Homeschooling- Seeking Experienced Moms

Hi,
Great questions. I have 6 children ages 18-4. We are on our 13th year of homeschooling. We graduated our oldest last December. Some of the answers that I give will be based on our personal convictions, so they might not apply to you, but I will do the best I can to help. My first question to you would be to ask why you are considering homeschooling. Are you doing this for Christian reasons? That will really play a part in your decision to use various methods/tools to homeschool. For example, as a Christian, I don't think you should ever use the K12 program. The worldview of the public school system is decidedly non-Christian. So, it isn't appropriate for a Christian child to be trained and educated using their materials. Also, another interesting tidbit is that in all the various methods of schooling, children doing the K12 program (public school at home) had the lowest test scores of everyone. The system doesn't work well. I don't know why, but this is what they have found. You might look at nheri.org, which has statistics and other information about homeschooling. Brian Ray is the director of NHERI, and he is peer reviewed and speaks/reports at various NEA types of events. His studies are respected, even if people don't like the results. ;)
Co-ops: We used to do a PE co-op, but no longer do any of that. I find it too inhibiting on our time to be involved with co-ops. I much prefer doing our own thing. Having said that, I am definitely not against them if you have the right mix of people with a similar worldview.
Cost per year: depends. You can spend an outrageous amount, or very little. We spend maybe $500 per year, but mostly much less than that. At first, we spent more, but as we have acquired our curriculum as the oldest moved along, the rest just use what he used, and we seldom need much else. We do have some consumables, like handwriting books, but not much of that.
Colleges: very easy. Many schools now even have a department whose role is to recruit homeschool grads. You will find this even in the Ivy League schools. Just keep transcripts of what they have done in high school.
Homeschooling High School: When we first started homeschooling, we didn't know what we were going to do. But, as the years went on, we knew there was no way we were going to send our children to another school for high school. It turns out that they have so many options these days with high school subjects! Your students can study whatever interests them; they can work quickly or slowly, depending on their needs; you can start them working towards their future vocation. My oldest owns his own business. He is now bringing on subcontractors to help him with all of his workload. He has built up a great reputation for what he does, and word is spreading fast. He has been able to use much of his time to build up his business and not be hindered by the time at school that was a waste of time for him. Also, we would never use the public school system anyway because we believe that it is not a place for Christians to be getting their education. It is a Marxist environment, where we don't think we should participate or let them mold the minds of our young people.
Programs/curriculum: We believe that curriculum is just a tool. There are many, many options available. The first thing I would recommend is that you figure out what type of curriculum do you want: classical, workbook based, unit studies, etc. Then, once you have narrowed that down, research various curriculums within that specific category. It will make your job easier to at least have an idea of how you want to educate your children. It can be very overwhelming to just pick one. I remember those days. The first year, we just used A Beka because I knew that it was tried and true, used in private schools, etc. But, we hated it. LOL During that year, I spent the time reseaching my options. We ended up with Veritas Press, and still use it. We love it, and haven't been tempted to even look elsewhere. We don't do everything they recommend, but pick and choose what we want for our children. Not all children do the exact same things either. We base it on their strengths and weaknesses. Some do Latin at 2nd grade, others not until much later. Depends on the kid. And, we just switched our math curriculum because Saxon was't working with some of our kids. We now use Teaching Textbooks and LOVE it. The kids LOVE it. They beg to do another lesson pretty much everyday. Um. Yeah, if you can behave...LOL
Hours per day: depends on the day. We start in the morning and go until we're done. If the kids are diligent, we get done quicker, but if they are slothful, it takes longer. Young children usually don't need more than a couple of hours of formal schooling. But, once you homeschool, you realize that all of life is homeschooling. Maybe not all desk/book work, but they are always learning.
Social issues: We don't have any social issues caused by homeschooling. Well, they are perhaps a bit different from the "average" teens. LOL We don't have moodiness, pouting, non-communication and grunting. I guess that is a bit different. We don't have rebellion. We DO have joy, peace, good relationships (not perfect, we still have sin issues we deal with), the children love to be together and play together. Even the 18 and 16 year olds play with their little siblings and treat them with such affection and care.
Difficulty teaching more than one child? Sometimes. Yes. It can be a juggling act. But, it teaches the kids patience. Remember, the goal of homeschooling is to teach your children how to learn. They don't get everything spoon-fed to them. They can read. Most of the homeschooling textbooks are written in a style that enables them to read it and go from there. The youngers obviously get more one-on-one interaction, but they they do their work independently while I work with the next one. The tricky part is often the toddlers and preschoolers. That can be difficult. But, again, patience and working together as a family is very helpful. We are not bound by a particular time on the clock to get everything done in a day. We work around various obsticles, and we work together. Sometimes, the kids take turns entertaining the young ones while I spend time with the other kids. And, they rotate. It gives them a short break from academics, and a great bonding time with the littles. It works for us.
I would check out http://www.cheohome.org/ You can call them to see if they have any introductory seminars for people considering homeschooling. Our state organization has intro seminars all throughout the year, which are very helpful. Also, they will be able to tell you if there are support groups in your area.
You are right, this is a huge decision. I remember trying to decide what to do. We sent our first child to public school for K. We started seeing changes in him that we didn't like. It was really sad. So, we decided to bring him home for one year and go from there. It was a difficult year because so much had to change in our routine to do this. But, once we started, we knew we couldn't do anything else. Now, we shudder at the thought of splintering our family all day long by sending our children out and away from each other during the day. We have a very strong family identity, and we do most everything together. We love our life together, and would never choose a different path for our kids. Please feel free to PM me if you have more specific questions I can maybe help you with. Blessings!

