Most people who know I now homeschool my son often say things to me like "I could never do that" or "I'd never have the patience". However, I don't think that is really true of most parents who value the role education plays in their child's life. For the first six years of my son's formal education, he attended school, yet we both always felt that I remained his "first" teacher.

It starts early in your child's life, just by pointing out new things for him to notice and explaining concepts he doesn't quite understand. When you place your toddler on your lap and read from a picture book, you are teaching him not only the fundamentals of reading, but also that learning is pleasurable, cozy, and something to love. Though most of us were always told not to play with our food, there is fun to be had in teaching a child to count the corn kernels on his dish or to add and subtract with his beans.

Even when my son was still in school, we usually spent a half hour before bedtime either reading a story together (taking turns reading aloud) or doing word or logic puzzles together. My experience is that children love competing with their parents. They will also value an activity more if they see their parents participate in it too.

When I was trying to improve my son's writing skills, we used to hold "writing contests" wherein we either both started with the same sentence and developed a paragraph from it or we chose very incompatible words to be used in a very short story. It was fun to read the finished products aloud and compare the results. While I often wrote the more grammatical story, he frequently was way ahead of me in creativity and imagination.

Never think that just because your child faithfully attends a good school and receives decent grades that you shouldn't play a special part in his or her education. First, do it because it's fun. Second, learning together creates a special bond with your child. And, third, no matter how excellent the school your child attends, you can give him personalized attention he cannot possibly get in a group of 20 or 30 other children. Finally, do it for future generations, as your child's warm memories of learning together with you will one day inspire him to place your grandchild on his lap and pass on what you've taught.