You Can Teach Your Own Children

"Experts" don't have a monopoly on childhood education, no matter how arrogant they act.

Do not let anyone make you feel inadequate about your ability to teach your children. Parents have been doing it for thousands of years without the help of a college degree. You don’t need six years of higher education to be able to teach 3rd-grade math to your 7-year-old.

Many naysayers of homeschooling are parents who feel inadequate and project that onto others. Or they feel guilty about not teaching their own kids and so they have sour grapes about other parents doing it well. They treat your success as an accusation. They treat your joy as a judgment.

Or they are a member of the teacher’s union and so their livelihood depends upon you feeling like an imposter. They need you to believe that childhood education should be outsourced to “experts.”

“Experts” who know how to accuse 7-year-olds of white privilege. “Experts” who know how to question a 7-year-old’s gender or sexual orientation. Often, an education is a negative qualification. It means the recipient has been co-opted into some strange philosophy.

As the Professor asks in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, “Bless me, what do they teach them at these schools?”

But you can teach your children. Even more, you can probably do a better job of it and in far less time than your children would spend in a public school.

Qualifications to Teach

The number one qualification for teaching your children? That you love them. Can you do that?

The number two qualification? That you have some enthusiasm for what you are teaching. If you aren’t excited about learning, they won’t be excited about learning.

What about knowledge? What about experience?

Those are less important than you would think. You can read to them. You can find a curriculum, complete with videos and schedules, that guides both you and your children. You can still hire outside help to fill in some gaps. Tutors, online and off, have never been more available. Online classes abound.

But don’t ever let someone make you feel inadequate because you don’t have a Master’s Degree in glorified classroom management. They are trying to gatekeep your own children. Do not let them.

Should you learn some teaching techniques? Sure.

Should you learn from others with more experience than you? Absolutely.

But if you listen to the “expert” class, they think this knowledge is only found in a single cathedral, bestowed by an ordained priesthood from which only the chosen few can gain access.

Don’t believe them.

Educational effectiveness does not depend on time spent in a classroom, but on the degree to which children are engaged in active learning behavior. - Dr. Steven Duvall

Studies have shown that public school students spend an average of 16 minutes per hour “engaged,” while homeschool students spend 40 minutes per hour “engaged.”

What is “engaged” time? It means a student is actively involved in reading, writing, or talking about their lessons.

This is when learning actually happens. It didn't matter whether the family was experienced in homeschooling or it was their first year. Even if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, you already have a head start.

You can do it.

You can give your kids a good education in under 2 hours per day.