Guest Author - Meg Grooms

A new trend I've seen in the homeschooling world is homeschooling babies (a baby is defined as a child under the age of 18 months). When I first thought of the concept I admit I was confused. How do you homeschool a baby, who homeschools their baby and why would a person chose to do this? As I contemplated the subject I realized that homeschooling infants is nowhere near as complicated and I was making it out to be in my head.

Stay-at-home parents constitute most of the baby homeschooling population, as they also constitute most of the school-years homeschooling population as well. I suppose in this view a person could consider a child who attends daycare as a publicly schooled child, but that's a debate for another time. When it comes down to the main point, every baby is already being homeschooled regardless of what their parent does or doesn't do with them. In other words, parents already homeschool their children, they just don't know it! Babies learn from the older people in their lives , through using all of their senses to observe their parents, grandparents, babysitters and siblings.

How does a child learn to speak? He hears language, attempts to interact and is rewarded in his efforts with positive attention.

How does a child learn to walk? She observes the behavior in others and is rewarded with positive attention as she takes her first steps.

How does a child learn to count? His parent counts his toes during playtime, more positive attention.

Why would a person homeschool their baby? This one is pretty self-explanatory, we all want our children to be well-educated. We hear a lot these days from school officials about the need for preschool starting very early in life, sometimes as young as 1 or 2 years old. I have never heard a school official state that home is the best place for a child to begin their formal education, and I have to ask why not?

For most kids there really is no need for out-of-home preschools if they have a parent who stays home. I know a lot of people will argue this point stating socialization and school readiness as their reasons for preschool. Truth be told, there just is no need for artificial socialization in children this young and all the school readiness they need can be fulfilled at home by a parent sensitive to their needs. By artificial socialization I mean a school setting, kids grouped by age, skill, socio-economic factors and perhaps even race. Real socialization is something only the family of babies can give them. Real socialization occurs in the day-to-day mundane, the things you and I do because it's just what we do. Interacting with different persons at the grocery store, the doctor's office, the playground. Real socialization at this age is always supervised and pays no mind to age, race, skill or any of those other boxes kids in school are lumped into.

How can you homeschool your baby? You definitely don't need curriculum at this point so put that thought out of your head. Educating a baby is actually pretty natural to most parents, this has been well-documented. For optimum brain development follow your child's cues and fulfill their needs as quickly as possible. Hold your child. Talk to your child. Feed your child nutritious and natural foods free from additives, colorings and preservatives as often as possible. Allow your child small amounts of down time to digest what they take in every day. Note that I am NOT saying to leave your child alone or allow them to “cry it out”. I am simply saying to allow your child some quiet time without bring inundated with external stimuli. We should all have some quiet time to reflect every day, it reduces stress and helps us to sleep better and see the world more positively.

Above all, read to your child and interact with your child. Reading to your child, conversing with them (even when they don't converse back!) and playing with your infant teaches them more about the world than any other resource your baby has.

If this is something we already do with our babies, why attach a name to it? Unfortunately, in all things education there are names and labels, and homeschooling is no exception. Education today seems to thrive on categorizing absolutely everything and everyone, google the term “education acronyms” and you will see what I mean. There is a term to define every style of home education imaginable as well as terms for folks who fit two or more categories, and now there is infant homeschooling.

Until the day your child is able to process the world on their own he or she depends on you to teach them, so teach them well.


New to Homeschooling?
Take a look at my ebook
Homeschooling With Confidence: A Plain English Guide to Homeschooling in the United States