One advantage of home schooling is that if you're going to teach him French, you don't have to just teach him French. Ordinary French class might have a little bit of history, culture, etc., but generally the idea is that you teach them just what they need to pass the tests. If he learns all about the mother sauces in French cuisine, that won't give him any extra points, even though if I met a second grader who knew about a velouté, I'd be mighty impressesed.

With home schooling, you can multi-task. If you can speak French slowly and clearly, show him how to make an "omelette du fromage" (have him make two, and then you get lunch!) while telling him everything you're doing, and jump back into English once in a while to make sure he understands. Or if he's more into French history, lit, famous scientists, art, etc, start with that and fold in the language as you go along. I don't know French but if someone had introduced me to Candide at a young age and then asked, "Want to read this in the original?" that would've done the trick. As it is, I took two years of French and learned enough to pass the tests, then immediately forgot. I only realized years later that I like Voltaire, cooking, the Napoleonic wars, and the history of probability theory. Now I wish I'd paid more attention.

Now, I wasn't home schooled, but I know about regular schooling, and with a full class of kids, there's no time to take each kid aside and say, "how would you like to learn this material?" With just one kid, you get to introduce them to creative inspiration, sudden obsessions, and intellectual tangents. That's the real stuff. Interact with them to make sure they're progressing, and if they start to hate French, try another approach. You can teach them what's on the test as you go along. It'll take a couple weekends of cramming. My only other advice is that if they go back to school and find that they know all the material in French I, get them into French II immediately, because they'll be bored and act up. Even worse, they might just coast along and not learn anything that year, which is a huge waste of time.

You could always teach him Cajun French.

There's a lot of good software out there that would help him with the accent.

it's not easy, but all the power to her

Well, I can't count the number of times she's had to go down to the school because of a problem this teacher had caused. There's also been issues with the principal of the school as well. I'm not privy to the details of every single instance she went there. My sister, however, is not the kind of person who would take her child out of school on the spur of the moment like this without reason.

This teacher was rude, not only to her, but to her son on at least one occasion. He was treated very poorly by her, mainly because my sister had taken an issue with the way she graded one of his assignments (because apparently he'd not done it the way the teacher wanted him to do it, despite the fact that the way she wanted it done was not described anywhere on the paper). I believe there have been other parents that have had problems with this teacher as well. I can't say for myself anything about this teacher, as she was not teaching there when I went to this same school.

Trust me, it's not because of a single instance, this is a compound problem.

I'm envious of your sister. We home schooled our two daughters through the sixth grade until it became clearly apparant that they were much smarter than I was. Next year we enrolled them in the local private Christian academy (and the blistering $3,000 each tuition), but they are nicely challenged and have made wonderful friends. The oldest graduates this year and we think the home schooling years were simply wonderful. it takes a huge effort to do it properly though. I have a friend who home schools and she pretty much just lets the kids do things at their own pace while she plays Pogo all day. That's NOT the way to do it! Done right, it can be a huge advantage for them as they get further in their education.

We're going to homeschool the duckling next year.
I did learn some stuff about Texas *specifically*.

1) Kindergarten is not required in the state of Texas.
2) Homeschool is considered Private School in the state of Texas.
3) Private Schools are *not* regulated in the state of Texas.

While hilarious, that is completely different.

It would take a whole lot for me to make the decision to home school my own kids. I am worth a lot more to my family pursuing my current profession despite the fact that I actually DO have an educational background. The fact that I pay property taxes that support a public education system as well makes the financial calculus pretty simple. Even if they didn't, it would be pretty simple math to figure out exactly how cost ineffective it would be to homeschool rather than send my kids to expensive private schools.

Moreover, the specialized training that teachers have and must maintain is far beyond either my current level of training or my inclination to obtain. Unless the school system is so neglected as to be ineffective, I can see little benefit in replacing the structural advantages of a multilevel institution with the effort of a single individual.

The example of the French teacher is a good one. I have lived in Taiwan for four years, speak Chinese, have worked in a Chinese speaking environment, and have a background in English language education. That said, I would not consider myself qualified to TEACH Chinese to a class or my kids. For that, you really need a native speaker and specialized knowledge of teaching methodology.

