An amateur is generally known today, to be a person without sophistication, knowledge, appropriate credentials, talent or experience. However, this is all quite inaccurate. An amatuer is defined as a person who does something because they are consumed with love. An amateur loves their work so much that they do it without concern for reward. An amateur is not looking for acknowledgement of their personal prowess.

A path without accolades is rather unpopular in current American culture. Probably, this is a mostly, world-wide, cultural certainy. General humanity (myself included) is, if nothing else, grossly, self-centered. Despite this, we also generally know that the pursuit of love is valuable. Yet, do we pursue something we love or simply the general concept of love? Do we, do things, because we love, or to receive an experience that we have been told is love? Often, I fear it is the latter for both questions.

What we are called, in the very core of our beings to do, is to act with love. Acting with love is very different than pursuing (trying to get) love. Pursuing love might be confused with lust, or success, or acceptance. Acting with love is a passion for the ultimate wellbeing of others. Passion, especially for your children, requires effort.

The wellbeing of a person means what is best for their life. It does not mean what is easiest, most acceptable, or popular. The best path is often the hardest. Acting in love frequently includes doing weird, new things because it is better in long run. Dieting is weird and new to the obese. (BTDT!) Sobriety is new and weird to the alcoholic. Socializing without a drink or a fork in hand is just odd after decades of the opposite. Acting towards a long-term goal involves facing your fears, confronting your failings and doing a bad job, especially in the beginning. G. K. Chesterton famously wrote, “If anything is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.

Are you willing to thoroughly suck? Could you smile at your ineptitude? Can you see yourself muddling through, wading into uncertainy, but continuing forward, eventually discovering the way, because of your love?

If you answered yes, to any of these questions… Then surprise! You can homeschool. Further, your children will be infinitely more successful because of it.

When your children watch you eschew the cultural pursuit of wealth solely because- YOU. LOVE. THEM. -they will know how important they are. Talk about a self-esteem boost.

It turns out that prior excellence in science (or any subject) is not required for student learning. It is often, in fact, a hindrance. One of the most boring things for any student is to be simply told what to think. Lecture is a passive (boring) sport. All learners have better results when a “teacher” sits down with them and says, “I don’t know. Let’s figure it out together.” Patrnership in learning is universally recognized as one of the most productive techniques. Figuring it out together also requires discussion- a fabulously effective, yet woefully underused, art.

Most parents believe that they can’t homeschool because they wouldn’t be good enough. “I’m not a teacher, so I can’t homeschool” is possibly the most common thought. Yet, all parents actually already are teaching their children from birth onward and have been since the dawn of time. University specialization has led us to believe that only English majors write, only Artists make art, only Business majors become CEOs and only teachers teach. That’s not true though.

Non-teachers teach all the time. Teaching is a daily activity for most people and certainly for parents. Did you know homeschooled students score on average about 72 points higher than the national average on the SAT? In addition, studies show that homeschooled kids, where neither parent is a teacher, actually score higher than those homeschooled kids where at least one parent is a certified teacher.  So, not only do homeschooled students get higher scores than the general population, homeschooled students whose parents aren’t teachers, get even higher scores.

We love our children, but we are afraid to be a bad teacher. What if we screw up? Being a “bad” teacher, an unprepared teacher, an untrained or uneducated teacher doesn’t actually matter in the field of homeschooling. What matters is the loving, commitment to figuring it out together. What matters is working together to find out which methods best fit your individual child.

Besides, just like in anything in life, if you screw up, apologize and do your best to fix it. That’s life, we all screw up. Teaching your kids how to screw up (aka: what not to do), is another great learning technique.

The path of the amateur is a pursuit of something you love. If the “thing” you love is your child/children, then acting in their best, long-term, interest equals homeschooling in *most* cases. Homeschoolers are not some exceptional, unique, perfectly patient, eminently knowledgeable, societal unicorns. Homeschooling parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are all just plain, old, human, amateurs. We are pursuing the best (*trying* to persue the best) for those in our care because of our passion for their lives, because it is worth doing, even worth doing badly.

As a mom, my love for my children supercedes my inability to teach. Homeschooling is a function (teur) of my love (ama). I’m an amateur. Sometimes the love (ama) comes easily because I am their mother (ma). Aaaaaand sometimes… Sometimes I am so short-tempered I wonder what’s wrong with me. Which is the second most common thought on homeschooling, “I can’t teach because I’m not patient enough.” However, the world is not populated with endlessly patient kindergarten teachers. God gave your kids to you, not a perfectly peaceful, calm, never frustrated, person. From road rage to bosses on powertrips, from co-workers with double standards to family members that simply clash, the prevalence of frustrating situations and people all around us should be unfailingly obvious. Dealing with it is life. When your children witness you overcome with frustration or anger, yet not giving up or lashing out, they are learning an incredibly important life lesson- one that is rarely taught where the teachers, support staff (and even most children) remain professionally (emotionally) detached.

And yes, it’s work. Being lazy doesn’t match well with homeschooling, but you don’t have to worry that your kids will suffer because of your laziness as those bundles of joy will climb into bed with you and kick you until you’re awake, out of bed and moving.

Love and work are all tied up together with motherhood, homeschool is just an extension of it. Whether it’s diapering or sweeping or figuring out how to say, “My racecar has wheels made out of boogers” in Spanish with your 7 year old, it’s just a part of being a mom.

(Mi coche de carreras tiene ruedas hechas de mocos.)

So as long as you are willing to stand and say, “Hi. My name is Tricia, I’d like to homeschool and I need help, I will probably be bad at this” then welcome to the club of amateurs, we’ll gladly help you. You don’t need much more than the willing commitment to strike out on a new, crazy, better in the long run, path.