S/O Who wanted to homeschool?

[Kipling]

After reading the thread about how husbands are (or are not) involved in the daily homeschooling, it got me wondering - who was the main proponent of homeschooling in your family?

 

For us, it was my husband. At first, I was very resistant (can we say, not gonna do it?) I had all my reasons why I didn't want to homeschool our kids (none of them were valid, it turns out:D) DH saw it as God's calling for parents to teach their children, and it just took me a little longer to agree. Now, I can't imagine doing anything differently!

[Amy loves Bud]

It was me. But I wasn't really pursuing it full force. We just kind of happened upon FIAR when Luke was 4, and then kept going. Once Bud saw what we were doing, he was blown away and has always been a huge fan.

[Aoife]

I was dead set on it prior to marriage :lol: Dh is a very logical man though and after hearing my reasoning and reading up on it himself he agreed there is no better way for our kiddos to be taught then by us :) So there was never any debate or argument just the two of use figuring out HOW to homeschool instead of whether or not we should :)

[2_girls_mommy]

My dh was the one who brought it up. I always planned on private schools. But later he read an article about hsing, and the idea kind of clicked w/me. I always planned on keeping mine home and "hsing" preschool (although I never thought of preschool as hsing. I just didn't see the need for formal preschool away from home.) It was such a hit with me that I never looked back. The funny thing is that I actually had friends who homeschooled way back when. I remember in the early 80s a family that got a lot of legal harrassment for withdrawing their kids from my school to homeschool. And later in high school a good friend of mine left and homeschooled and went to college early. So it had intrigued me then. I just forgot about it until dh brought it up after we had kids.

[momto2Cs]

I had my heart set on it long before we even had kids, and dh was very supportive when I put the idea forth. So, while it was my suggestion, it has always been a joint project.

[Guest TheBugsMom]

I heard about it while my husband and I were engaged. I told him about it and together we investigated it. It was a mutual agreement when we decided this is how we were going to have our children's education carried out.

[nukeswife]

My dh and I had both discussed it before having kids, but the key proponent was our oldest son. He had a wonderful PS K year, but we moved to a new state and he was just miserable in 1st grade (he had a bitter, resentful, teacher who didn't want to be there let alone teaching 1st graders) so he asked us if there was a way to keep him at home and teach him. That got us to consider it and eventually decided to go with it. There are many times when I look back and wish we had started with him from the beginning.

[Food4Thought]

DH was the main homeschool proponent in our family. He was homeschooled, and expected that his children would be as well. I took a little convincing, but not much. ;)

[angela in ohio]

It was me initially. Dh agreed to try it for a year and then agreed to continue because we were doing well.

 

Now it is dh. I could take it or leave it, as we have other options available, but dh wants to continue homeschooling.

[dani3boys]

My dh was waiting for me to decide that I wanted to hs. I'm not sure how long he was waiting!

[ScoutTN]

I had my heart set on it long before we even had kids, and dh was very supportive when I put the idea forth. So, while it was my suggestion, it has always been a joint project.

 

 

:iagree:This describes us well.

[Dana]

I had started thinking about it when ds was in half-day Kindergarten. Then he had an allergic reaction that convinced me we had to homeschool. My husband was uncertain.

 

Recently, ds and I have been clashing quite a bit. I think we both wanted to quit. Dh was very clear that he really wanted homeschool to continue if we could find a way to do it. He's a very strong supporter of it for us.

 

And ds and I are doing better, so that's good too! :D

[Mosaicmind]

I was introduced to it by a very good friend when dd was in 2nd grade and doing things way above her classmates. I talked to dh about and he didn't seem "for it" but he said he would think and pray about it. So, after several months he told me that he would support me in what ever I chose to do.

 

Now, we have had kids at home and in ps. He would prefer they stay home all the way through highschool but we give them the choice.

[snipsnsnailsx5]

It was me! Looong story to follow...

When our first son started having problems in kindergarten, I was already fed up after just a few months. I wanted to homeschool him, but I had to work at that time too. Or so we thought I "had" to. A couple more years of struggling, and when our 4th son was born our boys' babysitter had to move and we knew we weren't going to find another place or person we could trust (and afford!) to watch our four boys, so I quit my job.

We thought it would be hard, but it wasn't as hard as we thought. You just adjust, ya know?

All this time we still had struggles with my oldest in 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade. I can't even count how many times he went to the principal's office or we had "special meetings" with the principal and teacher. It got old really fast. I hated that school. Hate is a strong word but oh boy do I mean it. We tried working with them. We took our son to be evaluated by his pediatrician for ADHD. The Ped also ordered an IQ test, and the final results were that he did not have ADHD (according to the ped) and he did have a high IQ, bordering on gifted for the overall score (some individual scores were in the gifted range).

