Homeschooling: Answering Your Questions (Part One)

I don’t usually blog about homeschooling. However, I regularly receive questions about our homeschooling journey. Since the purpose of my blog is to encourage and empower you to tell the next generation wondrous things, it seems fitting to include some posts about homeschooling!

Some of you are seriously considering homeschooling but are apprehensive about it. You are the ones I want to encourage today.

In addition, perhaps this post will enlighten those who think homeschooling is for weird people. (No worries—that’s exactly what I used to think!)

All Parents are Teachers

All parents are teachers. Every day, we teach our children through the choices we make with our words, actions, and attitudes.

Homeschool parents recognize specific needs in their children. We want to guide and equip them to successfully find answers to those needs. There are magnificent mountains of knowledge for them to discover and breathtaking journeys for them to take. Understanding that children are unique and learn differently and at different paces, we want to provide them with learning environments designed for their needs. To do that, we choose to homeschool.

This is part one of a three-part series. Below are a few questions I receive on a regular basis. If you have additional questions, I’d love to hear from you.

How long have you been homeschooling?

We’ve been homeschooling since the fall of 1999! After a few years of public school, I began homeschooling our daughters when they began first and third grades.

Both girls went on to graduate from college and are doing well. Our son has been homeschooled from the beginning and is currently in the eighth grade. (2023 Update: He graduated!)

But you have a teaching degree, so you know how to teach. Will I be able to do it?

I have a master’s degree in K-6 Education. I taught in the public school system for nine years.

However, a college degree is not the key component of what makes a good teacher. Don’t get me wrong. A college education can be beneficial. I learned things in my college classes that have helped me as a teacher.

Nonetheless, we all know success usually comes by learning through hands-on training and gaining experience in the field. Wise mentors, hard work, and a determination to keep making progress all promote success.

Do We Need Teaching Degrees to Homeschool?

I have a teaching degree, but I don’t believe it makes me more qualified to homeschool. The desire to guide our children to learn to the best of their ability and for them to find joy in it is what counts.

The willingness to study and teach ourselves alongside our kids goes a long way. In most situations, teaching our kids with their best interests in mind trumps institutional degrees.

No one loves and cares more about your children than you do. You know their strengths and weaknesses—or you will once you begin homeschooling. You will be free to teach each child based on their learning style and at a pace where they can master a concept before moving forward.

If you are willing to seek and provide effective educational resources for your child diligently, then yes, you can do this.

That may be through trial and error in finding a curriculum that works for your child. It may be your willingness to research and educate yourself on a topic or to find a tutor. It will require some sacrifices. You must realize there will be successes and failures, easy days and tough days. God can reveal great things to us through all of them.

If you have your children’s best interest at heart, you desire for them to grow strong spiritually, emotionally, physically, and intellectually. If you believe God is calling you to do this, then yes, you most definitely can do this—without any formal teacher training. If God is tugging your heart toward homeschooling, He will equip you with the resources to do it.

Isn’t the public school system good enough?

Because of my experience teaching in a public school, I have respect and compassion for public school teachers.

But ask any classroom teacher, and they’ll tell you the number one problem is class size. Stress abounds in classrooms where twenty or more students must progress at a similar pace together and quickly every day.

To cover the material on which students will be tested, there’s very little time to slow down for those who are struggling. Over twenty kids—all with different learning styles and attention spans, some with learning disabilities, and some dealing with serious problems at home are all trying to keep up or surpass one another.

Also, you must consider the learning environment. Children learn far more than academics when they attend public or private schools.

Thankfully, when my girls attended public school, they had great teachers. Even so, many nights, we had to unteach them things they learned at school (from students and staff) that were contrary to God’s Holy Word.

However, every school is different. All children and their family situations are unique. You must decide what’s best for your children and what will best meet their needs at this moment in time.

Why did you pull your children out of the public school system?

For us, our main reason for pulling our girls out of the school system was our desire to spend more time with them. We felt like most of our time with them was spent helping with homework or counseling them on troubling things they had witnessed at school.

We longed for them to experience more joy in learning and discovering truth in life. And yes, while they were young and influential, we strongly felt the need to protect their hearts and minds.

Isn’t homeschooling for weird people?

It’s funny now when I think of how many years I said, “Homeschooling is for weird people. I will NEVER homeschool!”

God must have chuckled as I slowly yielded to the new calling he was placing on my life.

Before we began our journey in homeschooling, I read books on the subject. There weren’t as many back then as there are now. I didn’t know one person who homeschooled.

Somehow, I learned about a local homeschool group in our county. I visited several of their meetings before I actually began homeschooling. They offered encouragement and answered many of my questions. That interaction prepared me more than any of the books I read.

I’ll never forget what one grinning homeschool mom said to me, “If you homeschool, you don’t have to be weird unless you want to be.”

And that, my friends, is another beauty of homeschooling.

Further Reading

You may also want to read:

“Homeschooling: Answering Your Questions” Part 2 :
What are the legal requirements to homeschool?
How much does it cost?
Where can I find helpful resources?
What curriculum do you use?
If I homeschool, do I need to set up a classroom?

Also, I encourage you to check out The Old Schoolhouse website, which contains many helpful resources! The Old Schoolhouse is the trade magazine for homeschooling. You can connect to that site by clicking the link below.

The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine

They also have an online arm, SchoolhouseTeachers.com, with lessons and resources for the entire family.

Motivated by the power of story, history, and His Story, Sally Matheny’s passion is telling the next generation wondrous things.

Her nonfiction writing appears in worldwide, national, and regional publications including Appleseeds, Clubhouse Jr., Homeschooling Today, and The Old Schoolhouse.

She and her husband live in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and are blessed with three children, two sons-in-law, and armfuls of grandbabies. Connect with Sally on several social media sites, but her favorite hangouts are at SallyMatheny.com and Pinterest.