I used to homeschool and now I don't, or rather my daughter went to a Montessori school until K, homeschooled until 4th, then back to school (she's now in the 6th grade. These decisions were not particularly dramatic or heart-wrenching. Okay, maybe it was a little dramatic and heart-wrenching the first time (when I pulled her out after K), but that was because homeschool was this idealized thing I'd conjured in my head. Not that I hadn't considered the pros and cons, but let's just say I was pitting homeschool envisioned at it's very best against school envisioned at it's very worse. It took several years for me to realize that wasn't quite fair. There's a lifestyle component to homeschooling that still appeals to me, but I'd made at least one glaring error when I made the decision. I was totally unrealistic about my own personality- my strengths and weaknesses. Yep, I'd lied to myself about myself. I'll back up a minute. My daughter was fairly advanced starting school. The school did try to accommodate her, but at that time, she was flying through everything. It got to the point where I felt bad for her teacher who had an entire classroom of kids to serve, but here my kid was about to work the poor woman to death. I've always considered myself in charge or my daughter's education, so I would teach her before/after school. I was teaching her anyway. School felt like an extraneous third party. So out of school she went. My daughter is an only child. I'm a single parent, a minority, and not particularly religious. We never found our tribe. Part of that is my fault. I'm terribly shy, slightly awkward, and not prone to chatting up the homeschool mom beside me. When I did chat with people, our interests never seemed to line up. We did find a family we liked quite a lot the last year we homeschooled, but it never got past the "seeing each other at events" phase. By the end of it all, I'd often sit in the car when she went to activities. I was responsible for her going out and doing things and it took a toll on me. My daughter thrived academically. I am very good at teaching someone how to learn. However, I wasn't so good at teaching for teaching's sake. Sometimes it would take hours to do something simple. Why? I would get off task. I'm the person with 12 tabs open on the computer or the person who feels she suddenly must learn everything about chimerism while forgetting food is on the stove. My daughter learned that if she did not want to do something, all she has to do is pull mommy on a tangent. But overall, I liked homeschooling. There were pros and there were cons and I still consider it to have been a better choice for us at the time. A large part of the reason she went back to school was because homeschooling was beginning to have an opportunity cost. Her best subject was math and while she never exceeded my level in doing math, she long exceeded the level at which I can effectively teach math. This is a kid who begged me to enroll her in Algebra 1 online at AOPS between 4th and 5th grade. That didn't happen until this summer due to cost, but it still isn't particularly difficult for her. She even started to blossom in subjects she was historically only ok in (like writing) despite my barely teaching her. Much like school was academically extraneous when she was in K, I was becoming the extraneous one. With academics as less of an influence to homeschool, traditional school held more opportunity. Sometimes homeschool had similar opportunities, but they were often expensive and involved me chauffeuring her around all day. Also, she's at an age where some amazing programs are limited to public and charter school students. One STEM program we've got our eye on would be invaluable for a child like my daughter. Some opportunities can't be easily recreated in a homeschool environment. So yeah, this was overly long. But I don't homeschool because it's not the right choice at the moment. I would encourage you both to keep an open mind. If you both feel so strongly at this point, it leads me to believe you've both been asking and answering the wrong question. The question isn't "Should we homeschool or school traditionally?" but something closer to "What immutable values constitute an excellent education for our household?" I believe the bigger picture should be your guide.

My daughter did one in Nashville the year before last. It wasn't all that interesting to me, but since she scored highest for her grade at the center(and a staff member told me she was highest for the center overall) she's been on me to sign her up again. I weaseled my way out of it last year, but the last one was in the suburbs sort of out of the way and she recently found out they now have a center in Nashville itself practically around the corner so apparently that's what we're doing the 17th. I remember it being pretty laid back. The test didn't take very long for some of the kids and they quietly played games while the others finished. The waiting area was tiny and fit maybe 8 people so it was a bit cramped on the parent's side. However, it was still a small event and I don't think more than 10 kids competed in any grade. The math is pretty basic. My daughter is still a bit irritated 2 years later that she got 1 part of 1 answer wrong on the counting game because she is a little (lot) competitive, but hey, I've been trying to convince her to check her answers for like 4 years. I was a little surprised that no one got all the answers correct but I'm pretty sure that some of the kids could easily do all the problems but are allergic to checking the work.

My daughter is strongly left-handed and had no problems learning to read. She learned to write after reading so she was used to words going left to right.

