-rested and never sleep deprived. My mom knew and understood each of our learning styles, so we were able to learn in a way that made sense for each of us (visual, logical, physial, verbal, etc.) If we "got" something, we never had to wait for a classroom to catch up with us.

Just my experience and my two cents. Thought I would share!

@Navy_Mommy: I am from Washington State. I do think there are a lot of homeschoolers here!

@miss-spunkin @mrsdaredevil Y'all definitely said it better than I did.

I plan on heavily supplementing my child's education, so I guess that's a form of home schooling.

I think it's part of a parent's job to be involved with their kids' education. But as one poster pointed out above, not every parent is equipped to do that. I've noticed that with kids with higher IQs, they are often fairly self-directed so they tend to thrive in home schooling.

Nope. I have a lot of respect for teachers & the training that they go through. I also think the socialization is so important! I know that homeschool parents can do lots of activities as a group, which is good, but still not for us.

@mrbee: oh, absolutely! I had fantastic experiences with 95% of my teachers and don't want to keep LO from experiencing so much with the mentality that "something could happen." It's scary but I know it's not the norm.

I was homeschooled and the socialization argument always makes me laugh. I not only emerged "unscathed" socially, but until I took a new job recently, worked full-time in a field where I spoke to audiences of 5 to 2,000 on a consistent basis.

I find that most people's ideas of homeschooling are based on not knowing anything about it. For example, my grandma (mom's mom) is a teacher and was vehemently against homeschooling the whole time my mom was teaching us.

After I graduated college with honors, my brother joined the nuclear physics program in the Navy, and my older sister is homeschooling her kids, my grandma not only is positive towards it, but actually told my sister that she is glad she is homeschooling!

On the other hand, one of my best friends was homeschooled in a very strict family and she had a very negative experience. I think homeschooling is like anything else - there is good and bad. I do believe that if you're going to do it, you have to really commit... my husband's mom homeschooled him for a couple of years and really didn't do much schoolwork. That's not fair to kids.

Will I homeschool my kids? I honestly don't know.

This is something I think about all the time and we are very seriously considering it for our children in the future. As a teacher, I've spent a lot of time in the public school setting and it just plain scares me. There are SO many issues that are counterproductive to children learning. I read a study once where an average, middle of the road student (not high, not low, not bad..just average) gets 9 minutes of one on one time with the teacher a WEEK!!! As a teacher, I can completely see how that's true because so much of my time is taken up by dealing with behavior issues, helping the struggling students, administrative tasks, etc.

Not only that..I think our public school system is incredibly inefficient. So much time is wasted lining up, walking down the hall, getting drinks, going to the restroom, waiting for others to finish their work, etc. Homeschooling is much more efficient and allows WAY more time for outside learning in the form of extracurricular activities as well as time for play which is equally important in my book.

Also, any time something curriculum based isn't working in a public school setting there has to be a committee involved and typically a subcommittee and meetings and polls and data and this, that, and the other. With homeschooling if something isn't working for my child/ren all I have to do is discuss it with my husband and find a more suitable alternative.

People always argue the socialization issue or argue that homeschooled kids are "freaks" but honestly..go to any public school and you will see just as many "odd" kids there as you would in any homeschool environment. Some kids are just different and that's not going to change based on where they do their learning.

Also, kids in the public school setting rarely learn how to interact with people that aren't their own age. Sure, they interact with the teacher, principal, etc. but most of the social learning comes from their peers. With homeschooling I hope to provide many opportunities for my kids to interact with other kids of all ages as well as adults. I don't really care if my child learns how to successfully interact with another 9 year old because they're only nine for 12 months. I care far more about their ability to look a grown-up in the eye and have an intelligent, informed conversation and that's something that can only come from experience.

I doubt it. I'm fine with public school. If that was bad, I might consider private school. I don't think I could handle home schooling my kids.

@eeh: I would highly doubt 9 minutes a week.

I am really surprised by the judgmental comments on this thread. It seems as though people find it ok to be so judgey because homeschooling is a minority lifestyle. That's not really fair.

The two most common arguments on here as to why homeschooling parents are "egotistical" or why homeschooling is "irresponsible," to quote some of the posters, are academics and socialization. I would encourage you to research how homeschooled children do academically and I think most people will be shocked with the facts.

As for the socialization argument.... it's fascinating to see this argument when as a nation, we are dealing with bullying in such huge proportions.

Public school may be best for my kids, or it may be private school, or it may be homeschooling - or it may be some combination over their childhoods. I don't know yet, I'm still working on the "sustaining a pregnancy" part. But I hope whatever decisions we someday make, that I will be tolerant and gracious towards people who may make a different decision than me.

My husband and I have talked about this, if we could financially I would homeschool. However, we live in an area where homeschoolers have a great support system including field trips, sports teams, etc so the children still get socialization outside of the classroom.

Ugh, I couldn't do it. I'd be so worried about whether they were learning enough and my patience would probably go all to hell.