Well I can't answer all your questions, but since my kids are busy doing their work and I have a few minutes I can answer some of them. LOL.

Does anyone have any experience with the K12 Program? if you mean the curriculum, it's waht we use, my kids just started their 3rd year with Ohio Virtual Academy, and we love it. I have a 4th and 2nd grader enrolled, another in public school, and a baby on the way. The only thing I dislike is the math program, it just doesn't work for us.

Are you involved with homeschooling coops? We are not officially involved in a Co-op, we have lots of opportunities through the school and never saw a reason to go this route. Now if you traditionally homeschool, I would suggest finding a group simply for the support.

How much is the cost per year? Many online charter schools are free. I even get a check 3 times a year to cover my internet costs, and free computers for both kids. If you buy your own curriculum then it can be as expensive as you allow it to be. Abeka, and SOS are some common curriculums.

Any problems getting into colleges? we aren't there yet.

Do you homeschool until High School then allow them to attend a public high school? My plan is to put my son in school next year for middle school. I want him to have the opportunities for band and sports that he doesn't have right now. However if we lived in a more homeschool friendly area, I would keep him home till college. Lots of bigger cities have great band and sport opportunities for homeschoolers.

How many hours per day do you do schooling? Depends on the day and our motivation. Today we started at 10. We will break for lunch from 12-1 and then my son has an online novel reading to participate in at 2. After which he will be done. My daughter will finish up before lunch except for her music class, which we do at night because it distracts her brother.

What program do you use? Why did you choose that program? We use ohva because i was terrified of trying to do it myself, between the legalities, the cost, and just knowing what to teach, i didn't think I could do it on my own. While there are other online charter schools, BOSS, Connections Academy..... OHVA has been a great fit for us.

Does/Did your child have any social issues caused by homeschooling?
my kids are more social than most kids. It isn't about keeping them home all the time, but rather than them only being exposed to their peer group and teachers in a local school, they interact with people of all ages all the time. We do scouts, gymnastics, baseball, youth group..have done soccer and bowling, my son wants to learn to play chess this year....OHVA provides tutors, if you want to use the service, and I'm always up for a little help, so they have that as well. but basically they deal with people all day every day, both old and young.