The school wouldn't buy it. They said we should consider a second opinion. In 1st grade he was accused of hacking computers to change his grades. They brought in the whole cavalry for that meeting. When my husband suggested that maybe our son saw the teacher type the password in and remembered it...oh no, now way the teacher said. "That couldn't happen, I'm very careful". Of course she was saying this in front of the Principal. She just wanted to save her own hide, and she didn't care one little bit about my son. Of course, after talking to our first grader son later - it was as we suspected, he rattled off the password as soon as we asked him. He said he watched her type it in when she was signing him on for his reading test. He went on the computer under her password and started messing around with things...changing his reading score to 10,000 words per minute. Oh boy.

 

However, what finally broke the camel's back (or so they say) was when our second son (who was more energetic and more of a "troublemaker" at home then our first son ever was) started kindergarten and the cycle started all over again.

 

The biggest problem we had was how the school was NOT willing to work with us. We had many meetings, we were always willing to try what they asked. However, when we had a suggestion they never followed through.

 

Finally in second grade for our second son last year (our first son was in 5th grade and doing pretty well in middle school actually, different school and different rules)..it was a rough rough year. The discipline system is one warning and then a pink ticket. If you get three pink tickets a month then you get a red ticket which means you are removed from your classroom (to another classroom) until your parent has a meeting with the teacher and principal. We went through several of these red tickets. (always for things like not listening, not paying attention, not following directions, making noise, etc) During a meeting the principal said that if our son gets another red ticket then he'd be removed from the school and taken to the middle school ISS (in school suspension) room for the day, no recess or lunch breaks, just sitting in a corner at a desk all day long (eating lunch at his desk of course). I was shocked! I asked, "does that really work?" because I couldn't stop myself. The Principal said "not really, but its the only tool we have". After the meeting I told the teacher that under no circumstances was my son to be taken to the middle school for an ISS day. I'd rather come get him myself and take him home.

Well a month later, another red ticket, and I get a call from the Principal saying that he has taken my son to the middle school where I can pick him up at the end of the day. WHAT?! I was livid! My husband even called around to find out if we could press charges somehow. Extreme probably, but in the moment we just found out that someone (yes the Principal) took our son off school property and drove him to another school without our permission or even calling us first. According to school handbook rules (we looked it up) they are supposed to call the parents before a child is sent to an ISS room.

I'd NEVER heard of a 2nd grader going to a middle school ISS room! For what? Not fighting. Not swearing. Not being uncontrollable...no, it was for an accumulation of more then three warnings a month.

 

That was it. I immediately picked him up from the middle school. Then it was winter break, and when we returned he had ONE day and another note sent home that he was trying to chase and kiss a girl, and the mother was very upset. I took him home and never brought him back.

 

It took some effort on my part, but my husband quickly realized that the best place for the boys to be was homeschooled. We didn't want to single out one child. The more we thought about it also we realized it was the best thing for all of them.

 

Today is the first day that they've all been home (today is the first day of school for the districts here)! We'll start homeschooling on Monday. YAY!

[coffeegal]

Dh wanted to homeschool from the start. It took me a while longer to jump on board. Actually, even now, dh and the kids are the biggest proponents of homeschooling. I enjoy homeschooling, but it's not a hill I'm willing to die on. :001_smile:

[myfatherslily]

There was never any question for either of us - we were both homeschooled through graduation and knew we wanted the same for our kids!

[Veritaserum]

It was me. Dh resisted the idea due to the socialization issue, but he came around to the idea before our oldest sarted kindergarten. She is now in fifth grade. :)

[silver]

We both individually wanted to homeschool any children we would have. We both thought this before we were even dating.

[bluemongoose]

I think we both came to the conclusion around the same time. We knew that PS was not going to work out for DD. She is ahead of her peers, and has a very late in the year Bday. We didnt have the option of testing her in earlier, so she would just be allowed to go to school this fall. They also do not have a program for advanced students, so they told us she would get to wait in the regular class until the other kids caught up. DH did this in school, he hated school and just got into trouble instead of learning anything.

 

So we looked at Private Schools and realized very quickly that the only ones that could provide what DD needed academically were a far drive and very expensive.

 

So we came to the conclusion that homeschooling was our only real option. Now we love it and wouldnt change anything.

