Dads of homeschoolers: Supportive at the start?

[warriormom]

Was your husband supportive of you when you started homeschooling? Did you have to work on him? When did he decide that homeschooling was right for your family? I would LOVE to hear your story!

 

DH says that he will let me home school "when pigs fly". God has a funny sense of humor. I am checking out of my window every day for my flying pigs:lol:I know when we make a declarative statement, God laughs.

[Barb_]

I'm looking at your signature. Don't you realize you're already homeschooling?

 

When we started homeschooling, I said, "Hey, I'm going to pull Meghan out and try homeschooling her for a year or two until we can afford private school. I don't think I can do any worse than the school is doing." And he said, "Um, okay." That was pretty much it.

[joyfulhomeschooler]

My husband was very down on homeschooling before we started. He had cousins who were homeschooled (kind of) and it didn't end well. One ended up getting into drugs and in jail and the other isn't very good in social situations. So he was basing his decision on that. When I came to him with the idea of homeschooling he had about the same reaction as your dh. I asked for his permission to research it and try it out before our kids reached "school age". He agreed to let me do that but was adament that they wouldn't be homeschooled. I went ahead with this and PRAYED and PRAYED and PRAYED. One day he came to me and said "So, I have been thinking about this homeschooling thing... and I think we should give it a try." We decided that if at any time we noticed our kids having trouble with it we would put them in public school. So far it has been great (except for some stressful days since our new addition arrived). I am not really sure why he changed his mind... I just know that it was an answer to prayer and he has actually helped to keep me in check on those rare occasions when I think "I just can't do this anymore"

His biggest concerns with homeschooling were the social aspect and our kids being able to play sports. So we have just made sure to enroll them in sports during the summer and try to keep up with activities in the winter months. So far we haven't seen any social problems with our kiddos.

 

Do you know why your husband is against it? Maybe you could find a way to make him more comfortable with it.

 

Well, I hope that your husband has a change of heart <3 and that your family is blessed no matter what path is taken.

Edited April 14, 2011 by joyfulhomeschooler

[jewellsmommy]

Wish I could help, but my then husband-to-be and I agreed before even getting married that we wanted our children to be home schooled. He had some bad experiences in school as a child. He is your classic hands-on/right brain learner that did not do well in the traditional school setting. I am your classic left brain learner and excelled in the class room, but God introduced me to the concept of homeschooling in my upper teen yrs and I just knew it was what I wanted for my future children.

 

Is you husband the type who just need reassurance that your dc won't be socially "screwed up" or is his concern academics? Would he be convinced with studies and research or anecdotal evidence? Have you hooked up with some homeschoolers that you could introduce him to?

[Tap]

Dh was very, very supportive from day one. I love listening to him tell people about homeschooling, he is so happy that we made that decision.

[swellmomma]

My situation is a bit different because my husband and I have been separated for 10 years but when we were together he told me he would never allow me to homeschool unless I got a teaching degree. We split when the oldest were still toddlers, and when they were old enough for school I put them in ps. Long story short when ds finished gr 2 and dd finished gr 1 I brought them home to homeschool. Ex was not thrilled but given the situation we were facing he knew I was making the best choice for the kids. just over 2 years ago he signed the custody papers giving me sole custody. So now even if he had concerns he couldn't do anything about it. That said he asks me about once per year if I am ever going to put the kids back in school. I always tell him the same thing, when I feel that the best choice for them is ps I will put them in but for now homeschooling is best. He accepts that answer and drops it for another year. In the end it came down to him simply trusting that I always have my children's best interests at heart and will always do my best to give them the education and upbringing they deserve. He also knows that given the plethora of issues my ds has in particular that ps would have been a terrible place to send him.

[Ellie]

Yes, he was very supportive.

 

When I told him I thought we needed to take our dd out of school (a private Christian school, BTW) to teach her at home (long story), he said, "You see things that I don't see because you're with her all day. If you think we should homeschool, then that's what we'll do."

 

:thumbup:

[Sara in AZ]

DH bought me my first copy of TWTM for my 25th birthday when our oldest was 1. He'll talk education with me all day long. Baby #4 was born in January and he did school every day of his week off while I recouped with the newborn. If only I could get a job that pays as much as his then we could trade places 'cause I think he's a better teacher than me. ;)

[Luckymama]

We made the decision together :) Dd11's school wasn't a good fit anymore, the only private school that might work with her math needs was more expensive than both her siblings' private high school tuition, she would have spent only one year at our local elementary before moving to the gigantic middle school...