The only reason I could foresee that might justify homeschooling is if I lived in an area in which no other viable educational options were available. I can imagine certain places in Kansas (anywhere outside of either Lawrence or Johnson County perhaps) in which neomedievalists might insist on the teaching of astrology, alchemy, and creationism over modern science. Even then, the more rational decision would be to leave the retards and vote with my feet.

I don't and won't home school my kids due to mine and my wife's careers, but for parents with above average intelligence I think home schooling is a good option. It's vitally important that a home schooling parent looks into their local support options like parent groups, meetings, associations, all of that. Not just for socialization of the kids, but for learning from other parents who've been doing it for years.

A colleague of mine has seven children, ages 6 mo. to 17 years. His wife home schools the older ones, and they are all very articulate, social, intelligent, and well-behaved.

They are also products of their fundamentalist Christian parents, and I suspect all of them believe in only a literal interpretation of the Bible. Evolution is false, intelligent design proves that God exists, and either Jesus is the son of god or he isn't. No other religions or interpretations are valid. My friend's oldest child is looking at colleges now, but only Christian ones that I have never heard of. Nice way to limit your education, there.

Sorry to hijack the point of this thread and potentially offend some people, but those are my thoughts.

I never thought we'd homeschool until my daughter had some serious issues in first grade. The match between her teacher, her classmates, and her was just horrible. The disconnect between what she was doing at home and what was happening in school was astounding, and the piles of homework (yes in first grade) were simply killing her love of learning. All so they could prep her for some DALSKJK )(#RU)$* test the state makes them take.

In short, we pulled her, but ended sending her to Montessori (which I feel is a bit like paying someone else to homeschool your kids). Best decision we have EVER made as parents. She has completely blossomed out from under the thumb of the rigidity of the school system. It's totally a personal decision, and there's no single bigger influence then the teacher and the kids classmates, no matter how perfect, expensive, or brilliant the SYSTEM.

California state law requires home schooling tutors to have actual teaching credentials (including parents who home school their own kids). That strikes me as a particularly good compromise between, on one hand, enabling private and home schooling, and on the other hand, making sure those kids are educated on par with their peers, and prepared to integrate back into society in the future.

You should have him play Bioshock until he memorizes the lyrics to Beyond the Sea, then do a textual comparison with the original French version.

It was said in jest, but there is still a grain of truth to be found. Like I said, the early grades (academically) are certainly within the realm of understanding for most educated adults... and while most teachers are required to study and (hopefully) implement the "best practice" research on teaching methods (generally there is a four year degree program to be certified with mandated continuing education credits), that's probably offset by the one-on-one teaching ratio. Hell, give me nearly any kid one-on-one and you'd see a huge leap in performance. Behavior issues (which is the #1 reason I'd list AGAINST sending your kid to public school) also tend to evaporate without an audience of peers... it also helps than Mom and Dad are right there to administer punishment/correction when needed (your little darling tells me to "go f*ck myself," he/she may get a talking to from the principal AT WORST, and come back a hero).

Getting into more advanced subjects, certainly anyone can admit that they DON'T have the same skills and knowledge base as a trained professional (advanced science/math, tech ed, languages, art, music, etc.). Not picking on dhelor, but I'd rather learn French from someone who had a degree, most likely lived abroad, and then spent several years learning HOW to teach the language.

On the other hand, the homeschooling parent can do things we simply CAN'T do... more hands-on education, go on field trips (art museum, local nature center, zoo, etc.), etc. Most people probably have better technology in their HOME than we do in our schools. Are homeschooled kids generally polite and well mannered? I'd asume so... I see the worst of the worst human behavior every day, and have seen how schools can be factories of ignorance for those students who fall in with the wrong crowd. If I had kids, I'd maybe have to think twice about sending them to public school here.

not sure what that has to do with anything, but YES, I am.

I'll look at the thread, though my wife is designing our own curriculum based on a lot of research including a book titled (I think) A Well-trained Mind, as well as various European education departments.
Once he outstrips her math and science abilities, I'll take that part over.

We'll both be learning a foreign language with him - probably Spanish, as I already know a bit and we live in Texas. Maybe also French or Japanese, depending on his interests, though I'd prefer Chinese for reasons he can't possibly understand yet.