[Wheres Toto]

I never really thought about it until it happened.:) DS was in Early Intervention for speech therapy and general quirkiness when he was 3 to 4 years old (he was declassified after a year). He was always advanced in letters/numbers stuff and most of his EI class was preparing for kindergarten so he ended up even more advanced. DH and I talked about putting him in preschool for the pre-k years (2 years since the school said don't send him back until he's 6 - late August birthday) but we had missed most of the cut-offs for preschools in our area since we didn't get the declassification until May and most preschools enroll in January/February. Plus, his previous (very short) experience with preschool did not go well - he was bored and would not sit still. So, DH and I discussed how he'd probably be even more bored and not behave because of it, that he wasn't going to learn anything new since they would be doing letter recognition and he was starting to read and we did plenty of "socialization" because of groups I belonged to. So, we decided to keep him home for Pre-K. In looking for activities to do with him, I came across homeschooling information and started reading....and reading....and even more reading.

 

I discussed it with DH and he was totally, immediately supportive. He didn't have to read anything or even think about it - he thought it was a great idea. He didn't have any experience with homeschooling but he had always been bored in school and found most of the experience useless (he taught himself more than he learned from teachers). I was the same way in school and we figured since I am actually certified for Elementary Education, there was no reason not to go for it. We decided the first year would be a trial to see if I could teach ds without going insane, would he continue learning, etc. Within a few months we had made the decision to continue at least until high school. We're officially starting kindergarten next week, even though we're doing a mix of K and 1st grade stuff.

[GoVanGogh]

DS was in a small preschool program and having a number of problems. (Too active... Already knew how to read... Hated coloring, gluing, etc.)

So DH and I were researching other educational options and touring, literally, a dozen private schools in this area.

We both had discounted homeschooling because my sister's in-laws homeschooled and, well... They were the stereotypical homeschoolers. ;)

After months and months of research, we sat down to talk over all the options. We both said at the same time, "You know... We could always homeschool..." Then we started laughing -- here we both were, nervous to bring up the subject -- and we both said the same thing at the same time.

I didn't know that he had a co-worker that homeschooled his adult children and this co-worker was talking to DH about the subject. DH didn't know I had met a lovely homeschool mother and was talking with her about their schooling choice.

It wasn't really a joint decision, since we both came to the same conclusion w/o knowing what the other person was thinking. But we both felt very led to homeschool, that this was the absolute best option - at the time - for DS. Four years later, we still feel the same.

[cjbeach]

DH totally.

Two reasons: 1. he has a crazy high IQ who had a terrible school experience - dropped out and obtained a GED. What a shame. 2. We have had our kids in a few different schools and it was DH who pulled DS from school in Kindy... son hated it, stopped sleeping, anxiety ridden (He's an Aspie) and dh felt like we were torturing him. I was hesitant but now I can see it was all part of the plan.

[LibraryLover]

This is out our 8th year as a hsing family. We both wanted it as a freedom life style choice. I would say because of our interests and his amazing energy level, lol, it's a team effort. We work pretty well together this way. His work hours are flexible, and I have interests beyond the kids. By working together, we can all get what we need.

Edited September 2, 2010 by LibraryLover

[ladydusk]

We both wanted to home educated and talked about it before we were engaged. It is wonderful to have such support :)

[nichole]

My sister-in-law homeschools, and my husband and I have always been so impressed by her efforts (and their payoffs!) that we decided together that we'd homeschool our kids well before we had them.

[golfcartmama]

I was not into it, wasn't going to do it, couldn't wait for the kids to go to school so I could have a clean house, work out every day, great dinner on the table every night...etc :lol:

 

BUT, it's amazing what God presents to you when you have no other options. It has been a HUGE blessing for us in every way and I am so thankful that we've been afforded the opportunity that we have. My son is truly blossoming. While I can't say I know we'll do it forever, I'll do it as long as I'm called to.

[Mommee & Baba]

It was my idea. We are across town from the only grade K school and we're a one car family. DH agreed that I could hs preschool and grade K and when the kids were in 1st that we would put them in the elementary school that is 2 blocks away.

 

After kindergarten I suggested that we continue and he agreed as long as it didn't interfere with my home chores and get too overwhelmed and call on him to help.

 

Boy has it changed. He's VERY supportive. SO helpful with school and jumping in anytime he wants or we need him. PLUS he has blessed our home with the financial support and now makes sure we have a nice hs budget too.

 

I wouldn't change it for the world. I love homeschooling the kids and I love that he's just as for it as I am now!:001_smile:

[nono]

We both decided it would be the thing to do if we ever had children. Ten years later, here we are! :)

[Mommy22alyns]

I'm the one who brought it up, but now DH is very much an advocate of homeschooling.