[grace'smom]

Both my husband and I thought homeschooling was crazy when we first heard about it :blushing:. Eventually, as I realized how sensitive my daughter is, I started wondering how she might fare in school as well as remembering how I felt as a sensitive child at school. My husband continued to think I was crazy for a while, but eventually agreed to try it for a year because he has also noticed that our daughter is quite sensitive. Now he would never allow me to put her in public school because he's seen the difference between her knowledge and the knowledge of the other kids on our street. He's fully on board for academic reasons.

 

So don't give up. Continue to research and plan. If you seem like you know what you're doing he might agree to try it out as an experiment for one year.

[Shannon in TN]

Actually, before we started homeschooling, *I* was the one who said "no way!" because I didn't have any confidence in my teaching. DH had very strong opinions against public school and we couldn't afford private school - so he was the one saying "we're gonna homeschool our kids" even when I said "no, we're not". He was/is very supportive although occasionally he wonders if we've made the right decision. DD is veeerrrrryy social and there are days she doesn't see another child other than her brother and he wonders if it wouldn't be better if she were in school where she would see other children all day. He also wonders if keeping ds home as he gets older is a good idea, too, because ds loves sports and I think will be pretty athletic as he grows. But then, we were always thinking we'd do this year by year and decide as we go. (After Cinci, though, I'm thinking of committing to schooling right up through high school :scared:). Another issue that comes up occasionally is the cost of homeschooling - the curriculum, the umbrella schools, extracurricular sports, co-ops - it all adds up and I don't think he was expecting that.

[TN Mama]

I was really nervous to talk to my husband about it, but he was surprisingly all for it. I even had to ask if he was sure about that since I have been known to be all gung ho about something and then lose my follow-through. He told me that he had faith that with a task as important as this, I'd figure out a way. That conversation was four years ago and we are wrapping up our third year of homeschooling.

 

He was recently home for about a month during school time and while we LOVED having him here, it was a bit distracting and every morning I would cringe as he heard the battles, witnessed the lack of retention (in a specific child), etc. I just knew he was going to bring up the idea of returning the kids to school. Nope, but I think it did make him extra receptive to all I came home gushing about after the Midwest Convention.

 

I'm a lucky girl. :001_wub:

[TN Mama]

But then, we were always thinking we'd do this year by year and decide as we go. (After Cinci, though, I'm thinking of committing to schooling right up through high school :scared:).

 

Ditto to all of that. We said from day one that we'd take it year by year. And of course, if something came up and school would be better for our family, we'd definitely look at that as an option. However, at this point, I can't imagine it.

[KidsHappen]

My hubby has always been very supportive of all my crazy ideas (well, he needed some convincing in the homebirth dept.). Anyhow, I didn't have to do any convincing in this dept. at all. He is not actively involved in curriculum choices or teaching but he is my biggest cheerleader and loves to brag about it. :)

[Alison in KY]

My hubby tolerates to likes homeschooling, he just has concerns that the kids are not getting what they need....he's not as relaxed as I am lol. He enjoys all the benefits, but he also really liked his ps experience and the different class opportunities that are available. Every year I'm thankful that we've been able to homeschool. Our first year was just a year to keep from paying another round of pre-school...or so he thought :lol:.

[....]

I think I scared my husband when I told him I wanted to pull them out of school. He's Korean and I think his family is still convinced we're doing something illegal. They've called asking the kids if we were actually doing schoolwork and my BIL spread some weird rumor that a teacher from the school district has to come out to our house once a week. :confused: Also, we went to stay with them for a few weeks and continued with our schoolwork there. His parents said we weren't doing enough (LOOK at our signature! :D)

 

So, yes, I've met with a lot of resistance. My husband is completely 200% on board with homeschooling now. I think he saw how much my kids improved after they started getting some one-on-one attention.

 

 

Oh, another thing...my kids are really polite and my husband thinks homeschooling has helped in that department (he's Korean, right? They're huge into politeness/respectfullness).

Edited April 14, 2011 by starrbuck12

[PIE!]

