Home Schooling?

Here's something that I want to discuss: Home Schooling vs. Public Education. I'm embedding (hopefully) a video about homeschooling here. I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

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I'd like to home school. I'm not sure if I should or not. But here's what I see as a benefit. My kids would have a teacher who had their best interests at heart and didn't have to make the curriculum fit 30+ students. My daughter's teacher, for instance, is doing a fabulous job in my humble opinion, but she has several other students to teach. She is faced with teaching to an audience that has varying levels of capability. She herself told us that Allison could skip fourth grade altogether and she would do fine. So are we holding Allison back by just letting her be part of the system?

My husband says he thinks she gets something valuable from attending public school. He thinks she needs the interaction with others. She needs to learn to cope with frustrating situations, different people, and being away from Mom. I can see his point. But...

I don't know if the worries about socialization are valid or not. It seems like there are plenty of ways to socialize. Extra-curricular activities. Play dates. Volunteerism. These are all ways she and my boys could be getting the extra socialization that they need.

But I worry. About me. I'm not a cheery person all the time. Maybe I would be more of a cheery person if I felt that they were getting more of what they needed from their education. But maybe not. My mother in law has talked with me about home schooling and she has said she worries about the amount of time it would consume. Bless her heart I know she has my best interests at heart, but my children are my life and I couldn't think of a more valuable thing to do with my time.

The other comment my husband has made is about our lack of organization in general. He doesn't have much faith in our ability to keep organized enough to stay on track with our children's education. Now, I will admit it, I am a terrible housekeeper...but I don't think that necessarily equals a disaster for our children's education. Some very creative people are not the most organized. Besides, I've always been more organized about my work life than I am about my home life. Maybe that would translate onto the educational scene.

I'd be very interested in your feedback. If you know me personally, feel free to comment about what you know about me personally as it relates to my ability to educate my children.