my partner and i are mature students at university (i study biology and education; he is studying english, history, and education) and we have been in discussion recently about (when the time comes, of course!) whether it would be best to home school our children.
We plan to move away and buy a smallholding when we have graduated, we are quite lucky to be naturally very frugal so we will be able to buy a place outright. We currently grow all our own fruit and vegetables and theres nothing more we love in the world, so want to make a life of it! However, we have come under A LOT of scrutiny from our ''friends'' especially his brothers wife, who quite brutally and maliciously informed us there was no way in hell we could ever manage without a full time job, how we were cruel and selfish for wanting to home school, and how we would end up in the gutter.
(We all have very different experiences of schooling, her parents paid for her to go through a very nice private all girls school, whereas we both went to 'normal' school and had a horrific time at it! My partner got no GCSEs because of the state of his school and we are now at one of the most prestigious universities in the country doing v.well!

Now, that was a bit offensive to say the least! Most people don't really take it seriously, but still show a curiosity toward it and will be interested in what we have to say. I wanted to bring this forward and see what people thought, is home schooling really that bad? My partners dad was saying to us how he got on average 11minutes per pupil/per week one on one in his class of 30 kids! Obviously socialisation can be an issue but there are plently of extra activities for children to attend. I can understand that if the parents are not broadly educated then this MAY be a problem, but we will both have degrees in very different subjects and my partner used to teach in a school in Russia (and is considering taking his PGCE if we think it will be useful at the time). The only way we would consider home schooling would be if we felt totally adequate as teachers, and if we knew we could offer a better standard of education in a wide range of subjects to our sprogs, is that ever so cruel?
Anyway, sorry for that little rant! What I really wanted to say was that if anyone had any tips on home schooling, and related things than we would be very grateful if you could post them here! Anything from books, to lesson planning and structure, do you teach spontaneously? in a classroom setting? What works, what doesn't work, and what is your advice for successful teaching?
