Do I need to be a teacher to homeschool?

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About this episode

Do you need to be a qualified teacher to homeschool your child? No, and the clearest explanation of why comes from someone who trains new teachers.

It is one of the questions we are frequently asked, and for a lot of families it is the one that stops them before they start. Ellen Brown puts it to Danielle McGregor, who covers what makes a good teacher, why parents consistently underrate what they already bring, and what to do on the days you have no idea what you are doing.

Meet Danielle McGregor

Danielle is Head of Educator Development. Her job is training teachers and giving them the skills and confidence to succeed.

Her current work is with volunteer teachers who teach English to adult migrants and refugees. Consider what that asks of someone: teach a language to adults you have just met, who may share almost no words with you, with no relationship to draw on.

If untrained volunteers can manage that, a parent teaching their own child is starting several steps ahead. You already have the relationship, the history, and years rather than a single term.

She is not a schoolteacher and not a homeschooling parent, which is what makes her worth listening to here. She has no classroom to defend and nothing to sell you about home education, only years of watching untrained adults turn into good teachers.

In the full episode she gets specific about what decides whether learning sticks: why watching an expert teaches your child almost nothing, the point most families stop at when they should keep going, and how far you are allowed to change the material in front of you.

Key Discussion Points

Formal training isn’t what makes a great teacher. Danielle has watched many great teachers arrive without it.
You already bring more than you think. Your own experience of learning, your knowledge of your child, and the relationship you already have all come with you.
Nobody knows your child the way you do. A specialist arriving from outside has to guess, and usually reaches for something generic.
A child who feels safe learns more. Lower stress and freedom to make mistakes are what let a child stay in the hard part of learning.
Skills outlast content. How to learn, think and adapt are transferable to everything. This is much more valuable than the content itself.
Watching is not learning. Knowledge is unlikely to stick without practice and application.
Adapting the material is expected, not cheating. Change the activity, keep the skill. Children engage more if they feel what they are learning is relevant to their life.

Why a Teaching Qualification Isn’t What Makes a Good Teacher

Ellen puts the hardest version of this to Danielle. A parent starts homeschooling, they did not finish Grade 11 and 12 themselves, and now they are responsible for a senior student.

Danielle does not soften her answer.

One thing I’ve observed is that formal training in education doesn’t necessarily produce a good teacher, and great teachers come without formal education.
— Danielle McGregor

Her point is not that training is worthless. It is that the qualification is not what makes the difference, and she says it as someone who develops teachers professionally.

What she tells her volunteers is that they already carry most of what the job asks for: their experience, their knowledge, their personality. If you have ever learned anything yourself, a language, a trade, an instrument, a recipe, you already know what learning feels like from the inside, including the part where it is hard.

In Episode 48, Euka parent David Smith describes the same belief from the other side, as the trap of assuming a trained teacher must be better at teaching your child than you are.

What Do Parents Have That a Qualified Teacher Doesn’t?

Danielle names three things, and a parent already holds all of them.

You Know Your Child Better Than Any Specialist

Nobody knows your children the way that you do. Nobody learns in the same way. And so someone coming in from the outside and offering them a cookie-cutter method is not going to work for everybody. But for your child, you know what will work.
— Danielle McGregor

You Have Time, and Permission to Get It Wrong

A classroom teacher has a term and thirty children. You have years and one child, which means you do not have to get this right on day one. Danielle’s advice is to muddle through, work it out, and protect the relationship while you do, because the relationship itself feeds the learning.

Why a Child Who Feels Safe Learns More

When Ellen raises how much difference it makes for a child to feel loved and accepted, Danielle points out this is not sentiment. People learn best where stress is lower, where they feel accepted, and where they are free to make mistakes.

That matters because real learning is uncomfortable. A great deal of it happens in the struggle, and a child will only stay in the struggle if they are certain the adult beside them is on their side.

Why Teaching a Skill Matters More Than Covering Content

This is the most practically useful stretch of the conversation, and it turns on a distinction Danielle uses constantly: covering content is not the same as teaching a skill.

What we actually keep from a lifetime of learning, she argues, is not the content but the skill of learning itself. How to think, how to analyse, how to decide, how to notice what genuinely interests us.

Those skills transfer. The content mostly does not.

That is good news for a parent, because it moves the job away from knowing every answer.