[romeacademy]

Well to be honest, before having kids, I would have said that homeschooling was one of those things I would "never" do. In fact initially we both thought homeschoolers were kind of wacko. :lol:

 

But during oldest dd's 1st grade year it became increasingly apparent that the reading program the school was using just wasn't working. I tried to do all the right things, read more with her at home, talked to the teacher, etc. The teacher's response was that she was young for the grade and that I should practice more with the materials at home. I wanted to ask if she was referring to the materials that clearly weren't working. (She turned out to be dyslexic, but the teacher didn't recognize it.) That and the fact that dd cried before going to school. Every day. For two months. It broke my heart, and I hated being away from her and not knowing what was going on with her. And I thought that by the time I was spending all that time trying to remediate what the school was supposed to be teaching her, why not just do it all myself?

 

It still took until the end of 2nd grade to make the leap (dh needed serious convincing, then he got laid off and I had to keep working for a while). For the first few years, we had to have a conversation every summer about whether or not we were going to continue, but now we both are so happy with the decision. That doesn't mean that there aren't days that I would love to put them all on that big yellow bus (doesn't even matter where it's going), but overall it has been a huge blessing to our family.

[Annie Laurie]

Me. Dh wasn't against it, he was just concerned I would burn myself out since I was pregnant and had 2 toddlers at the time, as well as my 9 year old. He is a huge fan now and would be disappointed if the kids had to go to building school.

[Dmmetler]

Me. DH couldn't see why I'd want to put myself through the work and effort. He wasn't opposed to the idea-only didn't quite understand it. It wasn't until he saw the difference and discovered that this meant that he could spend more time with DD that he got on the bandwagon.

 

Having said that, though, education at this point falls into my primary area of responsibilities, as does almost anything involving DD. That's just the way we divided things out early in our marriage and again before DD was born, and given that my jobs from age 16 to 33 all involved caring for or teaching children, it's a logical division.

[LazyDazy]

My hubby suggested hsing when our first son kept having problems at school. Our son has ADD and school is not a great place for him. We fought the school for a full year for assistance (IEP) when our son was failing math and the teacher wouldn't offer any suggestions to help him besides medication. Our son would spend all day at school and be sent home with hours and hours of homework to complete because he didn't get it done at school! My hubby was certain that we could "do just as bad" as the school was doing with our son. Of course I am hoping that we can do much better! :001_smile:

 

So here we are, first year with both boys at home. Focusing on learning and trying to convince the boys that learning itself is not that bad...even if school wasn't so great (in their opinions).

[WiseOwlKnits]

It was me. After hearing all the stories I brought home from school every day when I was teaching, it wasn't too hard to sway him. :) It went like this:

 

Me: I think I want to homeschool the kids. What do you think?

Him: Cool.

 

:lol:

[dm379]

Before we even started dating, dh was very set on his kids never going to Louisiana schools. It didn't really occur to us that we'd not always be in the state. He convinced me to give it a shot when we figured out we couldn't afford preschool for our first. After that it's always been my decision.

[Rosie_0801]

It was my idea. I just read and read and rattled on about it until he agreed. :D

 

Then when we had our son, I shook my fist in his face and told him we were definitely homeschooling now because I didn't know what "they" would do to my boy. (The schools I went to were not nice to boys.")

 

He just pushed my hand aside and told me to settle down because he had agreed to all this already. (Thankfully, the man can recognise hormones when they speak...)

 

I knew that. I was just making sure. :o

 

He had a previously homeschooled girl in his class when he was teaching a few years back and he was terribly impressed by her. So impressed that he wanted to give her name to our daughter as a middle name :eek: That helped my cause :)

 

:)

Rosie

[Closeacademy]

I used to read the magazines at the Dr. office in high school and see the ads for Calvert and Oak Meadow and wish that I was homeschooled. In college, I researched it heavily. But when it came down to it we were going to send my dd to Montessori so I could work. But with 2 dds Montessori wasn't going to be affordable and after a disasterous preschool experience my dh was on board with homeschooling.:001_smile:

[Molly]

It was my idea. Originally when our oldest DD was still a preschooler, it was what was going to happen, but then I fell pregnant with our third baby and we were living in the middle of nowhere and I just freaked out at the prospect of homeschooling and having a baby at the same time. So our girls went off to preschool and then we moved into town and they kept going to preschool and kindergarten. When DD1 turned 5 she went off to school. A year later we moved out into the middle of nowhere again but on a school bus route so she changed to a small country school. Within three months, I had the experience of having a boy, who was aged about 10 or 11, give me a rude hand gesture from out of the back of the school bus. It started me wondering again, although the longing to home educate had never completely disappeared.

