We homeschool our kids in part because we encountered a homeschool community in Brooklyn that blew apart our preconceptions of homeschooling. What I had thought

We homeschool our kids in part because we encountered a homeschool community in Brooklyn that blew apart our preconceptions of homeschooling. What I had thought was mostly a tool for highly religious parents has become intellectually diverse and a lot of the people here do it to give their kids individualized attention and some of the freedom to explore they could only otherwise get in a private school. If you already have a parent at home full time (or full time between the two of you) — not uncommon due to the high cost of child care here — it’s a good way to arbitrage that into educational opportunity. There are groups and storefronts here where you can send kids to get a chance to socialize and tinker, work with their hands, run around (play groups) etc. Shout out to Apple Academy Bklyn which started for homeschoolers to have a workshop type place but also all kinds of little places where kids can tinker with tech, board games etc for example along 7th Ave (I think a lot of these started as after school places but we’re adopted by homeschoolers). Not saying it’s for everyone but it’s not the insular backwater I had subconsciously made it out to be in my head.