In addition to other benefits, homeschooling allowed us to travel with dad, who takes long business trips. This coming year we will be able to spend a month and a half in France. (The kids and I will be exploring all over the place, while poor dad is hard at work at Disneyland Paris.)

We chose to homeschool when it became apparent that my husband and I wanted to keep traveling for 6 mos. out of every year. It also was good for us as my firstborn was premature and the chances of learning disabilities are a bit higher in those kind of kids. I started researching it as soon as he turned 2, neither child has ever been in a public school and we are all the happier for it.

We chose to homeschool after a gang attack on my son in our little hometown of about 5000 people.

I chose to homeschool because the language I heard coming out of the mouths of the children walking from school passing by my home was highly offensive. I didn't like the behavior I saw. At the same time I found out that my children were sponges and they would just soak up not only the things that they were taught in school, but the things they observed their peers doing. It was an easy decision.

I was appalled that a third grader brought a loaded handgun to school the year before my first child was to begin Kindergarten. We had already decided to home school, because I wanted the freedom to do what I wanted, religiously as well as academically. But the handgun thing was too much!! If I want my kids to learn to handle a gun, I will teach them - and I have-thank you; I don't want a third grader to do it. The same with sex ed, and a myriad of other subjects!!!
We also have traveled during the school year, so that we could be with Dad while he worked. With home schooling, we have been able to take our school on the road. This was a bigger benefit than having them sit in the classroom, and have our family separated. They have actually seen an idols temple in Guatemala, not just read about it. They have panned for gold at Sutters Fort. We have flown rockets and blown up potatoes. We have shot arrows, and made yogurt. We have been stopped at a border crossing and physically searched. We have witnessed emerging world countries' living conditions and attitudes. There are things that you just can't learn in a classroom. We are not rich people-very far from it, but we have been able to give our kids a rich education because we have had the flexibility to do so. Life has been our classroom. It is such a blessing to live in a country where we can do this freely.

My kids attended public school through 5th grade. DD chose to homeschool because she didn't like someone dictating what she should be doing minute by minute for 6 hours per day, plus homework. DS needed to be rescued from an unhealthy situation at school, but would now tell you he homeschools so he can sleep in late and wake up late.

We started out with a very shy early reader, kept going with a follow-the-crowd bright kid, an ADHD kid who needs lots of activity, and now a very social preschooler. No classroom will fit all of those...and why be doing homework when you're all tired and worn out. Now we have an artist and a builder and a dreamer...and no classroom has time for them to develop all those skills either.

Our school district has no quality gifted program, no support for grade acceleration, and a lot of pressure to include Christian components in school. Because of TEKS and NCLB, science and history are all but abandoned in grade school and there is an over-emphasis on test-taking skills.