Hi, I have been homeschooling for 5 years now. My children are in 7th and 9th grade. I follow a very structured program thus the work is actually harder than the public school. I try and instill religious values into their education. They are not exposed to the sex,violence and drugs that have benn seduced into our teenage culture and even younger children. Best wishes to you!

Two of my three oldest kids had a real difficult time socially in fourth & fifth grade. The three younger kids, I homeschooled then--just one or one and a half years for the girls. I think that developmentally kids (particularly girls) at about 10-11 years old go through something that makes them quite cruel and cliquish. Also, my boy was very behind in basic reading and writing, and the school system was just passing him along, not addressing his deficiencies. He gradually returned to public school, Orchestra in 6th grade, added math and science in 7th, history in 8th, full day in 9th. He is doing OK academically and takes a leadership role in group projects.

I have two children that I am now home schooling. They have attended public school for a few years in the past. I have to say that switching to home school for them was the best thing we could have ever done. Both of them have always been good students, always had good grades. Now they are doing even better and we are having fun with it as well. The children have a chance to learn at their own pace, be it slower or faster, whatever is needed. We dont move on to a new skill until the first one is mastered. Unlike the children in public school, I know my children have learned everything that was taught. We dont do it all on our own, they are in a cyber program but due to their ages they need to be taught the skills by an adult. As they get older, they should be able to do more of the work on their own. Im not trying to trash public school. Its just my opinion, but home schooling is the best way to be sure that the children are actully learning everything that they will need to know. As long as the kids can stay active in sports or other programs with children around their own age, I dont think a parent could make a better choice.

I am a 14 year old boy, I have bounced around between schools I tried catholic school, and public school until 3rd grade. Then I was Homeschooled for 3.5 years. during that time I skipped the 5th grade and when my mom decided to send me back to the catholic school because she didn't think that I was socializing with enough people my age I was supposed to be in the 8th grade but the school put me in the 7th grade again. I dealt with the teachers there for 2 years. My english teacher didn't like me because I let it be known that I thought her assignments were stupid. She tried to teach the wrong things to me. I always had a C in that class because when a teacher is doing stupid things I ignore them and learn the material in the book on my own. I am now in the 9th grade and my mom tried the public school system again. The school district that I was in was dangerous, we had SWAT called in a couple times. I was bored there because the teachers teach very slowly if they teach at all, so I am now using the Keystone National program for the last quarter.