I never thought homeschool was a good idea. The homeschooled kids I knew were too weird. Then when my oldest was three I met some awesome homeschoolers. I saw their interaction and schooling while we were all in the communal laundry room. It looked so incredible. I grilled that mom with every question I had for a week or two. She had me convinced.

 

Then in passing I mentioned to dh "Do you think we should ever try homeschooling?" He got a big smile. Apparently he'd been all for it for quite a while, but didn't want to bring it up because he knew I'd have to do most of the work.

 

DH loves bragging about our homeschooled kids. He set up our science curriculum and teaches it whenever he doesn't have to work late. On random days off he'll jump right in teaching and reading whatever needs to be done.

[Margo out of lurking]

Was your husband supportive of you when you started homeschooling? Did you have to work on him? When did he decide that homeschooling was right for your family? I would LOVE to hear your story!

 

DH says that he will let me home school "when pigs fly". God has a funny sense of humor. I am checking out of my window every day for my flying pigs:lol:I know when we make a declarative statement, God laughs.

 

We were on vacation, and I'd brought a book about hsing from the library. Dh picked it up out of sheer boredom and became mildly interested. He was not completely on board; we knew no one who hsed, and he assumed hsers were weird(er that "normal" people). However, he was the one to encourage me to pull dd from 1st grade instead of waiting until summer.

 

We took it one year at a time, although he was adamant that she return to ps for middle school. When she was in 5th grade, he agreed to wait a few more years. Now she's in 10th grade, and there is no way either of our kids will ever go to ps.

 

While he's very supportive and my biggest cheerleader, he has nothing to do with the actual schooling or choosing of curriculum. It works for us, and it was the best thing we ever did for our family.:001_smile:

 

You are right, God does have a sense of humor. (We need a "flying pig" smilie, don't you think?!)

[SailorMom]

DH didn't like the idea at all. He had only heard of (and never met any) "weird" homeschool people, he truly believed the "socialization" myth, and wasn't sure we could give them a good education.

We agreed to try it for one school year, and then decide what to do on a yearly basis (we were in a horrible school district that year.... military move). At the time the boys were in 1st and 2nd grade.

Fast forward 7 years - he brags constantly about how well the kids did HS-ing, encourages others to try it, and is very proud of how "well adjusted and respectful" our sons are :)

So - maybe do what we did - give it a try for a year, and agree that you will not homeschool after that if you are both not on board.

[Hwin]

Yes, very supportive, and some weeks he does more of it than I do :)

 

We both came around at about the same time.

[Parrothead]

Dh was very supportive of me homeschooling dd at the very beginning. He's never been more involved than to provide the funding. It used to upset me that he was not involved. Now I see it as a good thing.

[prairiegirl]

My dh and I agreed at the beginning that we would hs but then reality set in and he changed his mind a few years in. We live out in no man's land in an area where there are few hsers so my kids do not have many friends and this bothers my dh. He told me three years ago that we had made a mistake and wanted to put them in school. My kids put up such a fuss that he gave in.

 

He is on the fence regarding hs now. He doesn't like it because of the friends issue (my dh is a social butterfly so this matters to him alot) but I overhear him talking to others about hs and he always says that his kids are much smarter than he is because of hsing. Also, our kids have learning challenges and I think he recognizes that they would drown academically if they went to school.

[NanceXToo]

My husband wasn't dead set against it but he wasn't convinced of it either. I did have to work on him some- having several conversations about it, showing him various articles about it, giving him my reasons for wanting to do it, letting him talk to a friend or two to see what they thought and so on.

 

I said, "It's not like it's irreversible- let's just try it- I don't think I can possibly do any worse than this school is- but if we decide it's not working, we can always send her back."

 

And "You'll get more time with her! With your work schedule, she hardly ever sees you!"

 

(She was in public school at the time, in third grade).

 

Finally, he said okay.

 

Next, I had to work on him about the WHEN. He wanted me to wait until the following school year- it was already February/March by the time we started making the plans to definitely do it. School ended at the end of May. He thought she should just finish the year and then not go back in the fall. I thought if we were going to do it, we should just do it (I was so excited to start!) and that we should just pull her out.

 

I sort of nagged him into it but finally he said "fine, pull her out after her PSSA's" (as she had to have standardized testing that year anyway).

