Without a lot of sales hype, here are the real characteristics that create a good homeschooling parent.

You may possess some or even all of the above traits and still fail as a homeschooling at-home teacher for lack of one critical ingredient: 

A plan. 

And a  plan isn't just a lesson plan. 

You need a well thought-out, logical, reasonable plan to get your children from where they are now to where you want them to be. 

You can develop that plan. 

Many students receive an education that places them only slightly above illiteracy.

The greatest number learn  little more than the bare necessities. 

They are not learning what it takes to live beyond the current day in class, not even enough to be prepared for the next day. 

Few of them ever bother with a homework assignment that can’t be completed in that class that day. 

Many work just hard enough to be given a C that isn’t really earned. 

Concerned parents are frustrated.

Here's what's holding most of these good parents back from homeschooling their children?

You wouldn't be reading this if you weren't above skepticism. 

Make a commitment!

Notify the local school district of your intent to home school.

Many parents  create a complete curriculum on their own, with no help from any provider of lessons.

Do this only if you have what it takes to handle it, usually an extensive background or training in education.

Begin your plan by deciding.

You will likely decide to use a prepared curriculum. 

You must make a commitment in two broad areas. 
               First, gain practical experience by working early lessons closely with your child.
               Second, continue monitoring your child’s work as necessary.

Doing these early lessons with your child will help you quickly overcome any fear you may have.

Become familiar with the lessons and then back off.

 Let your child do most of the work alone. 

A child must learn self-reliance as well as the subject material.

Daily check your child’s progress, notes, and journals. 

Return to working closely with your student only if their independent work indicates the need.

The younger the student, the more time you must spend at his or her side.  

The at-home teacher should always accompany a student on field trips

Without realistic goals, your ambition and drive will be wasted. 

As a parent, you have the power to make things happen.

Take control by  making realistic goals, planning ,and organizing, and by taking action.

 Bad planning condemns homeschooling goals to failure. 

Organize your time so that you can spend it thoughtfully and creatively. 

Goal setting is the writing of realistic hopes and dreams on paper. 

Everyone says they want their child to become wealthy and happy. If a great education is the means to that end, plan now to make it happen.

List the ways you can help achieve your goals.
 Develop a time frame in which to accomplish them. 
This is the way your hopes and realistic dreams become your short-term goals.

Now you have the start of a good plan.

Long-term homeschooling goals are those things you intend your child to accomplish between now and graduation. 

Examples of long-term goals might include
          graduation by age sixteen,  
                    a high grade-point average,  
                              to travel extensively without interrupting lessons.

Short-term homeschooling goals are specific and attainable within one academic term.

Everything you do to accomplish these goals will put you that much closer to your long-term goals.

Short-term goals should cover all facets of homeschooling,.  Here are a few:
          be sure a weekly journal is kept for each and every subject
               spend one hour each afternoon or evening checking journal entrees
                    critique all tests and quizzes and then re-test on all missed questions

Make certain that you goals are not conflicting. 

Spending more time on your present job could conflict with a desire to free-up more time for homeschooling.

Your goals should be flexible. 

If your goal is to have your child graduate from high school at age seventeen, and you find after several years that it’s going to take longer than you had planned, then adjust accordingly. On the other hand, should you find that your child is going at a faster pace than you had planned, then revise it upwards.

Your goals should be measurable. 

A goal for a child to become a great scholar is not measurable. 

A goal to complete an academic term in six months is measurable.

An act becomes a habit by repeating it again and again. 

If you make it a firm rule for your child to start at noon to spend three hours daily on home school lessons, it will become a habit. 

This also applies to your goals. 

Make homeschooling a positive habit by planning and organizing your schedule. 

Sit with your child and make plans together. If the hours for study are two to five each afternoon, five days a week, then etch that in stone and steel. 

Make it habit. 

There can be no, "Gee, Mom, I can catch up later. I want to go to the mall for an hour."

 Once plans are set, change them only if absolutely necessary.

 Closely examine schedules to determine where you might reasonably cut back on one or more activities. 

Modify some of your long established habits to accommodate your homeschooling activities.

 You may want to cut back the amount of time you spend watching television. 

If you want to spend time with your family and you also want to exercise, try exercising with your family. 

You get the idea.

No one fits this profile 100%. 

The ideal homeschooling parent has a desire to see that his or her child receives a good education free from harassment, poor instruction, bad curriculum, threat of physical harm, free from drugs, and one removed from a permissive environment,  and has an equal desire to insure that his or her child is educated sufficiently to be able to make independent judgments and decisions based upon logic and gained information.

The ideal homeschooling parent is dedicated to insuring that nothing negatively effects the education of his or her child, and to the premise that they, as parent, are the best judge of what that education should contain and how it should be presented.

The ideal homeschooling parent has the courage to face curricula which they themselves may not fully understand and demand that their student master that material. He or she has the courage to stand up to public school and state government officers who would thwart family homeschooling efforts.

The ideal homeschooling parents take an optimistic view of the task before them, knowing that their best is enough when coupled with parental authority and family love.

The ideal homeschooling parent is determined to make homeschooling work, regardless of criticism, no matter how powerful the authority of the critic.

The ideal homeschooling parent has strong self-discipline and can administer discipline fairly when required.