This is a lot more planning than I ever did last year & the kids did just fine…I’m not sure what else you’re planning to do with Kaius, but I would think you could manage without a printer. We rarely used ours for homeschooling stuff. We actually did very little ‘homeschooling’ – just did lots of reading, games, videos & experiences…

I just wanted to throw out a word of caution about trying to ‘home school’ while Kaius is going to school. IME, kids get disconnected from you while at school & are much harder to deal with when they get home…I hope this doesn’t happen for you, since you have such a great connection now…just something to watch out for.

A friend asked me why I was doing it when we started homeschooling last year & after saying a few things like what you said above, she said, “Oh, you mean because school sucks the life out of them!”. That’s it, exactly.

My cousin asked me on facebook:
Why do you want to homeschool?

This was my response…

Lots of different reasons

The main reason is that I really don`t like the herd mentality. I feel like creativity is stifled and being unique isn`t rewarded. I don`t think everyone that`s around the same age needs to be at the same level academically or socially.

There`s too many administrative details and not enough learning… too much hurry up and wait… not enough one on one attention. Classes are too big and the more outgoing or difficult or brave or vocal kids get more attention.

I feel like I know my child best – he and I are pretty tight emotionally and I feel like he would thrive. I don`t want him to be average… I want him to be above average. I want his smarts to match his awesome personality and I truly don`t think that will happen in a school.

I could go on and on but that`s about the gist of it.