You should definitely start going to open houses and if available a "day in action" type event for parents where the kids are actually there. Notice the feel of the school, how they're dressed, how the lockers are decorated or not, the expressions on the kids' faces...everything. In a couple of years or this year or next your child could maybe even do a shadow day.
This year I took my 4th grade DD from public, 6 hrs, not too much homework, easy walk...but not learning once ounce of anything day after day no gifted accommodations or differentiation (except higher reading group in contained class but they don't go over 5th grade reading level and she is 12th).
She now goes to $$ private, 20 min. drive, 7 hours, usually tons of homework and middle-school style with lots of different teachers, changing classes etc. She's learning tons but yesterday, for example, her book bag weighed so much I could hardly lift it, never mind her. Right now she's enjoying it because it's the first time in her life she's ever learned anything at school. She is very slow with homework and really can't do anything else during the week except one day her music. The writing load is above her head/experience/ability right now but I'm trying to figure it out, and some of the kids/parents are rich-snotty or just to sheltered it's like they're under glass. Some are fine - she's just so happy to be learning and she takes a foreign language every day she's so excited. Some of the classes could be more accelerated for her (reading, math, science) but it's an all-around best fit for right now.
Some of the teachers "get" her and enjoy her, some obviously don't really know what to do when she is racing ahead (math/science) and I can tell don't care for her too much. Socially, our family doesn't fit it and I don't know how I'll ever get to know some of the parents. I am really putting alot of effort into making sure she continues to keep her couple of great friendships outside of school and keeps meeting new kids.
I see the kids at the attached high schools (one for girls, one for boys) at how heavy their backpacks are. I talk to moms whose kids are older (middle/high school) in my network and how much time they spend on homework. I just talked to a family member and her three girlfriends home from 1st semester of college about the workload they had in high school and was it worth it, etc.
I guess my point and personal opinion is that I like the idea of homeschooling for high school. DD is very creative and does get stressed as the week goes by when she hardly has time for her designs and building and puttiering. It's just going to get more and more of a workload. I could see her doing alot of online things and then being in the community, possibly internships etc. Right now I think continuing to have the guaranteed social experience and structure and other things she's learning for the next four years or so.
Anyway exploring options can be fun and you learn alot when you go to open houses (of course they are sales days) the more info you collect the better.
