Me homeschool?

I never considered homeschooling. Never even heard much about it, except in high school, many many years ago, when a friend of mine left school one year to be homeschooled. I never even really bothered to ask her what that meant or how she liked it. I know I was happy to have her back at school the next year. That friend is now a doctor. She was always on top of everything, very diligent with her schoolwork and always getting A's.

Now that I'm a mother of 2 and work at a company that works with homeschooling families providing online curriculums, it's been something that I've started wondering about. Even though my children will not be in a school for a few years, it's never too early to start thinking about their education.

As a customer support rep, I hear about so many parents taking their children out of school to homeschool them. I hear a number of reasons: learning disabilities, special needs, and mostly just less than great school systems. Is this really what it's like out there? Are schools really that bad?

Like any mom, I love spending time with my kids and lately I've been thinking how homeschooling can allow me to spend even more time with them and be able to teach them without having to worry about some of the things that go along with going to regular school. Things like them not advancing at the right pace, being lost and overlooked with so many other children in a classroom/school.

On the flip side of all of this, I think about things like them socializing with other children and participating in sports and other extracurricular activities. This is so very important. But I have learned from other homeschooling families that there are many many homeschooling groups and co-ops just about everywhere that would take care of this aspect. Something I would have never know had I not started working here.

Like any other topic, we usually form an idea, usually a stereotype of what it is based on other people's opinions and little things we hear here and there. And lo and behold, when we learn more about it we say, " hmmm, that actually sounds interesting." That's what seems to be happening to me.