Do you love your children with all of your heart? Are you willing to put the needs of your children before your own, including their educational needs? Then you’re qualified!
Actually, most of us start out homeschooling our children. We help them develop — to walk, talk, and use a spoon. We teach them right from wrong. We are homeschooling our children each time we sit down to read a book, listen to music, color or paint, visit a botanical garden, engage in bird watching, count small donut-shaped cereal pieces, build a block tower, take a walk outdoors, or simply enjoy the wonder of God’s creation together. Think about how much your child has learned from the time he was born through the time he was five.
“To add my bit, I would say you are in a better position to be a good teacher for your children than I was as a classroom teacher. When you begin teaching one-on-one, mind-to-mind, as I like to say it, you very rapidly learn about teaching. I would say that most homeschool moms know more about teaching after a few weeks than I knew after two years of classroom teaching…. The fact that you know your children so well and you’re dedicated to the job makes you the best teacher your child could have.”
Dr. Ruth Beechick, Dr. Beechick’s Homeschool Answer Book
Did you hire a professional? Who knows your children better than you? Who knows better than you how to solicit the best response in a given situation? Who loves them enough to encourage and motivate them? Who has their best interests at heart?
Practically speaking, there are many materials available to make our job easier. Many programs include teacher guides (some of those are even scripted), others offer video or online instruction, telephone help, or full-blown advisory.
The extent to which you feel qualified to educate your children at home may depend in large part on how you view education. If we assume learning isn’t something that happens TO us but is something that we can only do for ourselves, then all that is required is a warm and loving mentor and tutor — and there is no one more qualified for that position than a parent. And let’s never forget that learning is vastly more far-reaching than the ABCs.
Further Reading
Amateurs Outdoing Professionals
“Yet it is common for ordinary parents, with no training in education, to homeschool their children and consistently produce better academic results than those of children educated by teachers with Master’s degrees and in schools spending upwards of $10,000 a year per student — which is to say, more than a million dollars to educate ten kids from K through 12.” Why amateurs outperform professionals as explained by Thomas Sowell.
‘Mom, Dad Better Than Certified Teachers’
“Sam Peavey, professor emeritus of the School of Education at the University of Louisville, also concluded: ‘I wish I could tell you that those thousands of [teacher certification documents] contributed significantly to the quality of children’s learning, but I cannot. … After fifty years of research, we have found no significant correlation between the requirements for teacher certification and the quality of student achievement.‘”
Wise, imaginative, patient, and intuitive parents are aware of baby’s efforts and growing stages and will give him practice to expand and improve his abilities as they appear. They respond lovingly always, firmly where necessary, and with some imagination. This is teaching of the highest order. The warm, responsive, consistent parent is the world’s best teacher.
Raymond & Dorothy Moore, Home Grown Kids
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