2.3 Learning Along With Them

For all you parents who think you're not "smart" or "skilled" enough to teach your child at home, answer me this: Who said you couldn't learn right along with your child?

Maria is a college-educated woman who speaks fluent Tagalog and Spanish and reads a lot. She was extremely hesitant to take this all on initially because she didn't think she knew the various subjects well enough to teach them to the kids.

That's when Leslie, our ENCORE-assigned teacher, stepped in and coached Maria. She reminded her that it's perfectly acceptable to learn right along with the students--teachers (and trainers, in my world) do it all the time. Once Maria was "released" from the burden of having to know everything in order to teach, teach is exactly what she did!

Maria would study about new things in the evening to prepare for the next day. She would conduct experiments right along side the kids, not really knowing what the outcome would be--again, nothing wrong with that.

Maria also doesn't hesitate to ask for outside help from Leslie, other parents, or even programs within the public school--remember, we're still part of the public school system through ENCORE, so we're entitled to access public school services, as needed.

I know from my work as an instructional designer and trainer that the one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it. The same holds true for homeschooling parents--in many ways, it'll feel like you're going back to school with your kids.