I homeschooled my kid. We moved from a strong Bay Area CA school district to a pretty bad one. But also, our experience of school districts, and classrooms, wer

I homeschooled my kid. We moved from a strong Bay Area CA school district to a pretty bad one. But also, our experience of school districts, and classrooms, were pretty incompatible with the kid we were raising. The first few (!) years were quite difficult. We didn’t seek out any homeschool group support but we did study about home schooling. We ended up devising our own curriculum and our kid, eventually, and to some degree ..on his own, became a diligent student. Just learning how to do “school work” was a real hurdle. The biggest outcome that requires reconsideration is that he was pretty invisible when he applied to colleges. Our demographic qualifications didn’t help. So we’re paying cash for college. He did take some community college classes during the time that would’ve been his last two years of high school. He really liked community college. He thrived. The local (well regarded) university is an educational black box, offering little support or contact with administrators or educators. Office hours are never kept and often cancelled, for instance. Assignments aren’t managed properly in online systems and teachers can’t be reached by the deadline (it’s almost like a Google support situation — impervious and well guarded). Still, he found a research position and got offered a job and works with an interesting and accessible professor. Socially, his university isn’t a match. He’s not that interested in college life, and I can’t find a wedge in to encourage him. He’s in a STEM field, so everyone’s pretty anti-social. So, we’re that kind of homeschool tribe. He turned out fine. He’s very happy that he was homeschooled. Honestly, if I hadn’t been divorced (amicably) and if she hadn’t been anchored here, I would’ve seriously considered moving to another country for his education. It’s what he and I are discussing for his grad school interests. We’re both making lists of places overseas (where we’ve been expats at various times).