I'll confess straight away. Our experiment with home schooling lasted barely two terms. When we started, friends said we were crazy. As our two school-aged children returned to school at Easter, we tended to agree!
How had we been so confident/misguided/smug (to cite just three of the epithets we had either applied to ourselves or were convinced others had used of us)? What had we done to our children, and to ourselves? With tensions running high at home and both of us signed off by the doctor, it seemed clear enough; it had been a mistake.
Don't misunderstand me. I still believe in home education as a legitimate and even admirable option for some families. A Christ-centred curriculum with the opportunity to assume a significant role in shaping our children's worldview in a secular age is a major incentive. The enthusiasm, sincerity and skill with which some are training their children outside the state system have impressed me no end. It's just that in our case it didn't work out.
