Good to see so many homeschoolers and hometeachers stepping up here to combat the false perceptions. It can actually be a great learning experience for the parents and not just the kid. Sometimes I was taught things my mother hadn't known, we learned together, and if I got the idea first, I'd teach her, and teaching is one of the best ways to learn... in fact I think she faked ignorance sometimes just to permit this.

I hear you on the private schools, we didn't have the money either, and even when they offered a scholarship, there just wasn't anyway to get me there every day, nor was my older sister available for a scholarship, yet she was more stifled by schooling than I was and it tore into her grades, my mother was worried I might do the same, since she'd always been an honor roll student till she hit junior high.

The nice thing about kids who are removed because they aren't challenged enough and feel stifled is they already meet the qualifications as those most suited to the more one-on-one or small group teaching methods. A lot of times, they don't really need classic teaching so much as encouragement and direction, since so often they were the ones who 'got it' in the first ten minutes of class then got zoned out and fidgety for the rest of the time.

I wouldn't worry too much, standardized tests or available clones are a good measure, they make a nice diagnostic tool - especially if you have one of those kids who likes taking tests, many of the smarter ones do, many don't. If your kid starts sliding, and typically it will just be in one or two areas, you can shift focus, and do it easier than a teacher would because you can focus entirely on them, and you know them best. Not knocking teachers, most of them do know what they are doing and do try very hard, but they have to focus on the whole class and they can't know each of their students like their parents do.