The Trumpet Lesson: Why Watching Isn’t Learning

Imagine paying for a trumpet lesson where the teacher plays beautifully for the full hour while your child watches. Danielle would not pay that teacher to teach her child. The child has learned nothing, and often feels worse, because they cannot do what they just watched someone do effortlessly. Teaching well requires breaking down a task and guiding through the skills, with opportunity to practice and fail.

The Cake Test: Four Depths of Learning

Her second example lays out four depths of learning.

Being told how to bake a cake teaches you a little. Watching someone bake it teaches you more. Baking it yourself, with an adult standing back as support rather than taking over, teaches you more again.

Then comes the step most people skip: taking the recipe and changing it, turning the chocolate cake into the caramel one you actually wanted.

The last step is what proves understanding. Following a recipe proves you can follow a recipe. Changing it proves you know how it works.

The same trajectory applies whether the subject is baking or soccer.

How This Maps to Learn, Practice and Apply

Ellen connects this to how the Euka program is built, where each lesson moves through a Learn section, then moves into a practice section where they do something hands-on with the information. Then they go through and apply their learning.

The temptation, especially for new homeschooling parents, can be to finish the Learn part and mark the lesson done. Danielle’s advice: you do need to impart information, but without the practice and the application it is very unlikely to stick.

Episode 24 goes further into how learning actually sticks.

Can You Change the Euka Program to Suit Your Child?

Yes, and Danielle believes you should.

Asked about teaching styles, she corrects the premise first. The old research saying we each have one fixed learning style has been largely debunked. Most of us like variety.

What she offers instead is more useful. Know your own preferences well enough not to assume they are your child’s, and engage as many senses as you can.

Then watch for the moment your child comes alive, and pay attention to what caused it.

She also suggests an approach that works well beyond schoolwork. When something your child does irritates or surprises you, notice the reaction, then get curious about it rather than acting on it.

This extends to the material itself, including Euka’s own. Nothing should be written to be used exactly as it is, she says, because no two learners are the same.

Ellen makes it concrete. If a measurement activity asks your child to pour water between jugs and your child would rather bake, bake. The skill being applied has not changed.

For parents who find that daunting, Danielle’s advice comes from her work with overwhelmed volunteers: break the task into its steps, slow down, and connect it to something in your child’s actual life.

Episode 23 shows this working, where one mother lifted her dyslexic son’s reading level by rebuilding the material around his love of dogs.

Why This Episode Matters

If you have been putting off homeschooling because you are not a teacher, this episode removes that specific obstacle, and it does so from a highly credible source.

Danielle’s work is evidence that untrained adults can teach well when they are given the right tools and support.

It is worth being clear about the limits of that. Danielle is not promising it takes no effort, or that you will never feel out of your depth. Her view is: the qualification does not stand between you and doing this well.

You are your child’s greatest advocate. And your love for them, your commitment to them, and your creativity, and all that you model to them, is a gift that you can give them.
— Danielle McGregor

More Support for Getting Started

If you want to go further on the questions this episode raises, these are the places to start.

The free course. Our Complete Guide to Confident Homeschooling covers registering legally in your state, choosing and structuring a curriculum, building a daily rhythm, supporting a child who learns differently, and knowing your child is progressing. Nine short video modules, hosted by Brett and Ellen, free and self-paced. Start the free course.

Related reading. Our guide to the benefits of homeschooling your child covers how families use the flexibility day to day.

Related episodes. Episode 49, The Real Benefits of Homeschooling, where a Euka graduate answers the same question from a student’s point of view, and Episode 47, Preparing Your Children for the Real World.

Answered Questions

Real questions Australian parents ask about qualifications, confidence, and what homeschooling really requires.

Do I need to be a qualified teacher to homeschool my child?

No. Many of the people Danielle trains arrive without the qualification and become good teachers anyway. The credential is not the variable that decides whether this works.

Am I smart enough to homeschool my child?

Intelligence was never the requirement. It asks you to know your child, to learn beside them, and to stay patient while they find something hard. A qualification measures none of those.

What if I didn’t finish school myself?

Have you ever taught yourself something, or stuck with something difficult until it clicked? That is the experience you draw on. Danielle’s point is that your schooling is not the qualification here, your memory of learning is.

What if I don’t know the answer to something?

