Instead of trying to write a long essay presenting pro and con of homeschooling as I see it, I decided to adopt a style more like an elaborated bullet point

Flexibility

One obvious advantage homeschooler has is flexibility. As parents and teachers, we are with our children everyday and most of their waking hours. We can make adjustments, large or small, as we go along whenever we sense that it is good to do so. Of course, good teachers in traditional classroom could and would make adjustments according to what their students are and how they learn. It is the bigger changes that classroom teachers cannot do easily, but homeschool parents can. For example, we can change our whole curriculum as long as the principal, yours truly, and the teacher, Debbie, agree. A classroom teacher cannot do that in most schools without running afoul with the principal, or parents.

Flexibility, however, is a two-edged sword. It is great to have this kind of flexibility, but we need to exercise this flexibility carefully. Taking flexibility to extreme, it can definitely come back to haunt us.

Through the four years of home schooling, I believe we use this flexibility in moderation and in prudent manner. Let me present three of our cases here:

Case 1 : We chose world renowned Singapore Math for all of our math classes in the first three years of homeschooling. While Singapore Math is a great curriculum, it was hard for Jonathan to jump into it starting at 6th grade. Timothy had better result since he started at 4th grade and was given more time to get used to the way Singapore Math works and thinks. I was teaching them math here and there, in the evenings or early in the morning before going to work. I was not consistent enough. Obviously a drawback of the flexibility of schedule. Debbie eventually took over the teaching and I became the tutor if they need extra help.

After working at it for three years, Jonathan switched over to take Algebra class from Chieftan Institute, an institute offering high school level classes to homeschoolers. They use Saxon Math while we continue to use Singapore Math at home. The change turned out to be beneficial since Jonathan is doing very well in his Algebra class. The different approach of the Saxon Math works better for him, and the preparation he had from Singapore Math now proves to be solid as well.

Case 2: Timothy had a chance to go to Taiwan for a year to be with Grandpa (Debbie's Dad) when he was about to start 6th grade. With prayer and discussion with him, we sent him back to Taiwan and enrolled him in 6th grade in a public school near Grandpa's house. Not only it became a very special time he had with Grandpa. It also gave him a full Chinese immersion experience for a whole 9 months. When he got back home, it was pretty easy to have him pick up right where he left off and move forward. I am quite sure we can do the same thing if he went to a public school but it would probably be a bit more paper work to get him out and back in school. His reentry of our school is done in a seamless transition because his whole curriculum is determined by his progress alone. In a school setting, I would imagine that there will be some transition issue. Homeschooling definitely makes the transition back easy and painless.

Case 3: We started using HomeSat program, a satellite distance learning program for Christian schools and homeschooler this year. We record the broadcast program and then burn it onto DVDs. It adds a rich content to our curriculum that is very much in the tradition of classic education in a very flexible format of media. Xander is in 2nd grade this year, and just reach the point where he picks up reading and takes off. He becomes rather advanced reader in a short span of a few months. He shows a lot of interest in many subjects his older brothers are studying. In the first semester, he had his own "Heritage Study" classes but he would also join Debbie and Timothy to watch Timothy's 7th grade "World Study" DVD program. As time goes by, Debbie noticed that Xander would participate more and showed some real understanding of the material. This semester, we decided that we would just let him become officially part of the class. We stopped his "Heritage Study" since the class does not seem to interest him. He enjoyed the depth from the higher grade classes, and his participation and interaction makes the class more interesting and entertaining for Timothy. I think this is flexibility at its best.