I told a friend of mine that I was teaching Caroline to read. She said "so I guess you are homeschooling, right?" I think this is one of the big problems with the system of education in this country. Teaching a child to read has little to do with homeschooling. Parents either don't think its important to teach their children to read or they don't think they are capable of doing so. They rely on the "experts" in the schools to teach what is perhaps the most important skill children need to learn. You don't need to have a specialized degree in order to teach children to read. I am confident that Ma and Pa Ingalls had no such degree and their children, Laura especially, learned to read just fine.