Brave Writer News: September 2026

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Are Parents Qualified to Teach Their Kids?

Brave Writer

When someone accuses a homeschooling parent of not being qualified to teach their kids, I have to wonder what that person thinks parents have been doing during all the other years and off hours of that child’s life.

From what I see, parents can’t stop teaching their kids—everything.

They teach them to talk and use a toilet, sure.

But they also teach skills like:

  • baking
  • playing sports
  • camping
  • gardening
  • bird watching
  • appreciating the arts
  • driving
  • preparing for job interviews
  • managing money
  • being polite
  • being a responsible person

Home educators are simply adults who have decided to expand the categories of what they will teach their kids. And they take the responsibility to learn how to teach them that material. They use their capable adult minds to do it!

The task is possible.

Parents learn to teach math and reading, writing, science, and history in the same way they learned how to give birth and then nurse and wean that baby. They learn how to homeschool the same way they learned how to help a toddler learn to climb safely or protect their teeth from cavities.

In the areas that feel challenging to a parent, that parent might hire tutors, or enroll a child in a specific class (like French or chemistry). Some families use local schools for part-time enrollment to participate in sports and the arts as well.

Home education doesn’t mean being an expert in every subject. Homeschooling is a learning journey for the whole family.

There’s a difference between SCHOOLING and LEARNING.

Schools can be great! But they aren’t the only place learning can happen.

So, treat being a home educator as a career. Keep learning and growing right alongside your kids. That’s the whole job!

The Brave Learner

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[Podcast #356] Parenting Strategies or Teaching Tactics

Brave Writer Podcast

What if the missing ingredient in your homeschool isn’t a better curriculum, but a bigger toolkit for teaching?

When kids resist a lesson, it’s easy to reach for familiar parenting strategies: consequences, bargaining, reminders, and demands for cooperation. But learning asks something different of us.

We need teaching tactics that spark:

  • curiosity,
  • invite collaboration,
  • leave room for contemplation,
  • and celebrate real growth.

On today’s Brave Writer podcast episode, we explore playful, practical ways to make math, history, writing, and other subjects more meaningful, while helping our kids develop genuine ownership of what they learn.

Tune in and discover how to trade “Come on, you guys!” for richer learning experiences.

Show Notes

Many of us begin homeschooling with a beautiful picture in our heads. We’ve researched the curriculum, gathered books, and planned activities and field trips. We sit down to offer our children this feast of learning and expect them to recognize how wonderful it is.

Then somebody starts poking a sibling. Someone decorates the math worksheet instead of completing it. The dog suddenly becomes much more interesting than phonics.

And we hear ourselves saying, “Come on, you guys!”

That moment points to an important distinction: parenting strategies and teaching tactics are not the same thing.

Cooperation Isn’t the Same as Learning

As parents, we already have strategies for getting through daily life. We set timers, offer consequences, and remind our child that shoes have to go on before we leave the house.

Those tools are designed to produce cooperation with an adult agenda.

Education requires another set of skills. Our job as parent educators is to provoke curiosity, make abstract ideas meaningful, help our children practice what they’re learning, and create conditions where understanding can grow.

A completed worksheet may show cooperation. It doesn’t necessarily show learning.

So what can we do instead?

We can start with four capacities: curiosity, collaboration, contemplation, and celebration.

Curiosity

Before asking, “How do I make my child do this?” try asking, “What would make my child want to know this?”

Division gets more interesting when we’re dividing M&Ms fairly. Math becomes useful when a video game requires us to calculate how much a crop will cost and what we can earn by selling it. Ancient Greece becomes inviting through mythology, museum exhibits, movies, stories, or games.

Every child has different doors into learning. Our work is to look for them.

Collaboration

Helping is not cheating.

Think about how many times we help children learn to tie their shoes. We don’t demonstrate it once and announce that they should now be independent forever.

Academic skills work the same way. Children may master one level and need us again when the work becomes longer or harder.

Just because a child can walk doesn’t mean we refuse them a stroller at Disneyland. Ability and stamina are different things.

Contemplation

Learning needs room to marinate.

Read the comic book, then make a comic. Visit the museum, then draw the painting you remember. Talk about geography, then copy the names of the continents.

And leave some empty space.

When every quiet moment becomes an opportunity to assign another task, children lose time to think about what they have already encountered. Conversation, reflection, and even loafing can be part of an education.

Celebration

Finally, notice what happened.

Not generic praise. Not simply, “Good job!”

Notice the specific thing that grew: “You wrote three sentences today.” “Look at those R’s.” “You stayed with that problem even when it was hard.”

We can celebrate the planting of the seed, not only the full sunflower.

That shift changes the atmosphere of learning. Instead of relying on strategies that enforce an academic agenda, we begin collecting teaching tactics that help our children become curious, engaged, thoughtful learners.

That is the professional development of homeschooling.

Resources

Connect with Julie

Connect with Melissa

Produced by NOVA

Brave Writer Podcast

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NEW Literature and Grammar Handbooks

Brave Writer

Two beloved books now have fresh literature and grammar handbooks! Teach grammar, punctuation, spelling, and literary devices through these engaging stories (books not included).

Arrow (ages 11-12): The Penderwicks 

by Jeanne Birdsall

Join Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty Penderwick as they set off for a summer in the country and enjoy unexpected adventures. This heartwarming story celebrates family, curiosity, and the magic of an ordinary summer.

Boomerang (ages 13-14): Beowulf 

translated by Seamus Heaney

Journey alongside the legendary warrior Beowulf as your family encounters fearsome monsters, daring battles, and timeless questions about courage, honor, and sacrifice. This unforgettable epic has captivated readers for over a thousand years and offers rich opportunities for big juicy conversations.

Brave Writer’s literature and grammar handbooks feature:

  • 4 Passages (one per week) for copywork/dictation practices
  • Lessons on grammar, punctuation, spelling, vocabulary, and literary devices
  • Planner and Skills Tracker
  • Weekly Reading Guide
  • Writing Activity
  • Discussion Questions
  • Family Book Club Party Ideas
  • Guidelines explaining copywork & dictation practices

We are cheering you on, one book at a time! 

Brave Writer

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