s/o If your dh helps with homeschooling...

[Oops, duplicate account :/]

What subjects does he teach? Does he work part time or full time? What has been your overall experience with being a teaching team? Curious!

[tammyw]

Mine helps in many ways. He reads all kinds of educational books, explains all kinds of amazing things that I have no idea about, teaches them stuff like Roman Numerals, etc. He is always explaining things in the moment, when they happen, like someone scrapes their knee, and he talks about blood and platelets and such. He's really good at that. He also does Chemistry with DD8 (RSO). That's not an area I've got any skills, so he takes it on completely. And he decided he wanted to do Philosophy with her also, so I found a great book that is age appropriate and they do that also. They do Chemistry and Philosophy on the weekends. He works a pretty long schedule, so that's the best time for them do stuff like that. But he usually reads them an educational book before bed.

[LucyStoner]

I am responding here rather than on your other thread.

 

As I stated there, my husband does piano, Spanish, Latin, Art, handwriting, computer programming.

 

He works part time at a hospital, which was our choice since I work full-time. His pt job comes with full-time benefits so we are very lucky. He works 24-32 hours a week, but since it is a hospital some of those shifts are not m-f or regular hours. Usually he works either the early morning to mid afternoon shift or the swing shift (2-11). Sometimes he works a double or long shift. I work full-time, m-f on salary with flexible hours.

 

He is home pretty much Sun-Weds and almost always works his hours over Th-Sa. Working ft, I take the lead on teaching Saturday and Sunday. Then he has a schedule we have worked up for M-W with his subjects. M, Tue and Wed he does handwriting, piano practice, Spanish. Mondays he does computer programming. Tuesday he does Piano Lesson and Art. Sundays he works with him on Latin.

 

Working ft, I do history on Sat and Sun, a spelling test on Saturdays, Math reviews and lessons on Sat and get him started with his Math and Science for the coming week. Sunday is science lab day. He has assignments that he works on for Science and Math daily M-W while I am at work. Those are his strongest subjects so that is where he is the most self driven. After work (I get home by 3:30 most M-W now), I continue to work with him on Math and Science if he has questions. We assign books to read and discuss and I am considering adding in MCT for language arts later in the year once we hit a rhythm.

 

We don't assign stuff on Thursday and Fridays when my dad watches the boys but my dad takes them fun places (zoo, movies, fishing, museums etc) and our son is inclined to just do stuff on his own those days too.

 

We have our schoolroom set up off of the backyard so we can keep an eye on the school stuff and our 2 year old playing in the backyard.

 

It is a juggling act without a ft SAHP but we need my husband's insurance and I am very dedicated to my career. PT jobs in my field are just shorthand for FT work for PT pay so it is best for me to stay FT. My husband likes being home a lot but I think working pt is good for his sanity too. And his work is something that is finite and does not come home with him at the end of the day like so many workers need to to do these days.

Edited August 23, 2011 by kijipt

[LucyStoner]

As for general experience teaching together, it is great. I am a planner and very strong in certain subjects and my husband is very strong in others. For example, my husband can teach himself any instrument or language. He has gorgeous penmanship and is a very talented visual artist (painting and drawing). So it makes since that he teach all of those. I excel in math and history and language arts. Science we are both pretty strong in, but I expect as we get to the higher levels of science my husband will take a larger role because he has taken much more extensive coursework in science (required for his work). Similarly, I will likely do all of the upper level civics, economics and social studies as those are all things that I studied more in high school and college. We tag team each other well, filling in the other's gaps nicely.

[Scarymelon]

We split everything in half; we each work 3 days a week and stay at home 2 days a week; my MIL, who homeschooled all of her kids, watches them the 5th day. We each do Math, Piano, and reading with the kids. He does Writing/English and I do Science/History/spanish. I do most of the planning, but it works out well because he is very type A and I am really laid back, so the kids benefit from both of our styles. I don't know if we would be homeschooling if we didn't split it up.

[TheReader]

Mine helps.

 

He used to be the sole science teacher, but his work load has really increased since our move to Brazil and the boys' science needs have increased as they've gotten older (8th grade science, prepping for high school, is no longer a "do fun experiments on the weekends" kind of deal, ya know?). So now I do the main teaching for science, and he still helps with experiments on an as-needed basis.

 

He's also the "parent" when it comes to math. You know how sometimes your teacher explains something one way, and your parent explains it another way, and only once you get both do you truly grasp the concept?? He's the "different explanation" partner for math.

 

Other than that he mostly does check-ins, reads their reports, asks to see their work, etc. He does some read-alouds, too and sometimes gives special projects for the boys to do.

 

Mostly though he plays the "parent" role to my "teacher" role.

 

He works full time (he's out of the house from 8 a.m. to 6:30 or 7:00 p.m.), and evenings are busy with dinner, bath time, family hang out time so his school involvement has dropped off some over the years but yet he still makes me feel like he's my full and complete partner in this, which is nice.

