THis is a highly personal decision that each parent must make for themself.
I never wanted to homeschool at all, for many many reasons.
SOme of those reasons are my husband has intense health issues and he is very time consuming. For years, I also worked very long non traditional hours, and then after thta I was quite ill myself, and bedbound.
We have little to no extended family - nor social support. I felt our home was simply too isolated, without enough broad perspective on the world for it to be a good choice for my children. Our finances were extremely tight, due to both husband and myself being disabled and on social security. I also had little confidence I COULD "teach" academics. Resented the idea partly becuz gosh we pay high real estate taxes - a huge majority of which are for our school district.
But, I found myself being called to school DAILY for Buffy.....and school sent her home daily. On the very rare occasions she WAS in school, she was in a classroom that she was the only girl, with 8 boys...spanning 3 grades, and spanning several widely varied diagnosis'es and difficulties. IEP implementation was very poor, IEP meetings were called weekly, and often last hours, with school staff and I never even meeting halfway. We wound up in a due process hearing, and our hearing officer informally, off record, on the side STRONGLY encouraged me to remove my dtr from school- for her own safety and well being.
I did. Her psychiatrist also encouraged me, supportted the whole idea, and blamed school setting for my dtrs add on diagnosis of PTSD (and now also agoraphobia)
No matter how little confidence I had for teaching her, she HAS learned far more at home that she did her last 3 years in school.
My son also had an IEP and things also were not going well at his school. I had been warned periodically of "retaliation" from some schools that could extend to siblings. Some VERY bizarre things began to go on with my son..and I realized that while he was grade 6, he still could not read or write, and the school was not working on this problem AT ALL......and I was sitting side by side with my son every single day doing 3,4,5 hours of homework every single day......
I started thinking yeesh, could it be any harder to homeschool him? Then one event finally tipped the scales for me for good. My son is NOT mentally ill diagnosis'ed. He had NO behavior issues at all, none. He has CP and he poked out one eye. The IEP was for those things. One day he did not come out of school to my car (I picked him up daily, and dropped him off daily) I got a lil nervous, called school to see what was taking him so long, after I was the last person outside waiting. The school told me he was not inside the building. I then called my other children to scour the neighborhood, looking for him. I called his friends and they began looking for him. We could not find him, so I called police. We finally found my son, inside school, sitting in detention. He was crying. Why? Cuz he knew I would be outside waiting for him, and a teacher had grabbed him by his arm and forcibly taken him to detention....and ignored my son and even made fun of my son----when my son kept saying but.we have to call my mom, she will be worried, she will be mad. When I asked WHY he had detention, I got several answers...from "attendance issues" (um his ONLY absences were very well documented, surgery and time out of area at Ronald McDonald House with school haveing ALL records of it all in full) to "not turning in homework" (it was in his IEP how to handle homework, and turns out after questioning, he DID turn it in as per IEP, but his teacher had not understood IEP- his work was in his ALphasmart, on teachers desk) to-----not dressing for PE (he had a medical excusieing him from gym) to.....I dunno why he was in detention.
When asked why I was not called and told he was in detention, noone had an answer.
That was the straw that broke the camels back...and my son never went back to school and I have never regretted the decision. We spend far less time doing our work than we ever spent doing his daily homework. Not only that but he has begun to master reading, and some writing.....and now has a wider variety of interests as well. His ongoing docs appts etc are no longer a problem AT ALL schedule wise. And we no longer have to beg docs for length notes and detailed instructions to give to the school.
The stress in our life has dropped a thousand fold. Our schedule is now much easier to keep up with, becuz I no longer get called away to go to the school every day.
I myself am also learning a lot more, esepcially when I am planning one of our "field trips" etc. With a little thought, we can turn almost anything into an educational experience and mykids are not simply learning academics by rote, but also going places, seeing things in the Real World they might normally not experience due to being in a classroom.
My fears for their social skills have reduced, some, as well. My children attend church, Sunday School, are part of clubs etc. They take a lot of classes at our local park district.....our COnservation District, etc........
They do get a lot of interaction with peers and adults as well. They also now spend more time with people outside their classroom as well. Altho admittedly, part of this is possible becuz I am not a single mom, nor am I glued to home base or a rigid work schedule, anymore.
I also should add Illinois requirements for homeschooling are a little less rigid than some (many) other states. You would want to check your own states requirements.
I can say I have enjoyed my time with my kids more than I thought I would. without the stress of the rigidity of public school we have been able topermit some flexibility in assignments. I do not have to be the taskmaster I was afraid I would have to be.
I do have one child still in public school here. She has no IEP, she has no problems, she takes course overload, is in advanced placement classes, and she does great there. She is on high honor roll, graduates this year, and is going away to college in fall, originaly she wanted to do pre medication, but has since changed to environmental sciences.
Like I said it is a very personal decision, one only you can make. Knowing your states rules/laws for it might also be helpful for you when making your decision.
