• "I could never do that.  I don't have the patience to spend all that time with my kids."  Just an aside here: If you can't spend time with your kids, you've got other problems.
  
• "Besides, I probably don't know most of that material myself."  Here's a hint: most teachers aren't brilliant.  Most teachers aren't specifically educated in their subject.  This is why they resist the teacher competency tests that many states are proposing.
• "And I don't think we could afford to live without my / my wife's salary."  Not at your current standard of living, anyway.  But is the plasma screen TV more important than your child?
  

• Our kids actually look forward to school.  Okay, most of the time.  They really enjoy learning and they get to explore any areas that they're particularly interested in further.
  
  
• My kids love to read.  My oldest (who is about 7) wants to read everything in sight.  The next one down (age 4) is constantly looking at books and wanted to learn to read so badly, that we've starting "word blending" already. Our only failure is that the 1-year-old doesn't read much. 
  
  Take it easy!  I'm kidding!  She actually loves to read....
  
  
• They take great field trips!  Do you remember all of those field trips you took when you were in school?  The library, the firehouse, maybe the police, jail, or hospital?  Well, they don't do that in public school anymore.
  
  However, because there are so many homeschoolers and they are organized in support groups, there are tons of places that approach us about field trips.  Factories, monuments, museums, Sea World, zoos, airports, amusement parks, you name it! 
  
  They get to do a whole lot more cool field trips than I ever did!  And they usually (accidentally) learn a little something along the way.
  
  
• They're learning how to run a household.  Because schooling only takes a fraction of the time of public school, they're also learning the work that goes into maintianing a household.  Not just learning the work for later life, but learning to respect the work it takes someone to clean up a mess.  So, they make less messes (and usually clean up their own!)
  
  I don't care if you've got boys or girls, there are so few kids these days that know how to clean a house, do laundry, and cook that anyone who can will be in high demand.
  
  
• They have a real relationship with their mother and me.  Not only do they get to spend a good portion of their day with their mother and have a relaxed relationship (as opposed to one forced into the 2 hours between Mom getting home and the kids going to bed), they also get to see more of me as I work from home when I'm not doing business travel.
  
  
• They (usually) act in a respectful, loving manner.  Most parents want kids that are respectful of others and are kind to one another.  Most parents even try to teach this to their kids.  But our kids are held to that standard all day long and are learning it well. 
  
  I'm not deluded into thinking my children are little angels.  But we recently had an illustration of what to compare them with.  We have some relatives nearby who have kids of similar ages.  During Christmas with them, their 5-year-old said, "I hate that!" for about 50% of the presents he received. 
  
  For most of them, he didn't know what they were or what they did, but he felt the need to tell everyone (including, of course, the gift-givers, who were right there) that he hated most of what he got.  I can't imagine my kids ever saying something like that.  Not (only) because they'd be afraid of their punishment, but it just wouldn't occur to them to tell someone who just gave them a gift, "I hate that!"
  
  
• They have great self-esteem.  Okay, I threw this one in for those of you who are convinced that we should do everything for our kids because they need to have great self-esteem.
  
  Because we are constantly affirming their educational growth at home (and we know exactly what they're supposed to have learned), they are encouraged to do well in "school".  My oldest was reading out loud to me in some free time that we had and asked me how well she was reading.  I could honestly say that, at 7 years old, it was better than many of the kids in my high school English class.
  
  Conversely, we also let our kids know when they don't know something.  When they do a "college try" at their homework and it's obviously wrong, we'll explain what was wrong and say, "Do it again".  As many times as it takes.
  
  In our school, not everyone is right, but that leads to greater self-esteem when they actually do get it right.
  
  
• We can take a vacation anytime.  This was something we hadn't anticipated, but it works out really well.  Tired of being taken advantage of in the June-August "vacation season"?  Vacation in the off-season and save a bundle.
  
  We can even "do school" on vacation because there's always something to learn wherever we go.  It doesn't have to be all day, every day.  Just learn one new thing about where you are each day.  It could take 5 minutes and TA-DA!  You've done some school.
  

• Promote Godly living / values
• Are genuinely entertaining to this age girl
• Are tough enough to challenge her a little - maybe they might take a whole week to read!
• Don't introduce topics that she shouldn't be into just yet.
• Are available at a local (good) library.  Our libraries are interconnected and web-enabled, so if any library in the county has the book, we can get it delivered to our local library.

So, there I am, walking out of my office (which happens to be inside my home) to find a 1st grade student (daughter) crying at her teacher (wife). 

"What's the problem," I ask, as the concerned principal of this school.

"I don't wanna do flash cards!  They take too long and I've got all this other stuff to do!  Look!  I've got spelling and my Bible verse and writing to do!"

I've seen this before.  Really, what she is saying is that she doesn't like flash cards.  I don't know why and she isn't telling.  She just doesn't like doing flash cards.

I've discussed this with the teacher and it just takes forever for her to put together different math worksheets for all the practice that this particular student needs.  This student has a good memory, so if the teacher gives the same sheet over and over, the student will memorize the answers and won't learn anything.

What's a principal to do?

RESEARCH IS YOUR FRIEND.  SOMETIMES.

So, I did a little research.  Okay, I did a LOT of research because I was looking for a piece of software to generate practice / test / quiz papers.  And all of the software I was seeing was for doing math problems and games on the computer.

I think to myself, "Self, personal computers have been around since the late 70's and school has been around since 1600 or so.  More than one teacher must have come up with the idea that s/he didn't have to make a new worksheet every day for 20 kids and that there was huge computational power available to do the work instead."

I'm very logical, you see, and my logic was right.  In 35 years of personal computerdom, some teacher had to make a worksheet generator. 

Turns out that either teachers aren't logical (which, from my educational experience, I wholeheartedly believe), or they're hiding their software somewhere secret and teachery.....

AND THE ANGELS SUNG...

But then, my searching became fruitful!  Shortly before cursing all teachers everywhere, I came up with a site that had perfect solution for everyone:

This site has something for pretty much for all levels of elementary math.  Including an addition and subtraction worksheet generator where I can pick the numbers that it should use AND it'll create an answer key (just in case my teacher's math is a little rusty...)

Most of you are probably more experienced at finding these tools / knowing where they are since you're in the trenches day-to-day, but just in case, I thought I would throw this your way.

Anyone else know of more tools like this?  Comment with them so that I don't have to rip out my hair anymore!