© Beverley Paine

Second guessing is natural for homeschooling parents. Our levels of confidence go up and down, sometimes within minutes! It's not as much about educating our children as it is about parenting... I felt the same way when my children were babes and tots. One minute I was sure that whatever I was doing was the 'right' way (I'd read a book, was given some sage advice, or had thought things through logically) only to have the child react in an adverse or obtuse way. Parenting and home educating is like dancing on hot coals: the minute you feel you've picked the safe or right path - ouch!!

I like that. It was hard to get used to, but eventually I came to see that the real lessons were for me, not for my children. I'm the learner! They are my teachers and they teach me about life and about learning and why I am here, on this planet, right now. I have lots of other teachers too, but for a long time it seemed that I the most to learn in life from parenting them. It's still happening even though they are 19, 23, and 25!

What we're doing is hands on learning: we're learning about learning, at the 'coal face', where learning is happening at a fast, enthusiastic place. Sometimes we can't see the coal for the coal dust and feel a little lost, but it's there, all the time, happening whether we're attending to it or trying to make it happen or having a short break or holiday from learning. We can't stop our children from learning - they're like sponges soaking up whatever learning is meaningful to their lives that is floating about in each and every moment. As homeschooling parents we get overly paranoid about satisfying other people's conceptions of education and end up working much harder than we really need to. Our children usually put up with our misplaced enthusiasm: children are amazingly forgiving!