Congrats, Bobby. I feel your pain/joy! I hope to be able to post a bit more about this journey, and I'd love your thoughts and insights as a fellow newbie! Thanks for commenting.

Love your comments, Schoolmarm. THANK YOU! We also use Singapore, and I'd never heard of your Five in a Row but after looking it up ... I think I'm hooked! Thank you!

Thank you so much, Peter. A compliment from you is the highest honor!

Yes, you are right, John. Thanks for this reminder and for commenting. Good luck with the next stage. I know several parents in the same position. I'll come calling for advice in a decade :)

I did check out your site. Seems like you folks are on the right track. Keep up the good fight!

We are using Singapore Math -- text, 2 workbooks, and many, many of their supplemental books. So far, I am very pleased with my daughter's math progress and the way concepts are presented to her and practiced. In addition, my daughter does 100 subtraction or addition problems each day (using numbers 0-19), timed. I generate these from a kids' math site. Forget which one. I also have lots of other math books lying around the house, and I tear a page out every couple of days to have her do work from a book with a different style/approach.

You can't yank(ee) me away from Ricochet and its funny and brilliant (like winning 27 championships) members.

Hi Daniel. Well, I'd been intrigued with it for a long time. Then, I met a few impressive moms, dads, and children in the homeschooling community -- all met through Ricochet contacts, I might add! Also, my daughter was having lots of emotional ups and downs in Sept. and Oct. They were puzzling to us and troubling, to say the least. These episodes have completely disappeared. Probably caused mostly by lack of sleep and a lot of rushing around. Anyway, that helped me get close to the decision, but a lot -- a LOT -- of research and reading and observing (of schooled and homeschooled children) led to the actual move. 

I would love to add Chinese, frankly. I may fold that in next year. We will definitely do Latin, like Mr. Marvinson's sons.

Hi Trace! After much research, I settled on my own curricula. I am using the best things I'd come across in my own teaching career as well as several new things recommended on various homeschool/education sites. That said, if I was juggling more than one student, I might go with a pre-set program. I've heard of at least two that seem successful (and similar to what I've chosen anyway). 

Same here, Dave.

A tenuous connection and not well explained. Sorry, twvolck.

Basically, I was attempting to connect the video with the book Don't Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid and then with our decision to homeschool, which was based, in part, on the many and devastating examples Hicks gives in her book of liberal-think taking over our kids and their places of school and community. Still might not be explaining it well, sorry. Short on time means short on thinking through things.

Anon, I hesitate to agree with the first sentence. I do think some (even many?) public schools do more good than harm. I do agree that parents must be extremely vigilant. Providing balance takes a lot of time and effort in the form of following curriculum changes carefully and making oneself heard at meetings, etc.

Honestly, I didn't mean to connect this video with public schools. Perhaps noting our choice to homeschool didn't belong in this post. I guess I just had to wonder about these kids, their parents, and what these kids are learning at school that makes them so quick to be part of something with such a clear agenda. Regardless of parent point of view, I would hope that parents would want their children to learn the basics (straight up) before making political statements. Don't we all hope our children come to their own conclusions, achieved thoughtfully, whatever they might be?

I think this is a very fair critique of homeschooling. Something we considered very seriously. Is it better to try and change the world from within or without? Then again, in our case, we had to consider the (our) child. In our case, we are not making some sort of political or religious stand or statement. We honestly believe it's best for our child. That said, we also believe that being a very involved part of society -- secular society, with all its glorious values and flaws -- is crucial. 

Agree completely.

BTW, our choice to homeschool had virtually nothing to do with our daughter's school or teachers. In fact, in our experience, teachers and administrators have been completely motivated to do right by our and others' children. We have encountered no individuals who we believed to be agents of the left, etc.

This was my thought as well. In fact, I was truly down in the dumps & demoralized about this story out of Boston about Law's lavish 80th birthday when the Penn State stuff happened. So many people need so many prayers, it's overwhelming.

Love your post, Tommy, and I'm also enjoying the comments.

When I was a very green reporter in my 20s working the phones at the NY Post, I was assigned a story about Laila Ali, who was making her way to the top of the (fledgling, pathetic) women's boxing game. I spoke with Laila and, of course, I tried desperately to get a quote from Ali himself, but couldn't get to him. (I started my career saying I didn't want to leave it without ever interviewing William F. Buckley and Muhammad Ali. Sadly, I retired 0-for-2)

On a whim, I called some gym in Philly where Frazier's friends supposedly were. When someone answered, I introduced myself and said I was trying to track down Joe Frazier. "Speaking," he said. I can still remember my face turning hot and stammering in disbelief and panic. I didn't actually have questions prepared!! Serves me right. Of course, he was funny, gracious and gave me the best quotes about his daughter (then in training to fight Laila!) as well as his relationship & fights with Ali. One of the highlights of my short career. RIP, indeed.