We have storytime EVERY NIGHT, no matter what. We've done this since he was 12-18 months old. Back then, it was usually me reading Dr. Seuss's ABCs or Goodnight Moon or somesuch. As he's grown, sometimes he reads to us and we read to him, or we'll recount tales such as The 3 Little Pigs, The Billy Goats Gruff, Little Red Riding Hood, etc. and also have him do his own retellings OR just make up stories(both us and him) on the fly. Sometimes during the day, he and I will do drawings and that evening make up or retell stories about the drawings, etc, etc, etc.
The point is, he LOVES reading and storytelling. Wife and boy go to storytime at the library almost every week and come home with at least 5 books that he's picked out. He can and does read beyond his age-average(what a crap stat, though).

Almost all stories in this arena are going to be either hypothetical, theoretical, or apocryphal, but here's mine. I live across the street from 2 area public school teachers. I'd rather scoop out my eyeballs with a grapefruit spoon than trust my son's education to either of them. One's dumb as a post - I really don't know how she could possibly stay ahead of her students aside from having done it for so long - the other is a bit brighter, but not by very much, but she's a really "good" person and knows a LOT about dealing with ... what's the term?... ah, strong-willed children, along with other behavioral psych concepts. The point isn't to belittle anyone or apply them to all teachers, but I know for a fact that I not only *can* do a better job educating my son at his current gradelevel, but I already HAVE done so for the last 2+ years.

Will there come a time where I no longer feel up to the challenge? Perhaps. Would I rather give my son a head start *now*, when I am able? You're damn right. When high-school rolls around, sure, I'll suck it up and send him to a great school that may cost more than a college degree, but for now, I can and am doing a better job than just about any public school within 50 miles.

N.B. Translate *all* "I"s above as "I and my wife". It's just so much easier to type "I" 30 times.

I do agree that a lot of the education advantage of homeschooling does come from the student-to-teacher ratio. I don't completely agree that you *need* to be a specialist in a given foreign language to be able to teach it to young children - that's what the internet is for(only slightly kidding) - but I will grant that certain topics will definitely be more challenging to get right.
Physics, Chemistry(hard to come by "real" lab supplies if you're not a real school, isn't it?), completely foreign foreign languages, i.e. non-latin/germanic languages for an English speaker - arabic, chinese, japanese will all be harder than, say, Spanish, German, Italian.

By the same token, I really only have to stay one or two steps ahead MOST OF THE TIME*. I also realize that there are a good few teachers who have the same "advantage", so that's mostly a wash, though for someone that's taught Earth Science for the last 10 years, it's just a matter of refreshing memory and updating for new discoveries, but again, not a huge advantage, IMO.

*Most of the time - I regularly turn to the internet, his "encyclopedia", or our own library(personal, not public) to either gather information, answer a question, or design a lesson for a day. One day you say "what do you want to learn about today" and he says "Water Moccasins, because they're poisonous and dangerous, so we need to know about them." First, you get a swell of pride and they you think "f*ck, it's been so long since I even saw one. how do you id them? Gooooooooooogle! Help meeeeeeeee!" Then 5 minutes of site-culling and 5 minutes of printing and viola! you've got 10 pages of data points you can use to talk about cottonmouths, which are a member of the pit-viper family, are semi-aquatic, have a triangle-shaped head(unlike other water snakes) and is aggressive when encountered(again, unlike other water snakes). They're venom is a hemotoxin, instead of a neurotoxin like most other pit vipers, which causes necrosis at the site of the bite...."

That day, I got art, vocabulary, writing practice, science, biology, safety(this IS Texas), language(multiple Latin-based words there) and linguistics from a simple "Water moccasins are dangerous so we should learn about them to protect ourselves" request.

Not that your average home-school parent is going to be able to synthesize all those things from a google search, in which case, sold-as-a-package curricula like Sonlight or others is probably a better bet - or of course, public or private school. I'm just saying that it's not hard for your slightly-above-average person to educate their child about just about anything they could want.

But you do have to be willing to expend the effort and spend the time preparing and do it EVERY DAY, even when you don't feel good or the internet is down or no matter what. It's a BIG commitment. What's sad is that I feel the need to actually say that.

As I said before, it's not merely a problem with the teacher, but with the principal of the school itself as well.