This is only our 3rd yr. of homeschooling, and we are just loving it! Our household is so much more relaxed, and the best part is that we have so much time to spend with our kids and get to know them. They're in 8th and 10th grades, and I'm so glad they haven't been getting an overdose of the 'I hate my parents' and 'My parents are idiots' talk from the typical middle and high school kids! Our kids don't think it is strange to actually want to be with us and do things with us! It also helps that they have other teenage homeschooling friends who share the same attitudes.
Our two youngest (7th grade and a "sophomore") are still being home schooled. I just called home from work for a lunch hour update. They mixed PE, spelling and scripture memory together this morning. A nice fall day so they went for a long walk and while walking practiced spelling and their scripture memorization.
The next oldest is a senior at Georgetown College this year after spending a semester as an exchange student at Oxford last spring. She was home this past weekend and between studying and baking hardly had time to sit down. The baking is a contest between her and her younger sister. Both of them are fantastic in the kitchen. The youngest has some specialties, but is rapidly catching on. It is a great sight to see the three of them all working on separate projects in the kitchen, but my waist line suffers for it.
The two oldest children, one married and one still at home, who is an assistant manager at a Lowes also continue to benefit from their "head start" on life we were able to give them, even though they were not totally home schooled, (what idiots we were 25 years ago).
There was lots of good advice in not worrying about the transcript and concentrating on the SAT or ACT. Our Georgetown student has a 4.0 GPA and will continue on through graduate school in art history. The college was not concerned in the least with her being home schooled, in fact they were glad she was as the program at Oxford, Regent's Park College, is self paced with only one meeting per week with the tutor. Obviously a public schooled student that is not used to having self drive does not do as well as someone who is used to studying in that manner.
Bottom line - hang in there, the rewards will continue beyond our lives.
Major difference ping!