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I've been homeschooling DS 9 for two years.

K and 2/3 of 1st - private school (with grade acceleration in 1st - complete disaster)

Last 1/3 of 1st, 2nd and 3rd homeschooling

Overall it has been going really well. We live in a highly populated homeschool area so there are so many learning opportunities for DS to take advantage of. Fortunately there are also many gifted homeschoolers in the area too so there are many advanced courses he can take with live teachers and students--we haven't found the need to do any online classes.

The drawbacks are that we run around a lot and I feel drained a lot of the time and don't have a lot of "me time." That is probably a choice I am making but I want him to have the best and there are just so many great classes and field trips and programs to participate in. In all honesty, participating in all the classes also serves to not to have to devise a curriculum because I mostly just piggyback on what he is learning in his classes and we spend a lot of home time doing the assigned homework. As we've been going along, I am finding more curricula that I am interested in using so if we homeschool next year I already have a language arts and math curriculum that I want to use. I think we will do more at home next year as I'm exhausted! :-) Currently though, we are looking into a Montessori school and a county gifted center for 4th and 5th. We may look into the math/science middle school magnet for 6-8th but who knows! I agree with a PP that it is more work to advocate for my child than I care to involve myself in. That is MUCH more exhausting than homeschooling will ever be. Wish he could have a solid (gifted) peer group though.

We are homeschooling ds14 and did homeschool dd8 until about a month ago. Ds14's issue with school was unusually poor academic fit - needing more challenge in some subjects and fewer timed tasks in some (gee, try to get that sorted out with a school admin or teacher!)

Dd's issue seemed to be that she was turning into a tv character (and not one of the nice ones!). In addition to no more disney teen channel, among others, we pulled her out of school to see if this would help with an attitude adjustment. In some ways it has, however she became pretty frustrated with lack of social interaction in general. She wasn't always a girly girl, however she does need much more human contact than the rest of the family, and we mutually were driving each other crazy.
(There is actually a question of adhd which we are working on figuring out).

Curriculum-wise, I have always been able to find great books to work on with ds, however dd was usually bucking whatever I found for her after about a week or so. She would grudgingly proceed through whatever we'd selected. Last fall I finally found a science-reading book for her, and mostly we work on that, math and regular book reading (h. potter, etc.) We allowed her free rein in the last few months on minecraft and she has become quite an expert, reading a lot regarding building, etc. Previously she had a fairly severe tracking issue which appears to be 99% resolved (still wears the glasses prescribed).

Ds will be going back to the high school in the fall, as they have a stem program, one path combines design (he is huge into animation and drawing) and programming so it seems to be ideal in some ways. Removing him from the middle school grind was a very very good choice, I think.
The main reason I am hopeful about the high school is that his older friends that are already there express a good level of satisfaction with the high school - some of them having had real issues when in middle school.

Homeschool has been a wonderful thing for both the kids - refreshing their attitudes and self esteem.

*fingers crossed*

Ivy, Is she involved in other activities. My kids are so busy in the evenings that they are thankful for the calmer pace of homeschooling during the day. They also are glad not to have schoolwork to do in the evening.

We've been un/homeschooling ds9 for three years now. I have one of those energetic, high maintenance, sensory kids too. Yes, it's exhausting some days. Yes, been quite a rough ride some days. No, I did not plan on homeschooling. We had exhausted our options. Homeschooling is definitely the least-worst option for us.

There are ZERO g/t services in our district and I've been told that ds would get nothing from the public schools - except probably a front row seat in the principal's office every day due to his behavior (which would be due to extreme boredom).

Pre-K (NYC and MA) - 1st year - public school, integrated special needs program - as a special needs student. NYC, they do not red shirt kids based on late birthdays; in MA, they do.

Pre-K (MA) - 2nd year - ditto, plus private gifted school #1 (traditional, structured) and private gifted school #2 (Montessori-type, unstructured)

K - nearly full year at private gifted school #2 before ds completely melted and we had withdraw him from the school

1-3 grades - un/homeschooled - 1st year - loosely followed general curriculum series (based on an expert's advice); 3rd yr - ds has been taking courses online

Chana, she does have stuff, but I don't think it's a question of pace. She just likes learning in a group.

Hi!
We have been homeschooling or ds8 since we pulled him out of school part way through first grade. He is 2e and we were setting serious regression with his signs of autism. Funny thing, when I stopped sending him to school I got to joyfully cancel all his appointments I had made trying to get him back into therapy, because he recovered almost immediately. The stress of school was causing the regression. I am pretty comfortable most of the time with unschooling, however my husband is less so. We do some more formal activities because of that, and I like having my son participate in summer science day camps and such. It takes a little of the burden off of me.

He is doing well. Sometimes I wish he would make different choices in terms of his current interests... (I have tired of Minecraft by now) but I try to support him while encouraging and sometimes coercing him too branch out. In terms of academics, he is above grade level in everything but written expression anyway. I do enjoy our lifestyle nowadays. I can't fathom going back to public school life although sometimes I fantasize about a program where I could send him just for a couple hours a few days a week that was interesting and fulfilling and where he could be with other kids that he has more in common with. He is the odd man out a lot.