Robert and I started thinking of homeschooling (hs) about 6 years ago while we lived in the valley. We just weren’t that impressed with what we were hearing about the public schools. Because, let’s be honest, if a public school teacher sends her kids to a private school, I’m a little scared. I’m not even sure exactly what made us look into hsing b/c I had no experience with it whatsoever. Okay, I had one and it wasn’t good. In 7th grade a hsed girl joined the local public school and we all thought she was weird. Her socialization skills weren’t that good (urg! That horrid S-word!) and she didn’t last very long. Looking back, I feel sorry for her b/c she probably wanted friends so she went to school, yet she couldn’t deal with teenage girls. Then again, who can? 
Once we decided that we would hs Kaelee we found out that a couple different members of our family were hsing their kids as well. Seems we all think alike. LOL.
Now the type of person I am, I tend to research a lot before deciding on something. A lot. And for something as important as my children’s schooling, I did a lot of studying before deciding to hs. Some people ask how long we’ll hs. The answer is “I can’t see ever not”. Hopefully, nothing will ever come up that will make us send our children to public school (ps).
There are a lot of reasons to for hsing. Educationally, (is that a word?) I don’t think that large classes are in the best interest of children. They don’t learn well that way. Also, I was never pushed enough in school. I could skate by with not very much effort. That’s not what I want my children to be doing. So we hs. Socially, I’m glad my children won’t attend ps. Things are just getting horrible. I notice a definite difference in my daughter’s attitude than some of the ps children. Kaelee does dance, Girl Scouts (when we can find a troup), and plays with other hsed children. Plus church and church activities. She has lots of friends so I’m not worried about it.
Our Curriculum:I once heard Susan Wise Bauer speak at a hs convention. And I was enthralled. I’d looked at a lot of other things, but had never heard of classical schooling. It was exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something that would teach my kids to think. However, I had to wait a bit. Kaelee was still only 4 years old. Way too early for hsing, much less classical hsing. So I used Before Five In a Row. It’s a unit study curriculum. It’s a great one. How could I pass it up? It has
And a lot of other really good books. Of course, we probably could’ve just read books and done some basic numbers (like WTM recommends), but like most new hsing moms I was scared about not doing it “right”. 
Of course, Kaelee’s now old enough to actually be doing school. So what we’re currently using for 3rd can be found at this post. 2nd grade curriculum can be found here. And I’ll add to this page as we go on with schooling.
4th and 5th grade curriculum is listed here. I’ll eventually review what we used and link the reviews on that page.
6th grade is listed here.
Here is 7th.