 

So, March 20th was her last day- I pulled her out, and we've never looked back. It's gone really well, and my husband has been supportive ever since.

[texasmama]

My dh (and I) both had the advantage of knowing homeschoolers IRL, including some really "normal" and smart teens. So he knew that homeschooling could produce such creatures. I decided to homeschool when my second child was struggling terribly emotionally (not academically) in his private school. He was miserable, and so were we. Dh saw that and agreed that homeschooling was a good alternative. At the beginning, I was only going to hs him and send the two youngers to the same private school. Well, here we are at home, three years later. My dh was only ever really concerned about how I would handle being with the kids 24/7. I adjusted.:001_smile:

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I posted something very similar when I joined this board 1.5 years ago. Dh declared that he would never allow me to homeschool. That was before the terrible, no good, horrible, very bad year ds1 had in first grade. After the spring meeting the school had with me about ds, even dh agreed with me that the school personnel were too wacky to deal with. (Poor ds1 had 2 very bad teachers in a row. The guidance counselor and the principal and school psychologist were also very strange. Ds2 had a great K teacher, though.) So, he agreed to let me homeschool until the kids were old enough to age out of that particular school (which is K-2nd grade). After now homeschooling for the better part of the school year, he is beginning to see the benefits to both kids. He no longer thinks they will grow into social outcasts. He's impressed with what we've been able to accomplish this year. And he sees that I am much more relaxed than when I had the constant worry of what was happening with ds1 at school. I'm pretty sure that when we re-evaluate after next year, he will agree that homeschooling is working out wonderfully, and we will continue indefinitely.

[lionfamily1999]

Was your husband supportive of you when you started homeschooling? Did you have to work on him? When did he decide that homeschooling was right for your family? I would LOVE to hear your story!

 

DH says that he will let me home school "when pigs fly". God has a funny sense of humor. I am checking out of my window every day for my flying pigs:lol:I know when we make a declarative statement, God laughs.

We were between a rock and a hard place and both of us were hesitant to even consider hsing. All the same, dh leaves the house stuff in my hands. He trusts me and lets me do pretty much what I want (if I say the kids should X he agrees without fuss). When the first year was over we were converts and neither of us thought putting ds back in school was a good idea. Dh loves hsing.

[Peela]

WHen my kids were little and i heard about homeschooling, dh was in total ridicule of the idea. The kids went to school.

 

When ds was 7 and dd was 9, dh and I were separated- living separately, but still giving our marriage a go. I decided during that time that I wanted to homeschool ds7 because he was struggling badly at school and really stressing out. I guess I had an advantage because dh was really trying to woo and please me at that time :) but I still had to work hard to convince him. I printed off a lot of stuff from the internet and put it on his kitchen table. I kept researching. I was determined but I needed him on board because i was working part time and he needed to take ds7 2 mornings a week (he worked from home).

 

He agreed reluctantly to a 6 month trial period. Within 2-3 weeks he was so convinced that homeschooling was the best thing ever, he insisted we take our dd9 out of school too, although she was happy there. He recognised the lifestyle benefits, and he could see I was devoted to making it work, and he saw it would be too hard to have one at school and one at home. It has been the best thing for her too.

 

Within a few weeks I had moved back in with him, too :)

 

I guess what it took in our case was our son to struggle at school and for his self confidence to plummet. When he came home and dh had him those 2 mornings a week- ds became a gorgeous, sweet natured, curious boy again and it was like black and white- that is what convinced dh. He saw how much we lose our kids to school, how their natures change and get jaded by it at such a young age.

[happypamama]

My DH has always been supportive of homeschooling, even before we had children. Now that we have children, both of us see why a public school setting would not be a good fit for our older two children. I think his biggest concern is whether or not the children are learning enough at home; he's not a huge fan of unschooling, I think, so our gradual move into a slightly more structured approach makes him happy. (That was my intent all along -- I favor a very laid-back, delayed academics approach for younger children but feel that slightly older children need a bit more direction from parents, because they don't know what they don't know. I also think my oldest child has a tendency to skip what's slightly difficult or not as interesting, but she's done very well with more nudging from me.) However, if I decided that homeschooling was not working for me, I think he'd be okay with public school; he doesn't like when I am stressed or frustrated. (He's the same way about parenting, birthing, etc., actually -- he knows I research and read like crazy, so he trusts me and is super supportive of whatever I feel is best. When I said I wanted a homebirth, he said, "Okay!" and has since told people that it was a piece of cake.)

