I am considering homeschooling next year?

You have really gotten some bad answers here. It seems the anti home school trolls are out in force today. One thing you will want to do is see what the laws in your state are. Contact the home school legal defense ociation. You never want to contact the school board or school district, as they usually don't have accurate information and will often intentionally mislead you to keep your children in the system. You can either purchase a curriculum or make your own. Many public libraries will have the text books for the local school system. It can cost as much or as little as you choose to spend. The good news is for the younger grades you cost is much less. As far as the "socialization" unless you plan on locking the kids in a closet or chaining them to a table why would they have no friends? Home school takes far less time than traditional school, so you will have much more time to pursue social activities. Also traditional school does not really offer real world socialization, it is forced and artificial. In real life do you only socialize with 25 other people your own age who live in your neighborhood? Probably not. Is it easy to home school? NO!! It is a big commitment and one that you have to follow through with to be successful. Do you need to be a "certified" teacher to home school? Again no. Do you know that all a teaching degree is is a degree in crowd control? Home school kids usually do much better both academically and socially, and kids who are home schooled in high school have a much better chance of getting into the college of their choice as many colleges actively seek home school students over public school students. Good luck and have fun.