Your students have the benefit of an education tailored to fit their needs. You, as the homeschooling parent, have the privilege of making those choices. You can do what you want with almost no outside input.
Such freedom is a beautiful thing.
I can relate, having had this blog to myself for the past couple years. But now others here at Sonlight will share their insights with you as well. You will be able to benefit from the multiple perspectives and combined years of experience.
So too with your homeschool. You are, most likely, also part of a team. Your spouse may give you free reign to do as you please, as Sonlight gave to me. But just as there is strength in having others post to this blog, your husband*s input can make your homeschool even better. But if your husband is opposed to homeschooling, things won't go very smoothly. That's why I don't recommend a family begin homeschooling if one of the parents is absolutely against it.
So how can you get your spouse more involved? Some ideas:
- Hand your spouse a Read-Aloud for the kids' bedtime story
- Save some of the Science activities for weekends
- Make sure you share the latest "light bulb moment" your son or daughter had
Freedom to do things on your own is fantastic. But being part of a team has a whole different set of benefits.
How do you get your spouse involved in homeschooling?
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Empty Nester
*I realize you may be a homeschooling single parent/dad. If you are, I'd love to hear from you!
That is super cool, sumpteretc. Thanks for sharing your experience!
~Luke
Thanks for the asterisk. I do 90% of the homeschooling in our family, while my wife teaches at a school for Korean missionary kids. She takes him to a couple of co-op classes and teaches him art appreciation.
Glad to hear it, Reader <smile>.
~Luke
We do all the things you said -- Dad does read-alouds at bedtime; he does science on weekends; we make sure and tell him the cool things the boys figured out that day.
I also involve him in the shopping and planning each year, especially if we're changing anything that year.
And he's the go-to guy when the boys need extra explanation about a tricky math problem or anything.
I think we strike a pretty good balance, and make a good team :)