Say so, and look it up together. Ellen describes a long-time Euka parent who found this one of his most powerful teaching tools, because learning alongside your child models curiosity and shows them it is safe not to know.

How do I know if my child is actually learning, or just getting through the work?

Look at what your child can do afterwards, not what they sat through. If they can use the skill somewhere new, it has landed. If the lesson ended at the explanation, expect it to fade.

Do I have to follow the program exactly as written?

No. Danielle’s position is that material which cannot be adapted is not worth much. Keep the skill the activity is practising, and change everything around it to suit your child.

What if I get it wrong?

Treat it as part of the teaching. Acknowledge it in front of your children and work out together why it did not go to plan, which models something more useful than getting it right first time.

Transcript

Ellen:

Welcome everyone. Today is an exciting day for us because we have an expert educator here. Danielle has been, and I’ll let Danielle tell us a little bit more about herself, working in the field of education for many years. And the reason that I asked Danielle onto the podcast today is because one of the things that we always do as parents is say, “Oh, am I good enough? Do I know enough to be able to educate my child?” And that can feel really overwhelming at times. And so talking to Danielle today will be giving us the opportunity to ask her what she teaches teachers, and maybe we can take some of those things on board ourselves and really get some secret hints and tips, so that we can actually step up as far as our confidence level and our ability when we’re helping our own kids with their homeschooling journey. So welcome, Danielle.

Danielle:

Thank you, Ellen. Thanks for having me.

Ellen:

Great to have you here. So tell us a little bit about what you do at the moment.

Danielle:

Yeah, so I’ve taught in quite a few contexts, but where I’m at, at the moment, is I work as a trainer of volunteer teachers who teach English to adults, migrants and refugees around the Sydney area. And most of those people are not trained teachers. Some of them are, but most of them are not. And so we run training to give them the skills and the confidence to be able to do this work of teaching the skill of English. And then we support them and equip them with resources. I write lesson resources and just generally support them in whatever way I can. Sometimes I’ll be modelling lessons for them, and just giving feedback and support and encouragement. So that’s wonderful.

Ellen:

So you’re not a stranger to people feeling that feeling of “am I good enough” or “can I do the assignment?” So what would your first step be when somebody comes fresh to you, and perhaps it’s a parent who’s coming to homeschooling for the first time and there’s a lot of stage fright? They may not have even finished Year 11 and 12, and now they’ve got a senior student. Or they may have struggled themselves in school, and now they’ve got a child that they’re teaching in high school.

Danielle:

One thing I’ve observed is that formal training in education doesn’t necessarily produce a good teacher, and great teachers come without formal education. So what I will say to the adults is that you come with a wealth of experience, knowledge, your own personality and your own personal skills that you bring. And if you have ever learned anything in your life, then you bring the experience of that to the table when you’re teaching, whether it’s your own children, or whether it’s other people’s children, or adults. And so you have so much to offer. You actually don’t learn a lot of that in the academic study of education at university. You learn it in the school of life. And so every parent, the other advantage as a parent that you have is that nobody knows your children the way that you do. Nobody learns in the same way. No child is going to learn in the same way. And so someone coming in from the outside and offering them a cookie-cutter method is not going to work for everybody. But for your child, you know what will work. And you also have the context of the relationship, and you have time. You don’t have to get it right immediately. You can muddle through, work it out, and maintain that great relationship with them, which will speak into their learning. So that’s what I would say initially.

Ellen:

Yeah. I think one thing I’ll touch on there is love. It’s an interesting one, the difference it makes when the person that you’re teaching feels loved and accepted. Because in the atmosphere of a family and homeschooling, where a child is loved and accepted, and accepted for all the little nuances that that child has, all of a sudden there’s freedom to make mistakes, there’s freedom to try things, you don’t feel like people are judging you. It’s a totally different learning context. So we often have parents say to us, “My child was really struggling at school and now all of a sudden they’re going really well.” And that can simply be because they’ve now got a teacher, a parent, who actually gives them the time to ask those questions, and they feel like they’re in a safe learning environment in order to ask those questions.

Danielle:

Mm. And that’s no accident, actually, because all the research would say that people learn best when they’re in an environment where the stress levels are lower, where they feel empowered, where they feel accepted, where there’s an opportunity for them to be themselves, and when they can make mistakes. And I think a lot of learning happens in the struggle. And so with a parent who loves them, and who they are convinced is for them no matter what, they can have that struggle in the learning context without the anxiety or the fear of failure, because you can, as a parent, offer them that safe place to learn.

