Wow, we got busy around here all of a sudden!
Quick answers first--
Nuzmom, have you thought of checking out either your church band or the local high school to see if you can find someone who can give guitar lessons to your son? Depending on how old he is, you might be able to find a teenage guitar player that would work out well. We have a 15 yo boy in our church who is teaching a couple of the kids drums.
OceanAnnie--I tell you, you are the website guru of this thread! You always have such good links to share! So, do you know where I can find some more info for FIAR that is not the official website?
ebarj--for your question about trucking kids around a lot, I would say it totally depends on the choices that you make. I have personally run the gamut from super busy to staying home as much as humanly possible. I have a friend who lives about 20-25 min north of me--and we are sooo not the center of town--she goes for WEEKS without leaving home other than going to co-op. Her kids are delightful and can carry on an interesting conversation with anyone. We have been staying at home pretty much lately other than DD who in Dec was in three plays(yeah, there was a prolonged moment of insanity there when I agreed to that) However, next week we do start gymnastics and then at the end of Jan, each of the kids is taking a class through community ed so that will busy up several of our days.
You also mentioned worrying about your kids missing out on things by not going to public school. Here is the list I have come up with for what they miss out on:
#1 Lots of time wasted standing in lines.
#2 Lots of time wasted waiting for the teacher to discipline the bratty kid that everyone is sick of
#3 Riding the bus--DS5 is still not happy about this
#4 Having to eat lunch in a very noisy room
#5 Learning only what other people tell you you are supposed to learn in X grade because it is on the state standards for that year.
#6 Mean kids
#7 Rude kids
#8 Hours spent being bored learning things you already know
Do I need to go on? Now of course, there are benefits to learning in a group environment that I cannot provide by myself at home, but our co-op of 23 kids can. (And my list is meant to be silly.)
Anna--you remind me of me when I first started looking into homeschooling. Lots of questions and needing answers before you might "really" need them. I want to know everything I need to know and I want to know it now.
As for the supplementing public school, sure people do it but I personally don't get why. I thought of having DD keep up with our history while she was in school this fall, but it was just too hard. She was wiped out when she came home, she had homework everynight and just wanted to be at home hanging out and playing and reading, not having to spend more time on studies. Plus, to me, that kind of ends up saying that they aren't learning in school anyway so what is the point. And, actually, if you work with a kid who is already advanced what will happen is that they get more advanced and more bored in school.
The financial piece has me puzzled. Why do you think homeschooling is expensive? This past spring I spent the most money I ever have on a curriculum and that was about $250. I have now decided that I don't want to use it and won't be buying the next year. Basically, here is about what our curriculum has cost us: Singapore Math $30 per year for DD. We have spent probably $15 in 4 years on manipulatives for her, but she is not a hands on kid. Writing Strands $15, Primary Language Lessons $13, Science was included in my $250 packet but would have cost me probably $40. History we do Story of the World for all three kids and the book and activity guide were about $30. We have art supplies, we do lots of experiments with stuff in the kitchen, we listen to music and read books and watch tons of educational videos from the library. DS5, I have spent a lot more on manipulative type stuff, but almost nothing on curriculum books. We have Busy Bugs, Measuring Worms, Teddy Bear Counters, lots of games but nothing too pricey. We are playing games I have found online for phonics and reading Bob books I borrowed from a friend. I can practically guarantee you that I have spent less for his kindergarten year than you have on tuition for preschool. So, don't let that piece worry you.
For the justified field trip, actually, we just did something along these lines, but I didn't feel I had to justify it since most days I know my kids are learning enough (other days, I am convinced I am a totally failure adn doing my children a complete disservice and they will never be properly educated.) We were basically just doing it for fun because we are really nerds at heart. We were driving to the ice cream shop because we live in MN and it is dang cold out there. Anyway, I had to stop and get gas and DD was watching the numbers on the pump fly upwards. She asked how long that gas would last us, so I told her my goal is to fill up only once a week. I said we get about 20 miles to the gallon and the icecream place we were going was about 15 miles away. So, how much gas would we use and at $xx rate, how much would that cost? She figured it out in her head on the way there. She also decided to inform me that if we were able to go 65 miles an hour, it should only take us about 13 minutes to get where we were going, but since we kept hitting red lights, it was too hard to figure out what time we would be there. When we got to the ice cream shop, the lady offerred two flavors in one cone. DS wanted to know if that meant you got twice as much, or if that meant you got half of one and half of the other(there is technically math in there.) When it was time to pay, the lady wanted DS to tell her how much the ice cream cost(love that lady!! As an aside, it drives me nuts when my kids are trying to buy something for themselves and someone tells them exactly what change they need to give them. Hello??? Lesson lost there!) So, DS had to figure out $2 for 5 people. He counted it on his fingers, but who cares. We could have taken it a lot further than we did, but hey we got some lessons in real world economics and since I really don't care how much actual time we spend doing schooling, it didn't matter. We were just having fun.
Now, do you get sick of your kids and how do you get them to sit at the table and do lessons? Well, #1 Oh yeah! There are days I want to cry because they never go away and they constantly mess up my house!! But I hated having DD in school so it's okay. And I have found that I have to get out on occassion during daylight hours and save my sanity. As far as getting the kids to do their school work, well, the boys don't spend a lot of time at the table. In fact right now, DS5 is pretty much not spending anytime at the table that is paperwork related. He is there when we do science experiments and more hands on projects, but the workbook based stuff was just not workign for him right now and wasnt' worth the fight. Both boys and I do circle time every day. We do calendar and talk about the weather adn days of the week etc. Lately I have started working in the ordinal numbers ideas (first second third etc) into calendar time. We then do our book for Five in A Row. Today we read our story and then looked at a map of China and talked about the map key and where the river was that the character lives on, etc. Then we got out buttons and counted them out in groups for how many ducks there are in the book and then went through and put out a button for each boat we found in the book. Pretty light, but they are picking up things I want them to know at this age. We also have a hard and fast rule in our house that there is no whining or complaining about school work. This works a LOT better for the 9 you than the 5 yo. I honestly cannot remember the last time she complained about school work. She knows each day what she has to do and she just does it. We do spelling totally together and then she knows I am there as a resource for math and writing. We always do science and history all together and we all love it and have fun with it so there are no fights there.
Hoping I answered some questions here and didnt' just ramble. Good luck in your decision.
I reallyl appreciated it!
Along those lines here is a quote from my dear old mother-in-law "How will they know how to talk to other kids if you never let them be with other kids" The funny part of that quote...we were at the playground in my husband's hometown (somewhere we don't go all that often) and my kids were running around the playground with with some new friends while their cousin (who goes to school) was kind of hanging around the edges of the group not really talking with anyone and only joined the group when my middle ds came over and brought them "into the fold". 
In my M-I-L's defense she is warming up to the idea of home schooling and has even been impressed with some things the boys have learned. 
I figure all in good time. 
I'll be looking into that one too.
