If you want your homeschooling children to know about many cultures, to explore the way diverse people live, and to have an appreciation of how historical influences affect people, one of the best things you can do to achieve these learning goals is to read out loud to them. And if you believe being well-read is important, reading out loud will teach your children that books are an exciting way to learn about the world.

Looking back at my years of homeschooling, reading out loud is remembered as one of the best experiences we had together. I started reading to my children when they were very young. We went through dozens of picture books, but we had our favorites. Someone gave us a Mother Goose book by Richard Scarry that I read to all five of my children. By the time the first three children outgrew it, the book was worn out. I bought a new copy of the same book for the two younger children.

My oldest child learned to read by being read to. Every day I’d sit him in my lap and read several books to him. We read the same books over and over because he loved them. One day when he was four, he told me to be quiet and let him read for a change. I shushed, and he read. At first I thought he had it memorized, so I switched to an old encyclopedia I had in another room. He was able to read that too, so I realized he’d picked up deciphering skills from watching what I was reading in his favorite children’s picture books.

Picture books from the library were always a big help since we couldn’t afford to buy a lot of books. Two of the titles I remember enjoying with the children were If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and Good Dog, Carl, about a lovable rottweiler. And when they were very young, the children had a collection of books about Spot and Clifford, the Big Red Dog. But soon enough, they realized there were other books in the library, and my son, at the age of about five, found a mystery novel and wanted desperately for me to read it to him.

Reading that first novel was a challenge! After that, we read a few Goosebumps books that were much shorter while still having multiple chapters. I got used to the idea that part of homeschooling was reading novels out loud to my children. Though they were very young, they loved listening and usually I ran out of energy for reading before they got restless.

About that time I got the idea of reading novels from the Newbery list. In my enthusiasm I thought I might be able to read them all, but that wasn’t possible even though we homeschooled for nine years. However we read a lot of them, and I always had two raptly attentive children listening.

As the years progressed my daughter, the older of the two, learned to read well. She eventually started reading novels on her own but I read out loud to her until she was about twelve years old. My youngest child, a son, is dyslexic and never learned to read well, so I continued to read out loud to him through the teen years. We progressed to books for more mature people; he always wanted to participate by listening and retains information well.

I’m so glad I took the time to read out loud to my children during our homeschooling years. Of course we read a lot of non-fiction books, history and science articles, and magazines. But the novels gave us a great opportunity to study world cultures and different times in history, and we’ll always remember the warmth and closeness we shared during our novel reading time.

Michael Pakaluk wrote an excellent op-ed entitled A Father Asks: Should I Homeschool? It was published recently in the Boston Pilot. Pakaluk is a professor of philosophy in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Upon seeing the headline my first reaction was to think, “Of course you should homeschool - it is the best thing ever for kids. If you love them, you keep them close and teach them from the heart.”

But then I caught myself and remembered that homeschooling may not be for everyone. I’m not totally discounting the idea it could be for everyone. In my ideal dream-world, every parent is devoted enough to his children to spend time teaching them. In reality, too many parents lack confidence, or are distracted and too busy.

In his article, Pakaluk gives some well-reasoned points about homeschooling and I highly commend his article. Today I’m going to comment on only one thing: the expectations many homeschool parents have that their kids will excel and out-do public schooled kids.

Pakaluk started his article by writing that over two million children are now being homeschooled in the USA, and that they are doing well academically compared to their public schooled peers. While that is true in general, it was not my experience with my children. Both my homeschooled children were in need of special-ed type education. Though I think they got a great education for the unique and beautiful people that they are, and I’m proud and happy that I homeschooled them, they are not at the top of their classes by a long shot. So though I think having your child excel above other children in their age groups is a noble and idealistic objective, be aware it doesn’t always turn out that way. That doesn’t mean homeschooling is wrong for your kids; it only means that not all homeschoolers are top achievers so don’t be disappointed if your kids turn out to be more normal.

It is OKAY to be normal! Your kids don’t have to be THE BEST to be happy or to do well in life!

Does that take any of the pressure off? I hope so!

Homeschooling gives us an opportunity to bond with our children, to respond to their individual needs, and to help them be the best they can be. This “best” should be the ultimate goodness for each child; it should not have to be a matter of competition with others. Competition is a public school concept. Let’s leave it there and enjoy each day with the children we live with and learn with.