Why is it that we are fully confident when we teach our grandchildren something we know how to do, like baking bread or changing the oil in the car, but when we hear the words “teach school” our hearts race and we dive for cover?

Is it the fear of the unknown? Or the fear of being embarrassed because we might not know all the answers to questions our grandchildren will ask? Or the fear of ruining them because we aren’t “professional” teachers? Or that overwhelmed feeling of not knowing where or how to begin, much less complete the instruction, and they’re sitting there watching you, expecting you to be Super-Grampa and Super-Gramma?

Whether you’re just helping out, or completely homeschooling your grandchildren, be assured that you are fully capable, and in fact highly desirable, and indispensable as a teacher and mentor – reinforcing their parents’ plan for their education and discipleship. Consider these factors:

• The God who gave us our children and grandchildren equipped US to be their parent, grandparent, teacher and mentor.
• Statistics show that homeschooled children whose parents were certified teachers scored almost identically on standardized tests as homeschooled children whose parents were not certified teachers. Moreover, homeschooled students scored an average of 33 percentile points above public school students, whether their parents had a simple high school diploma or less, or a college degree.* So be encouraged: College training and teaching experience for you is not necessary for your homeschooled grandchildren to excel.
• Education is a lifestyle, not a list of coursework completed. Everything you do with your grandchildren is an educational/discipleship opportunity. Everything!
• The world is our classroom. Opportunities to learn through hands-on activities by being out-and-about in the “real world” make home education the richest learning experience available to mankind.
• We don’t have to know it all in order to teach it all. Part of the fun is learning together!

Yes, You Can Teach!

Years ago, I served as a corporate manager in a Fortune 500 company. When the director of our public relations department retired, upper management astounded all of us by moving a home economist into the position of vice president over our department. We were bewildered. What does a home economist know about public relations? That individual had no training or experience in PR, and several of us had master’s degrees in our field.

But, as we “trained in” the home economist on all facets of a public relations department, I soon realized that she was going to do fine and the department would not crumble and fall off the face of the earth. I learned a very important lesson during those years: Any of us can learn anything at any point in our lives, and do it well, whether or not we have received college training or job experience in that field or discipline.

Case in point: George Washington Carver (1864-1943) was a black man who had to battle tremendous obstacles to become educated. Yet he pursued it with vigor, rose above his persecutors and became an accomplished artist, musician, scientist, inventor and college professor. He didn’t have any formal training for many of the things he did so well; he learned by reading, watching and doing because he loved learning. If we teach our grandchildren how to learn, and to love learning, they will soar.

And if we teach them to see our Creator in everything, they will learn the most important lessons of life. As Carver related: “I love to think of Nature as wireless telegraph stations through which God speaks to us every day, every hour, and every moment of our lives.”

How-Tos

So how do we “teach school”? The concept is really quite simple: When teaching “school,” start with something you know well — like your own hobby or skill. Then add something that you don’t know well but would really like to learn yourself, like maybe the history of space exploration, or algebra. Then learn it TOGETHER! Yes, you can teach what you don’t know, because you learn it as you study it with them! OK, there are some things that you do have to learn before you can teach it, like brain surgery. But that’s a specialized post-graduate field. You can teach your grandchildren anything that is learned from birth through high school, and many things beyond, because you teach what you know, and then learn the rest together.

There are a myriad of ways we can teach/learn academics together with our grandchildren. Here are a few:

• Studying textbooks and literature
• Following a teacher guide
• Creating your own “teacher guide”
• Watching DVD instruction
• Attending a class
• Learning via computer programs
• Pursuing online courses
• Taking part in a local homeschool co-op
• Teaching lecture-style
• Giving a demonstration
• Using hands-on learning-by-doing
• Going on field trips
• Googling!

The resources available for learning are as diverse and flexible as our imaginations.

Keep Perspective

One advantage of age is it brings perspective, and we as grandparents can bless our families by interjecting that perspective into our interactions, activities and lessons — by being another voice to emphasize what’s really important in life.

And that is discipleship — instilling character, integrity, knowledge, love of learning and most of all a thirst for an increasingly deeper relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We can help educate our grandchildren to become little Einsteins, but without Christ as the foundation and substance of their lives, it is all for naught.

Grandparents, we play such an important role in the lives of our grandchildren. Every learning experience in our grandchildren’s lives is an opportunity for discipleship.

So charge ahead, Grandpa and Grandma!

• Teach what you know. And learn what you don’t know together. That is how to teach children how to learn.
• Make it fun and exciting! That is how to teach children to love learning.
• Approach everything from the foundation of Scripture and model what you teach. That is how to make disciples.

— Barb Heki, for Grandparents of Homeschoolers™

Source for statistics: http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/comp2001/HomeSchoolAchievement.pdf