Would never want to do anything else. My eldest is now finishing up. Never set foot in a school. Got academic scholarship. Colleges seek out homeschoolers.
If you are worried about staying on track, get a pre-packaged curriculum like Seton.
It doesn’t take much work! With young kids, 2-3 hours/day. After age 8 or 9, give them the lesson plan and they do it themselves, so they can go out to play.
Remember that your job is to raise saints, not college students. And home is the best place for that. Academic excellence is a side benefit.
Regarding special needs kids, we have some experience with that. Our youngest was recently diagnosed with mild autism. We knew that she had more difficulty than our other daughter. My wife’s three teacher SILs badgered my wife to put our daughter in school to get “special services.”
We met with a team of specialists from the school three times over the summer. They wrote up a fancy individualized program (IEP). In practice, they just dumped my daughter in the dumb class, where she is covering stuff she learned two years ago. It’s a pathetic joke.
Remember, no one loves your children like you do.
If you have any other questions, feel free to Freepmail.
I just wanted to ditto what St_Thomas here said. I will add that IMHO, a *good* high school would be a viable alternative if you can find one that you can afford in your area ... but ya know, good luck with that.
If you are seriously interested in homeschooling, do some googling and see if there is a homeschool association in your area. For instance, there are two in my area (Sonoma County, CA), a secular homeschooling group (SCHN, of which we are members) and then a more religiously oriented group as well. Local homeschool groups can point you toward resources in your area (for example, perhaps a charter school that will work with you in homeschooling your child — we have a lot of those here). They can also be invaluable in providing socialization, since many local homeschool associations have clubs & groups that meet weekly, organize fieldtrips, etc. *My* kids would be very lonely without all the homeschooling friends we have now! :)
Best of luck with whatever you decide, and bless you for watching out for your girl!
This. And there has to be time in a day to be able to do this. Public school children are so often frentically over-scheduled that there is no opportunity to listen to the small still voice.
We did homeschool our three. The youngest will graduate this May, and for her, especially, I am so glad we did. She has such a great heart for God- she prays every day for the persecuted church, reads the Bible daily, and has a very deep wisdom and compassion, far beyond her years. Her friends all come to her for prayer and advice. Her example has made all of us better people.
We did not put that connection there- God did- but we did facilitate the time and the space which it needed to emerge. It was worth every sacrifice that we made.
Very good point!
MacMattico, would you sell your child's soul, like Esau, for a bowl of pottage? Well, sports, scholarships, pricey colleges, and “socialization” are merely pottage.