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I think the catalyst for me was when I left to care for my dying grandmother. Before that I was doing homework with the kids faithfully every night for hours upon end. My older twin has a true gift for English and his Math skills are amazing... BUT he takes a minute to understand what is going on. He is currently taking an honors calculus course and his biggest problem is that he does everything in his head!!! Way beyond my skills. My younger twin is better with Science and history.
It all started when they were in the 3rd grade. The homework they had to do was just ridiculous. By the time they reached Jr. High my tolerance level was zero. When I went up to care for my grandmother I learned that I had been the one teaching them. I could write a book on what came next (and have here in different places). I was the most concerned with teaching them Math. These are foundation subjects and from experience I knew that if you miss something you struggle forever.
When I figured out that I was the one teaching them to begin with, I had nothing to lose so I took the plunge. I HIGHLY recommend Teaching Textbooks for Math. They are very expensive, but SO worth it.
I wanted to make sure that their quality of education exceeded what they were getting in school, so I found out which versions of the text books they would be using the following year and set out to purchase them. The hardest to obtain by far were the science books. There are a lot of creation versions out there for homeschoolers, but main stream sciences were hard to come by. I had to join a group called Oasis that allowed me to purchase those textbooks with teacher Editions.
Your son is going into the fourth grade. He already has a circle of friends has he not? You can still tap into that social circle. There are also leagues through the Y and what not that he can join. Also, your state may allow him (should you wish) to join things like sports or even take some classes in school like Band or Art.
As I said, I would do a search for virtual schools. I would NOT recommend the K-12 version (may be ok for a child your age, but I found it lacking for older students). I really like the Florida Virtual School (although I believe your son may to too young, classes start at Jr. High). What I discovered in my state is that there are Virtual schools through the state, they are accredited public schools. My son (one chose to return to public school) has a "teacher" through that school, which acts more like a true guidance counselor. He can take classes from a variety of sources one of the big ones is the U of Missouri. (I don't care for their format, but many people like them).
Are you not from Missouri? With the set up they have available to students world wide (many military children take these courses) I find it surprising these services are not available to you free of charge.
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I've been married for 24 years and have four wonderful children.
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