So it is a little early to be making a concrete decision about my daughter's schooling (she is 8 months old) but I do need to make some career related decisions and planning to homeschool in a few years will impact the career decisions I need to make now. So, that being said, I am looking for people who home school their children or people who were homeschooled as children:
What did/do you like about home schooling?
Any down sides?
Where you able to maintain your career while homeschooling (part time)?
Co-op home schooling - better or worse than regular homeschooling and why?
If you could do it all again, what whould you do the same/differently?
If you were homeschooled as a child, did you enjoy it, resent it, what was good/bad and how has it impacted you as an adult?
I went to traditional school and so did my husband, but we are considering homeschool primarily due to the class sizes in public schools, the consistancy of homeschooling as we move frequently, and current legistation such as "no child left behind" that really has a negative impact on the classroom. The other big thing for me is that I used to teach middle school and I know what goes on in middle schools. I don't want my daughter exposed to such things until she is mature enough to handle it (I don't want to shelter her forever, but there are somethings that preteens are just not ready for). I also have seen many military families have negative experiences with switching school systems frequently. At the same time, I want my daughter to have a broad education and be well adjusted socially. I just feel like I don't know enough about the realities of homeschooling to make an educated decision. If I do homeschool, I would like to homeschool from prek - 8th grade and send my child to normal highschool. We would like to have a second child, so this would potentially be homeschooling 2 children (we are not wanting to have more than 2). I am also a military spouse so we will be moving frequently, and I'm not sure if that makes homeschooling a better choice for my child/children or not.
So I am not exactly what you were asking for but I do have experiance at being a military child and with the education system.
My dad was in the military till I was in 4th grade. I went to 4 different elementary schools. My mom is a retired junior high teacher and I have 2 uncles and 1 aunt that are also teachers.
Being a military child your daughter will face things in life that other kids do not, dad gone for months at a time then home and wanting to jump right into the routine, having to leave all your friends, friends moving because their parent got different orders, etc.
I think that being a military child in a military community the schools are very good at incorporating new students. They are aware of the needs of yoru daughter because most of the kids there have similar live experiances. The issues that I have seen is when parents are not involved in their education and that does not sound like it is going to be an issue.
Oops have to run be back later tonight...
I'm back....
The one draw back to home schooling is that your child will not be exposed to other types of people as much as other kids her age- religions, colors, differnt opions, personalities- and when she does go to high school the shock can be really hard on kids. My mom had a couple of kids through the years that were homeschooled for elementary and the adjustment for them was really hard. The parents did not socialize their kids as much as they should have. The bullies picked these kids out so fast and if it was not for the dilligence of the teachers and parents these kids would have been lost.
If you are able to do a co-op style home school that would be better since your child would still be in the suppervised and nurturing enviroment that you want while still getting real life experiance of working with others. Sometimes as a military child the best thing you can do is to teach them to adapt. IT has helped me in my adult life.
You have a realy tough decision to make and I wish you the best.
I have struggled with this issue since having my first kiddos 5 years ago. My husband and I chose to put them into am kindergarten this year for the socialization more than anything.
My husband was homeschooled from 1st grade through 9th. He has nothing but great things to say about his experience and has wonderful memories, yet he told me if we homeschooled it would only be through elementary age and then he wanted the kids to go to middle school. His siblings have all told me on seperate occasions that once they did start school they all felt they were lost when it came to socializing with peers. He felt the same. Their mom was great at keeping them involved in activites and groups but apparently it wasn't the same.
At this point my kids are doing well in school and I am in a position that I can leave my younger daughter at home with daddy once a week while I help out in the classroom. I am trying to be very involved before our next baby is due. I really like their teacher and so far I am very pleased with how they are doing, but if something were to change I wouldn't hesitate to pull them and homeschool. I assume when our next 2 get to school age we will go forward with the same attitude....see what works for them and do that.
Something else to consider for me is the rumors that I am hearing about Washington state possibily going to a mandatory full day kindergarten in a few years. I am not ok with that, I think kindergarten is a year of adjusting and we shouldn't expect 5 year olds to last a full day. I may end up starting out the younger 2 with homeschooling if this happens.....