Joe:
Thank you Linda for taking the time to visit with us today. There are many books on homeschooling being sold today. In your latest book, "The First Year of Homeschooling ," you give great advice on how to get started. How is your book different from other homeschooling books and how does it help the average homeschooler to own a copy of this book?

Linda:
You're welcome, Joe...and thanks for inviting me back!

*The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child* has a very special place in my heart. Guiding me throughout its creation were memories of that time 16 years ago when we decided to homeschool...it's the book I would have *loved* to find on a bookstore shelf!

Alas, that would have been impossible then because:

1. There weren't so many homeschoolers available to share their "first year" experiences, and;
2. Even if there had been many, without the Internet and email it would have been almost impossible to gather together so many experienced homeschoolers' wisdom in a timely enough fashion to meet a deadline.

The most obvious way this book is different
is that it focuses solely on those issues and ideas most important to the family just embarking on the homeschooling path, you know, covering all the things that bother you because you feel like you haven't a clue what you're doing!

Beyond this, though, and the reason to keep a copy handy, *The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child* encourages rookies to look at that first year as a "grand educational experiment."

• Rather than going into homeschooling thinking everything has to be done "just right," folks realize they can first learn about then "tinker" with the many methods, philosophies, materials, and learning styles of their children.
• They can see they are replacing school's schedule, organization, and methods, and figure out which of their own choosing they can replace them with.
• And even more reason to have one's own copy, the book is *filled* with incredibly valuable information from experienced homeschooling parents sharing "What I Wish Someone Had Told Me During My First Year of Homeschooling."

Joe:
One of the most common questions I hear on our discussion groups is the question of picking the right curriculum. There are so many out there and some can be quite expensive. What is the best way to tailor a curriculum to your children?

Linda:
While each homeschooling family goes about this in a slightly different way, the most successful seem to grab hold of that "experimentation" frame of mind and, like a scientist, observes for clues as to whether or not a particular curriculum or approach is a "good fit" with the child and his preferred learning style. Hands-on learners aren't likely to appreciate sitting still and reading books for hours on end. Children who like order and consistency may not do well unless a schedule is laid before them. I would advise any family to keep spending to a minimum until this observation and learning period for mom and dad takes place. Consider it a time to get your creative juices flowing, watching for learning opportunities in everyday life, turning household materials into educational games. And for heaven's sake, give that library card a good work-out! Let the kids bring home books they find interesting, and pay attention to interests they express (or that you discover through conversations held during all the wonderful time you spend together) so you can scour the shelves for books, videos, magazines, and computer software that feed those interests.

Finally, keep in mind education doesn't have to be expensive - it's "schooling" that costs so much money!

This leads me to another common question, that people ask. The question is whether or not they are up to the task of being homeschooling "teachers". I just loved your part of the book on homeschooling myths which included "You Need Teacher Training, Dearie." How would you suggest that people deal with the naysayers and other special interest groups that doubt that homeschooling can work.

Linda:
I'd like to point out that there is a difference between doubting *self*, and interacting with others who doubt your ability. Beginning homeschooling is just like beginning anything else, be it skiing or driving a car...we grow in our confidence as our knowledge and experience increases. Therefore, time and practice tend to be the best antidotes for self-doubt, bolstered, of course, by the gleam in our children's eyes and the smiles on their faces.

Others' doubts in our ability to pull off educating our own children are another matter. I'm still always amazed that the mere mention of homeschooling brings so many education experts out into the open. <g> People have a tendency to fear the unknown, and it's often those who know the least who are the most vocal when questioning you on the issue.

Knowledge is most definitely power, so the more you know about homeschooling, the more confidently you can explain it to someone else on a personal level. The same holds true when countering the often ill-informed comments of special interest groups. (I don't know if it's so much that they doubt homeschooling can work or if they're afraid that homeschooling *does* work, but that's another story!) Knowledge-filled answers offered in a calm and positive manner may plant seeds for future understanding. And speaking of the future, time works wonders here, too - homeschooled children have always been the practice's best advertising!

Joe:
Linda can you share one thing that new homeschoolers should know at the beginning of their homeschooling journey."

Linda:
Some parents spend so much time reading the plethora of available information on homeschooling, and get so caught up in searching for the "perfect" place to start, their children are high school age before they take that first homeschooling step! Rather than think your first step to death, simply "begin where you are." Beginning where you feel most comfortable allows you - the expert on your own children - to use your personal strengths and knowledge of your children to their greatest advantage. For example, in your study you will have found some people tell you not to think about beginning without a curriculum, while others tell you to steer clear of anything that smells like curriculum.

