Notes from a homeschooling mom: I am not qualified to homeschool

June 13, 11:18 AMAtlanta Homeschooling ExaminerAndrea Hermitt

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According to the rantings of many an education expert, I am not qualified to homeschool my kids. 

I ranked #20 in my class of 200 students in high school.  I got a paralegal degree 3 years later.  Two years after that I finished college with a BA in Fine Arts with an English Minor.  I may be qualified to assist a lawer, oversee evictions for a real-estate firm, process credit applications for a furniture company, decorate houses, and paint murals, all of which I have done, but to homeschool a child...  where are my qualifications?

How can someone who nearly failed trigonometry teach higher math?  How could someone whose teachers babied her through Chemistry allowing her to draw elements when she couldn't name them, teach higher science?  How could a person who never took honors classes, or never took a higher math or science in college, not to mention education classes teach a child?

As homeschoolers, we tend to brush off these questions, but you have to admit that they have a point.  Still, the anwer is quite simple. There are 3 basic reasons that I am qualified to teach my children.

1.  I have intimate information about my children.  I understand their strengths, their weaknesses, and their motivations.  I know how to get them interested in a subject, and don't have to spend the first quarter of each school year trying to connect with my students.  I am connected to them.

2.  I have the ability to learn.  When fueled with proper motivation, the desire to teach my kids, it doesn't take alot of effort to brush up on a subject I have forgotten, or to learn something new.  Right now, I am teaching myself Spanish along with my kids, so that they have someone to practice with on a daily basis.  Estoy aprendiendo español!

3.  I know where and how to find help.  Like I wrote earlier, I nearly bombed Trig, and struggled through Chemistry, that makes Caluculus and Physics a bit of a stretch.  However, as I am connected to many other homeschoolers, and even have educators in my circle of family and friends, I have resources of people who can teach my kids when I can't.  There are even local classes they can take to learn what I don't feel capable of teaching. 

So before you worry that you are not qualified to teach your own child, sit down and think about these points.  Ask yourself, do I know my child well enough to inspire him or her to learn?  Am I capable of learning a subject in order to help my child through it?  Am I capable of knowing when I need help and finding it?  If you can answer yes to these questions, then you are qualified to homeschool... and so am I.