Ellen:

It was interesting, because we did a podcast a few episodes ago with a parent who’d been homeschooling with Euka for many years, and he said something that was really valuable: that you don’t have to know it all. And actually demonstrating the learning by saying, “Well, you know what? I actually don’t know that. Let’s go have a look together.” That’s been a really powerful way of him teaching his children. Because when you learn alongside a child, not only are you learning something new, but they’re actually having that demonstrated to them, that openness, and willingness, and lack of fear in delving into something they don’t understand.

Danielle:

Mm. Yeah, of course. Because actually, I’m sure if your parents were to think back on their learning experience, how much of the content of what you learn do you actually remember? I think the one thing that we actually really take from our learning experience over our whole life is not so much the content, but the skills in learning. And so as a parent, as you say, we don’t have to know it all. We don’t have to know what the content is necessarily. But what a gift that we give our children is the ability to find out, and the doing of that together, and that sense that learning goes on forever, and we can do that together. And the confidence, I think a lot of failure very rarely comes from lack of ability, but more a lack of confidence that you can press on and persevere and find what you need to do. And so a parent has that relationship, and the time, and can model that to their child. And so what you’re teaching them is a lot of skills rather than content.

Danielle:

I’ll give you an example that may or may not be relevant to your context, but in my context we’re teaching the skill of language learning. And so we make the point in our training that it’s very different from content. Because if we were to just be teaching content, there might be a lot of teacher talk and a lot of things to read and a lot of things to take in, but actually we’re teaching a skill. And so what we want to do when we teach a skill is give the opportunity to the person learning to practise that as much as possible. We guide them, we give them ideas, we model to them what good might look like, and then we give the opportunity to them to practise. And we give the example of a trumpet lesson. I say: if I took my child to a trumpet lesson, which is a skill, and the trumpet teacher sat there and played the trumpet beautifully, excellent trumpet playing, for a whole hour, and I sat in the room watching. I would not happily pay that trumpet teacher to teach my child, because they’re not learning from watching this amazing skilled person. Actually, they’re feeling crushed, because they can’t do that. But if you break down the task and slowly guide them through the steps that are required to do it, and then give them the opportunity to practise and fail, and find for them what works in terms of learning, because as I said it’s not the same for everyone, then what you’re doing is you’re giving them the environment and the confidence to grow and learn. And that’s a gift, because ultimately you don’t know what your children are going to go and do. They might not be doing anything related to the content of what they’re learning, but the skills that they learn along the way about how to learn, how to think, how to analyse, how to make decisions, and even just learning about themselves, what interests them and what really sparks their interest, they’re all skills that they will take into every part of their future learning and into their life. And they’re so transferable.

Ellen:

Well, you know what? I’m really excited that you explained that journey of learning as a skill, because we have actually just rewritten our Euka lessons. We have a new student experience, a new student portal. The students, when they’re learning a new piece of content, a new topic, they are actually taken on a journey with every lesson, where they start with that Learn section that you said, like the trumpet teacher playing, that Learn section where you’re actually giving the student information. But then they move into the Practice section, where they take that information and they do something practical with it. It’s often hands-on, whether they’re making a poster about it, or they’re running around doing a scavenger hunt for certain letters that they learnt about. And that application in a practical, hands-on way is what you’re talking about. Don’t just say “we’ve done the Learn, and then we’re done.” And then they go through, and then they have to apply their learning by doing a whole heap of different activities, in the questions that we’ve got online or on an offline activity sheet. So I think that’s a really helpful hint for parents. Because sometimes, and certainly when I went to school, you would have a lecture by the teacher, and then lesson over, the bell rings, and then you’re gone, right? And so what happens sometimes for new homeschooling parents is they say, “Okay, well, we’ve done the Learn section. My child doesn’t feel like doing the practical part.” And we might skip over the Apply part and press complete, and you might think they’ve done a lesson. But what you’re saying here, when you’re helping a parent to understand their role as an educator, is to get them to actually do those hands-on activities and to really jump into the Apply section, so that they’re not just taking in that learning. That’s the smallest part of the whole activity, really, isn’t it? It’s more about how they can actually use it in the Practice section and the Apply section of their lesson.

