Anyone ever homeschool mostly at night?

[pinkmint]

I would like to hear from anyone whose ever homeschooled your kids mostly at night for any length of time. Also, has anyone ever put Dad primarily in charge of the schooling for any length of time?

 

If you've done either or both of these things, what were/ are your reasons? How did it work out?

 

I'm considering getting DH to do school with the 5 and 7 year old at night after work. Yes, I stay home with them all day, so I guess it makes me look/ feel kind of loser-y that I can't get school done. It's just that I have a toddler tornado, for one thing. I can't do anything that requires concentration while he is awake. And his naps are unpredictable. Often by the time I eat and take a breath he's awake crying. 

 

I'm hoping that this won't have to be a long term thing. Just until the toddler is older and more manageable. 

[arliemaria]

I do some stuff during the day, but a lot of school happens in the afternoon/evening and then even more on nights that dad is home.  I too have a little tornado and a baby and things that need my complete assistance cannot get done during the day.  School doesn't take all day and a third of education (according to Charlotte Mason) is an atmosphere.  I guess you could say a lot of our daytime is unschool-y or child-led.  Then we have our classical/CM school time.  That probably makes absolutely no sense, but I am not willing to stick my 3 year old in front of a screen for the entire day so that I can school her big brother.  She does not nap, but we have a lot of routines like morning prayer and read alouds and quiet time with Librivox and audio books.  That isn't really school time, but just our normal life.

 

Also, in college, I prefered evening classes.  I always felt like my mind was more awake than 8 am lectures.  Some people prefer learning in the evenings.  We all know learning doesn't only take place during the hours of 8 and 3.

[heartlikealion]

Your thread doesn't quite apply to me, but we have a toddler now and I'm having a lot of difficulty getting school done around her. Certain subjects I've been trying to do when she's sleeping or dh is home, but it's not typically night school or school with dh. We are now doing some school every Saturday (playing catch up). History is one of the more difficult subjects for us to do. We also try to do school when she's eating in the high chair, but that hasn't been working out too well lately, either lol.

 

Sometimes I try to do school when dh is here on a meal break, but he's not always available to watch the baby. My 14 month old doesn't have a reliable napping situation, either.

 

The more teacher-intensive things are really difficult for me to manage. Luckily there are a few things ds can do independently or somewhat independently -- workbooks and the online curriculum we use. Are all your subjects teacher intensive?

 

You gotta do what you gotta do.

[MolleenCarie]

I have. Evenings work for us when dad is gone, but when he is home, he likes us to have it done before he's off work.

 

Most of my homeschooling years I haven't begun lessons until after lunch, though. A later start works for my dc if the morning/ daytime hours are spent doing engaging activities. If they loaf around, they're ruined for learning. Screen time has an especially ill effect on one of my children. Just twenty minutes and he's like a different kid.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Hey whatever works.  I haven't done that, but I think my older kid would love that.  He's a lump all day and at night he is wide awake.  He might be a vampire.  :laugh:

Problem is I'm too tired by then!

[frogger]

I school one child in the evening after dinner because she is a night owl. It works out well for me because my younger boys must get school done by noon or they are out of it. The 16 year old gets wedged in here or there but does all his really focused work first thing in the morning.

 

School at that age doesn't take long. You can focus on teaching them chores, manners, etc during the day. I wouldn't discount naps because they are unpredictable. We make use of what time we have. Every one is sick and can't focus on math and writing ok, time to break out the history read aloud.

[ikslo]

I've homeschooled evenings (almost) since the start.  I work FT days, my husband works FT nights.  A bit of work gets done after they get up late in the morning, but only things that can be done independently now such as chapter reading and worksheets, and only if I have it clearly assigned the night before.  He just makes sure it gets done.  All new teaching I do after dinner.  We tried having dad do some teaching during the day, but it just didn't work well.  He's a smart guy but DS' learning style meshes more with my teaching style.  Although DH still does music class. 

 

It can mean long nights, and a different schedule from the rest of the world.  DS sleeps in every morning.  I'm the only one who loses out on sleep.

 

If you do have your DH teach, let him teach and don't micromanage.  It can work if you both are on the same page.  Lay out the expectations from the start.  It's okay to tweak as you go, but he can't read your mind.  Keep the lines of communication open and reevaluate as needed.  It took a few years for us to find our groove and sort out our roles.

 

 

 

[Raifta]

We HSed in the evenings quite a bit for the first two years when I was working a (theoretically) PT job.  It turned into a more than FT job for major parts of the year and the evenings and/or weekends were really the only time we had to HS.  The kids were young then - I was really only working with DD on stuff in a formal sense.  When DS was in Gr 1 and DD in Gr 2, I quit my job because although the evenings worked for that time, I found it difficult after awhile to feel like whenever I saw them I was thinking about sneaking in some schoolwork.

[Gil]

We do both here because I'm a single dad and I work during the working hours we have to do most of the lessons in the night time/ early morning. During the day they get independent work that they can handle on their own.

I would like to hear from anyone whose ever homeschooled your kids mostly at night for any length of time. Also, has anyone ever put Dad primarily in charge of the schooling for any length of time?

 

If you've done either or both of these things, what were/ are your reasons? How did it work out?

 

I'm considering getting DH to do school with the 5 and 7 year old at night after work. Yes, I stay home with them all day, so I guess it makes me look/ feel kind of loser-y that I can't get school done. It's just that I have a toddler tornado, for one thing. I can't do anything that requires concentration while he is awake. And his naps are unpredictable. Often by the time I eat and take a breath he's awake crying. 

 

I'm hoping that this won't have to be a long term thing. Just until the toddler is older and more manageable. 

 

For us, 5+ years into the process I can say that it works out phenomenally. We are more focused aware during the early morning and the evenings--we can think clearer in the mornings and fall asleep pondering things in the evenings. There is nothing losery about it. You are home all day and sustaining the lives of his children (yes, I'm convinced that supervising a toddler is the same thing as sustaining life.) and keeping up the home-front.

 

Talk to your husband about it and figure out a way that works for you guys. If he's open to it, should you be. There are at least a dozen different unconventional ways to make your situation work. All of them are valid.

 

[....]

 

I'm considering getting DH to do school with the 5 and 7 year old at night after work. Yes, I stay home with them all day, so I guess it makes me look/ feel kind of loser-y that I can't get school done. It's just that I have a toddler tornado, for one thing. I can't do anything that requires concentration while he is awake. And his naps are unpredictable. Often by the time I eat and take a breath he's awake crying. 

 

 

No, you're not a loser.  This is the reason we just started weekend schooling.  My 14 and 13 year-olds are doing schoolwork Monday-Thursday.  The 11 and 8 year-olds are schooling Friday, Saturday and Sunday (when their Dad is around).  There is no way I can sit down with the younger crowd with a 1 year-old moving all over the house getting into everything, climbing bookcases, dumping trashcans, trying to pick the safety covers off the electrical outlets (this boy is crazy!), trying to open doors/cabinets, harassing the cats.  Keeping this boy safe is a full-time job.  The teens are able to do almost everything on their own with some occasional questions/help from me.  But, the middle crowd was starting to be neglected.  I actually spent more time with the middle kids last weekend over 3 days (with my husband watching the baby) than I was spending all week with the baby getting into everything and us starting/stopping to take care of him.