Anyone who is not sure of 100% homeschooling can check with your local school district to see if they allow part time students. I'm officially a homeschooler by

Anyone who is not sure of 100% homeschooling can check with your local school district to see if they allow part time students. I'm officially a homeschooler by state law but my kids go to a local public school a few hours a day, four days a week. They call it "fun school". They go to lunch, recess, and all the specials (art, music, PE, technology, Spanish), and an extra conversational Spanish class. They go on all the class trips, school concerts, fundraiser parties, etc. They each have loads of "school friends" and get invited to tons of birthday parties, etc. The public school kids in their classes (an extremely diverse group)seem to love and accept them. The "no schooling" concerns are valid and I think it is like running a business - when you homeschool you might like some objective advisers outside of your family to keep you on your toes. This "educational advisory panel" can take many forms. For example, we use the Kumon private tutoring center to make sure we don't miss any holes with English and the Mathnasium center and Khan Academy to cover all the broad topics in math. These are private programs and they are expensive but worth it - kids who go through them ace standardized tests. It's very "tiger mom" and a good balance to the "unschooling" philosophy. They are still way cheaper than private school for a big family and they don't take much time out of the week. This leaves room for all those "creative class, student led inquiry based projects" and family/friend/socializing time pursuits. It works for us :-)