For those with more than one child, is it difficult to teach more than one child? Actually the only issue we have had with this is my second grader is REALLY smart and way ahead. She may be busy doing her own work but she still hears what her brother id being taught, so when we get to covering the material with her she picks up on things really easily. This causes some grief for her brother who has a harder time with school. once you learn to schedule things though and get a system it's really easy.

Please tell me the pros/cons or any information you have.

We love homeschooling, and my son has went to public school, and his brother still does, yet neither of my younger kids want to go to school. they enjoy being home and getting to go on trips much more than they would enjoy recess for 30 minutes. My son was behind and falling through the cracks at school and well and he's comes so far and improved so much and is really confident and proud of himself. there's more but the kids are running me out of work.

I homeschooled my son kindergarten and half way through 1st grade before I realised that with my 2 year old it was just impossible - I enjoyed it otherwise and I may think about it again when my youngest is older, she was just too distracting to my son, and too young to do schoolwork.
my son does not have any social issues, he is a very social child in any case, but homeschooling did not make any difference to him in that aspect, it DID make a difference to me though, I found it very isolating because we live way out in the country so we didn't get out much, and field trips were difficult as there is not much around here.
my son is always asking me to homeschool him again he loved it, but know he is in school I can see that he is learning much more, and being exposed to art music and PE classes which I could not do - but if you live in a big city then you will have this kind of stuff all over.
I went to a Co op, we had a very small one in the small city where I live, with about 20 kids, it was only once a month though, so it was hardly worth it - but I appreciated it.
I tried a couple of different curriculums I started out with time4learning.com, which was good in a lot of ways, fun and engaging but not totally rounded, and you need to supplement it - at the time it was $20 a month, then we tried sonlight, which was really good about $700 for the year, but my favorite was BJU press, we had the DVD program which was good, but $1000 a year, even the non DVD program is excellent, very thorough, the teaching manuals are fantastic and tell you exactly what to do.

time wise
time4learning took about 2 hours
sonlight was variable, but about 2.5 hours
BJU was around 4

I wanted to post my feelings on homeschooling as someone that has been through it.

My parents had two fears when it came to my sisters and I attending school – 1.) that we would be bored because in school the teacher has to deal with an entire classroom of kids and they were sure that we would be way ahead of everyone; and 2.) that we would be subjected to horrible, worldly things.

So my sisters and I were homeschooled from the beginning. Let me get it out there that all three of us hated it and would never think of subjecting our children to that horrible experience. Every day I begged and begged to go to real school, but to no avail.

Here are the reasons that we hated it:

1.) No matter how hard you try, the social learning is not there. My mom had us in tons of homeschooling groups, we were very active in our church (there 3 times per week), we played with the neighborhood kids every day, and we were very active in gymnastics and other sports (gymnastics had practice at least 3 times per week up to 5 days per week as we got better). Even with all of this, we never got to learn how to deal with everyday interaction with kids. We didn’t learn how to deal with bullies (I know we never want our kids to experience that, but every child will at some point). We didn’t have to learn how to deal with teachers with different teaching styles (a very valuable lesson when it comes to higher education or even learning how to deal with bosses/coworkers in the future). We didn’t learn how to deal with disappointments such as not getting the teacher we wanted, or not being in class with our best friend, etc. I could go on and on. And as small as these things seem to be, they are very important lessons for the real world. And to this day, my sisters and I all admit that we tend to have a hard time in a lot of social situations. We all do our best to over compensate, but it just doesn't come as naturally to us as it does to others.

2.) We were so far behind all of the other kids when it came to what we were learning. I understand that there are different options for curriculums, etc., but please think about this logically…teachers go to school for a while in order to be teachers. What qualifications do you have to teach your children? I know that I am a college educated, intelligent person, but there is no way I could teach my kids everything they are currently learning without having to re-teach some of it to myself. And even if you think that is fine, once they get to a certain age, there will be a point you will hit material that you will really have to learn in order to teach it to them, and I do not think that is good for the kids…what if they still don’t understand it? You don’t have the knowledge to be able to present it a different way if you’re just learning it yourself.

