[NDN]

Check out the homeschool legal defense website...just google it. They have tons of info and links. Dh wasn't sold on it when I brought it up initially. However, instead of trying to convince him, I just asked him a few questions:

First, I had him figure up how many waking hours our children would spend with us if they were in a regular school (they go to school for 8 hours, then there is transport time if they ride a buse, extra cirruculars, etc). The answer is NOT VERY MANY! So, I asked him, who will have the most influence on them and their outlook on the world? Well, most likely the people that they spend the most time with. While we can have a small but fundamental impact on them by teaching them basics when we do have them, those principles will always be competing with the louder, more consistent static that they will be getting within the school. We have views and traditions that are, in many ways, diametrically opposed to what children are taught in government school, so we find it preferable to teach them. Plus, I teach them that knowledge is not all about static facts written in a book. I want them to learn to evaluate situations for themselves and draw conclusions rather than regurgitate facts.

So, then, he echoed the same argument as everyone else..."what about socialization?" I kinda giggled at this one and replied, "it's not like we're locking them in a box!" I explained how they can still get interaction with people in other ways. There are still extracirricular acticities that they can participate in. Plus, we do volunteer work and regular errands and such...so they are actually getting experiencing socializing with a much broader and more diverse range of people than they would if they spent most of their time with their age group. I left him with a question that I knew the answer to: "of all the things you learned from your peers in school, how many of them would you want our kids doing?"

After that conversation he has never again questioned the homeschooling, but has been tremendously supportive.

Homeschooling takes surprisingly little time out of your day. In fact I know a single mother that works full time and successfully homeschools her 3 children--grade levels ranging from preschool to high school.

Our boys are still very young. I have spoken with lots of homeschoolers and take lots of advice and ideas from them. We do a LOT of natural learning here. We learn shapes, colors, and measurements while cooking. We learn tons of science out in the garden. I always try to answer the questions that they come up with and am not afraid to tell them that I don't know. There are many times that they ask for some minute fact about something and I look it up for them. They find it fascinating and, when I tell them that I don't know, they now ask me to look it up for them. They have learned that books can be their friends and, I think...or at least hope...that they are on a road to lifetime learning.