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We're utilizing the Moore method with our children for the reasons you've stated. We have our children for precious little time and my wife and I have been impressed to go this route for their education.
Wow! Thank you so much for sharing!! I am home schooling my six year old. So far I have been taking it very slow because of a few things I read from EW. April is also very interested in space and we have gotten several books from the library about that and other topics. I have also made math, writing, and time etc. pages on our computer. We did some stuff with gardening last summer and it was great to see how much fun something as simple as a pumpkin could be. I have been feeling the pressure from family and friends to put her into a more structured curriculum but have been unsure of what to do. After reading your post I feel encouraged and am going to look into the Moore Formula. It sounds like it is just what I have been looking for!!
If it ends up being successful, then all the more power to you. As a teacher, I can honestly say that 'successful homeschoolers' are few and far between in my experience. Some parents seem to like the concept of homeschooling for their child due to financial reasons or they just don't like the church school. Unfortunately, they really are not trained to deal with what that entails and what ends up happening is we have a student that is far behind everyone else when they do decide to come back to school.I think homeschooling is not a decision that should be taken lightly and for the right reasons, not simply because you don't agree with the way the church school is run. If you do do it, make sure you know what you are doing, what is expected of you and your child and where they should be come year end.
Your experience must be the exception, rather than the rule. Homeschooled kids routinely score higher on tests than public school kids. Not sure about statistics for HS vs. private school. Probably not as great a discrepancy. There are so many resources and support groups for homeschoolers now, that one would have to be singularly inept to do poorly at it, or so it seems to me. "We" (my wife did the teaching ) even got my daughter through Algebra! That was due to the excellent resources available to help her through it. Don't forget that in the early days of this country most kids were homeshchooled because they were needed on the farm. These were the people who built our nation. A "formal" education didn't seem to hamper them too much.