3.) We missed out on the fun activities at school. I know this sounds silly and not really a reason to not send your kids to school, but I feel like I missed out on so much fun! Everything my daughter does (i.e. making her Valentine’s Day box) my husband has so much fun remembering what his was like each year when he was in school, or how he did something just like what my kids are doing now. I have to admit I am living vicariously through my daughter as she gets to do all of these fun things!

4.) We were made fun of all the time. I know I said we played with the neighborhood kids, and we were all great friends, but they still made fun of us…as any kid did when they learned we didn’t go to real school. My mom tried her best to get me into so many school activities – we went to the school for school pictures, and I played in the middle school bad. What she doesn’t understand is that it was so embarrassing because I wasn’t a part of those kids. They just viewed me as this weirdo that showed up for 5th period everyday.

I don’t have time to get into much else. I just wanted to let you know what it was like. My sisters and I ended up going to private school in 7th grade, and then public school later on. We all had a hard time adjusting and catching up (like I said, we were so behind in so many areas), but we were so determined to stay in school that we did whatever it took. When I started school, I started with a fellow homeschooler, who had also been in our homeschooling group, and we both shared the same struggles.

I can’t emphasize enough how important the social learning is, and I don’t just mean with friends…I mean learning about different authority figures, and learning about how to deal with disappointments. I also wanted to let you know that you can’t shelter your kids forever. The minute they are “released,” whether it’s at a later grade in school, in college, or after that, they will be exposed to all kinds of bad things, and it would have been so much easier on my sisters and I if we had learned how to deal with those things at a younger age. To walk into public school for the first time and hear cussing all around us and see kids making out in the hallways was a lot to handle when thrown into it without any warning.

Like I said, I just wanted to put this out there from the viewpoint of someone that has been through it. Please feel free to message me if you have any further questions.

I was not home schooled, but currently home school my children. How important is it to you? I ask simply because if it is really important to you, you'll find a way to make it work, and make it work well. If you try it out, and find it's not working for your family, you can enroll them in public school.

I used to live in a city, now I'm out in the country. My kids have not lacked opportunities to socialize. I belong to 2 home school support groups, one meets weekly during the school year for play dates, and field trips are planned for each month as well. We do a lot of role-playing on how to handle issues. Strong personalities exist in all groups of children, so I've taught them how to deal with any pushiness or bully behavior. McDonald's Playland has been a place with the most issues for us, lol!

I started with preschool for my children. My oldest is now in 6th grade. I also have one in 3rd grade and one in 1st grade. My 1st grader is on 2nd grade Math and Language Arts. I love that we have the flexibility to keep her challenged. On the flip side, my oldest has a tougher time with English. I can take my time with him to help him through it.

Kids who have a tough time in a traditional school setting often either can't keep up with the rate the curriculum is moving, or have a different learning style than the one the curriculum is modeled for. The beauty of home schooling is that you can take your time where you need to.

I lived in AZ for 7 years. They are a very "hands-off" state with regards to home schooling. I now live in Ohio, which is a little more involved and requires standardized testing results for the 2nd year (of hs'ing, not grade) on. All of my kids scored between 95th -97th percentile, and thought the tests were easy, lol. But, I had always used them anyway, to make sure they were performing well compared to their peers.

We have used a lot of different materials over the years. My favorites for 1st grade are Sing, Spell, Read, and Write for a complete Language Arts program, Horizons Math (though I know a lot of moms who swear by Saxon), Christian Liberty Press for a fun Science book (biblical & based on the Creation story) and History for Little Pilgrims. We use Artistic Pursuits for Art and Abeka for Health. For Music, we make folderbooks (aka lapbooks) and study music periods, composers, etc.