Homeschooling is amazingly flexible; couple that with the fact that you and your children will continue to learn and grow and change, and you'll realize that it's more important to go with what works for your family than it is to go with what worked for someone else. This is the most direct route to a family that is happy learning together, and *that* is even more important than the academic aspect of homeschooling.

Speaking of high priced schooling… what about those teaching degrees? Don’t people go to college for four years – or longer – to become professional teachers? Mustn’t learning the skill of teaching be learning the secrets of how to light fires within youngsters’ minds, setting them on a course to appreciate and pursue for a lifetime?

Not according to many reports, including one from the Council for Basic Education (CBE), a membership organization based in Washington, D.C. that advocates for high academic standards in K-12 education, titled "What Teachers Have to Say about Teacher Education" This is information any parent should have, but especially parents who may right now be stressing out over their own ability to teach.

Noting that teachers are rarely asked to critique teacher education and their preparation for the job even though it’s a cornerstone of many cries for educational reform, in 1995 the CBE sent surveys to 1,650 teachers, mostly award winners, in addition to all of those teachers certified by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. More than six hundred teachers responded, 503 who had taught for more than ten years. The respondents taught in high, middle, and elementary schools.

The CBE report states, "We were expecting (and received) far more negative responses about their preparation for teaching than positive comments. Even the most devoted teacher educator admits to serious flaws in teacher education, and the teachers were eager to suggest major improvements."

A previous report from the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future, called "What Matters Most: Teaching for America’s Future. " listed five major problems of teacher education (apply what you’ve been learning about homeschooling to this list for an interesting exercise):

1. Inadequate time
   (a four year undergraduate program is not enough)
2. Fragmentation
   (course work is separated from practice, and education school and arts and sciences faculties are insulated from one another)
3. Uninspired teaching methods
4. Superficial curriculum
5. Traditional views of schooling

To this list, the teachers surveyed added:

• Inadequate and unsupervised school-based experience
• Poor quality of many teacher candidates
• University faculty inexperienced in the schools

There’s more. In November 1999, the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, in its report "The Quest for Better Teachers," graded the United States on how it is doing "when it comes to putting polices into place that will improve teacher quality."

In its foreword the report states, "The news is not very good. Overall, the states earn a ‘D+’ for their teacher quality policies. The grades would have been even lower had we not engaged in grade inflation." [Emphasis added.] Two states, Texas and Florida, received A’s.

Feel better?

Good. Now realize that when it comes to homeschooling, none of this need apply to you anyway! The school’s method is such that it requires a teacher in the classroom, it requires that teacher manage a roomful of twenty to thirty children, and it requires materials that fill up the teacher so that she may "pour" out a lesson to a group of children.

This is not necessarily your job at home. "Everyone is nervous about this choice during the first year, because we’ve been taught that we can’t do it unless we have a degree in teaching," says Cynthia McDaniel of Springfield, Virginia. "The nervousness about doing it causes many parents to recreate school at home."

So what do you have to take to take the place of a D+ teacher training (after cheating, previously called grade inflation)? "I found that if you can read, are willing to learn, and are willing to help your children, you can do this," Cynthia reports. "Learning to love learning again, through trips in the woods, alone or with a book about nature or with a specialist (ranger, scout leader), is an excellent way to proceed."

Over the years you’ve developed many characteristics as a parent that transfer well and can help in your new role as homeschooling parent. Instead of being trained teachers, successful and happy homeschooling parents, by and large, are….

• Delighted to spend time with children whose company they appreciate
• Possessed of basic literacy and math skills and ready to learn more, if necessary
• Aware that they will be criticized – sometimes by those closest to them – and sufficiently convinced that they are doing the right thing to withstand criticism
• Open to leaning from mistakes and to change based on what they’ve learned
• Working on becoming more observant and accepting of their children, warts and all
• Possessed of wonderful senses of humor, leading to the ability to laugh at themselves
• Giving and receiving support from like-minded friends

As you can see from the above, you are a lot more likely to have what it takes to homeschool than what the myth of needing teacher training reveals. By using and constantly honing the parental qualities you already enjoy, you are much closer to learning the secrets of lighting fires within youngsters’ minds, setting them on a course to appreciate and pursue learning for a lifetime, than many, if not most, trained teachers.