Where the Teacher is Mom

There is an army of teachers in this country and around the world that get no pay, do not show up at a classroom and get no recognition for the work they do.  But they are doing the job of teaching young minds and getting them through a year of academic work.  These are the minions of home school teachers who are quietly doing the job of education of the next generation.  And we have learned from studies into home schooling, they are doing a pretty good job because home schooled students often rank high in college preparation exams.

If you are considering becoming a teacher in the limited scope of home schooling your own children, the task is not as intimidating as it seems.  And the potential benefits to your children are great.  Public schools are notorious for taking bright young minds and snuffing out that fire for learning that they were born with. 

The reason this happens is simple.  Public schools are mandated to teach a very large body of kids so because of the volume of kids they must pass through each grade, the emphasis much be on discipline and order and the priority for high quality academics has to slide so that every child can get through. 

That is why the focused and specialized environment of a home school situation is perfect for a bright mind such as your child has because you can customize your curriculum to fit your child and to accelerate as fast as they show an aptitude to go.  You don't have to put a big emphasis on being in their seat when the bell rings and being in school uniform down to their underwear.  There are no bells in home school and they can come to school in their underwear if they want to.  As long as they learn, that is the emphasis in a home school environment.

When you set out to becoming a home school teacher, you have a huge amount of flexibility in how you structure the learning environment.  If you have a room you can set aside as the "classroom", that is a nice set up because you and your child know that when you go into that room, learning will happen here.  But because the goal in that room is to complete one step along the way to finishing a curriculum, your young student knows that class will be over when they achieve their goals, not when the bell rings and that encourages productivity and focus.

It is also a myth that home schooling will become expensive.  In fact, you can virtually set up a perfectly valid year long curriculum for very little cost.  By logging into the public school's system, you can find the curriculum for the grade your child is in school and what must be learned to finish that grade.  In many cases, local public schools and many private schools have programs to help you get started so that your child follows a similar educational path that is going on down the street in the public schools.  This is an advantage to you and the school because should you decide to send your child back to public school the next year, they are not out of step with the program. 

Materials can often be had for very little expense as well.  Many times a textbook that is being used for a particular subject will come out with a new edition.  When that happens, you can pick up copies of the previous edition, now out of date to the public schools, for very little cost and often for free.  The topics in the text book are just as valid in the previous edition so you can conduct full year of classes using that textbook and not face any serious cost investment at all.

By looking for ways to take advantage of public facilities like the computers at the public library and of programs offered by churches, public schools and other institutions to help home school teachers like you be successful, you can set up a program at home that will help your child succeed as a student in this educational setting.  It will be an adventure for you.  And you will see a new appreciation come in to your child's eyes when he or she suddenly realizes that mom is still mom but she is also an outstandingteacher as well.