Our family had a wonderful experience with homeschooling. For some families it works very well. We lived in Texas at the time and the schools in the area where we lived were not very good. We joined several local homeschooling groups and used a traditional curriculum which we followed daily. We also included units once a month. For example - a solar system unit or a dinosaur unit. Generally we took a subject that our children seemed interested in at the time and explored it further - in addition to the reading, writing, math, and other subjects which were part of the basic daily curriculum. Our children did very well. When we later enrolled them in public schools, they scored above average in areas of reading, writing, and math.
However, while I support homeschooling and all families committed to their children enough to go at it responsibly, I highly recommend the public schools in Eugene, OR. Our children now attend two awesome schools in Eugene, OR which we all - children included - absolutely love. In fact, we had considered homeschooling the children again through high school, but our oldest son now loves school so much - and all his school friends and clubs and activities - that he has said he would prefer to continue in public school through high school. We have made an agreement with him that as long as he does well and stays out of trouble and remains well-behaved, he can attend public high school.
Anyway - good luck with your adventures karlaking. It's a tough call these days in deciding what is the best way to educate our children. I've never experienced San Diego but I have read that the situation there is very rough. You might find Eugene, OR or Corvallis, OR a giant step up as far as the public school environment for your children. (Portland and Salem schools I have not heard good things about...)
Redmond, WA was also a fantastic school system that we recently were involved in. The Lake Washington School System is one of the best in the country. Outstanding schools there, if you can afford living there! We also spent a year in Rocklin, CA and were generally happy with the public school there. They were good, not great.
I think a problem with schools in Southern California and Texas and other Southern border states is that the schools are trying to juggle so many hardships all at once with very little help. I'm mainly thinking of the children who come to the country who do not speak English and some who have never been to school at all. Those whose families are very poor and struggling, and many seem to have behavior issues or learning disabilities. It's an incredible and overwhelming task for schools to give all the children what they need, when the schools themselves are barely scraping by.
This has turned into a very long post, and I apologize. I will just say one more thing - The schools here in Eugene encourage parent volunteers. They want parents involved, and I really appreciate it. The kids love it, too! I, and other parents (dad's, too!) spend many hours a week in the classrooms and many more outside the classroom putting other extracurricular events together for the school. Doing this helps me understand what they are learning about, and then allows us to further explore and discuss those lessons at home.
Good luck with everything, and if you end up in Eugene PM me with any questions you might have.
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Looking For An Unjobbing Mom To Unschool Our Kids
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