I paid a lot this year for my materials, but you can shop eBay. Many home school groups host used curricula sales. There a a lot of web sites with free worksheets, unit studies, you name it.

I wish you the best with your decision. I know how overwhelming it is in the beginning, but seasoned veterans are always happy to help newbies out!

Feel free to e-mail me anytime!

1) Does anyone have any experience with the K12 Program?

Yup. K12 is fairly notorious in the HS world. I've found it to be ridiculously expensive ($30 per subject per month, no thankyou, not when I can get SO much better for FREE - $100 a year). The notoriety *mostly* comes from the expense (it's more expensive than anything out there, much less anything out there that's the same quality), & the teacher-assist option (sooooo many headaches, and no flexibility at all for everyone I've talked to save 1 family... so about 250 v 1, the one family lucked out with a really stellar teacher who let the parents actually teach/lead and didn't insist on meetings at inconvenient times and let them set their own pace and schedule... most of the teachers don't). We didn't have the "teacher" option, so we had total flexibility... but I found the program to be mediocre. A LOT of families use this option, however, especially in the first year when we're all freaked out. The majority of people (that I know who've used it), get so irritated with them that 3mo-1year in they've lost their fear. The BIGGEST problem I had with K12 was that they tout it as interactive online learning, and it's not. At all. It's workbook / textbook pages on a screen with some really cheesy/ badly done graphics. Like a flip book.

2) Are you involved with homeschooling coops?

Sort of. We're part of a fieldtrip group now, and the first year the co-op was my personal crutch, but I've found it to be much more fun to go "solo". I have a lot of contact with other homeschoolers, but a co-op was not a good fit for us.

3) How much is the cost per year?
This varies from family to family. I know many who HS for free, and many who spend thousands. Personally I budget apx $200 a month for materials, field trips, & outside classes. Outside classes are the biggest chunk of that at about $150 a month. This fall kiddo is in:
- Gymnastics
- Aikido
- Breakdancing
- Art
- Drama
- Piano
What classes he's in change by the season, a little bit. This is the first fall we aren't doing soccer (aikido instead). In the winter we snowboard, spring is baseball, and summer is swimming/sailing (in addition to the other classes listed above). We do a lot of community center classes ($50 for 4 months), and homeschool classes (discounted 25%-%75% because we can do them in the "daytime"/aka during public school hours). So even though kiddo does a LOT, it's still fairly inexpensive. Ditto, it doesn't FEEL like a lot to us, because he's only gone 1-3 hours a day, instead of 8 hours of school PLUS however many hours of activities PLUS homework PLUS family time, etc.

4) Any problems getting into colleges?

Haven't read the other answers yet, but I did a lot of research into this before taking the plunge. :) What *great* is that (at least in the Ivies) homeschoolers are actually *preferred* students, statistically speaking. AKA if a top tier school student had a 1:20 chance of being accepted, a HS student had a 1:6 chance. The 20 and the 6 are the number of total applicants. Many universities are actually scouting homeschoolers, just like sports these days. Each college has it's own specific requirements, but *in general* it's the same application process as for an away-schooled student, plus a portfolio. The portfolio is one reason, I'm sure, that our kids have such an advantage. The picture being worth 1000 words thing. Other reasons are the SHEER amount of time our kids have to become "well rounded" OR to explore their passions. Yet another reason, is that teenage HS'ers in our area pretty much fall into 2 categories: Both are in community college classes starting between age 14-16. Those shooting for ivy league schools use those classes as highschool credits. Those shooting for state schools use those credits to directly transfer in as Juniors.

5) Do you homeschool until High School then allow them to attend a public high school?

We're still (sort of) in elementary. My kiddo is only 8, but after 3 years of HS'ing about 1/2 of his work is at the middleschool level, and the other 1/2 is at grade level or above, but still elementary. I know many HS'ers who DO have their kids go to highschool, but most only go part time. I know far more, however, who skip highschool entirely, and as teens start doing community college classes. (See Above)

6) How many hours per day do you do schooling?

