I Can’t Homeschool Because…Answering YOUR Questions and Concerns!

Answering YOUR I Can’t Homeschool questions and concerns today. I’m not smart enough, my child needs to be the salt and light and many more questions answered!

I Can’t Homeschool Because…. or you can’t homeschool because … well, the reality is you can homeschool! Let’s take a look at some of the questions I have received from my readers. These are things that either have been said to some of you or reasons that some of you have questioned your ability to homeschool

 

I’m afraid of homeschool failure

Parenting is full of failures. Homeschooling will be too. I can promise you that. There are days that I feel like a complete failure, and we have many imperfect homeschool days. BUT, I still know that at the end of the day, no one will love my child as I do. I know that God gave them to ME to raise, to educate, and to teach about Him.

Does that mean that some days I will mess up? Of course! But, I will dust myself off and try again the next day. If God is calling you to homeschool, He will equip you for the task. He loves you, and He loves your children, and He will not lead you down a path just to watch you fail. He believes in you and will be with you every step of the way. I have a whole series on homeschool failures here.

Deana at Frugal Homeschooling mom shared her thoughts on failing at homeschooling

I’m painfully aware of my own weaknesses and inadequacies. I will, and often do, make mistakes. I often think, “Can I even do this, much less do this well?” But I’ve learned that it’s not about me. God knows me. He knows everything about me, the good and the bad. And yet He has still called me to do this. The comforting thing is that although I will never be enough, He is. And He gives me the strength that I need to keep trying my best to do what He has called me to do. He offers grace to me so that I don’t have to wallow in my own dreadful mistakes, but can learn from them and continue to grow in wisdom. I can rest in the peace of knowing that at the very least I’ll be a model for my children for how to get back up again after falling down, by relying on God’s help.

Read the rest of her post on her blog (it’s a great one for this topic!)

I want my child to be a salt and light

I have a hard time addressing this question, yet, I also feel very strongly about the subject so here is my short and sweet answer.  Jesus was an adult! His disciples were adults! It is not my child’s job to go out and preach the word in her school. It is her job to be a child. Period. I go into this topic more in depth here and explain why it’s not our child’s job to be the salt and the light. 

Lindy at Conservative Christian Mom shared her opinions about children being the salt and the light in the public school system.

Surely God knew that public schools would be the norm…even for Christians.  Yet all throughout the Bible, God has called us to a different path.  And you can bet in most situations, if we are on the same page as the rest of the world, we are not walking the straight and narrow path Jesus paved for us.

For some reason we have engraved into our heads that if we don’t do the same things that unbelievers do; if we don’t go to the same places, if we don’t look the same way….we will never be able to witness to them.  I hear this a lot.  And honestly, I hear it from people who admit they don’t go out and witness anyways!

You can read the rest on her blog. 

I am not a certified teacher

I shared some of my thoughts on this in my Homeschool 101 eBook. Here are some academic statistics I found on homeschooling while writing the book:

• The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests. (The public school average is the 50^th percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.)
• Homeschool students score above average on achievement tests, regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income.
• Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is unrelated to their children’s academic achievement.

Did you read that last point? It doesn’t matter whether or not a child’s parents had a degree, homeschooled children still came out ahead in academic achievement. Why? Because a one-on-one ratio will beat out a room of 1/20 any day!

Clarissa at Counting our Blessings shared her thoughts on this topic also:

Why is it normal nowadays to expect a school teacher to teach 20 plus children of the same age, to do the exact same thing, at the exact same time, in the confines of one room, over the course of  several hours a day… Yet, it is abnormal for a mama to teach just 7 children, of whom she gave birth to and knows intimately, of all different ages, with different talents, over the course of 12-hours… 24-hours… an entire lifetime!?

And Emily from Table Life Blog shares hers as well here: 

Parenting & teaching are often one and the same — even when there’s no formal training.

I’m not smart enough to homeschool

I shared some statistics above regarding a homeschool child’s test scores and academic achievements so I am not going to mention that again. However, I will say this. Anything you can’t teach or don’t know, you can learn well enough to teach your children. My oldest is in 4^th grade and honestly, I have already taught her things that I don’t remember learning. Case in point-diagramming sentences. We had a hard time with it at first but managed to get through. Now, I know how to do it too J.

Homeschool curriculum comes with a teachers manual that shows you step, by step, what to teach, and how to teach it. It is really not that difficult. When or if the time comes and you no longer feel like you CAN teach a subject, pass it on to your spouse, a tutor, a family member, or purchase a curriculum that does it for you. Khan Academy, Easy Peasy Homeschool, Switched on School-house, and Teaching Textbooks are all examples of curriculum you can purchase that does the “teaching” part for you.

Closing Thoughts

There are many other reasons that people give in regards as to why they can’t homeschool. There is NO way I can address all of them in this series. So, if you are curious as to what other topics were covered head over to the I Can’t Homeschool Because…. Homepage.

If you are beginning homeschooling or wondering how to start homeschooling be sure to check out my homeschool 101 books. I walk you through the homeschool process in this homeschool guide. From start to finish you will learn exactly how to homeschool. 

I also had some blogger friends share their I Can’t Homeschool Posts with me, and wanted to pass them along. Some of these topics have already been addressed in the series, but it is always great to see other’s perspectives on similar topics.

I Can’t Homeschool Because I work Outside the Home by The Kennedy Adventures and Heather at Upside Down Homeschooling both shared how they homeschool while working full time.

Alecia at Learning to Walk did a whole series titled “Don’t Homeschool! You will screw up your kids!” It is a great one !