[EJCMom]

My husband teetered on the border of skeptical and not-a-fan of the idea of homeschooling when I first brought it up. We had many discussions about why I wanted to homeschool, how I planned to go about homeschooling, and how I would address his specific concerns. After the first several months he saw the benefits (the fact that everyday there is a story in the news of either a teacher/student inappropriate relationship, some sort of newsworthy school violence, or students having sexual contact with eachother on school property hasn't hurt either ;)) and is now supportive. He's still pretty hands off. He doesn't help with lessons or want to discuss curriculum. But he supports the decision, and that's the most important thing.

[Mom22ns]

I never thought homeschool was a good idea. The homeschooled kids I knew were too weird.

 

This exactly. We both had very low opinions of the homes hoppers we had met. I found a few that were "normal". Then ds started having severe problems with bullies. I started researching and decided it was a perfect fit. DH didn't like the idea because he hadn't done the research but trusted me. Now we all love it, but we still meet a lot of kids we think would be better off in ps.

[Pretty in Pink]

My husband consented to a trial run our first year of HSing. He wasn't really on board, but he agreed that one year wasn't going to screw our son up in the long run. It helped that our son missed the birthday cut-off by a few days for kindergarten, though we could have gotten an exception.

 

My dh was sold after the first year; in fact, now whenever I have a tough day and wax dramatic about throwing in the towel, he is the one who calms me down and talks me back into HSing. He is my biggest fan and greatest source of encouragement in this endeavor.

[kalanamak]

Hubby has had little schooling, and has bad dyslexia. He hated school (so did I), and when I brought up homeschooling, he was right on board. His ex wife homeschooled his two (now grown) daughters, so he was not new to it. However, she homeschooled to protect them from secular influences ... academics were not her focus. So, he's had a bit of a shock at projects, art supplies, field trips, and science toys. He thinks it is great, but it is a world he knows nothing of, and sometimes I just have to tell him "trust me, just do it". I try to make sure field trips will be fun/educational for him as well, and thus far, I've had 100% cooperation, albeit with a teeny bit of arm twisting.

 

Hardest part of all has been getting him to us good grammar. He slumps into his family's slangy, twangy lazy pronunciation too easily, and when I catch my son at it, I tell hubby, "Kiddo has ONE chance to learn how to speak properly as a habit. To re-learn in adulthood is not so easy", and the hubby cleans up his act for a few weeks.

[BlsdMama]

Was your husband supportive of you when you started homeschooling? Did you have to work on him? When did he decide that homeschooling was right for your family? I would LOVE to hear your story!

 

DH says that he will let me home school "when pigs fly". God has a funny sense of humor. I am checking out of my window every day for my flying pigs:lol:I know when we make a declarative statement, God laughs.

 

I suggested homeschooling right about the time Ana was turning five. DH let me know we wouldn't be homeschooling as he didn't want "freaks" for children. :D

 

The military moved us to SoCal and as DH didn't want Ana in those schools & then move back to Iowa where he felt she would then be behind, he came home one day just before enrollment and explained that we would HAVE to homeschool her for a few years until we could get back to the midwest. True story.

 

And then she needed to finish out the school year.

And then it was just one more year.

 

Now, for the past two years, I've been explaining how our son (the 6yo) and I could both benefit from him going to preschool for just a couple of years and HE is the one saying, "Nope, he really NEEDS to be home with you during the day." Well, that's quite a switch now isn't it? :lol:

[Desert Rat]

We made the decision together and my dh has always supported that decision. We live in an area where schools aren't the greatest especially for kids who are brighter and we had a 4 yo who read on a 5th grade level. The decision was pretty much made for us.

I do realize how lucky I am to have a supportive spouse. A good friend of mine has to fight hard to homeschool.

[Night Elf]

My DH only makes decisions with facts, not emotion. I researched for 2 months gathering information about homeschooling to present to him. Yes, it felt like a presentation. :)

 

He agreed to try it because at the time, our son was in Kindergarten and was working at a higher level. DH decided that even if we took ds out of school and twiddled our thumbs for several months, he would still be ahead of the game if we put him back into school for 1st grade.