Danielle:

Of course. Yeah, I totally agree. Don’t get me wrong, you obviously need to impart some information and knowledge, that’s part of the role. But if you don’t do the practice and the application, it’s very unlikely to stick. So if I was to say to you, “This is how you cook a cake,” and then I talked at you for 15 minutes, you might glean some things. If I was to model it, if you watched me cooking the cake, that would be better, because you would see me doing it. You’d take on some more. If I then gave you the task of cooking the cake, with me standing back and maybe being there as a support but not doing it for you, you’ll learn even more. And then if you take that cake recipe that you’ve just made, following exactly what I’ve done, but you apply it, you’re like, “Well, that’s a chocolate cake, but I’d like to make mine a caramel. What could I do to this cake to make it fit what I want to make it?” Then you’ve taken the learning another step, so you can see where the real learning happens. And every step of the way is important. But if you stop at any point you’re going to miss out on some extra learning that will really stick and be helpful, because the application too is the point where they’re learning to learn, transferable skills about learning that they can apply. Okay, you’ve learnt now how to make a cake. But if I want to teach you how to play soccer, same sort of trajectory, but you’ve got the same skills and way of learning. So yeah, definitely don’t stop at the information. Honestly, the percentage of information that will be taken in from just listening to content is so minimal, although it is necessary, as a starting point only.

Ellen:

Yes, excellent. So we’ve got this new parent. They’ve now realised, okay, learning is going to be more than just giving that information in the Learn section, that they really should get that Apply section going on. What other hints or tips could you give that will help a parent in their journey of becoming the imparter of learning? We kind of call them more like a learning coach, where they come alongside instead of actually having to be a teacher.

Danielle:

Mm. Yeah. Yeah, well, one of the things you touched on earlier is just being willing to fail. We all know that in every part of life, even as adults, we’re all works in progress and we fail. And one of the wonderful things about maturing, hopefully, is that you learn that failure is not the end, that there are things to be learnt from failure. So acknowledge your failures before your children, and model to them that it’s okay to fail. “You know, that didn’t work out, but that’s okay. Let’s think about why, and let’s work that out together.” So that’s a gift that you can give to them. I think getting to know them, not expecting that they will necessarily want to do everything the way that you do it just because they’re your child. Being open to the fact that you can actually learn from them, and they might actually learn in a different way to you. And I know the flexibility that homeschooling gives also allows you to be flexible about the timing of when it works for your child. And I think in parenting, and parenting as a homeschooling parent, the relationship is just so important, isn’t it? People will also learn, children and adults, if they feel empowered. So if you come and set a whole lot of structure around things that comes from you, they’re much less likely to have and show the initiative. But if you take the time, it might feel like a bit of time at the beginning, but the ongoing conversations about what works for them. “Help me out here. I want this. We’re both working towards this goal. We both agree on that, but we might have different ideas about how to get there. What do you think will work?” Sometimes it will work, sometimes it will fail. Keep that conversation open. Yeah, those are the things that come to mind at the moment.

Ellen:

Now, fantastic. So one thing you mentioned there is about different teaching styles. What have you learned about teaching teachers on how to, I guess, be flexible or think outside the box when it comes to the material that you’re trying to share with your child?

Danielle:

Yeah, there used to be research around to say that we all had a different teaching style. That research has been a little bit debunked, in that we all like a variety of things. We might be drawn to one or another. I think one thing to be aware of is, again, to know yourself. Know your own inclinations and preferences, so that you don’t assume that those are going to be your child’s. So just because it seems totally reasonable to you that listening to something is a really helpful way to learn, you might think that’s normal, but it might not be normal for your child. So I’m actually in the process at the moment of running some conferences, and our theme is engaging the senses. And so when we think about varying teaching style, it can be helpful to think about the five senses. How can I engage all of the senses? Hearing and touch, and sight and speaking, and all of the different senses in the learning experience. And when do I see that light come on with my child? Because that might be something that I can spend a little bit more time on. So being creative, making it fun, asking them and observing them, and finding out at what points do they actually really resonate or seem to come alive. And maybe I’ll spend some more time on that, even if for me that’s not what I think would really flow. Some people really do like reading and learning through that sort of avenue. Other people, hands-on, touching things, doing things, that will work well for them. So, not making assumptions. I think in everything we do, we need to really have a posture of curiosity, especially when something happens in your relationship with your child, or in your teaching experience with them, where it kind of comes up against you and you’re either a little bit irritated or a little bit surprised, or it doesn’t sit right. Rather than having that reaction, recognise that reaction in yourself, but then be curious, like what’s happening here, and then work with that. Because they’ve been made as they have, uniquely, and that’s actually a gift to the world, so how do we encourage that? Rather than frustration about the fact that they don’t want to do it your way.

