My personal goal is to figure out how to make enough money to keep my children out of the insanity of public schools.
It doesn't necessarily take a lot of money to homeschool children. (Been there, still doing that.) It does take agreement among the parents about what lifestyle adjustments each parent is willing to make so that children have flexibility in their learning. My oldest son, now a programmer working for a startup, sent me a very touching email for Father's Day in which he attributed some of his success so far in the business world to having been homeschooled rather than being put in public school. "That has made it very easy for me to step into a leadership position and feel very comfortable in positions of responsibility" is part of what he wrote.
Finding truly excellent third-party educational materials and programs can be inexpensive
depending on what your selection criteria are for "excellent" programs, and what your child's specific needs are, but some of the expensive third-party programs have significant financial aid that reaches up into the middle class, and some of the commercial materials and programs are available in a thriving used-materials or group-purchase market for homeschooling families. So shop around, and see what fits your family's needs.
There is a lot of information about how to get started in homeschooling
on the World Wide Web, and my goal for next few years is to update my personal website (the link here) with more been-there, done-thats as I launch my younger three children into adulthood to joint their older brother in the big world.
>> My personal goal is to figure out how to make enough money to keep my children out of the insanity of public schools.
> It doesn't necessarily take a lot of money to homeschool children
I interpreted his original comment to mean they wanted to make enough money that they (or their spouse) had enough time to home-school. I'd be really surprised if the cost of materials approached the opportunity cost of the parents' time (although those are fungible to some extent).
I find it peculiar that you regularly cite scientific studies of this and that, and yet you are using this terribly misleading, n-of-1 implication that home schooling is why your oldest son has the success he has. Do you really think that children cannot do exactly the same thing coming out of a public school, and if so, why?
My son has taken up my thinking about the difference between anecdotes and research studies, and he actually mentioned the issue of successful co-workers he has who are public school alumni in another part of his email to me. But I shouldn't have to quote his whole personal email to make the point for onlookers that OF COURSE some alumni of public schools turn out to be very successful, and they are much more numerous than people who have been homeschooled. But there may still be an advantage for homeschooling at the margin, simply because it is generally more flexible and responsive to individual learner needs than mass classroom education.
I believe he said that his _son_ felt that home-schooling had the positive effect on his job.
I'm sure that people can do the same thing coming out of public school, but I think we can agree that many people coming out of public school (especially nerdy ones) do NOT feel empowered, or like leaders. Everyone's experiences are different, but I know that my self-esteem in high school was terrible, and didn't pick up until I was in college.
It doesn't necessarily take a lot of money to homeschool children. (Been there, still doing that.) It does take agreement among the parents about what lifestyle adjustments each parent is willing to make so that children have flexibility in their learning. My oldest son, now a programmer working for a startup, sent me a very touching email for Father's Day in which he attributed some of his success so far in the business world to having been homeschooled rather than being put in public school. "That has made it very easy for me to step into a leadership position and feel very comfortable in positions of responsibility" is part of what he wrote.
Finding truly excellent third-party educational materials and programs can be inexpensive
http://www.singaporemath.com/Primary_Math_s/21.htm
or expensive,
http://ohs.stanford.edu/
depending on what your selection criteria are for "excellent" programs, and what your child's specific needs are, but some of the expensive third-party programs have significant financial aid that reaches up into the middle class, and some of the commercial materials and programs are available in a thriving used-materials or group-purchase market for homeschooling families. So shop around, and see what fits your family's needs.
There is a lot of information about how to get started in homeschooling
http://learninfreedom.org/sidlifgetstarted.html
on the World Wide Web, and my goal for next few years is to update my personal website (the link here) with more been-there, done-thats as I launch my younger three children into adulthood to joint their older brother in the big world.