I don't object to outside activities--I object to the sheer number of them that most parents foist on their kids. In my opinion, one or two things is sufficient. Any more than that and the kid is just plain overscheduled. There is no time for *playing*. They are running from one practice to another to a recital to a meeting to going home and doing homework.

Plus, I think that it doesn't leave the child time to really learn where their interests lie. It's just too much.

I am all for being well rounded--and my intent is not to shelter at all, that's not my style--but I would rather follow my child's cues than drag them along on the extracurricular ride. If and when they show an interest in outside activities, I'm there to encourage it. It just rubs me wrong to see these families where every single night is devoted to something or other. There's no down time where they all just hang out and entertain themselves.

And before you ask, I participated in extracurricular things as a kid..not too many, not too little..and feel that I am a well rounded adult as a result. But my mom was a big advocate of the extracurricular activities enhancing our family, NOT taking away from it.

Btw, the homeschooling kinda happened in a weird way. H asked me to do it when my oldest was 2. Bad timing...I was dealing with a rotten two year old and fired off a 'when hell freezes over' reply to him. He kept at me, over the years, even bought a cassette tape on homeschooling and asked me to listen to it (which I never did ). But then I started looking into it because my sister in law was thinking of doing it, and also because NOP mentioned that his wife had done it (that was before the Mrs had discovered us) and I started feeling called to at least find out about it. So I researched a little bit and what I found knocked my socks off! There were groups and activities and this whole subculture (lol) built around it. So after a few sessions of picking MrsNOP's brain and going to a couple seminars on it, I decided to take the plunge. My husband was thrilled but had this sorta "I knew you'd do it all along" attitude that frosted me, but whatcha gonna do. He has been extremely supportive of me, and I'm sure that I would not be able to do it without him being my rock and #1 teaching fan.