Would love to HS (i think)

My homeschooling journey started when ds#1 was 2 (He's 3.5 now) and he learned letters and their sounds, completely on his own between watching the Leap Frog Talking Letters DVD and playing with magnet letters. He really wanted to learn to read then so I was looking up ideas online and got a lot of homeschooling articles/websites. The more I read about it the more I thought it would be a great fit for us.

I love being with my boys (ds#2 is 20 months now) and just teaching ds to read has been such agreat experience. While I'm not even offically homeschooling yet according to state regulations, my boys are learning to much and we have a great time (most days).

Dh took a little more convincing. His mom homeschooled him and one of his younger brothers for a couple of grades then because of life changes they went into public school when DH was in 2nd grade. Dh had a very rough time after that and he still partly blames the fact that he was homeschooled and just not ready for PS then. After I read a LOT of books and explained things to him and even printed out articles for him, he's coming around and we already have plans for him to teach history on his days off once the boys get a little older.

You can look for local homeschooling groups in your area on websites like meetup.com and yahoo groups. Knowing HSers in your area and just spending a day with them might help you make a decision.

I knew I wanted to homeschool even before ds1 was born, but dh took some convincing. He had a great schooling experience (socially) although he only attended private schools. He wasn't thrilled about the busy work in school though.

After numerous articles on homeschooling were published in our local and very mainstream newspaper, dh came around. I think he needed to know our kids were not going to be "abnormal" because they weren't going to school.

Now, the wall street journal publishes articles all the time about how difficult it can be on the entire family to have a child in school (my husband is an avid reader). The hours of homework take a toll on the entire family, and now we are both grateful not to be looking forward to going through that with our children.

Good luck! I hope you do decide to homeschool. I always tell people who ask to just take the "home" part out. Our children spend waaay more time out in the community than sitting at home. We like to call it life learning which is a great magazine, by the way!

The first thing I would say is to find homeschoolers in your area. I'm sure there is a support group somewhere pretty close to where you live. There are more of us out there than you may think!

We were unsure of what direction to go when my daughter was 3, and in a gymnastics class I met a homeschooling mom, and her daughter that was homeschooled (or unschooled). I talked her ear off, but got a good sense of what learning out of a school could be like.

We did not put our daughter in JK, and told ourselves we'd take it year by year. This is our second year homeschooling, and so far, we are all loving it!

Good luck to you, whatever you decide.

We always thought that our kids would go to school, but when the time came for our oldest, it just did not seem like the right place for him. He did not seem to fit with the other children, developmentally or academicaly (ahead in some things, behind in others) and when we observed how children like him were treated in the clasroom, we were very sure that it was the wrong place for him.
We started homeschooling him this year, and both he and I are loving it. On the good days, he amazes me, and on the bad ones, I am more sure than ever that we did the right thing because he is not being punished for being a kid. We spend more time together, and his confidence has grown amazingly.
It was a big leap for us, as we had never even considered it before, but the more we do it, the more convinced I am that it is an incredible journey.
FWIW- he also could not write his name at that age. He can write that, and many other things now, but that has just come in the last few months. He is 5.5.