We will face that situation in September when Elizabeth begins 7th grade. We have decided to use a video curriculum for her during grades 7-12. These are videos that have been made during actual classroom time. The teachers give their lectures, or present their material, and the children on the tape ask questions. My wife will serve to answer any questions Elizabeth may have and to grade her homework, tests, and quizzes.
I don't want my child exposed to all the "other" stuff that is being taught in the goobermint schools. If you want a good book on the subject check out John Stormer's None Dare Call It Education. It is a pretty easy read and the guy is practically giving the book away. He documents all sorts of shenanigans that are going on under the rubric of "public education." If we weren't homeschooling when I read that book, we would have been soon after I had finished.
I want my children to know how to read, how to write, how to perform mathematical calculations, how to think, and how to intelligently express their thoughts (unlike their old man). I don't want them learning how to put condoms on cucumbers, how "peaceful" Islam really is, how "normal" homosexuality is, and all the rest of that junk.
-Kevin
I do have concern about homeschooling as a movement. It is only our side that is leaving. If the schools have swung to far left, then I would rather conservatives got involved and fixed it... Go to school board meetings and if that doesn't work, run for the school board. If all the conservatives just go away mad and homeschool their kids, there is no one left to cause the pendulum to ever swing back to center for the majority of kids that are left there. You guys want to and are able to homeschool. Great. Not everyone can or should need to homeschool as the only Christian, or even decent, alternative. To me, fixing the schools in the community I live in is a better idea for the whole than abandoning them to the left. If we conservatives are right in our principles, we ought to be able to win hearts and minds in public, instead of bugging out and letting them win.
Isn't that a reasonable concern?
Remember, I am not (yet) a parent. I am thinking about the forest, not the trees. Homeschooling may work fine for all the individuals here... I realise, of course that your kids will be fine, and I know that Jen is fine. I did not mean to imply otherwise! I hope you don't feel like I am asking you to defend yourselves, I am asking you guys because I like each and every one of you! I have concerns for the future of the schools, I am not concerned about your kids.
Regarding the other things I brought up, I have some preconceptions about the logistics of homeschooling, that I am asking you guys to answer so that I can know better, that is all. I am not even thinking of trying to talk you out of it.