After my father-in-law’s memorial service, a friend of the family told me how impressed she was with my six-year-old son, who had the courage to stand in front of a hundred people and read Psalm 23. “Does he go to the local school?” “No, he doesn’t,” I replied. “We homeschool.”

She looked perplexed. “Are you a teacher?” I told her that I have a degree in publications and that teaching one’s children at home does not require a teaching degree or a teaching license. If you can read, write and do basic math, you can pick up a primer and take it from there.

Her body language told me she did not understand. She congratulated me for having the courage to take on the task of homeschooling. I said, “That’s exactly what it takes. Courage.”

I have read to my children since infancy. Here’s my daughter in October 2010, enjoying some reading with mom before bedtime.

I walked away from that conversation feeling secure with my choice to homeschool. In my mind, homeschooling starts at birth or even before. Pre-natal influences can start a baby on the right path, or not. I know because, for three years, I worked with teenagers who had been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome at birth.  Continue reading »