First: all parents homeschool until they turn their child over to progressive professionals for indoctrination into leftist society. You may not think your sweet 1st grade teacher intends on doing that but she must use materials approved by the State, have a lesson plan that complies with State standards, and must bring your child along in the topics that matter to the committee of elites who grant both her and her school credentials.
My wife and I homeschooled and our goal was always to give our children an adequate basis of morality and character so they could successfully resist the indoctrination of others with their own agendas. In this we were successful.
Second: Homeschooling is not for every parent and it is not necessarily for the entire 13 years. My wife and I homeschooled for 10 years until the subject matter became too demanding. But when we consulted with the local public school district, upon their own evaluation they wanted to place our daughter fully two grades ahead of her age peers.
What does this say about the norms of public school performance? When an entire education system debilitates children by about two years, after they graduate this deficiency continues and affects job performance and citizenship. America is being dumbed down so educrats can give themselves high marks for barely meeting their own lowered standards.
One advantage to home schooling is that the parents get to revisit topics they had long neglected. Nothing reinforces knowledge like having to teach it again!
The first question I got about homeschooling while we were active in it was “what about socialization”?
This question always puzzled me. If parents don’t move during the years their child attends public school, that child stays in the same age cohort for a dozen years. Talk about socialization! Their child spends more time with those children than with any other group, so of course group and peer pressure becomes significant in shaping child character and morality.
In my experience, children who are homeschooled interact with such a wide variety of people that the people they consider their “peers” have a far wider rage of ages and backgrounds. In my daughters case, when she got to be older, some of her “peers” were even the parents of other homeschool children with whom she interacted as we shared field trips and specialized lessons with.
If at all possible, home school your children for as long as you can. But of course each child is different as is each parent’s abilities and circumstances.
HS'd two..from K thru 12...Back in 89 to 05..I guess.
They are both great kids.
It ignores the simple economic principle of the division of labor and indicates a breakdown in social trust.
It's too bad many of us have no other choice.