The great debate

 There is a debate raging at the frugal handmade home at the moment. DD is fast approaching the time to start preschool, she is next on the waiting list to start before Christmas.I have always said that my children would be home schooled. I feel it is a better, safer and with better results. Some of this comes from my personal experiences of attending school which was quite honestly the worst experience of my life and something I still feel I carry issues from. But am I allowing my own fears and phobias to be passed onto my DD by not sending her to main stream education?
 My OH feels that she should be in school but we should keep a careful eye on her education and pick up
the slack in any areas  we feel she isn't getting enough support in. If it is a subject we cannot teach ourselves (languages for example) we will make sacrifices and hire tutors for extra lessons at home.
 It is a subject we talk about a lot at the moment and we tend to go in circles after a while. Our agreement at the moment is that DD will be attending pre school and we will observe carefully how she gets on. As it is easier to remove her from school than it is to enter her into it later.
 Our biggest concern if she is home schooled would be her social development. We would combat this by enrolling her in various groups and activity's such as swimming and learning a martial arts (OH has always said he wants his children able to defend themselves). She already shows an interest in singing and dancing so a drama/choir group could also be an option. We are also lucky to live in an area that has a fantastic homeschooling network where children can meet up for day trips and lessons (often they hire a local science lab area for a day and preform experiments). So I feel this will combat some of her social life and development.

 Do any of my readers home educate their children or have experience of trying it? How do you tackle the social aspects of home learning? Are there any areas you struggle with?

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