Temporary Homeschooling??

[eirual]

DS is currently in Grade 1 at a public school. If I had my way (and could afford it) I'd have chosen a montessori school or homeschooled. He really doesn't enjoy school and I admittedly have my concerns with the public school system.

I'm pregnant and due in June. I'll be home on mat. leave for 14 months (as a teacher, that's 12 months true mat leave plus 2 months of summer waiting for school to start again).

I can't get the idea of homeschooling DS for that year out of my head. Part of me worries if it will just make the following year (grade 3) more difficult having been home and less structured for a year, and the part of me thinks we have the chance to do this so why not take it while you can?

Looking back at the newborn stage with DS, I think about how hard it was to just get through daily routines (like lunch and showering) and wonder if it might be too much to take care of a babe and homeschool while meeting the needs of older DS too.

Thoughts? Experiences? Warnings? Encouragement?

DH is a FT student for another year. I'm assuming I'll return to work after the year of mat leave and the homeschool thing will be temporary, but DH is also excelling at his courses and has a fabulous unique background in his field, so who knows what will happen on the job front for him once school's over. Ideally I'd like to work PT and homeschool or do the monetessori thing down the road once DH can go back to helping out with/taking over the finances.

[Seana]

I'm in a similar boat--my husband is in the Army, so we have around a year here, then a year (or so) in Georgia, then we go somewhere else.  Not really conducive to me having a meaningful career, so I've just decided that  having babies is the most productive thing I can do during this time.  I'm due in January, and I was actually considering homeschooling because I thought it would be EASIER with a baby than doing the morning craziness, drop-off pick-up thing with a 2nd grader and a preschooler.  My son has excellent Montessori teachers this year, but we don't need to be spending  the money on tuition, and my daughter's public school is nothing to write home about.  Ideally, I'd put my kids in a language immersion program, but there's nothing remotely like that around here, so I figure I can teach them the French and Spanish I know, and they will at least get SOMETHING.  I feel like it's a real waste for kids not to study languages when they're best equipped to learn them.  The way I see it, I couldn't pay for both of my kids to go to private school if I was working (I'm just not capable of making that much $$$) but I do feel confident that I can provide them with a very high level of education at home.