The NerdFamily is just beginning it homeschool journey. I believe abstractly that homeschooling is the best choice you can make for your children. I also abstractly believe that moms should all stay home. That does not mean I believe that these are the right choices for everyone. I also believe that these choices look different for everyone. I stay home full time but also sell Pampered Chef and am starting a business with NerdDad doing a couple websites. I do not feel that I am abandoning my children. In the same vain, I was in public school and I turned out fine(ok, at least I am not completely nuts;). If my mom would have homeschooled me one of us might not have lived to tell the tale. I say all this to let you know where I am coming from.

This year we are doing preschool with the NerdBug in sorts. I say in sorts because we are not keeping attendance records or anything that formal. FYI, you legally don’t have to begin schooling your child(or have them schooled by others) until they are 6. So as we go through this adventure I will try to journal(or blog) on it. Part of the fun of homeschooling is that you do not really do it alone. I have a few friends at church that also home school their kids. I have also joined a couple Yahoo groups just to keep myself informed and to get recommendations.

In these groups I was alerted to 2 articles, one on CNN and one on BusinessWeek. I guess that we are cooler than we thought. According to the CNN article, homeschooling is the fastest growing sector in the US education system. In Business Week they talk about this movement growing among the intellectual elite and the white collar sector. Homeschooling is no longer seen as a compound living, back woods, extremist Christian way of life. People of all walks of faith and politics now(or at least willing to declare in public) homeschooling. The most conservative estimates put this population at 1.1 million but some say almost 2 million. Even if homeschooling is not your thing, I recommend reading these articles.