I home educated my kids, from about eight or nine to 16. In the UK where 16 is an important point of change (end of compulsory school age, and its when children in schools a critical set of exams).
A few things from my experience.
To a large extent the early years of home education are an extension of the teaching parents do anyway.
As they get older it takes less of your time. Children need to learn, but you need to facilitate rather than teach and/or pay for tutors.
You will need a lot of books, obviously different books at different ages. There are good books on every subject and its far too early to start thinking about exactly what books you need to use.
I have found its best to focus on doing things that are enjoyable and create a love of learning rather than thinking about syllabus. A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart and How Children Fail by John Holt are well worth reading. Things like memorising times tables and long division do not matter. No one uses handwwriting much in adult life (although it does still need to be legible for exams).
Part time supplementing is very different from home education. IMO that is also just an extension of parentings.
Home education is incredibly flexible. My kids have done GCSEs/IGCSEs (those UK exams we take at 16 in schools) in a variety of subjects with a choice no one school can offer, and many that few schools offer at all: Latin, astronomy and classical civilisation.
You can also do a lot of non-academic stuff. Both my daughters could solder by the time they were six or seven because I built circuits with them. My older daughter is now doing a degree apprenticeship (she has a job and a salary and her tuition fees paid while studying - very good for daddy's wallet!) in electrical engineering. We both credit HE with developing her interest in a subject very few girls do - she was the only girl in her A level (UK exams done at 18 - roughly equivalent to US APs) electronics class.
Finally, I am very glad I decided to home educate, and it has worked out extremely well for my kids. I think they could have achieved the same in terms of grades at school, but not the love of learning nor the self-discipline that they got from HE.
A few things from my experience.
To a large extent the early years of home education are an extension of the teaching parents do anyway.
As they get older it takes less of your time. Children need to learn, but you need to facilitate rather than teach and/or pay for tutors.
You will need a lot of books, obviously different books at different ages. There are good books on every subject and its far too early to start thinking about exactly what books you need to use.
I have found its best to focus on doing things that are enjoyable and create a love of learning rather than thinking about syllabus. A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart and How Children Fail by John Holt are well worth reading. Things like memorising times tables and long division do not matter. No one uses handwwriting much in adult life (although it does still need to be legible for exams).
Part time supplementing is very different from home education. IMO that is also just an extension of parentings.
Home education is incredibly flexible. My kids have done GCSEs/IGCSEs (those UK exams we take at 16 in schools) in a variety of subjects with a choice no one school can offer, and many that few schools offer at all: Latin, astronomy and classical civilisation.
You can also do a lot of non-academic stuff. Both my daughters could solder by the time they were six or seven because I built circuits with them. My older daughter is now doing a degree apprenticeship (she has a job and a salary and her tuition fees paid while studying - very good for daddy's wallet!) in electrical engineering. We both credit HE with developing her interest in a subject very few girls do - she was the only girl in her A level (UK exams done at 18 - roughly equivalent to US APs) electronics class.
Finally, I am very glad I decided to home educate, and it has worked out extremely well for my kids. I think they could have achieved the same in terms of grades at school, but not the love of learning nor the self-discipline that they got from HE.