Do you have access to enough resources?
Schools have libraries, a set-curriculum and teachers who give students a readymade list of resources and references. What do homeschooling mothers have? The number-one resource for homeschoolers is the internet, where you can find everything from book lists on homeschooling methodologies, forums for Muslim homeschoolers and websites with comprehensive links to resources for Muslim homeschoolers.
It's a good idea to join an online homeschooling group to swap resources and stories with each other. If you live close to another homeschooling family, you could join heads and pool in finances to share the more expensive resources -- science equipment, DVDs, or even trade books. Public libraries in your home-town are another good place to look for books and teaching aids, which you could possibly borrow if you are a member.
Are you qualified?
Many women who have successfully homeschooled have had no academic teaching qualifications. Yet, they succeeded in teaching their children by infusing their lessons with the right mix of information and enthusiasm and being guided by their intuition, with or without a set curriculum. There are others, who are qualified teachers and academics, who feel it is a definite advantage as a homeschooling mother to have some basic teaching qualification, or at least to let yourself be guided by a qualified teacher, academic or an experienced homeschooler.
According to the 'Curriculum of Necessity' issued by Harvard University, which includes the basic skills an educated person is expected to know in the new international economy, academic classes and professional credentials now counts for less when measured against real world training. The curriculum mentions ten qualities as being essential to successfully adapt to the rapidly changing world of work.
1) The ability to define problems without a guide.
2) The ability to ask hard questions which challenge prevailing assumptions.
3) The ability to work in teams without guidance.
4) The ability to work absolutely alone.
5) The ability to persuade others that your course is the right one.
6) The ability to discuss issues and techniques in public with an eye to reaching decisions about policy.
7) The ability to conceptualize and reorganize information into new patterns.
8) The ability to pull what you need quickly from masses of irrelevant data.
9) The ability to think inductively, deductively, and dialectically
10) The ability to attack problems heuristically.
Needless to say, regular schools don't teach any of these very essential skills, but home-school can.
There's no harm in being guided by others if you are a new homeschooler, because jumping in at the deep end could overwhelm and discourage you easily. Later, as you gain more experience and expertise, you could be more independent and work things out in your own. In the Quran we have been asked to consult the people of knowledge (Ahl-Ath-Thikr) for the things we don't know.
Once you have taken the decision to begin homeschooling, be prepared to be inundated with doubts -- others' and your own. You might catch yourself thinking on a regular basis: Am I doing enough? Are we covering enough material? Am I dumping down the curriculum? Will my children resent the decision to homeschool? Are they getting enough college and/or career training? Others around you may not be very diplomatic in voicing their misgivings about your decision.
Feeling overwhelmed and inadequate is a natural response to the responsibilities and pressures that accompany the decision to homeschool. We must respond by re-affirming our faith, purifying our intentions and keeping ourselves strong spiritually. Doubts -- especially self-doubt -- are from Satan, and the only remedy is to increase your prayers, seek refuge in Allah The Exalted and seek his guidance at every step.
Pray together with your children, which will not only show them the value of prayer, it will teach them to trust in Allah The Exalted above anyone else. In coping with our problems and difficulties on a daily basis, we show our children lessons in how to deal with life’s stresses. By acknowledging our dependence on Allah The Exalted and by resorting to prayer for our every need -- even if it is very small -- we are teaching our children valuable lessons.