We've finished 3A and 3B. Even with a tighter production schedule I don't think we would have been able to use it as our main program because it's only taken about 2 or 3 months to finish each book while only doing it once a week. We were in the middle of MEP year 3 when we did BA 3A and finished with it when we did 3B. It was not a big leap (or a leap at all) for my daughter from MEP 3 to BA. It was more of a fun diversion. Those who've started BA after MEP 2 may just need to wait a few months until you are in the middle or end of yr 3.

I taught English at MTSU and while I agree that a bright 15yo or average 16yo who has had a good education prior to enrolling should be able handle the class I taught, I have my doubts than an average 12yo could. "Average" would be the key word here. I don't know about the other courses since I did not attend MTSU for UG, but the first 2 composition courses are considered weeding out classes for those who won't be able to handle college level material.

I am a writer and plan on using (multiple) pen names. Not only does having my real name and identity out there make me want to break out in hives, but I write in both children's and romance genres which is an obvious conflict of interest.

I have an English degree and I don't think it will be useful for what she wants to do. Between the two, I would definitely choose Communications. Other options based on her interests would be poly sci or international relations while taking speech and journalism classes for her electives.

My daughter did the Vandy summer camp for a week last year and it wasn't worth it anyway. They actually conducted the class I saw remarkably similar to the public school she attended for K. The most she got out of the camp was convincing everyone she had traveled from Chicago to attend (which she thought was hilarious). In short, I now feel it is too much time, money, and hassle and I live less than 30 minutes away.

Around here, the library is a big destination for kids out of school. Yes, people do the whole day camp thing or vacations (actually my daughter is in a theatre camp this week that was coordinated with PS spring break), but the libraries are teeming with kids. For some reason, people here consider the library to be free daycare.

We did a little of the literacy yesterday. I think my daughter still has around 40 more to go and 2 of her rounds had glitches. The typing speed of some of those kids is unreal. I'm sure the top scorer for her age group in literacy would beat me by 1,000 points.

Ours was a series of tests, recommendations, etc. They took into account achievement testing, iq testing, creativity scoring, parent input, teacher input, psychologist input, and work samples. A low-ish score in one area would not count you out, but the lower you made in one area, the higher you may have to make in another area. It took us months to finish testing, but I don't think it's as many hoops for older kids in our area.

I don't have a teen, but I had to be forced to get a driver's license at 17 after a year of putting it off. I also had some other friends who weren't hugely interested in getting licenses. This was in the 90s. I still hate driving to this day.

Wear what you want. I am 31 and had a turning 30 crisis last year that prompted me to get rid of my favorite shirt that had a binary code background and said "Nerds Have Big Hard Drives" and I still regret getting rid of it! About a month later I bought a Zombies at Tiffany's tee that took the iconic Audrey Hepburn image and made her into a zombie and got over myself.

My daughter is in a similar age range (turns 7 next month) and appears to have very similar taste to your daughter as well. She is currently obsessed with all the Rick Riordan books and is starting on the third series. I don't pre-read her books, so if there are any concerns about objectionable material, I can't comment on that.

Pants. Both me and her father have long legs and as a result my daughter's legs seem like they are to her armpits at times.

It's hilarious how many people came into the thread to say their husbands don't read and then listed the things they do read :lol:

In my experience, not necessarily. I have to limit my 6yos television time because she could literally sit there like a zombie from sun up to sun down. While she enjoys video games and plays most days, it is something she is easily able to self regulate without having preset limits.

I have a 6yo who has never been a big sleeper and I just don't fight it anymore and let her stay up late. She has slept 7-9 hours since she was a baby. Once I tried to enact a bedtime and she began waking in the middle of the night ready to start a new day. My daughter is pretty calm in the evenings, although she can get talkative. She usually reads or spends endless hours gluing and cutting paper.

I love all types of books. I'm always surprised when people only want to read real literature. When I was in grad school for English, all of us read fluff right along with those mind stretching books so I've never felt any sort of stigma when I pick up a YA book about the vampire-fairy-angel war.

I agree. I'm on several other boards (the others are not tailored to homeschoolers) and this is the only one where anybody has even paused on him possibly being homeschooled. Everyone else doesn't seem to care in light of the bigger issues.

I took a python class and some of a cryptography course and there were quite a few 13yos in the class on the discussion board taking the class independently. It could work with some students a bit younger if an adult is working with them.

My daughter began reading at 2.5 and almost no one noticed or cared. Even if they had noticed and disapproved, she enjoyed it and that was much more important.

My 6yo asked for a guitar so I got her the Alfred's kid's guitar starter kit.

I second Feed. I loved this series and since it centers around the lives of a group of bloggers, it felt current in a way that many books do not.