Congrats on getting this community going!
I also am not a homeschooler, except for the fact that I do teach my child at home (when he's not in school.) I am interested in homeschooling and in teaching in general as my profession is in childhood development.
The main barrier to homeschooling that I encounter is inertia and the comfort zone. My husband and I both attended public school and liked it well enough, despite its flaws. While I'm cautious about whether the system is good for my son I see him appearing to thrive there, so it's hard to feel confident that home school would really be better. My husband is more biased toward public school. Not because he sees it as the best way to learn, but he sees it as a lesson in 'real life.' This is what most kids do, so you might as well know what it's like and not be sheltered from it.
While I see that point and sometimes agree, I am less likely to accept doing what everybody else does just because they do it. However, inertia keeps me from really making an effort to change. If my husband earned all the income and I was home it would be one thing, as it is now my income is what feeds us and it won't be easy to shift that.
Thank you for sharing. Homeschooling isn't for everyone and isn't always an option for everyone even if they do want to. Many of us still teach our children at home in addition to them attending a school, so we all have a certain amount of that experience anyway.
When my daughters were in school, I did a lot of work with my youngest at home, because with some teachers she wasn't always able to grasp what they were trying to teach her. Or she may have missed basic steps which meant she didn't understand what was currently being taught. So, in many ways, I was already homeschooling before they came out of school.
My hope with this community is to provide a place and support no matter what level of learning you do at home.
I'll help where I can!
It's my hope to take a year and travel at some point while my son is still growing up, and so give him at least that year of doing things differently.
Travel is the best education. In ways I wish we'd done that, but don't know if we'd ever have managed it financially.