I live in Philadelphia, my kids cyber school from home. It free here and some other states also offers it. I been cyber schooling for 5 yrs. I enjoy it. My kids have live classes and school trip. I schedule them to what days I want. I currently have 3 children schooling, next yr will be 4.

@moldroyd: I so appreciate hearing your feedback. Really helpful to me, as a homeschooling mom. And excellent insight for parents as they consider whether or how to homeschool and prepare their students for a college environment, even if your perspective is anecdotal. Still really helpful and appreciated. No one wants to send her student to college behind the 8 ball and ill prepared to succeed. Thanks for adding to the discussion! ??

I do not home school my boys.

I want to give my personal experience with home school students as I teach anatomy and physiology 1&2 with labs at a university. This is often a freshman course for students studying nursing, athletic training, pre-med, pre-chiropractic, pre-PT, and pre-OT. In the past 4 years I've taught 24 students who were homeschooled. Although I believe these students are bright academically not one of the students excelled in a college learning environment. Each student believed the material was taught too quickly. Each student although was fine working in a group setting was basically lost when working alone on an assignment. In lab students were extremely behind as they had never experienced the setting and equipment that they would have been introduced to in a high school biology and chemistry lab setting. The students would want help during tests in lab and in lecture. This help I simply could not give.

Now this could just be this specific group of 24 students and I agree the sample size is small but I feel that homeschooling did not prepare these students for a college learning experience. The students' first experience away from home in a school setting with thousands of people could also contribute to their performance as well. I personally do not know how the students adapted socially.

As our semester is ending and I'm conducting conferences one of my home schooled students brought her mother to our meeting. It felt more like a parent-teacher conference than a conference between two adults. The mother was pleading that her daughter have help with exams and such and she actually wanted her to be allowed to bring the exams home. I had to remind them both of all the extra help on campus with tutoring before an exam. It was a shock to both of them that my duty as a professor was not only to teach but to be a gatekeeper. I have to keep people away from patients that do not know what they are doing or the material. It's essentially the end safety of their future patients that I am concerned with at this point.

Out of the 24 students I failed 14 of them and only 3 or the 10 that didn't fail had a grade GPA that is sufficient to apply to a graduate program.

I imagine as a homeschooling parent you hear the success stories about students acceptance into colleges but I'm not sure if you know the struggle once they are there. Again this is a small sample size but I'm just sharing my personal experience.

We homeschool, as well. I encourage you to attend a homeschooling conference if possible. They happen this time of year. There are so many ways and reasons families choose to homeschool. You can make it work to fit your family. My main encouragement is not to try to recreate a traditional school in your home (unless you really want to). You can make it whatever you need/want it to be, and be prepared to step outside the box, keeping the end goal and vision for your children in mind and as the filter for choices. Best wishes as you decide whether to homeschool. Family time is most definitely a huge benefit.

We will be homeschooling this year but it's a first for us

I also homeschool my 5 kiddos, ages 18, 10, 8, 7, and 5... and have another due in August. We have always home schooled the younger 4, and my oldest has been our guinea pig and has tried every available school around, pretty much. 2 years ago, she begged to come back home after being at a high end private school and it has been SO rewarding for all of us. This time we have together will never be forgotten! There are plenty of struggles, and days where I feel like we've gotten nothing done, but overall, every single one of the kids (those with ADHD and SPD) are beyond where they should be educationally, but more importantly they have become each other's closest friends. Not their only friends, but definitely closest!

We have 6 children and 3 are school age (4 of you include the preschooler). I homeschool them and love it. Life is busy but so good and blessed to spend my days with them ❤️

We Homeschooled out of necessity for a year and a half.

We had moved and thought we were getting into a good district, but it was the wrong house. (If that makes sense). And we ended up on the school boarder but in the wrong district...a horrible one. (And not just for academics)

So first semester i literally winged it. The following year we used a virtual Academy...which was better because i had a hard time coming up with the curriculum on my own.

Thankfully we moved because home schooling was really not for us. My kids do so much better in traditional schools.

But it can be super rewarding. Just go into it as prepared as you can. I was kinda thrust into it unexpectedly, which did not help

Thank you for the input so far. I am in Ohio, and i know they offer a k-12 online academy. Ive looked into curriculums some, but what i have found is expensive. I am partially interested in being able to take my kids to the zoo and stuff without a having to worry about the weekends.

We have a columbus zoo membership that gets us B1G1 into COSI and museums as well.

I mean, theres more to it than that, of course, but i feel they would get so much out of more regular visits to places like that.

Math is my biggest concern, as i struggle and dont want to hurt their progress.

I will start with looking at state law :)

We homeschool but right now our oldest is only 6. We plan to continue and I know it will get harder in some ways but I love that we get to spend that time together and our children and us get to decide what they learn. If you're serious about it, just start looking into different methods and ciriculums (if you're doing one).

I've homeschooled all my children since the beginning. If you are considering it, like pp said, I'd look into the laws in your state first. Homeschooling has been a huge blessing for our family, I love getting to be with all my kids every day. You definitely do get a lot more quality family time together. That being said, it's no easy feat having your children's sole educational foundation fall on your shoulders. It's a lot of work and can be stressful. There is a lot of adjustment learning how each child learns and responds to your specific style of teaching. Definitely look up local laws and maybe find some homeschoolers in your area (or a support group) to get a better idea of what to expect. Homeschooling is great though because you get out of it whatever you put into it. We love it. Good luck with whatever you decide!

We currently homeschool our teen because of her getting in trouble and making bad choices. Our almost 11 year old is still in public school but I'm praying about homeschooling him. He has ASD and I think it would be more beneficial. We plan to homeschool our younger ones when they're ready. I think it's a decision you need to make as a family. We want all of ours homeschooled because 1) drugs are rampant where we live (small town in north alabama) 2) a lot of the kids around here don't have parental supervision and are allowed to do whatever they want 3) our oldest two are followers, and will do almost anything to fit in and have friends 4) we want to be in control of what and how our kids learn AKA not use common core methods and teach them biblical and moral lessons along with school. You need to look up homeschool requirements in your state, graduation requirements, and what colleges expect. That'll help with your decision.