I wasn't picking a fight with you, Dottie. Sorry, if I sounded confrontational, I didn't mean to. You and acs both know that I respect your opinions.
But especially in the wake of acs's comment, I thought I should stress that the whole "have to want to" and "need peers" stuff aren't necessarily a problem with HSing. They can be problems--just as they can be problems at a school that isn't a good fit for a child--but they aren't necessarily problems.
I just want to be sure that HSing isn't coming off as a bad choice for reasons that haven't held true for us. Those two particular reasons haven't held true for us. They do hold true for some people, and it's good to point that out. But then I think it's also good for me to point out that we had the exact opposite experience. DS6 is far happier and more social now that we're HSing. He's tried public school and he's tried HSing and he picks HSing, without any hesitation. (I'm the one who hesitated, until he wore me down, precisely because HSing is TOO social for me! I can't help but note the irony!)
<shrug> I think much of this comes down to the specific kid and the particular school situation. At this point for Jamie, public school is a known quantity and HS is an unknown quantity, but I think that's all the more reason to trust a mother's intuition. If she sees problems coming in school in the future, they probably will. I felt the same way, and I was right. The problems came sooner than I expected, actually. So doing a little research and checking in with the kids about how they feel about the possibility of HSing seems like a prudent course of action, even if Jamie ultimately decides to keep her kids in their current situation.
And after all, no decision is irreversable. It pays to keep that in mind. As I always say, for me, HSing isn't theory; it's about practice, real life, reality! I'm not wedded to a philosophy, I'm trying to make life work for DS6. If school works better for him at a given point, then that's where he'll go. For now, HSing is a lot better solution for him. Will it be better for DS3? Who knows? I may well have one at home and one in public school. Wait and see...
<double shrug> It's all a grand experiment, and we should probably all expect to change something for our HG+ kids in 6 months or so, no?
