If you are considering homeschooling your children, you might be apprehensive if you didn't do well in school yourself. Thankfully your success, or lack thereof, in school does not have to be an issue in choosing to homeschool. In fact, you can take advantage of the time you're teaching your child to brush up on some of the things you didn't do so well with when you were in school.



Math is one subject that parents stress over when they choose to homeschool, especially if they struggled when they went to school. Your struggles shouldn't be a factor in choosing to homeschool. If you weren't good in math, remember you'll have the teacher's manual with the answers. However, you may have to spend a little bit of time relearning, or learning anew, the concepts prior to trying to teach your child. And remember, you can always turn to other homeschooling families to help you if you need it.

Another subject parents might not look forward to teaching is English. Maybe you hated English and writing. If you haven't found a planned curriculum to use for English, you can find helpful books at the local library. You can also find materials online, including worksheets and tests.

Besides Math and English, another subject that parents worry about teaching is Science. There are a number of good science curriculums available, some with all of the materials for experiments. You'd be surprised just what you can find to use for free on the Internet. In fact, you can even dissect a virtual frog instead of having to smell formaldehyde if that turned you off when you took Biology.

Reading should be one of the easiest subjects. Your children will learn to love reading if they see you and your spouse read, no matter the book. Read books aloud with your child and then have them re-tell you the story in their own words. If they are just learning how to read, one resource that is popular with homeschoolers is "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfried Englemann, Phyllis Haddox, and Elaine Bruner.

It doesn't really matter if you did well in school or not. You don't have to let how well you did keep you from teaching your children. You can learn along with them to fill in the gaps in your own education. If you come across something that you don't understand, search out your homeschooling friends, they can probably help you. Another option would be to see if you can find a local homeschool co-op. In either case, you can make homeschooling a positive experience for yourself as well as your children.