"What qualifies you?"

"What qualifies you?" This is another question that I would hear when I told people we homeschooled.  I often wondered if people would approach the public school teachers (most times who are strangers at the beginning of the year) with this question.  Would they go up and ask, "What qualifies you to teach my child?"  Why is it that people feel it is their duty to ask a mother what qualifies them.

That was my answer to their question.  "I am their mother and who else is more concerned about my child's education?"   I was no longer working when we made this decision and we figured we might as well try it.  Nothing had to be set in stone. The public school would always be there if we needed to fall back on that. It was determined on a year to year basis for a while until we realized that we needed to completely commit and decide that this was going to be our lifestyle.

A friend was asking me questions about school the other night and asked if I would do it through high school. I told her that both of the boys were in high school now.   "That just goes to show how very smart you are!"  I quickly corrected that.  I don't consider myself very smart at all. My advantage has been that I started with them in kindergarten and have learned right along with them.

I used to bring school books to bed with me at night and plan out the lessons for the next day. One night, I was excitedly telling my husband what the kids and I had learned about George Washington that day.   He laughed and said, "I'm glad you are learning so much."

"I am! I don't remember learning this stuff in school,"  I responded.   Maybe it was because it had been so many years or maybe I didn't pay attention in school. I did what I could to make history and science fun for my boys in hopes that they would retain more than I did.

Now that WE are in high school, things are a bit more challenging.  We are in Algebra 2. We have our good days and we have our bad days.   Each of us has our own math notebook and we do the odd numbered problems so that I can check our answers in the back of the book.  We all write down the problem and cover our papers while we work the problem out. The boys are afraid I will cheat off of them...and I would, if they would move their hands.  I ask them what answer they came up with and see if it matches mine, then we check the book's answer.   There have been several times that my answer has been wrong and they both got it right and they are able to tell me where I went wrong.


So if anyone asks you what qualifies you teach your children, smile politely and respond with, "I'm their mom." Then quickly walk away before anything else spills out of your mouth.   It's just safer that way.