We were hesitant to do this because of the social aspect. We are older pedes and growing up when we heard someone was homeschooled there was a serious issue with the kid. Now notsomuch. He is almost 3, so he never stepped foot in a school.
We are still wrestling with it purely for the social aspect but we will not sit by and watch people put their twisted version of reality into our son's head. Thankfully PA (currently) has school choice.
I really am posting for other pedes to think about this decision. I wish we had a maga online charter school
I am not a teacher, in fact I hate explaining anything to anybody. But we chose to homeschool when our youngest was born. I am the primary one taking care of his education. When he was younger, I read to him, and then we do math together. I did not teach him math. We just do math together and had discussions. My goal was to encourage him to think, so I never directly taught him one math concept or formula. Often his method is very different from mine. He got lots of time reading books and doing projects of his own. Our basic study time since he was 5 was 1 hour of reading, one hour of math. That was all. We do not do other subjects together since I believe that if he has solid foundation on reading, writing and math, the rest will come easily on its own depending on his interests. When he was 10, we added writing.
The result was not bad intellectually given how little time we spent on formal education. When he was 8, he finished high school math and on his own to learn caluclus. 9 years old, he passed high school exam which allowed him to take local community college courses. Now we are simply waiting for him to be more mature to go to college. One thing I noticed is that during our entire homeschooling, we did not test, nor prepare for test, nor focused on grammar, spelling, or reading comprehension. His first ever test was high school exit exam. He did pretty well. Then he needed to take placement tests at local community colllege to see which level courses he could take. His English ended up 110 out of 120 and math 117 out of 120. Make me wonder why the teachers had to teach English as grammar, spelling and reading comprehension.
Given how little we spent on formal education, and how ignorant I am of teaching and knowing subjects, I think his intellectual development was not hindered by homeschooling.
But I would say his social skills are a bit wierd. Partly maybe because he does not socialize enough. partly because of who he is. When he takes outside classes, he does not socialize with other kids as well. I did plan lots of play dates for him when he was young. He is very picky about friends. He is a bit different kid right from beginning. Like when he was 3. He refused to go to trick and treat. His reasoning was very clear, I did it last year, the candies were not good, and you did not allow me to eat many anyway. What is the point.
Overall it is a mixed bag feeling. If times go back, I will do it again with a bit more emphasis on discipline.
Good luck.
Thats awesome. How old is he now?
He is 13. We still do things at home. He spends lots of his time programming. Now we shifted more to writing. Plan to send him to college when he is 16. His practice act test this year was 35.5 without any preparation. My take of homeschooling is that if kids read a lot, work on math regularly, things will be fine. We do not have formal science or history lessons, but he reads a lot. It is really easier and more organic this way than dividing things arbitrarily by subjects.