Qualities and characteristics of a successful homeschooling parent?

For me personally number one is patience. I need to have patience everyday to deal with my ADD 8 yo, my very busy 4 yo and my drama queen 12 yo. If you don't have the patience to deal with your kids all day long every single day they will drive you crazy! LOL!

Energetic, you have to be able to keep up with them.

Driven, If you are not driven you won't get up every day and do school, you'll want to do anything else.

Organized doesn't hurt, it helps to be able to find what you need at any given time.

A support system is great. Who else are you going to question when you need answers? Part of why its so important to get connected with other home schoolers. Having your family on board is helpful too. But you have to watch for those who support you to your face but behind your back are not.

Faith, without my faith it is too overwhelming. I lean of God in the good times and bad. He is my support and my guide.

There are a lot of different ways to approach homeschooling, so what qualities might be great in one family might be irrelevant in another family.

For example, someone might be fine if they are very good at organization/record keeping if they are doing a more traditional approach in a state with stringent laws, but that wouldn't matter to someone who is doing unstructured unschooling in a state that has no requirements.

Overall, I think the only qualities you need are that you like being with your kids, you value learning and are willing to consider different ways to go about doing it.

Probably also helps if you are not one to worry too much about everything-- it is counter-productive when people worry about what others think, worry about pleasing the schools if they aren't part of the system or this illusion of "ahead" and "behind" and what-not.

I think the only parents who lack qualities to homeschool are the ones who are neglectful or lazy or abusive. ANyone else could make it work if they wanted to, just like they did for the first 5 years of their child's life.

Well, if I listed all of those it would show the perfect homeschooling parent. No one is perfect.

There are many different ways to homeschool. You can have a former elementary teacher who is full of energy, an active busy mom & very smart. Yet she too could crash in the stress of homeschooling.

I've met many different homeschooling parents over the years. I started looking into homeschool when my oldest was a baby. I met a homeschooling family & I liked what I saw. The mother was very sweet reminded me of the mom from 7th Heaven. They had a daughter around 13 & twin boys who were 10 at the time. The mother was a former teacher, she was the head of many church bible studies, their livingroom was their school room & this homeschooling mom would help anyone who needed it. Yet she too had faults. I remember her one day crying in bible study saying she found out her daughter was cheating at her math work. The daughter found the teachers guide and just copied the work. The mom felt like a failure. Was she? Ofcourse not.

Each state has their own laws.

My husband often tells people "If my wife can homeschool our kids anyone can."

I have many painful chronic illnesses. I have an awful bladder disease that brings many chronic illnesses with it such as - IBS, migraines, poor immune system, joint problem, TMJ, chronic allergy/sinus problems, fibromyalgia, depression & many more problems. I'm 35 yet at times I feel 80. Some nights I don't sleep due to pain. Today I'm going on maybe 4hrs of sleep it that.

We have 3 kids. I'm laid back and take things as they come. I'm not a morning person either. We usually start school by 10:30 at the latest.

I have other homeschooling parent friends who start school at 8am sharp.

We do a mix of Charlotte Mason method, unschooling, classical homeschooling & relaxed homeschooling.

Due to my health problems I don't drive so I can't make it to homeschool groups. It is sad and at times a friend may give us a ride but I hate to depend on others.

We learn many ways with movies, board games, stories & so on.

Am I a perfect qualified homeschooling mom with perfect characteristics? No. Is there one? Not that I know of.

There is no set recipe to make a successful homeschooling parent. We are all different.

edit - "what has helped them be successful" - my faith in God. I couldn't homeschool my kids without His help. He gives me the strength & drive to get out of bed each morning and teach my kids.

Things that I feel are important:

Goal setting: If you don't know what you are trying to accomplish, how do you expect to get your child there? Patience, Motivation, and Perseverance also come to mind. Organization skills. A willingness to learn. An ability to learn. Intelligence---it is easier to teach algebra is you know how to read math. Good reading comprehension skills. Writing skills. A self-starter. Open-mindedness--a willingness to learn many things, to be open to many teaching techniques and to the world at large.

My homeschooling of my youngest daughter is not about me, it is about her and her needs. When I come to a place where I can no longer meet her educational needs then I need to find a way to have those needs met. A willingness to work hard and to set high goals for my child. My ultimate educational goal in homeschooling my youngest child is for her to one day go to college and to get a CAREER in the global market in an area of her interest. To do this she will recieve a Classical Education from her homeschooling. Will it all be fun and games? No. A sense that goes beyond the family unit is also important to me. (*I homeschool my youngest daughter due to the fact that she has an automimmune disease that has made it problematic for her to be in the public school system.)

I am finishing up reading a book entitled, "Real-life Homeschooling" by Rhonda Barfield and I am amazed at the laisse faire attitude some homeschool parents have and how short-sighted they are and how closed their lives are--many live in isolated places and/or live between home and their church. Sure it is great that their children have learned how to cook, clean, sell stuff, read the Bible, get along with others, play an instrument and/or fix things. Sure it is great that they are respectful and have good manners. But what about being prepared to build on their education? Will they be prepared for college or a career in the military if they chose to go either route? I also noticed some parents who allowed their children to have menial jobs at a young age. They would state things like "It taught them to be responsible and work hard." Can't they be taught that by having homework in a subject that doesn't come too easy for them? I don't know. As for my youngest, when it comes to her education, I don't see myself being able to be happy with myself if I teach her less than a public school would. Life skills are great, but learning and getting an education are not the same thing. Sure you have to learn to get an education, but just because you learn, it doesn't mean you have an education. Ex: I learned how to fix a lawnmower---does this mean I am now an educated person? On the other hand, most people would agree that a doctor who learned medicine is an educated person. (I'm not trying to bash anyone, just trying to demonstrate a point.) I want both of my daughters to be educated regardless of where it is. To me that means a classical education that will allow them to be prepared to go to college to be lawyers, teachers, doctors if they want to and that will also allow them to just learn just for the sake of learning.