The Confidence to Homeschool

Houses on Unterach on Attersee by Gustav Klimt (1916)

Twenty something years ago a friend had a daughter who was nearing school age. For five years this friend had given her little girl a rich education: plenty of outdoor play, looking after backyard chickens, neighbourhood walks, outings with friends & extended family, involvement in a church community, read alouds, etc. etc. My friend hadn’t had much of an education herself and wasn’t particularly confident in her mothering ability, but she was doing a fine job with her daughter.

She often talked to me about home education but when her daughter was nearly ready to be enrolled in school, she decided that she wasn’t qualified to teach. I knew my friend’s heart was to teach her daughter, or I should say, to keep teaching her daughter, and I pointed out to her that under her charge her child had learned to speak, had been toilet trained, could do little jobs around the home, could occupy herself and pay focussed attention, knew the names of different birds and plants, and was comfortable communicating with other children and the adults in her life. Why was my friend now unable to continue her daughter’s education when she had already taught her so much? Because in this age of ‘‘experts’’ we have been conditioned to believe that you need to be a trained teacher to teach. One of the reasons I generally avoid the term ‘homeschooling’ and like to say ‘home education’ is because teaching our children at home is (hopefully!) very different to that provided in the school classroom.

I’ve often been asked if I was a trained teacher, and I grant that if you teach in a school situation, having some training in classroom dynamics would be helpful, but just because you have knowledge does not mean you can impart it to others. I’ve had enough experience in trying to find music teachers for each of my children to realise that. You could be the most gifted musician but a totally useless teacher.

Sending a child to school doesn’t abrogate our responsibility for their education as children can go through the education system and come out functionally illiterate after 12 years. If we take on the education of our children at home the responsibility rests on our shoulders and we need to take that duty seriously.

Teaching young children at home is really an extension of our parenting and parenting well requires growth in experience, wisdom and knowledge. Sometimes I almost feel sick when I think back to my early days as a mother, bringing home a tiny little girl who wasn’t feeding properly, wasn’t gaining weight and didn’t sleep. My husband only had a couple of days off work and then I was all alone with this totally dependent little person. Twenty months later her little brother was born and what a different scenario that was. I was still ignorant about many things but experience had brought me a small measure of competence.

The early days of teaching our children at home are days of growing in experience, wisdom & knowledge. It’s the time to establish some rhythms, personal habits for ourselves and our children, and to think seriously about our philosophy of education, which is basically determining which train we should get on to reach the required destination.

Our children won’t be little for long (I never believed this when people said it to me when I was surrounded by young children) but one day you will look back and it will feel like the blink of an eye. Enjoy the days of small things, of small persons, and don’t wish them away. Allow them to help you grow.