Homeschooling - Pros and Cons

I have heard about homeschooling and interested in doing it for my kids. I believe there are a lot of advantage when you homeschool your child like not exposing him to unnecessary danger, no peer pressures, one-on-one teaching, being able to learn at his own pace, lesser hours of teaching. If you find a good homeschooling provider then they will teach you as parent on how to develop your child's skills. In public school the kids have longer hours basically because each pupil has different pace so each has to wait for the other. You must also have to monitor your kids friends that they might get bad influences from others. Personally, I did not homeschool my kids because I'm the conventional type of person and I lack confidence in my capability to teach them....in other words, I have no guts!

I have been homeschooling my son since the first grade. Seven years now. It's a lot of work and has required some sacrifice and adjustments to our lifestyle through the years but, I would definitely do it all over again. He has received a better education than our public school could offer. Homeschooling has allowed us to tailor his education to him by being able to slow down when he needs more time to learn something and move ahead when a concept is easy for him. Now that he's reaching the teenage years I am grateful for all the time I have been able to spend with him and all the time I didn't miss out on while he was in school. We are closer and he doesn't have to deal with as much peer pressure as he would if he were in public school. He's able to surround himself with quality friends and not just whoever ends up in his class.

I began home schooling my eldest when he was in 6th grade, 7 years ago. My ONLY regret is that I didn't do it sooner. Public schools in my area are horrifically over-crowded. One year they had 3rd graders having class in a trailer sitting on the lawn of the school & special ed classes were held in a janitor's closet. My son has special needs. I was VERY involved with his education right from the start, when I recognized he just wasn't grasping some concepts the way other children did. It took all of those years for me to see that public school, even if they have the best intentions (and I'm not so sure they do) they just can not give special needs children the one on one attention many of them need. "Good" students are ignored because the teachers know that child is getting it already. Average students are ignored, because they'll probably get it soon enough. And kids with special needs they may try to help, but depending on the need- they may just not have the resources or the skills to help. A teacher with 30 kids in a class can't just keep trying a new approach each day until one works, she just makes do with what she has & what she knows.