 

After 2 months of homeschooling, my DH thanked me for making this change. We both saw remarkable changes in our child that let us know we had made the right decision. Since then, he's been 100% supportive, and we've been homeschooling for 10 years.

[SunD]

I first brought up homeschooling during a long car trip ... he was trapped and had to listen. :lol:

 

I should have been accelerated and was always bored in school. No one knew what to do with a reader in K and things got worse from there. DH is left-handed and dyslexic, but got no help at all, not even showing him how to turn his paper and form letters correctly as a lefty. He still struggles with reading and spelling.

 

His work schedule is also difficult ... 14 days at work (from before dawn til after sunset) and then 7 days off. My dad had the same schedule and I explained how I never saw him. Work days he was gone when I got up and didn't get home until after bedtime. Off days I was at school most of the day. He wants to see his kids a lot more than that! He said "It wasn't even worth sacrificing all that time. You could have learned a lot more at home reading books by yourself, even if you didn't do any work on his off weeks!" Ding ding! Exactly! So that's still our plan ... on his off weeks he will do the 3 Rs with them from whatever lessons I have planned, and we'll have at least one field trip.

 

Now his standard response to an off-the-wall request (homeschooling, homebirth, etc) is "Well, I didn't marry you because you're normal." :tongue_smilie:

[Paula in PA]

Initially, he had the standard objections ("What about the prom?" Really?:001_rolleyes:). Then we discovered TWTM and chronological history (thank you, SWB & JW!). He's a major history buff and hated the way PSs jumped around in history. It became the major selling point for homeschooling and got him onboard. :001_smile: Now he is the main cheerleader for it any time I get doubts!

 

BTW, he teaches her history and geography, his two favorite subjects (and my least favorite).

[Rosy]

Homeschooling was always the plan for us. DH has wavered at times, for a while it was because of an anti-homeschooling co-worker and lately a little because of my son's behavior issues. But it's never been hard to convince him that the kids are better off being homeschooled (and that my life would actually be way more stressful if I put my son in school and continued to homeschool the girls).

 

He leaves all curriculum, activity, etc. decision making to me. While I'm glad to be able to do things my way (and I'm far more opinionated about education than he is), sometimes I would love to talk to him about all of it for more than 30 seconds without his eyes glazing over.

[Aubrey]

For us, it went like this:

 

Dh: "Will you marry me?"

 

Me: "As long as you're ok w/ hs'ing."

 

Under the right conditions, I've found people can be *very* supportive. :lol:

[Emily in IL]

I was working full time when we had 2 at home/sitter working the afternoon shift and he dayshift. He brought it up and I thought, no way and that I couldn't do something like that. He prayed for a change in heart for me to want to be home more and to homeschool, and after years I agreed - ds had been in ps K-2. Nineteen years later we're still doing it, 2 graduated and one to go. He's the rational one, I'm more emotional...we're in it for the long haul, and when I feel discouraged dh is the one who boosts me up and gets us back on track. He's always been supportive and involved, and he's more realistic, like when he looks at my sched and says "they can't cover 16 subjects in one day ! *)" I tend over achieve......type A personality and curriculum junkie.

Emily in L

[Pax]

I'm so glad to hear these stories. If I could, I would be hsing right now. My DH is currently not on board but after watching what has happened to my little girl's spirit in first grade, he is reconsidering.

 

It helps that my daughter's girl scout troop leader is a hs'er who is completely "normal" and has "normal" childen. Once I started talking to him about hs'ing on a regular basis, we've also run into a ton of families who hs. His last worries should be dealt with once I decide on curriculum (:eek:) and show him a set schedule with activities and our academics planned out. I think his two biggest worries are that our children will not get enough socialization (I'm hating the socialization they are getting at school!!!) and that I will let them watch tv while I play on the internet all day.

[Plucky]

My dh was puzzled and bewildered about homeschooling at first. He didn't know anything about it. He was happy though that he didn't have to pay private school tuition. That has always been my out - his wallet. LOL

 

Now he thinks the kids turned out so great because of homeschooling. I think if he could, he would make it his idea from the start. :)

[Angie in VA]

Well, I didn't trust the theory du jour for teaching reading, so in the spring before my dd's 5th birthday and would be in K, I taught her to read. DH was doing memory work w/ her. I asked DH, "Can we homeschool dd, 'cause we already ARE." He was nicer than these typed words will seem, but he said, "Yeah. How badly can you mess up K. Besides, she's already reading."

