Mom Is Teaching

Yesterday’s question was a really good one, one that I am certain many homeschoolers face. I got a lot of great responses to the question, it is definitely worth going back to read. And you can also head over to It’s my only job where she took on the homeschooling questions in a post of her own.

Thanks for making your experiences available to others! I’m looking forward to your Friday answer days.

I have not begun homeschooling yet, but the more I explore, the more I want to try this with my family. I have 2 daughters - 5 and 8, who are entering Kindergarten and 4th grade in a private Christian school.

While I am convinced that Homeschooling is a great option for us, my husband is still skeptical. One of his main concerns is that he will come home at the end of the day and our school work will not be done.

I guess my question is, how do you deal with those days when the kids are uncooperative, especially when there are things that I feel are necessary to their education, but they don’t particularly enjoy.

For me, I’m of the “don’t push it” group. When the kids are being uncooperative there is usually a good reason. Maybe they are bored by what they are learning or the way they are learning it. Maybe it’s the first beautiful day after a week of rain and they want to get outside and play. Maybe they were up late last night and are too tired to think straight. One of the great things about homeschooling is that it’s OK to take a break whenever the kids need it. You don’t have to stick with a M-F 8AM till 3PM schedule. You can spend the morning running around outside then come in, plop down on the couch, and enjoy a snack while doing some math. Or load up in the car and let them get the reading down on the way to visit family. When learning is fun it also tends to be addictive, and you husband might begin to not mind them not “done” before he gets home. That way he gets to join in the fun too.

As for his skepticism over homeschooling, you can take an active role in helping him with his problems with it. There are dozens of great books, websites, magazines, etc… that you can share with him to help him get a better understanding. Take him along to meet some local homeschoolers, encourage him to join in the fun.

Now I don’t encourage everyone to follow what I did, but when I decided to homeschool my sons their father was less than pleased. The more I read and researched the more convinced I was, yet he was still stuck in many of the common myths. So I just put my foot down and said they would be homeschooled, end of conversation. It was actually a bit freeing not to have to think about ways to convince him anymore. After a while he actually began to come around to my way of thinking. But even if he hadn’t he knew that my foot was put down, and he knew that I loved our kids enough to always put their best interests at heart.

Keep sending in more questions, I really look forward to reading the great responses offered. And I hope that you are getting something out of it too.

homeschool, children