Qualified?

In most states you do not need to be a "qualified" teacher to teach your own children.  In some states you will need to have a qualified teacher look over your child's work or administer a test.  My husband and I both have degrees.  I got mine right out of high school, way back in the dark ages and he got his after my youngest son was born.  I think that him having a math refresher course a few years back has helped him teach the math, but I'm not sure, he may have been able to do it just fine without the refresher.  My math skills are a bit rusty.  Nonetheless, I do feel that we are qualified to teach our kids without oversight from anyone else.   You notice I said "oversight" not help. We may very well need help from someone else.   Fortunately, we have millions of resources for curriculum, for hiring other teachers, for joining co-ops, for taking online classes, for having our kids tested if need be, for basically any kind of help we need, there is someone offering it.  One of our children does have a learning disability and believe me, I have explored every option I can for how to address it and have found many people willing to help me and myriad resources available to me.  

Patience.

That is what everyone says you need to homeschool.  Every time I mention that I homeschool to someone, generally when someone asks my kids what school they go to, they say, "oh, I wouldn't have the patience!"  I'm not sure how I feel about this.  I never thought of myself as being a patient person, but I guess I am in some ways.  I don't dread homeschooling my kids.  I love it.  I love having them home with me.  Occasionally, my patience has been tried over the years of homeschooling, but I do not think that it is more difficult than just regular parenting.  In most ways, parenting homeschooled kids is easier.  Getting them to do their lessons is not more difficult than it was getting them to do their public school homework or getting them to do chores or personal hygiene.  (Anyone else have problems with little boys and baths?)   The thing is that they are there all the time and you sometimes you need to control their behaviors and sometimes it is not the behavior that is a problem, they are just being regular kids and the fact is, mom needs a break.  If this happens to me, I just take one.  I have been known to cancel school because I don't feel that I can handle it that day.  We make it up.  We still do the required number of days a year, just sometimes we'll be done on June 1 and sometimes on June 10.  It's no big deal.  (I guess it would be if it happened every day!) Sometimes I have been known to leave the kids with my mom or my husband and take off shopping by myself, sometimes I go to my room and read and sometimes just to sit out in the sun.  Everybody needs a break now and then.  Now that my kids are teens, this is way easier. 

Opportunities.

As homeschoolers, unburdened by the very burdensome school attendance policies, kids have opportunities to spend more time with their parents, get more sleep, spend more time pursuing their own interests, do internships, volunteer work, play at playgrounds when they aren't crowded, schedule doctor's appointments early in the day, take vacations in the off season, visit museums when they aren't packed, see their Dad (who works an odd shift) during the week, go to the bathroom without asking permission, learn at their own pace, be sick without getting behind, spend longer on topics that interest them, wear whatever clothes they want (no uniforms!), opt out of selling candy and cookie dough for fundraisers, go to work with mom ...the list goes on and on and on.  The opportunities are endless. 

Notebooking.

Okay, notebooking is something that I have not done enough of, but it is such a cool learning tool that I wanted to mention it here.   Please read this article about it and I'll add my thoughts.  Notebooking can be anything you and the child want it to be.  The earliest learners can start with numbers, alphabet and nature notebooks and they can get more complicated and more personalized as your child grows.  When they look back at their notebooks and show them to grandparents and friends, they are reviewing the material that they have learned.  It's a great learning tool and I intend to use it more this school year.  Here are some of our past efforts. 

Mom as teacher.

Okay, I'm mom and I'm kind of the teacher, although at this point, the kids are mostly learning on their own ... and dad is the math teacher, so do we have difficulty separating our roles?  In a word, no.  Homeschooling is just a lifestyle now.  It's what we do.  We don't have set school times, other than it needs to be done by 6:00 p.m. and we have no trouble switching back and forth from just being a regular mom and dad to being a homeschool parent who needs to answer a math, science or reading question.  It's no big deal.  Maybe if we were more formal it would be.  I enjoy being both the teacher and the mom. 

Library.

The public library can be a homeschooler's BFF.  First of all, they have books that they will lend you for free.  I mean how cool is that?  Also they have DVDs, music, audio books, digital downloads and magazines.  At our library, each library card holder can check out 25 items at a time and the late fee for overdue books is 5 cents per day.  If I need a particular book for my curriculum (or just for fun!) and they don't have it, our library will get it for me. Either they will purchase it and let me check it out first, or they will get it on interlibrary loan.   They have summer reading programs, game nights, craft classes, knitting and quilting classes, history lectures and the list goes on and on.   Can you tell I enjoy the library?  For the next two weeks, I'll probably be there twice because they are having 2 different kids programs.The library is the first place I check when I want to read, listen to or watch something. 

We interupt....

this blog series to let you know what's going on with us.  We finished our month of spring cleaning and have now begun our fitness month.  Of course, we'll still be doing our regular summertime things, basic chores, work, read alouds (We're reading Ranger's Apprentice, The Emperor of Nihon-Ja), summer reading, family swim nights, skate nights and getting one kid ready for camp, but we've committed to doing 2 hours a day of exercise every single day this month.  Today was the first and we spent an hour walking in the hot, hot sun and then an hour and a half to 2 1/2 hours in the pool.  I personally am pretty tired, but not terribly so.  At some point, we will need to finish the cleaning because one room didn't get done :-( and we need to make plans for the fall semester, but for now, we're just summering and getting in better shape. 

Kids!

If you homeschool, you're going to have to spend a lot of time with your kids.  For some people, this is not a problem because they want to spend more time with their kids and for others, it sounds awful, because their kids get on their nerves!  I think most of us fall in the middle of these two extremes.  We want to spend more time with our kids, but then, sometimes, they get on our nerves.  When you first begin to homeschool, it may be difficult to get enough alone time, especially if they've been in school, gone all day, for a while, but you get used to it and get into a rhythm.  There are good things and bad things about the kids being free from the system.  One is that they will be eating all their meals pretty much at home and you'll have to adjust your grocery budget.  Another is that a lot more dishes seem to get dirty, again, from eating all meals at home and the house gets more messy with kids having time to pursue a bunch of interests and doing it in your home.  Then there are school supplies, books, microscopes, globes, notebooks, pencils, paper ... etc.  The benefits are that the kids can take on more of the chores and learn more about running a household.   You can work out these issues with some patience and perseverance.   If your kids do get on your nerves a lot, you may need to address some of the behaviors that get on your nerves and find a way to stop them.  Everyone your kids come into contact with in the future will thank you for that.  :-P