Ahh! I wasn't going to get into this thread but just can't let it go by.
I'm a Home Schooling mom. Our oldest went to a Private School for Kindergarten and then started first grade there but we pulled him out to Home School two months into the year. He just graduated this spring. He has been accepted into one of the top Universities in the Country for Aerospace Engineering. That school had about 25,000 students apply to be freshmen this coming fall. Of those, they accepted 5600! Of those they only accepted 120 into the Aerospace Engineering Department. Our son is one of those 120!!
I totally agree that what makes or breaks a child's Home School experience is the parent that teaches them. I believe that having a Home School support group is a huge factor in being successful. We had 200 families in our local support group but had to cut it down in size as it was too large to be as "helpful" as was needed. Now, we have about 130 families. Any parent can teach at home... there are tons of curriculum for any type of learner (visual, auditory, hands-on, etc.) but if a parent gets stuck (like I did with Calculus and Physics) the parent needs to find someone who can tutor their child in that area. In Public and Private school if your child is an auditory learner but the teacher uses a visual style .. your child loses unless you spend lots of time after school helping them. With Home Schooling you know your child best... you know how they learn best. You can hand pick the curriculum that will help them succeed and surpass where they would have been in other school settings.
As far as socialization goes ... it absolutely cracks me up that people think this is a problem with Home School students. Sure it can be... but public school kids can have issues in socialization also. Knowing how to act with 25 other kids the same age is fine (or is it?) but... our children know how to interact with people of all ages. They love to play with babies and toddlers and can carry on an excellent conversation with any adult. But, we, as parents, had to make sure they had the interaction to learn those skills. We have to make it a priority to get our kids together with their friends ... it just takes more effort on our part (also because we live a long way from town) to make sure it happens. Our children have wonderful friends (Home Schooled and Public schooled) that we have here all the time or they go there to spend time. It's our responsibility to make sure they have friends and know how to behave in society.
I love that we get to help "pick" our children's friends. I always know who they are with (unlike public school when the parent has little idea who their children are spending their school days interacting with) and what the family of that child is like because we always get to know the parents also since we are dropping off or picking up kids to play with each other.
Our family is very close knit; our children (eight of them) get along wonderfully with very little bickering and issues.
Our oldest son started working for a very large corporation last summer. Within two months they asked him to move into a manager position! They were thrilled and surprised at how much higher of a work ethic he had, he was honorable and trustworthy. Unfortunately, they can't say the same for almost any of their other High School employees.
Our three oldest teenage boys have worked (volunteered) many times over the last few years with several different companies and organizations. Every single time, the higher ups have told them that they have jobs waiting for them in their company if they ever want it. People are always impressed with the work ethic and quality of our boys.
Pretty much everything I've bragged about above is true of all the Home Schooling families I know that have the parents totally involved in the education. I also know some Home Schooling families that are failing miserably... I also know private education and public education families that are failing miserably. It really comes down to how much time and effort the parents take to become involved in their children's lives ... whatever school they attend.
People never have a clue that our children are Home Educated until they ask where they attend school. They are always impressed with them.
Finally, in our case, our boys play football through the local public school. Our boys love football and are integral parts of the team BUT they all have said they don't want to attend public school because of all the "junk" that goes on there.
Ok - I'm done with my 85 cents worth.
