i understand what you're saying, non. thanks for the perspective. i really am not going into this as a 'i'm against public school fanatic' cuz i'm not. that's how i was educated & i enjoyed most of my school years. but i lacked confidence with my peers. i was quiet, shy, & then acted out like a rockstar for most of my high school years.
luckily, i hung around the older people in my life the most - learned alot from them over the years, made my share of mistakes in life, & am a pretty well adjusted person in the end.

my idea of home schooling includes everything - trips, museums, the arts, hands on learning opportunities, as well as book work. when i grew up, we took family vacations & we always did something educational whatever location we chose. my kids may sound odd but they absolutely LOVE watching antiques roadshow, anything relating to history, space, science, & wars. they're also fascinated with death, heaven, & prayer. some of our favorite times are floating in the pool having long conversations about whatever pops in their heads. then we play like maniacs, splash each other, dive for things, & are complete idiots. i think those are times that are irreplacable.

You sound like an awesome mom. =d>

Seriously.

Sounds like they're getting a pretty good education from you already.

---

thanks zombie.
i owe alot of that to my dad, his fight with cancer, & his death.
my focus in life is making memories. may sound odd for someone in their 40's but in the end, that's all we have.
memories are what i cling to of my dad, trips we took, times we shared in the fields, singing songs while we walked beans, him pulling us with the tractor on our sleds, & well far too many more to list.
i'll never forget how worried my dad was that he hadn't left an imprint on our lives while he was close to death.
he had nothing to worry about.

I think the home situation is the most important. What i mean is, if they are given the love AND discipline they need, they can handle home schooling OR public.
Unfortunately, in today's world, "every child is special", and so those that screw around and mess it up for other kids arn't dealt with. It causes those that WANT to learn to be ignored.
I think i would have done better with home schooling, as i wouldn't have had to deal with the daily "dread" of the bullies that tortured me, and i would have been more able to excell.
I was also "bored" and never tried my best until i was in college. So i was only in the top third of my graduating class in high school.
I often wonder what i could have done had i been mentally "pushed" a little.

---

Kids never fail. It's the Teachers fault. That's the society we live in now. Kids are so precious and never do anything wrong.

---

Ahhhh.....as a retired teacher in public schools let me get my 3 cents worth in. While I was actively teaching I saw many kids come into the public schools after a year or two of home schooling and they had a very difficult time adjusting to the different teachers they had (they were NOT their Mom or Dad anymore) and adjusting to the many, many different social situations that confronted them. Those that did adjust nicely I found out had parents that were, or had been teachers and exposed them to many different cultural experiences as well as educational experiences.

That being said, after being retired for 4 years now, I may have a somewhat different viewpoint. Public schools are trying to do the best they can under some very trying conditions. Not only are parents demanding more and better schools (rightfully so) but the Feds at both the state and national level have put such pressure on teachers and administrators to "score high on those meaningless tests" that educating the "whole" student has fallen by the wayside.

Even here in Missoula since I retired staff moral has fallen sharply and the increase in early retirements among teachers has risen sharply. The PE teacher who took my place at my school when I retired told me she has 3 to 4 times more paper work to fill out and tests to do for federal/state requirements has tripled since I left. Glad I got out when I did.

So Julie, it's a hard decision. If you can give your boys a good education, help them mature and learn things they will need later in life, how to get along in society and be tolerant of all people, go for it. Try it for a year or two and see how things are going. I would not recommend homeschooling past middle school years or even 7th grade. By this time they would really miss out on the social/sports/advanced classes they maybe could get in the regular schools.

Good luck and best wishes to you and your boys.

---

18 days have gone by and I have not read any of the posts other than the first one.

We considered it when my daughter was young. (20 years ago.) She was so bright (still is of course.) we didn't want her to get bored with school.

We decided against it.

My biggest concern was about where she would learn social interaction skills. Brownies, Girl Scouts, Summer softball park district team and the like offer some help but it is not the same as 7 hours a day 5 days a week. Plus the loss of the extra curricular actives that the schools offer. (I know there are a lot more options today than back then for the home schooled.)

My next concern was my wife. It would have been very demanding. Not only would she have to pt together the lesson plan and instruct the kids. She would have to do so year after year after year. It is a lot to ask of one person. You may be great at math and not too bad with English but then you still have to be good at history, spelling and everything else. (You could join a group and teach a couple of subjects and let other mothers teach other ones. But then what do you do when you don't like they way "Sally" teaches her subject? It is easier to complain about a school teacher than one of three mothers who teach a class.)

Another factor for teacher-mom is all the time you would be around your kids. Now you can send them away for a few hours and everyone gets a chance to reboot. If you teach them you are there nearly 24/7. it is tough on everybody. think about how short tempers get on a vacation in the car and hotel room. And that is a fun time. I and my wife worked together for years. My parent did it for even a longer period of time. It is not as easy as it seems. You are working with the person you love the most and yet you need your space every once in a while. Kids need to have a chance to act up. Home school takes that away.

Finally how long are you going to do this? if it is just grade school are the kids going to truly be prepared for the life of a high school student? It would be even harder on them socially in Jr Hi I would think.) If you teach them all the way through high school are they going to go on to college? It will be real culture shock to go from a 5-8 kid home school class room to a college of 10,000 students with all the stuff that takes place on and off campus outside of the class room.

Many kids hate school. Your job is to find out why. If it is boredom talk to the teachers and come up with a solution. If it is a bully or something like that you need to find that solution.

---