How Daddy Joined Our Homeschool

Daddy’s Role In Our Homeschool

My husband has always taken the role he likes to call ‘Principal’ in our homeschool. In our state we legally homeschool by filing as a small private school and so we have assigned roles of administrator, teacher, and principal to dole out between us. And principal always suited him best.

I think that homeschooled children are actually the most picky about their curriculum and teaching since their mothers spend long hours figuring out how each child learns best and then optimizes the curriculum to suit each child. This is great for learning well and great for children to grow up understanding how they learn as individuals and how you can adjust any subject so that you can learn it on your own. But, the result is that it is really hard for Daddy to break in and help.

Why Daddy Preferred to Watch

I suspect it was all the organizing and filing and checking off of lists that kept my husband from actively participating in homeschooling our children. He gets enough lists and tasks at work and when he comes home he really just wants to relax. The idea of staying up ’till midnight reviewing and grading and preparing for the next day with the kids really did not float his boat.

My husband has tried helping the kids with their studies off and on through the years, but always with the same result: “Daddy, you are doing it wrong! That is not how Mommy does it. You are not making any sense!”

Why? Well, I think that the biggest reason is that he was not with the kids every day as they learned and he did not have a chance to understand what each child needs in order to learn effectively. But then, again, the kids did that to me too.

It All Started With A Review

And then the magic happened. I joined a review group and began receiving curricula to review. At first my husband did not notice much of a difference in our homeschooling days. And then really, truly great curricula started landing in our mailbox and then homeschool days got loud. Really loud.

My children hoot and holler with joy when we use a curricula that they enjoy. A lot of the reason is that they are boisterous twins (but more on that in my 5 Days of Homeschooling Twins week of blog posts next month). Regardless, my kids actually cheer when a lesson is a great one.

And this my husband noticed. He saw how happy and engaged our kids are now and he was interested in being part of the joy. But How?

My husband jumped in with both feet and my son, who was at first skeptical absolutely loves the time he spends learning with his Daddy.

Daddy is Now a Teacher in Our Homeschool

My husband told me that he knew this was the role he really needed to take in our homeschool, he just did not know how to set about it.

And it all Started With a Review.

Now when new curricula arrive at our doorstep that relate to religion or character development, my husband jumps right in. He runs the lessons and the kids and I participate. I love watching him teach our children and I especially love that these are times we can share the joy of homeschooling. All those little moments that I try to tell him about. The moments when a child’s eyes gleam with understanding. The moments when a child starts off on a tirade of frustration that reveals an understanding of the subject so deep it knocks your socks off. All the moments I try to share with him that he cannot understand fully since he wasn’t there. Now some of those moments we share and it brings us closer as a family.

That is how homeschooling is meant to be: with Daddy in the middle of things.

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Is your husband part of your homeschool, or does he watch from the sidelines and wish to join the game?