Home schooling as a team effort

[Aelwydd]

Reading this thread, I think maybe 3 or 4 families have dad teaching, too. Poor John, he's going to feel a bit of an odd man out here. :D

[Pink Fairy]

My dh is an amazing dad, and he does do a weekly 1-2 hour catechism lesson that he creates from scratch, but he leaves the rest of the schooling to me. I'm fine with that, because he works full time and has a second job two nights a week. It would be too much to expect more. Partly though, since dh is a ps teacher, he just wants to be dad with the kids, not teacher dad.

[GnomeyNewt]

I am the full-time work at home parent. We homeschool 50/50. The only way it has worked is to have everything planned out and it makes it easy for us to switch back and forth. We do a lot of random projects all year round too, but the basic are planned and we track it so we don't double track. Some days I don't homeschool and other days he doesn't. He does all the read alouds/reading for each subject -- as they listen to him/he has trained them better to listen to him when he read "books with no pictures"!

 

We both talk about what we want and how we want to accomplish it. I do most of the planning/research to locate resources that meet our needs. I will show him the curriculum we buy for review and/or online examples. Basically its a team effort and I'm glad to have his help. We both have to be comfortable with the curriculum/plan we create and it has to be easy to go back and forth.

 

If one of us worked out of the home, the person staying home would be responsible to homeschool the majority of the time. I just happen to work at home and I want to teach, so it turned out this way for us.

[Ellie]

When dc were at home, Mr. Ellie was out of the house over 40 hours a week; I was home every day, all day. I don't see how we could reasonably have expected him to do any Official School Stuff.

[Hwin]

It is absolutely a team effort. I do all the curriculum stuff and write the plans and my husband does 75% of the actual schooling.

 

We both work full time (switch off shifts and use child care 2x/week) and do an equal share at home.

[Food4Thought]

I think it's great for those who can split homeschooling duties. I definitely believe DH and I are a homeschooling team, but for all appearances, I'm the one that does most of the work.

 

DH did develop an art curriculum to start next year, since that's his strength. Also, if I sleep in, he knows where the folders are and can get the kids going on their daily assignments (that's a great benefit of filing!). He also does most of the "fun" experiments and extras. He and I talk enough that he always knows what the kids are learning. Right now, he's sick of listening to me groan about how I can't decide what to do about spelling. :P

[Gooblink]

As long as I was hands-off on the business side (we're self-employed) I was happy with dh being hands-off on the schooling...except for keeping us accountable. However, now that I'm in the office more than part time, we've definitely had to tag-team. He does more the math/science and I handle history/language arts, etc. We farm out music and art. Dh takes the boys to scouts and sports practice and I cook dinner. :)

 

Dh and I spoke about doing the Great Books together with our oldest son, because I don't think it will be as fun and engaging for ds1 to read/discuss many of these books with just me. We're also looking for someone with a passion for the humanities studies to help mentor ds1.

[Rosy]

DH doesn't do any of the teaching. He does pick DD up from karate when he can to save me a trip out. He also will *very occasionally* do some art with them. I had him sit in with us and help with a couple subjects once when he had the day off. He lost interest pretty quickly.

 

He is gone about 11 hours a day, though, and I am home, so it makes sense for me to do the educating. Also, I am way more opinionated about education than he is. :)

[Jayne J]

I've got to say, dh is hands off on "official School" and thank goodness for that! I love being able to plan and chose our schedule/curriculum/methods to exactly fit my needs (and the children too, of course.) Dh just thinks radically differently than I. I don't mean philosophical differences, I mean the actual process. There is no way we would ever agree on materials. Of course, dh constantly does "non-official school" stuff with them--nature study, science kits, and spur of the moment experiments. So, best of both worlds here. (Dh is doing a Mythbusters Science kit with the kids as I type!)

[FairProspects]

I wish Dh would help homeschool! The reality is that he works two full-time jobs and 80-90 hours per week (usually 15 hours a day). The kids and I are actually pretty lucky if he is home to read a bedtime story. He is putting in a huge amount of work to get our business going without any debt so we can eventually have more flexibility and control. Live like no one else so you can live like no one else, right?

[Brindee]

Dh is defnitely involved, but informally.

 

Dh's work schedule is not very conducive to more than this and, honestly, I am more than fine with our arrangement. I really enjoy reseaching curricula and I enjoy learning with our dc. Dh is more mathy, so he may kick in a bit more for high school math. Dh is also a history buff, so there is constant discussion.

:iagree: This is us! DH is totally supportive, always has been! He's kicked in on math, science and history stuff when he can, oh and he's helped some with grammar as well.

 

This year our last child started high school, so he helped a little more with Algebra for her, as he did with the boys.

 

I am THRILLED with our arrangement! He works 40+ hours a week, I love the research and homeschooling. He helps as needed. Voila, perfect situation for us! :D

[Sunshine State Sue]

Dh quit his job to return to school for a career change a few weeks before we officially started homeschooling. For K, I was in charge of math and dh was in charge of reading. Science was at the local science museum. Dh was in charge of language arts up until about 1/2 way through 5th grade. I was in charge of math, science, history, Latin, music, etc. Dh was again employed full-time when ds was in 5th grade. I then took over language arts and we shared science through 8th grade. In 9th grade, ds is more out-sourced. I only "teach" math and English now. Dh helps with the odd science experiment. Dh also works with ds on his passion - basketball. This is good because I'm athletically challenged and ds inherited all those genes from dh.

 

I have always worked part-time - 20hrs/wk until ds was 12, 30hrs/wk since then. I do all the research and record keeping. Dh has no interest at all in that aspect. I will give dh 2-3 options and he'll pick what he likes.

 

Best wishes on your homeschooling adventure! Each path is unique.

Edited May 27, 2011 by Sue in St Pete

[Rosy]

Reading this thread, I think maybe 3 or 4 families have dad teaching, too. Poor John, he's going to feel a bit of an odd man out here. :D

 

There are a few dads who post here...hopefully he'll find them for those times when he needs to hear from another hs'ing dad. :)