Why I Homeschool- Part 4 of ?

No State License Required

I’ve heard and read quite a few arguments against homeschooling. Some are specific- to a family, to a subject, to a geographic region. Most I’ve seen around the blogosphere are generic. I haven’t yet encountered a single argument that gave me serious pause in my personal homeschooling path.

After the California decision, and interpretations of that decision, lots of bloggers, posters and commenters talked about credentials. State legalities aside, it’s obvious, argued many, that instruction from a credentialed teacher is superior to instruction from an uncredentialed parent.

Uh huh.

The assumption that does not hold in my family’s case is
that Mama is doing all of the teaching…around the kitchen table…from workbooks.

(Actually, there are several assumptions buried in that line of argumentation that don’t apply to us. However, we spent most of today outside hiking (part of that time with a botanist) and I’m just too exhausted for a mega post. So, one assumption at a time.)

For brevity’s sake, let’s focus on just one subject. How about science? Good science instruction requires a certain level of technical knowledge and truckloads of expensive equipment. How does my school compare with public and private? Meet my kids’ teachers for this year.

In person- the folks, animals, plants and facilities at
Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia
SC State Parks
USC Upstate Watershed Ecology Program
SC State Museum (so much that is hands-on)
Roper Mountain Science Center
Split Creek Farm (and they make the BEST fudge ever)
Happy Cow Creamery (they make the best chocolate milk)
Skytop Orchard (be sure to visit the bamboo forest)
Western North Carolina Nature Center
Georgia Aquarium
Barefoot Farms
Bob Campbell Geology Museum at Clemson University
SC Botanical Gardens
Hatcher Garden and Woodland Preserve
- and wonderfully generous, engaging people in our community who are
Master Naturalists
Master Gardeners
Local beekeepers
Amateur astronomers
Medical doctors and dentists

Via video- scientists/naturalists such as
David Attenborough
The Kratt Brothers
The Crocodile Hunter
Jeff Corwin
Schlessinger Science series developers
Scientists featured in videos available through Etv Streamline
PBS Nature contributors
PBS Nova contributors
Bill Nye
Richard Dawkins


On their own- yes, on their own- my kids teach themselves through their own

Gardening
Composting
Catching of bugs
Hiking
Watching of lunar eclipses and meteor showers
Planetarium visits
Creek wading
Mud wallowing
Placing of everything under magnification
Ant farm watching
Experiment conception and execution
Reading…and reading…and reading some more

We do use some printed resources and dh and I do teach our kids. However, we're hardly alone.

I respect public school teachers for the difficult job they perform. What I can’t fathom is mentally fashioning a teacher into something he or she is not. Do credentials and a sincere desire to teach coalesce into an instructional superhero- able to impart the knowledge of an entire community’s experts; to 20 children equally and effectively at the same time; in preset 45- 50 minute chunks; not always, but generally, from inside a building?

I don’t have a teaching license and my kids’ science instruction is pretty freaking good… and fun too.
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