Joe:
Marty Layne is the mother of three sons and one daughter who have never gone to school. She is a former La Leche League Leader, farmer, day-care center director, and nursery school teacher. She likes to read cook, make dolls and puppets, sing, play the recorder, and work in the garden as well as write. The publisher of the book donates 10% of its profits to a tree planting project in the Himalayan Mountains of India.

Characteristics of a
Successful Homeschooling Parent

Joe:
Marty, it looks like you children have been taught well at home and are very successful people. How does a parent know if they are capable of being a good teacher for their children?

Marty:
I devote the first chapter of my book to this topic, listing 11 characteristics that I think are important to develop to be a good teacher for a child, so it's difficult to answer this question briefly.

I'll just focus on the one aspect that a parent must have before starting to homeschool - the others can be developed over time - and that is to "genuinely like your child or children and enjoy his, her, or their company.

What does it mean to like your child? It means that you enjoy being with your child. You take delight in her presence. You enjoy listening to her tell you things, you enjoy observing how she learns new skills, you are pleased to be in relationship with your child. This may seem simplistic, but it's so important.

"If your child is going to spend most of her waking hours in your company, it's vital to her well being that you enjoy the daily interaction between you. This doesn't mean that there won't be moments when you need peace and quiet and some time to yourself. However, if you are frequently resentful of your child's need for you and you are constantly irritated by your children's presence, homeschooling your children will not work for you."

Creating a safe homeschooling environment

Joe:
In the book, you talk about creating a "safe" homeschooling environment. Could you give a few practical tips on how to do this?

Marty:
Practical tips for physical safety:

• Supervise your children's play. Look at your home and yard and see where danger or accidents may occur and do things to remove the possibility.
• For example, if you live on a busy street, fence your yard with gates that stay closed and could even be locked to prevent a child who has no understanding of street safety from running into the street.
• If there are dangerous areas in your home or yard explain this to the children and set it up so that if they are too young to understand they have no access to those dangerous areas.
• A good place to get more safety information is your local fire department. They have lots of information about - fire alarms, exits, procedures in case of a fire, etc.
• Make safety equipment part of a sport - bicycle helmets for bicycling, wrist braces for roller blading, etc.
• Practical tips for emotional safety are a little more difficult to itemize briefly. No name-calling comes to mind. Emotional safety is a complex topic that deserves more words than I can give it in this interview. If people are interested, they will find an in-depth discussion of emotional safety in Chapter 2 of my book.

Benefits of Homeschooling

Joe:
Can you list some of the benefits that homeschooling your children has brought into your life?

Marty:
The greatest benefit has been time -

• Time to develop a relationship with each of my children
• Time for them to develop relationships with each other
• Time for my children to play
• Time to stay in our pajamas all day if we wanted to
• Time to go to the beach and have a picnic everyday if we wanted to
• Time to observe the way things change and grow outside as the seasons changed
• Time to stay up late and continue an interesting discussion or to finish reading aloud an interesting book
• Time for my children to follow and discover their passions and interests

Joe:
You have four children - 14 -23, what are they doing these days and what new projects are you currently working on?

Marty:
(see his profile in Faces of Homeschooling)
Josh, 23, is a professional musician - a harpist - and in the words of one critic - "a world-class performer." In the spring of 2000, he organized a mini-tour of the US and performed in Eugene, OR and Redding, CA. He's planning another US tour in 2001. Josh has recorded two CDs: An Afternoon of Harp Music and Josh Layne - A Harp Recital. Josh's CD An Afternoon of Harp Music is one of amazon's top selling classical harp CDs.

He and Robin (see below) will be collaborating on a recording of Christmas music to be released in time for the Christmas 2000 season.

Noah, 21, recently had one of his still-life painting accepted into an international juried art show. Noah paints in oils and follows a classical style of realistic art. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited in various art shows where he has won awards. Noah did the cover art for Josh's 2 CDs - a painting of Josh's hands and a portrait of Josh playing his harp. He was also Josh's sound engineer for his recordings.

Robin, 17, is writing several books in the fantasy genre. Robin is also a musician - he plays the marimba and the drums. Robin and Josh perform together at elementary school concerts and have also done community Christmas concerts.

Holly, 14, dances ballet, jazz, and tap. Her days are filled with dance classes. Homeschooling has given her time to dance and to pursue her other interests.

• I've just completed a revised edition of Learning At Home: A Mother's Guide To Homeschooling that will be released in mid-August (I am almost out of the first edition.) Self-publishing - setting up how the book will look on the page, etc., finding a printer, marketing and distributing the book - has provided me with many interesting challenges.
• I recently completed a children's book about a little girl learning to ride a pony that's ready to go to press. It's an easy-reader type book illustrated with photographs. I'm looking for a publisher/distributor for this book.
• I'm writing another book about mothering and developing one's intuition.
• I'm also getting ready to record a CD of children's music. It will be a compilation of nature songs for children.

more interviews

Home Learning: Year by Year
Home learning Sourcebook
Meet the author
Rebecca Rupp
"The Truth About Curricula"
more Curriculum Guides
more homeschooling books
Frequently Asked Questions

The Beginners Guide to Homeschooling
by Patrick Farenga

A brief and useful guide to the essential information, resources, and guidance you need for starting homeschooling. Questions and answewrs about homeschooling, suggestions for creating or purchasing curricula and for record keeping and evaulation, history and research, as well as lists of state and national support groups, correspondence schools, and learning materials.

Discover Your Child's Learning Style:
Children Learn in Unique Ways--Here's the Key to Every Child's Learning Success
by Mariaemma Willis, Victoria Kindle-Hodson

also see: FAQ: Learning styles
It has become widely accepted that not all children learn alike. Some grasp information best by reading, while others learn better through listening or discovering concepts in a hands-on fashion. Two longtime educators--Mariaemma Willis and Victoria Kindle-Hodson--suggest in this guide that there are actually five aspects to a student's learning style beyond the simple modes of visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. Their "learning style profile" takes into account a child's talents, interests, preferred learning environment, and disposition, as well as the three more familiar modes. Written as a workbook, with a series of do-it-yourself assessments, the guide offers parents a chance to diagnose their child's learning style in all five areas. A chart of activities accompanies each style.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
by Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox, Elaine Bruner

also see: Reading Ed Center
SRA's DISTAR is one of the most successful beginning reading programs available to schools. Research has proven that children taught by the DISTAR method outperform their peers. Now, this program has been adapted for use at home. In only 20 minutes a day, this remarkable step-by-step program teaches your child to read--with the love, care, and joy only a parent and child cane share.

Get a FREE book by using the coupons
Meet the Author
Mary Leppert
Co-author of "Homeschooling Almanac 2000-2001"
Interview & FREE Excerpt
She is a homeschool mom who along with her husband, Michael, have compiled a wonderful resource for homeschoolers. It is a resource guide for books, magazines, catalogs, prepackaged materials, cybersources, specific homeschooling methods, religious references and more. It also features over $1000 of FREE coupons which could easily pay for the purchase price. I have the opportunity to interview Mary and she took the time to share her views with us on the homeschooling movement and a bit about her personal life with her children. We are also featuring a very nice excerpt from her book which is entitled, What Kind of Learner is Your Child. I hope everyone gets a chance to look at closely and use this information to help you in your homeschool program. She is very frank and her answers and the excerpt are easy to read.