This really varies. Between 2-6. In the beginning I was really strict about trying to get enough "hours" in, but then I tossed it out the window. Typically we only do 2 hours of "school" a day, and the extra 4 come from him just having fun with something. Prying him away from *actual* (see above) interactive online or CD learning is super hard. But some days we do absolutely 0 hours of "school" (but learning takes place ALL the time), and others he's hyperfocused on something and can spend 12). I've really come to find that being flexible and relaxed "gets" us through soooo much more info and into soooooo much more depth than we otherwise did. Just as an example, we've spent the past 6 months on Ancient Greece, just because kiddo has been having a ball with it (example of depth), but in math he's been doing algebra for a year now... because he just flies through the concepts (speed).

In general, however, in spring and fall we start at 10am and end at 2pm. In summer we start at noon after spending the morning swimming and end at 2 (but get as much if not MORE done than in spring and fall), and in the winter we school during hotchocolate breaks while snowboarding, and on the car ride to and from the mountain)

7) What program do you use? Why did you choose that program?

We're eclectic... which means we do a lot of stuff. What we personally do is a 30-30-10-20 mix of

- Charlotte Mason
- Montessori
- Unschooling
- Everything Else

- CM http://simplycharlottemason.com/basics/started/charlotte-...
- M http://www.freemontessori.org/?page_id=9
- M http://www.borenson.com/tabid/933/Default.aspx
- M http://www.montessorird.com/index2.php?cPath=1&osCsid...
Does/Did your child have any social issues caused by homeschooling?
- U we unschool during "breaks", life's just to FUN to stop learning
- Everything else : this category is huge. From computer programs like ClueFinders & Carmen SanDiego, to websites like Discovery, NatGeoSoc, UK edu sites like http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/, museum sites like the British Museum, Smithsonian, Lourve, to seminars (like http://www.seattlesciencefoundation.org/kids-in-medicine.htm, or at the observatory, or, or, or), to outside classes (academic, sports, drama, etc.), to "school break" daycamps.... we just do tons and tons of stuff.

We've come to this via trial and error. Some things work, some things work BETTER, and some don't work at all. How we have schooled has changed a LOT over the past 3 years. It's been a very fluid experience.

DO check out the following couple of sites for curriculum info in addition to the ones I already posted above
http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_6?url=search-ali...
http://www.homeschooldiner.com/ (look under philosophies)
http://jojoebi.blogspot.com/2009/07/montessori-links.html
http://www.lessonpathways.com/

7) Does/Did your child have any social issues caused by homeschooling?

As a homeschooler, you can't "win" on the s-word. If you have a naturally outgoing / extroverted / highly social child (like mine)... then they're "starved for attention". If you have a naturally shy or reserved child ... you've "crippled" them. <Rolls eyes> Ah well. Seriously, however, check out this site for a very good laugh from a *lot* of common sense: http://www.secular-homeschooling.com/001/bitter_homeschoo...

8) For those with more than one child, is it difficult to teach more than one child?

I only have one child, but I've taught several children at one time for certain units, or during . It's both harder and easier at the same time EITHER schooling 1 child OR more than 1 child.

9) Please tell me the pros/cons or any information you have.

This in and of itself could be twice the legnth of everything I've written. To keep it short: Each pro is also it's own con, and vice versa. Just as an example:

PRO: Individualized lessons that go at the child's own pace ALSO equals CON: Figuring out WHAT works best for each child (trial and error, baby, trial and error), and having the chutzpah/self esteem to be ABLE to do that trial and error without taking it personally

PRO : Never having to fight for family time, like most families who are trying to squeeze in time in the 2-4 hours a day after school (between homework, playdates, activities, dinner, bedtime routine) and on weekends
CON : Figuring out how to get personal/ alone time (I do it during outside classes, playdates, and kiddo's weekly afternoon with Nana)

But there are hundreds of others pros and cons. I think the BIGGEST thing to keep in mind is this:

"Homeschooling is easy, it's the PARENTING that's hard."

