ujpest_doza said:
Some of the replies to my question have been a bit indignant and defensive, it was just a question!
Anyhow, as someone who has replied said it is something that is very unusual and to be honest almost unheard of in England. Parents are fined and can actually be sent to prison ( and have been) if they do not send their kids to school.
The other side of the coin is of course that teachers are a professional people who have been to university and then teacher training college before being unleashed in our schools. Teaching your own kids seems a bit like representing yourself in court rather than using a lawyer ie amatuers doing the job of professionals. For instance, specialist subjects such as sciences or history/geography, how do you answer their questions on these subjects if you yourself do not have an expert knowledge of the subject?
What about languages, how do you teach French/Spanish or German if you are not a fluent speaker of the language?
Again, please don't shoot me down in flames, just expressing a few thoughts on a subject that is a bit of an alien concept to me. I could not imagine trying to teach my own kids a full and diverse curriculum. Surely you need a certain expertise to be able to teach properly?
Oh, I didn't take offense at all, ujpest_doza..........just stating how it is for our family.
My Dh has a doctorate degree.........not in languages, but he has had four years of Latin..........he teaches our two DD's. Not that this has anything to do with his being "qualified to teach" IMO.
I don't know how to answer your question about the "qualifications" to teach except to say, and I'm not trying to sound like a snob here, but you would have to see the curriculum that is out there now. Some of the best books are written for homeschoolers. I recently heard about a research study, comparing books for homeschoolers and public school books. The books for homeschoolers were so much better quality. But think about it, (you don't have this in your country, so I understand why you wouldn't usually think about this) homeschooling is A BIG BUSINESS here in the US. And I mean BIG. Because WE AS PARENTS PAY FOR THESE BOOKS OUT OF OUR OWN POCKET, and we are a very DEMANDING group, as far as quality goes. You see, we don't need to ask a school board if it is ok to spend A LOT of money on a particular book. If we want it, we get it. We don't need to go through any red tape. Companies know this. In fact, you have to be careful sometimes that you are not buying something that is inferior, because some companies know homeschooling is a money maker and they through out anything that they think we will buy. THis is rare, though.
And teaching it is not difficult because the companies who write these books, make it pretty easy. I use to use Saxon for Math. For each lesson it would have in bold, black print what the parent/teacher was supposed to say. "Now say, 'Now what do we get when we add these two together', child should say, '12'"..................I mean, it was spelled out for you. Most books are not that explicit, but they do try to make it as simple as possible.
And to wrap this up.........NO ONE..........and I mean, NO ONE, cares more for a student THAN THE PARENTS. No one cares more that my child reads at a certain level, knows about the constellations, writes a book report, can recite their multiplication/division tables, etc.........THAN ME!!
It's not that I have the best techniques, necessarily, but I will take all the time and effort they need to grasp something. AND WE DON'T GO ON IN THE BOOK UNTIL THEY KNOW THE CONCEPT..........which never happens in school. If you aren't getting it, tough!! The class can't wait for you.
I could go on and on. I just thank God that we have the freedom in this country to homeschool. I know I take it for granted sometimes. We had a missionary over for dinner a few months back from England. That is the first time I ever heard that it was against the law to homeschool there. He wished he and his wife could homeschool, but they couldn't. I am truly grateful we have this freedom.
I'm such an enabler when it comes to the DIS. My dh said the other night "should I go exercise?" And I said "no, check the DIS." 
I couldn't ask for a better school than he's in now.Parental involvement and volunteer hours are a must or your child doesn't come back the next year.It reminds me of the homeschool group I belonged to in our outlook on what sort of education our children should be getting.