 

While we were thinking about this, DH mentioned hsing to a co-worker. Turns out he and his wife hs'd their 2 dc (only in the elementary years.) "Wow! Did they?" I had to chuckle. I believe the Lord used a man in DH's life to open the door for us. It was no longer a crazy idea his wife had. Real people did it and their dc didn't have horns coming out of their heads!

 

Now, you should hear Dh. He's the biggest advocate of hsing I know! He tells me about how he tells co-workers about it. Some think he's crazy. Some are impressed. He's so cute about it now. :) I love that guy!

 

Hoping your Dh sees pigs fly soon! :)

[ocelotmom]

DH and I were mutually on board with the idea of homeschooling from whenever it first came up. I think we both came into the relationship with that being our ideal for childraising.

 

He's a little more... demanding than I am. He would be happier if I had DS(7) doing algebra, reading at an 8th grade level, and speaking Latin fluently right now. We had a discussion this morning that we should be doing two years of Latin in two months, because most language courses aimed at children aren't rigorous enough. I told him he was welcome to take over on that particular issue if he wanted.

Edited April 14, 2011 by ocelotmom

[Veritaserum]

Mine was against it at first. I kept researching anyway. He changed his mind after he read a homeschooling book. :)

[abacus2]

DH asked me to homeschool, so yes. He had a terrible school experience. At first I was nervous and unsure about the idea, now I can't imagine doing things differently.

[bluemongoose]

A series of life choices is what brought us to hsing. 1st for DH sanity, we bought a place in the country just after we got married. DH grew up on a farm, and felt smothered living in the city.

 

Then we had our DD and the topic of education came up. DD is very bright like DH and he hated school. They always held him back and he was bored out of his mind. He didnt want our DD to be stifled at school. He also didnt want her to be the social outcast like he was because the teachers used him as a "helper" rather than teaching him at his level. This kept other kids from befriending him since it made him seem like the brown-noser. He hated PS and didnt like the idea of our children going.

 

I also had a hard time at PS, but my problems stemmed from moving around too much, and in High School having rotten math and science teachers.

 

Since we live in the country, PS was our only option, and DH refused it. Then DD started reading very early and it was made clear for us that PS really wouldnt fit for her, no matter what our personal feelings were. The school didnt allow early enrollment, skipping grades, or have a pull out for advanced kids. She has a December birthday.

 

All that to say, DH pushed for it, and I wasnt opposed, so here we are. The only part of DH that needed convincing was hsing through High School. We are still in the beginning of elementary, but I am sold, and would love to continue all the way through. DH still had in the back of his mind that we would find a private high school near his work or something (in town). One quick price check, and he changed his tune!:lol:

[HS Mom in NC]

My husband was supportive from the start because I would not have even considered dating/marrying someone who was not on board with the idea of their future children being hsed K-12. That was a deal breaker in my dating life. No, I was not hsed. I got married at 20.

[Kipling]

Like a few others, I was originally against it. But we got to know quite a few homeschooling families while our kids were little, and Dh thought it was a great idea. Eventually, I agreed to hs our oldest for preK, figuring I couldn't do any irreversible harm. Since then, my mindset has changed so that I believe this is the right thing for my family and is no longer a matter of "we'll see how it goes" like it was when we started.

Dh is very involved in our schooling as far as doing read alouds in the evenings with the kids, helping plan curriculum, and attending the annual conference. He wishes he could do even more than that, but his work schedule doesn't permit it.

[dirty ethel rackham]

Dh has always been supportive. I was looking into alternatives to preschool for my very bright, inquisitive 3 year old who wasn't potty trained (actually had a bowel disorder.) When I happened upon homeschooling as an option, I felt a strong pull toward it and joined a local support group. Instead of me trying to tell him why I thought it would be great, I dragged him to an evening parents meeting. He got to talk to people who had been at it a while and saw that they were "normal people." When we were leaving, he turned to me and said "What will we tell our families?" That's when I knew we had his support.

 

I was pretty sure I would have his support because he has almost always trusted my parenting choices. He respects the connection I have with the kids to know what they need. He respects that, while I do tend to go with my gut on things, I rarely make a decision until I have researched it.