Want to Grow as a Home Educator? Pick up a Book!

Have you wondered how to get better at homeschooling? Try starting with a book!

Recently we spoke with Ayesha Siddiqi, co-host of the Online Parent’s Book Club from A Cup of Home, about where to start reading to help develop us as home educators.

Check out the excerpt of our talk below:

Melissa:

I was hoping that you could talk to us about the importance of educating ourselves as home educators, especially for those who may be homeschooling and starting off, like I did, without a background in education. What can we do?

Ayesha:

I think when you undertake the task of homeschooling, it seems so overwhelming for so many people. It's like, where do you begin? Where do you go?

I see it as doing what you would do if you had applied to any job, right? Like if you are trained to be a doctor, you're not going to go and work as a lawyer. First, you have to become educated in that field.

But homeschooling is interesting, because you don't have to necessarily be an educator. I'm not a teacher or educator by training at all. I have a Biology degree. Nor was I a kid person.

That's the other thing you have to realize: You don't have to love children in order to homeschool your children. Yes, you love your children, obviously. But what you do have to do is know what you're getting yourself into and that includes, first and foremost, getting to know what your state or your country or your area laws are to see if you can even do it and what you need to do it.

Secondly, is to find out what homeschooling is exactly. That can vary.

When we decided that we would homeschool, we were touring a bunch of private and public schools, and we weren't sure what we wanted to do with our daughter.

We decided based on research that homeschooling was the way we wanted to go. I did a lot of reading. Like before I could do anything before, or even talk to anyone, I did a lot of reading. I went on to asking other people and finding a community. Finding that community is so important in learning and learning from other people's experiences.

Then I found the curriculum that I wanted to use, and two years ago I went to the Brave Learner Conference in Ohio and that was a life changing experience for me.

So, there's so many different angles you can go about in terms of learning about homeschooling, but I would definitely say to first begin with just reading. Just read what it is and if it's something that you'd be willing to do and educate yourself in that.

Melissa:

It sounds it sounds like such a small step, right? “Just start by reading a book.” But there are so many homeschooling books out there, and so many different books that have been written about all the different educational approaches, and styles of learning that people and children go through. You can gain a lot just by focusing on reading a book, even if it's once a month or once every two months.

When you put that time and energy into yourself, you're going to grow.

Ayesha:

Exactly! When I first started homeschooling, my eldest was five years old and people with older kids would come and ask me questions about homeschooling. I would think, “I don't know, my kid is only five.” But honestly, I had some answers just because I was reading. So I would say, “Well, I read this but I have no experience whatsoever. So, if you want, you can read this as well." There's so much you can gain from it.

Melissa:

That leads me to my next question. For homeschooling parents out there, what kinds of books or information would you recommend that they are learning in order to help make their journey a little bit easier?

Ayesha:

My go to book every single year, which I reread, is the Well-Trained Mind. It's a huge, thick book but it contains everything that you need to know for homeschooling someone from kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade in high school. But you don't need to read the whole thing.

It was actually the first two chapters that convinced my husband that homeschooling was the way to go for us. That's all it took him. Basically, it encapsulates all different types of curricula that you could use with explanations of why that curriculum might or might not be good for you. It’s so beneficial for trying to figure out what you want to teach them and what curriculum options you have.

The second book that I think complements it really well is the Brave Learner, because Well-Trained Mined is going to teach me what to teach, but Brave Learner is going to show me how to teach. What methods to use to kind of get that information across to your kids.

Melissa:

I'm so glad that you said that because at first glance, they do seem like two completely different approaches and styles of home education, but they actually work really well together and they kind of take from each other in some respects as well.

Ayesha:

Yeah, I think in the end, no matter what approach you use, they're so similar. No one says “sit in a table in a chair and like a teacher would".” Everybody says use living books, for example. Everybody says go outside and use nature. Everybody says this doesn't need to be like six hours a day.

I read so many books at this point that they all in the end say the same thing in different language.

To watch the full interview, check out our video chat on Instagram.