 

I eventually put my concerns, worries and desire to home school in a letter to DH, because I knew it was the only way to get my point across without emotions coming in and ruining my pitch. He said he would think about it, which lead to a wait for me, but a bit of searching for him. He eventually gave me the go ahead to trial it for a year. We are now nearing the end of our third year. He is also now more pro home schooling than I am.

[Firestar Academy]

After reading the thread about how husbands are (or are not) involved in the daily homeschooling, it got me wondering - who was the main proponent of homeschooling in your family?

 

 

 

 

it was my daughter who was 7 at the time. she cried to be homeschooled. she went to a lovely montessori program and then....ps for 1st and hated it.... well, we just pulled her out and she would be in 5th this coming fall....I know, took me long enough....

my second dd went to the same montessori and 1 year of the ps... she would be in 2nd grade... she's home, too, now...

 

 

I wish people would stop asking if I plan to hs through high school...I barely started this journey....

 

i am just truly blessed to have a friend who homeschools her 4 kids and has sent dozens of emails explaining the difference between calvert and sonlight. and singapore and teaching textbooks.... and about a billion other things!! And has loaned me a ton of stuff and given me her failures (hey, they could be my successes!)

 

robin in NJ

[Nestof3]

My husband. He knew people who homeschooled. Being much younger than him and without kids myself, I hadn't really known anyone who homeschooled. He said he really admired women who homeschooled and that he would like his wife to homeschool. I read up on it and agreed to homeschool. We got married, and I began homeschooling the fall after we got married. Aaron was in the fourth grade.

[Amy+2]

Me! And now, he wouldn't want it any other way!:tongue_smilie:

[Tonia]

I found WTM at the library when dd was a toddler and I haven't looked back since! :D dh has always been on board with our choice but it was initially my idea.

[tennismomkelly]

DH and I talked about the possibility of HSing off and on for years while our oldest DS was in PS. Last year DS was presented with an opportunity that would require him to be HSed. He was so excited about it that we didn't even have to think twice about it. We knew that it was meant to be! So, I guess that we came up with the idea together. :)

[Mom22ns]

It was totally my idea and DH was, hmmm nervous might be the best word, about it in the beginning. We started when DS was 11 and had, had a rough year (socially) in middles school the year before. He was totally miserable. He decided that all kids were mean bullies and he hated school. When I told dh I wanted to homeschool, he was concerned about all the typical things, socialization, academics, classroom experience, me burning out, etc. Once I shared my research and my heart, he got on board. Now none of us would quit for anything! I think it was my all time best parenting decision and I'm so glad dh decided to trust me on it.

[NanceXToo]

It was me. I had to talk him into it. Which actually was not anywhere near as hard as I'd thought it would be!

 

What was harder was convincing him to let me pull her out when I did- in March of her third grade year- rather than waiting to let her finish the school year out and start the following fall. I really had to nag a lot for that one!!! haha.

 

He thought she should finish the year, I thought if I was going to homeschool, I may as well just get started, why wait?! I did finally talk him into it. He agreed begrudgingly at first, but did later admit that it had gone fine and that it wasn't a big deal that I'd pulled her out mid year rather than waiting.

[Paula in PA]

I was. I had heard of it but didn't really consider it until I read about it in a magazine when dd was 3. Right after that I found a copy of Homeschooling for Dummies on a shopping trip and just knew it was meant to be. He was resistant until he read about doing history chronologically and classical education. That hooked him and he thinks we should homeschool right through high school.

[nono]

In fact initially we both thought homeschoolers were kind of wacko. :lol:

 

OK. I'll admit it. That was actually part of the allure to us...

[leighp]

We both wanted it because we moved to an area where there was no church school for our daughter and public is school is not an option.

 

Now I couldn't imagine doing anything else. Dh is always looking for a job where we can be close to a church school, but I absolutely don't want to send our daughter to one. I'll be willing to consider it when she reaches highschool, but not sooner.

 

I really want to homeschool all the way through highschool though.

[romeacademy]

OK. I'll admit it. That was actually part of the allure to us...

 

Funny! I have to admit I like that part now too. Just another reason to never say never.

[robsiew]

Well, I was a PS teacher and never thought I'd home school. Once I got away from teaching I warmed up to the idea, but still wasn't totally sold. DH would have home schooled from the beginning if it was up to him! We had 4 kids in just under 5 years (no twins) so I had NO energy to home school when my oldest was ready for K. We sent the older two to an excellent PS (where I used to teach). It was a Core Knowledge school so I felt good about it. Finally, I was able to get some health problems under control and felt I could bring the kids home. After attending our local Christian home schooling conference (only to help a friend get started!) I felt like now was the time. We brought the older two home and the younger two have never been to PS. So, I guess all that to say it was originally DH's idea! He would have LOVED to have been home schooled!