And for several hundred more answers to your questions... this homeschooling board is very active
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/secular_homeschoolers/

So, after reading a lot of what was already said, I'm going to make this short. My daughter (now in 7th) went to school through 2nd grade. Her 1st grade teacher was dear. Her 2nd grade teacher was a "yeller" and, as a result she started hating school. With encouragement from a good friend, I pulled her out and started homeschooling her in 3rd grade. That 1st year I sent my son to public school for Kindergarten, but pulled him the next year. I think doing this has been one of the best things I have done for them and for us as a family.
In the spring, there is a REALLY great homeschool convention held at the Duke Center that I would highly suggest you attend. You can peruse the curriculums that are out there and the classes teach a lot about teaching and learning styles as well as legal requirements. I looked into online public school, but decided it was not the way I wanted to go for various reasons. We have been using My Father's World for going on 4 years. It is a progressive program that outlines the day for you so you don't have to spend a lot of time figuring out what to teach and in what order. It has worked well for us. With this program, you pick your math (we use Singapore Math-I highly recommend it), English (Rod & Staff), and Spelling (Spelling Power). I do find it challenging, at times, to work with each of them separately on these subjects because they want me to give them more time than is necessary (sit and do the bookwork with them after the lesson is done). There are many other programs out there that are formatted and have great reputations: Sonlight, Abeka, Five-in-a-Row, and Konos to name a few.
This year we (the kids and I, now 12 yrs old and 10 yrs old)sat down at the beginning of the year and worked out a schedule together (the fun of older children!) so that they know the goals and how we can reach them. It has been a good way to motivate them to get things done expeditiously. (Somesone else mentioned that children's motivation/lack of it has a lot to do with how long school takes...very true.)
We are part of a co-op called Wisdom's Way which meets for 2 hours once a week. They pick classes according to needs (ex.- 4th grade requirement for a class in Ohio History), or desires (photography, embroidery, magnets, etc). It is not expensive at $40/child, especially because if you teach, one child is free. They are also one of the few co-ops that I know of that has a nursery for younger children so all ages can participate. Also, several of the YMCA's offer homeschool gym. We did it last year and it is very reasonable. It cost $50 per child for 7 weeks of instruction. The kids receive 1/2 hour swim lesson, 1/2 hours free swim, and 1 hour of instructed gym time. This is, by far, more gym than they will receive in a public school in a week and the swim lessons were great (regular cost for non-members is about $35 per 1/2 just for the swim lessons).
Socialization is not an issue unless you live in a box and never leave the house.
Cost depends on what curriculum you choose and what extra-curriculars your child(ren) are involved in. We use the library a lot (thank you to all the wonderful librarians out there), and shop online and at used book stores regularly. You can also find used curriculums online and through homeschool organizations (CHEC has a used curriculum sale every June). If you choose to homeschool (not public-school at home), please consider joining CHEC. It has been useful to me in learning about resources that are helpful and you will become connected with many veterans of homeschooling who will become great friends and supporters.
I hope this has helped. Feel free to contact me if there are any questions that have come up as you have read my post.

You might consider an online school. I work for Virtual Community School of Ohio (VCS Ohio). It has many of the benefits of homeschooling without so much responsibility put on the parents. Our school is taught by certified teachers. It's all done online from home. Classes are available 24/7, unlike some other online schools that make students attend at certain times. So, it is very flexible. Also, it's FREE to all Ohio residents since it's a public school. That also means students graduate with an official diploma...unlike homeschooling. There are face-to-face opportunities at VCS, and we also have a gifted and talented program beginning in fourth grade. I know it's a big decision. I hope this helps!