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[quote=Anonymous]My child is in public school now, but we homeschooled for 5 years.  The only reason I chose to go the public school route is because it was hard for *me* to continue homeschooling.  I was tired and while my kids were thriving, I really needed to stop for my own sake.

I think most people envision homeschooling to be an isolated day with mom and child just sitting over books and being home all day with no life and no friends.

While it is called [i]home[/i]schooling, most home schoolers do not spend their entire day just being home with the fam.  There are many, many wonderful co-ops available.  The child can take classes from a VARIETY of teachers. One of my kids started co-ops when he was 6.  He was there for 5 hours once a week and rotated through 5 different classrooms with 5 different teachers taking 5 different subjects.  On a different day he took 2 co-op classes that lasted 3 hours.  These were in buildings with kids taking classes from K through 12. The subjects were varied- Science, History, Art, Drama, P.E, on Tuesday. Themes from Shakespeare (a very low key kid version that was super cool) and Woodworking on Thurs.

In between, we had swimming and gymnastics. He was also very good friends with the kids in our neighborhood and spent plenty of time just playing and riding bikes. There are plenty of kids and socializing going on.  There are also many businesses that cater classes to home schoolers during the day.  Gymnastics, swim teams, football, soccer, etc.  There are art classes, lego leagues, drama and dance classes specifically during the day geared toward home schoolers.  Again the child is SOCIALIZING with plenty of kids.  There are also homeschooler meet up park days just to run around and have fun.

My kids are very comfortable around kids of all ages and adults.  Since they didn't start out with their only peer group being a bunch of kids in a classroom that are the same age they don't think twice about having a conversation with a teenager, an adult or even to just play with a toddler.

Your kids can have ample time socializing and learning from various teachers, the thing is you have to make sure this happens. You have to be the one to seek out these opportunities, sign them up and drive them around. Work your school schedule so that you can accomplish your goals and still have time for these outings. It's not all built into the day like at a regular school.

The most important thing is to make sure home schooling works for your entire family.  If it works for you, your spouse and your kids then don't worry the misconceived perception of home schoolers.  But if its not working for any part of your fam then it would most likely be a strain and while I think home schooling is a fabulous option and we had a very good experience with it, I don't see anything wrong with going the public or private school route either. Like I said, I was just tired, I've been dealing with health issues and it was becoming too much.  You just got to do what's right for your family.

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