Replies

We homeschooled for 13 years. We sort of fell into it. Our daughter started in private school at five. By the third grade she was bringing home 2 hours of homework every night. Our whole family life was centered around getting her homework done. She was frazzled; we were frazzled. We went to the school and were told that many of the parents expected large amounts of homework so that their kids could get ahead (many of the students were oriental).

At about the same time our son had turned five. But he was small for his age and we decided to hold him out a year. My wife said that she would work with him during that year and we would start him in kindergarten then next year. At the end of that year, our son was reading, could do addition and was on his way to learning how to play the piano. He was basically ready for second grade. So, what to do? Start him in kindergarten? That would have been terrible.

So we decided to try homeschooling for just one year and see what happened. We pulled our daughter out and never looked back. We joined HSLDA, got into a homeschool group. BIC (Butt In Chair) time was 8:30 Mon. - Thurs. and Friday was field trip day. And they went on some fantastic field trips (a whole post in itself).

We made the commitment one year at a time. In August, my wife and her buds would go to a homeschooling convention and spend 3-4 days buying curriculum and doing lesson plans for the year.

We had them SAT tested every year and by the time they were about 11 or 12 their scores were coming back as “Post High School” in every subject.

Our kids were always swimmers and when they were 14 or 15 they wanted to play high school sports so we let them go to the local private high school for two years and play sports. They basically cruised academically because they were so far ahead.

I could go on about the homeschooling advantages of academics, socialization and leadership but enough is enough (for now).

Bottom line: Both our kids are very successful in their chosen fields and we are very proud of them. Plus, we got our first granddaughter out of the deal last Nov.