Most of the education of children outside factotum’s facts (which are necessary) happens in the vast majority of hours in which fathers and mothers love, read to, eat with, argue with (the sort of intentional arguments that serve as training wheels for when they leave the home—one of the most important parts of the education of our children), have family devotions, sing in the car, take walks, work up a sweat doing yard and garden and farm chores or cleaning house, and so on. I can’t emphasize this enough.
As I have pointed out before, no matter what hundreds of millions of dollars the feds pour into educational research, they find they can’t do anything that is as important as regular family meals, and the children who grow up in a home having them are impermeable to curricula, teachers, schools, etc.
About homeschooling boys, no boys become men without hitting their heads against men and other boys. Full stop. So if you want to teach this most foundational part of Godly obedience to the calling of God for life, namely sexuality, if you have boys, you better make sure you stay home and send your wife to work. Or if you have girls, make sure your wife stays home and you go to work. Starting in junior high school to freshman in high school. You may say you are the one father who can teach his son to be a man while working outside the home; and yes, you may be the exception that proves the rule. But usually, the men who think they’re the exception that proves the rule turn out to be both blind to their own shortcomings and the rule, after all.
I’d also recommend team sports for boys that are effeminate. Agree with most of what you wrote, Joel, but I am hesitant about your assumption you will homeschool your sons in high school. Many years watching this and even doing it ourselves, and we know the risks and usual outcomes. Love,