Ellen:

I love that. I would really encourage families that are working through the Euka program: when they get to that practical section, that’s where you as the parent can actually make some adaptations. We always have to have something in there, a guide. And it might be, for example, they might be doing measurement, and it might be measuring glasses of water, and they’re doing millilitres and litres and things like that. But you might know that that’s actually not something your child would love, but they would like to make a cake, or they would like to make a certain type of drink which has a lot of millilitres. Absolutely. So don’t be scared, I guess this is the thing that you were just saying about knowing yourself, being curious, knowing your child, don’t be scared to change those activities completely to suit your child, so that your child is still getting that learning experience, but it’s actually fitting them. So just always think of the program as a suggestion, the activity as a suggestion. Feel free to just go wild and say, “Well, actually, my child wants to make a life-size Great Wall of China here,” or whatever it is. Just feel free to jump into that inner child yourself. This is a chance as a parent when you’re homeschooling. It’s a chance to actually enjoy the things that you had when you were a child. Why not turn the whole house into “the floor is lava” here, because you’re doing spelling words, and you can put different ones on different cushions and you can jump from one. Like, have fun. I think that’s probably a big encouragement too, as the teacher or educator, have fun.

Danielle:

Mm. Yeah. Absolutely. And again, that’s not just a comment, research shows that. When we’re having fun and enjoying ourselves, we actually learn and retain information better. And also what you’re describing is making the learning relevant, because children will also engage more if they feel that what they’re learning is relevant to their life. So there was a lot of learning I remember doing at school where I did it because I needed to pass a test, and fortunately I was the sort of person who liked passing tests, so I did that. But ultimately I didn’t often see, in some of my subjects, any correlation with my life. I couldn’t really understand why I was learning what I was learning. So if you’re prepared to take the Euka material and adapt it to your context and what’s relevant to your child, they will engage with it more. Because okay, measuring water may not be relevant, but maybe they’re into the garden, working out the different proportions of the fertiliser with the water, or whatever it is for your child, that’s going to make much more sense, because they’ll think, “Oh, this is a skill I actually could need in the thing that I’m interested in doing.” And look, no educational material is worth anything if it’s not able to be adapted. I don’t think we should write anything that should ever be used exactly as it is, because not one person is the same. So it’s a great freedom to be able to do that. And I think part of the skill in doing it, just as a hint for parents, is for you to analyse: what are the little micro-skills here, and pieces of information, in this water-measuring activity that’s in the Euka material? Okay, this is the core of it. Now let’s break that down. How can I break those core skills and information down and apply it to something else? So often you come to something, I think, and it can seem overwhelming. I find that with a lot of our volunteer teachers, when they’re saying that they can’t do it, they’re kind of thinking too big and being overwhelmed. But if you break it down into little pieces, connect it to your child’s actual life, then it’s manageable and it’s interesting and it’s fun.

Ellen:

I love that. It’s certainly a freedom that I feel we can give our parents or teachers. It’s much easier to be free and adapt something when you have the thing to adapt. So when the Euka program is so structured, and you know exactly what to teach in your English every single day of the entire year, that then gives you the freedom to have the fun and say, “Okay, how will this work for my child?” So all right, well, we’ll come to an end, but I want you to think about what you would like to share with the parents as a last final thought.

Danielle:

I guess I want to say that you are your child’s greatest advocate. And your love for them, your commitment to them, and your creativity, and all that you model to them, is a gift that you can give them. Don’t be concerned that you don’t have any formal training, because honestly, you have more than what’s required, as the parent who loves them and wants the very best for them.

Ellen:

Love that. Thank you so much for your time, Danielle. I know you’re busy with conferences and things at the moment. We really appreciate all that insight. Thank you so much.

Danielle: