Why choose homeschooling?

    This is probably one of the toughest decisions for some parents to make. In my case, the choice was a difficult one. I did originally send my son to public school because I had also been public schooled. As the years progressed, however, I was finding it harder to deal with the school district. I felt that my son was not learning at a pace I was happy with. At first, I looked into cyber schools. Although at first it looked promising, the fact that my son would be sitting at a computer screen did not appeal to me. Next, I read every book I could get my hands on about homeschooling. Many of the authors had started homeschooling back in the dark ages (before computers -haha) and I was comforted by the fact that they had been there before and had a lot of advice I could use. My next step was to try a Unit study out on my son to see if either of us would like it. I chose to build a unit study based on my library's summer reading program. That way, he could still hang out with kids during the program and I could teach him at home. We both decided we liked it and I left the ultimate decision to leave public school to my son. He wanted to try homeschooling for a year. We filed the paperwork and five years later we have not looked back.
    If you are a parent who is considering homeschooling, don't feel overwhelmed by the task at hand.
You would be amazed at how much your children actually help facilitate the learning. I think the hardest question to conquer is what type of homeschool do you want - unlike the founding parents of homeschooling who had to do it on the fly, there are many different resources available and it can all seem rather daunting. The best advice I can give is to try out what you like and if it works great - if it doesn't, the beauty of homeschooling is you can always start with something else. You also should not concern yourself too much with the actual cost of homeschooling - many resources are out there and are free! If you are going to go from a two income to a one income household, look at all the ways you can cut expenses and start there. If you are determined to homeschool, the financial part will work itself out. You need to decide if the choice of homeschooling your child is worth the sacrifice you as a family will make. In my case, I am a single mom who works outside the home to support us. I made the leap of faith that all would work out and so far it has. What you need to do is research it until you feel you have made the right decision and proceed from a vantage point of knowledge.
    The links below are included as a jumping off point. They are by no means a complete list but they will help ease your mind. Enjoy the journey!

http://homeschooling.about.com/od/gettingstarted/p/homeschool101.htm
http://www.hslda.org/hs/
http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/
http://www.homeschoolcentral.com/
http://www.thehomescholar.com/