And you have to test them, right? To be sure they're on grade level?

This is the question I get most, hands down, when uninitiated people are asking me about homeschool.

Answer: no. In Utah, there is no oversight, no regulation of homeschool. I can take my kids to the schools when they are doing standardized testing, or I can use any measures I myself deem reliable to check their progression. No one is going to come check up on me at all, so I even can just stay in bed all day, and let them build Legos and watch movies and never crack a book. I can do that.

But why on earth would I? Why would I sabotage my kids like that? I keep them home because I believe I'm educating them better than the public schools do, not because I want to go easy on them. I want them to have a broader and deeper knowledge base, not be doing first grade work at the age of ten. I want them to be productive, contributing members of society, capable of supporting themselves and their families. I do not wish them to be eternal infants forever dependent upon me.

And it always freaks me right the heck out when I find out about families who do just that. They withdraw all their kids from school and keep them home, and then never crack a book. Can't be bothered to work up a curriculum. Spend their day in bed.

I mean, I have sympathy for health problems, or depression. Sure, there are some things that keep you in bed all day, legitimately. But in those cases, public service announcement, PUT THE KIDS IN SCHOOL. They may struggle socially. They may be behind their grade level. They may have to start with short vowel sounds and three-letter words. But Concerned Parent, is that not better than sitting around all day, not learning to read or write or do math at all? Isn't it? A little?

I cannot even wrap my mind around a parent who would find the public school system so risky (?) that they would rather have their kid at home doing literally nothing educational than be in school and learn something.

(Yes, I know a family doing precisely this. My fifth grader is by far more accomplished in every subject than their 18YO eldest, who has "graduated". Which, when there's no oversight or regulation other than a mom's say-so, is without actual meaning under certain circumstances.)