Aren't we all "homeschoolers"?

Does anyone else ever think about what a totally redundant term "homeschooler" is? I think it is kind of like the term "working mom".

Is there a mother out there that doesn't teach her children at home? Maybe not "chemistry" per se, but maybe watching the steam coming out of a pot and explaining what made that happen? Do you read stories to your beginning reader? Post-beginning reader? Advanced reader?

Over the years, I've chewed on this and wondered why my mother didn't homeschool us because most of what I learned, I learned at home from my mother. I finally realized that she did. It just happened that I also went to public school.

My net benefit of public school?

My self-confidence was eroded by going to school and then built up again when I went home. It didn't begin to get solid until I moved to a school called North Cache in rural Utah. From there, it began to be fun because I was surrounded by other like-minded students. Fear was no longer part of my day.

Even then, though, my best teacher remained my mother. The really excellent ones, in my mind, were the ones who best held a candle to my mother. The classes I most enjoyed were the ones that reinforced the values taught by my mother. The classes I did worse in were those my mother didn't understand either. Meaning geometry and chemistry.

My mother was the one who helped me figure out my assignments. My teacher gave the guidelines and "taught" the subject, but I didn't ask questions because I was rather shy. I went home to ask my mother. So in a big way, I was homeschooled. Weren't you?