It’s not about qualifications but more about qualities!
Do you need to have qualifications to be a home school teacher? This is a question I get asked over and over and it’s quite a common misconception. No, you don’t.
Do you have to be qualified to homeschool?
Many parents think they need training or they need to be a teacher or an expert to homeschool their child. Very few think they can naturally do this and a lot of parents never want to even think about doing it.
However, some parents have no other option but to home-educate their child/kids due to life circumstances and the distances to regular schooling.
How do I know if I’m qualified to homeschool?
In Australia, you certainly don’t need any formal University qualifications. However, you will need to know how to read, and write equivalent to a year 10 junior high school level. Plus have a basic level of understanding of maths.
You will need to want to do it and want to do it to the best of your ability and best of your knowledge with your child’s best interest at heart.
Can anyone home school their child?
Yes! Look at it this way. Perhaps without even acknowledging it, parents are already a teacher in their child’s eyes. They are the guidance, the comfort, the protector, the provider, the nurturer and the life educator.
Parents are predominantly / usually the ones who will teach them the simple things like, how to talk, how to say please and thank you, how to share, how to be kind, how to nurture, how to build things, and how to love…..the list is endless.
So believe that you can do this teaching role because you are already providing a life education to your child.
Understanding Home Schooling Without a Degree
To give your child the best education, you certainly don’t need to have a University Degree. However, a mixture of these qualities will help:
- Courage
- Patience
- Practice
1. Courage
No matter the style of home education you chose or the reason you chose to home school. It takes an almighty amount of courage to start this journey.
After deciding how you want to home school it takes a great leap of faith to actually begin this journey. You will need to research and then prepare yourself and your family for changes and adaptations to your lifestyle (and income).
Undertaking this requires a depth of courage and faith that at times will need to be endless. There are days when you will doubt every decision you make and question the reasons for doing this. But COURAGE will get you through the worst. And yet again you will inadvertently be teaching your kids just how strong and brave we need to be to get through the toughest of times.
Because after the rain there will always be sunshine !!
2. Patience
Then you are going to need patience… and a lot of it. For some of us, patience does not come naturally and we may have a limited supply each day. However, it’s important to remember that we as parents are the single most important role model for our children.
When we remind ourselves of this in stressful times somehow we manage to find just a little bit extra patience to deal with the crazy stuff. Your child /kids may be driving you nuts, the house may be a mess, you may have repeated the same questions and answers over and over and you may feel like you have achieved nothing and time is just slipping away in the day.
Just be patient, be calm and remind yourself that not everything needs to be done now. There is always tomorrow.
3. Practice
Then you will also need practice.
You may not be so great when you are starting out but with practice and perseverance, you will hone your skills to get through the hardest challenges and tasks. Practice will enable you to become more efficient and confident in yourself and your skills.
By practising a task (patience for example) you will become naturally better at it. And once again you are teaching your child a valuable life skill.
Remember…. practice makes perfect…or perfect enough.
Qualifications to Homeschool: Final Thoughts
Homeschooling your child is hard but you don’t need to be an expert or know everything. With the availability of the internet and countless resources that are available, you can literally teach yourself to teach. Anything you want to learn is at your fingertips and help is everywhere if you want it.
Home education is a full-time, unpaid job.
My favourite description of this is ” Volunteer worker – no pay but plenty of pride” .
With Love and Kindness
Ursula x
For a limited time – I’m offering massive discounts for any first-time purchase. Use code ( first20off ) at checkout.
How to Homeschool – The Good the Bad and the Ugly Realities of Doing it Successfully
This is the book I wrote my younger self about doing it successfully. Take it from some one who has been there.
It’s everything I have learnt from my 18 years as a full time educator, mum and housewife.
It is everything you need to get started.
About The Author
My name is Ursula Boston. I’ve been educating my daughters as a proud homeschool mum for nearly 20 years. Alongside managing our household and small business from home.
If you want to learn how to do this from someone who has actually done it. Twice! I will show you HOW.
