I am considering homeschooling my son?

I'm 14, so I'm hoping my age wont tarnish my point ;) Personally as a 14 year old, i seem to notice a couple things with homeschooling. The parents relationship with the child (And visa versa), the childs' communication with others, and how well the child succeeds. Firstly (And sorry if this is boring to read, im tired, but i really want to give this answer a shot!) I think it is really important for a mother or father to understand that its probably not going to be easy to home school a child (If the child is like me... the average teen) chances are, if i was homeschooled, i would use my relationship with my parents to get out of homework, or redo homework/tests ect. So i think this is really the parents side, if the parent wants to help the child succeed, you would have to show your child that this is what has to get done, and if you dont, your going to get punished. (Maybe not in such a mean way, but you have to set limits, and stick to them.) Secondly, I play piano. I am very interested in music, and my best friend won a gold medal in some national piano competitions. His first gold he won 4000$ when he was 11. Even though thats not the point, im telling you since learning school and piano are very similar i think this is a valid point. Anyone with a piano teacher as their parent hates it. They dont do their work, and they get into fights with their parents. (Me too! When i was 5 my dad attempted to teach me, and i tried to quit piano like 7 times. But im addicted to it, so i never could). Eventually though, my dad had to get me a teacher, because we just couldn't establish a learning and teaching relationship. You have to be aware of this when deciding on being a homeschool teacher. (Basically this is all about suceeding... naturally i did worse in piano when i was fighting with my dad, then when i was with an actual teacher and not fighting with her.) The last thing i think is really important is your childs social skills may be lost. I used to be really into a video game called MineCraft. I joined a server, and i met lots of new kids. One kid in particular, his name was john (Not using username, because its not important =p) John was homeschooled. He had no life, and no social skills whatsoever. He gained 1000+ hours on minecraft in a year. (3 hours a day...) This i think could be a catastrophic element to homeschooling. If the child is too lazy to get himself to do things, (Or he wants to, but the parents arent allowing it.) the child is unable to communicate with others, and it really hurts him or her.Basically, homeschooling made it more difficult to learn sociall skills, and he had no social life, so he took his social life into a videogame.( I hope this was clear, im super tired, i just finished an under water hockey tournement, so im kinda tired ;) in my opinion, for homeschooling to work, you have to solve all of these three problems, and life will go very well for you (The teacher) and your son (the student.) If you miss one of these things though, you are hurting your son, and not helping him by homeschooling him. Anyways, i hope you get the jist. If you have any questions feel feel to email me and Ya xD I would be glad to make things more clear if not already. Uhh that is a 14 year olds opinion... oh and ps, if you still wanted to teach your son religion, you can still do that even if he does go to normal school =P night =)

"Do you think these are valid or selfish reasons to home school?" I think they are uninformed reasons. Why does it matter if "schools" are violent? All that matters is the one school he would go to. Is THAT violent? Have you gone and looked round it, and talked to parents and teachers? You can teach him the Bible at home regardless of whether he also goes to school, so that's irrelevant. Base your choices on your son's personality and learning styles, and the schools which are available to him. Not on some global vague feeling of "schools are violent" based on news reports.

There are a lot of pros that go along with public schooling, social skills being a major one. In public schools, students learn to deal with other people. They learn that they don't get all the attention all the time, that other people have different opinions, and that, in general, people are different. It's unreasonable to label public schools 'violent.' Most people go to public school, and most people are perfectly normal, great people. As far as the religion thing goes, you can certainly teach religion as part of everyday life. Most people do. Alternately, look into a parochial school. Also, consider that you will need to stay a step ahead of him at all times. You want to be teaching, not learning with, your son. That could be a lot of work. How much elementary and middle school history do you remember? If you're anything like me, not much. How about music, art, or literature? You need to have a good grasp of it all. But, as someone else said, you aren't locked into any decision you make now and can always switch it up down the road. In your position, I would probably try out public school for a year (if you haven't already for preschool) and see how it goes. You might really see him grow, develop independence, and become his own person. Or maybe you'll both hate it. But you'll never know if you don't try.

I'll try to answer your actual questions first then give my opinion. The pros and cons of home schooling? Those will be different for each family. For MY family the pros are that my 2 sons who both have anxiety and other mental health issues can be in a calm environment without unnecessary distractions, freedom to do as we want - when we want, the bonding we wouldn't otherwise have if I worked 9-5 and they went to public school. The cons for us are that we don't have many social outlets. So much so that I'm toying with the idea of public school next year for the younger son. That is our only con. Is Kindergarden a good time to start? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on your child. does he want to go to school? Do you think he would like it? Is he able to listen at story time, follow directions, things like that? It all depends on him. Valid or selfish? I'd say they are your reasons and I personally think they are NOT good reasons, but that's not my decision. All schools are not violent. Saying all of anything is one way is just wrong. Would it be okay to say ALL home schooled kids are weird? Or ALL white people can't dance? Or some other such nonsense? No. I"m not religious, so the bible thing just makes me wish you had kept that to yourself. Too many of us are labeled bible thumping freaks as it is for people to be talking about homeschooling just so they can "teach the bible" to their kids. Sorry, that's just how I feel.