How Do I Homeschool What I Don’t Know?

Question: My 10th grade homeschooler is doing subjects that I don't feel comfortable teaching. I am afraid that I will give them misinformation and mess them up. I can't afford a tutor or formal classes. Should I put them in school so they can be taught properly?

Answer: Congratulations. You have gotten your homeschooler to a point where you can't help them anymore. They are doing subjects that you don't even want to attempt. So why stop homeschooling them now? Besides, what does "proper teaching" look like?

When homeschoolers are young, in the lower grades, it is true that the homeschooling parent spends a lot of time instructing a child, just as a teacher would. As the child reaches middle school years, they should be working more and more independently. By the time the child reaches high school the parent should be checking quizzes using an answer key at most. In short, your 10th grader should be learning independently.

The biggest problem for most homeschoolers of highschoolers, especially when they started homeschooling recently, is that they don't give their kids enough credit. For the most part, textbooks are written so that children can learn from them. They don't have to be spoon-fed information. In fact, my own children are much happier if I leave them alone to do their school work. To learn, all students need to do is read the books and complete the exercises. If they run into walls or have questions, you have the internet and the library to help them understand.

When you don't have the personal knowledge to help your homeschool student, you can search hundreds of educational websites, and thousands of videos that will take them to the next level. This is the most important thing you can teach your homeschooler. If they don't understand something, research it until they do. This will help them learn so much more then they ever would in a classroom.

With that said, don't stop homeschooling because of your personal lack of knowledge and/or shortage of money. Instead, teach your child to research, and watch them soar.