[regentrude]

DH works full time and more. I work part time.

We are fortunate that we can bring the kids to work at the university, and they can work on school stuff there.

DH does math with DD (and sometimes with DS), special topics in physics (I did the standard course last year), physics lab last year, chemistry lab this year.

[NanceXToo]

My husband does not teach specific subjects, I do pretty much all of that.

 

What he does is help with any sort of hands-on projects that I feel he is better suited to doing than I am. So there are certain building projects, craft projects etc that I will ask him to do with her, and he'll do it.

 

He works full time but doesn't go in until after lunch (and then works til like 9 PM or so), so he sometimes does this in the morning before he goes or sometimes on his day off.

 

He's also the go-to guy if she's stuck on a math concept that I can't explain well since I don't like math. :D

 

And, of course, he funds everything since he works and I don't!

[desertmum]

My dh is the "native speaker" so he gets to read to ds every night and explain the difference between "baubble" and "bubble" (which I cannot pronounce 7 out of 10 times). Also dh teaches him diy skills and goes with ds into the "cage" (a place full of tunnels and ramps and things like that for kids -I'm afraid of heights and I'm too overprotective to be an effective (fun) partner in this game).

[Night Elf]

DH works full-time from home. He works for HP and has regular business hours.

 

DH has completely taken over math with ds15 who is working in Algebra 2. After a few crying sessions of MINE in trying to understand that stupid material, I gave up completely. DH absolutely loves that time with ds15 every day.

 

Until this math thing, DH didn't really totally teach any subject but he has always been involved in what we're doing. He'll add on to subjects by asking questions and generating discussion. He's the type of person who knows a little something about everything and what he doesn't know, he researches. He has taken their learning outside the textbook, which is where I believe true learning takes place anyway.

 

He thoroughly enjoys reading aloud. We went a couple of years without reading aloud until ds15 did Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings last year as freshman English. DH enjoyed reading LotR aloud more than any of us. We finished in early June and didn't read aloud until just recently when he suggested a book to the kids. They were iffy at first because reading the LotR over a school year was tedious at best. But the book he chose was fantastic and they loved it. It was so cool that we finished so quickly. We finished it last night and he's thinking of what to read aloud next. :)

[Bootsie]

Both my husband and I work FT, but have our schedules schedules offset somewhat and can do some work from home. It usually works out that he does Mon and Wed and half of Fri and I do Tues and Thurs and half of Fri. He covers most of science, PE, and computer programming and schedules music lessons. I do most of languages arts, math, history, and logic, but we don't have strict boundaries. Some of that division has been because of what we each like best; some has been at the request of our son.

[LizzyBee]

My dh is a stay at home dad, but he has ADHD, and if I left homeschooling in his hands, it wouldn't get done. It's been hard with my dyslexic/ADHD dd, because for so long, she couldn't do her schoolwork independently. But now that she's reading pretty well, we've worked out a system that seems to be working. We are only on week 2, though, so time will tell.

 

We bought a box that holds hanging files, and the lid opens up to hold pencils and other school supplies. Inside, we have files for books, software, memory work, and two weeks of Monday-Friday. On Sundays, I make a schedule and file all the papers and worksheets dd will need. She does as much as she is able independently, but dh is available if she gets stuck. There are also certain assignments marked as something that dh is to help her with, such as dictation or something that she is to read aloud to him. It combines the concepts of Sue Patrick workboxes and filing, and it gives dd and dh the structure they both need.

[Halcyon]

My DH is self-employed. He does Art Study and Art with the boys, Latin with the younger, and (come next term) test prep with the older. This is his first year helping out, and the kids seem to really like it.

[Heidi]

My husband has a lot of interests and a lot of talents, so I encourage him to teach the kids those things that he is interested in.

Currently he is taking my oldest dd to pottery class together. They both learned to use the wheel together.

He just mentioned he would like to make grocerie bags (he likes to sew:001_huh:) and I told him he should make it a project with the kids.

I've BEGGED him to help with academics but he refuses, which is fine. He'll provide the enrichment. He's good at that.

[RahRah]

DH works insane hours, but still finds time to do some of the homeschooling - he is set to start French with DS in January and currently takes care of piano practice, jujitsu practice and a good part of the nature-outdoor things with DS for science. When time permits he'll also do hands-on projects with DS in whatever subject we have a project in-progress.

[msjones]

My husband just took over the middle-school math teaching. He teaches high school math at a public high school, so I'm thankful to have him for pre-algebra, geometry, etc. He does an excellent job. He's very good at anticipating what my son might misunderstand, knows the subjects thoroughly, and truly loves mathematics.

 

He teaches lessons on one weekend day and one weeknight. He assigns work for the week, and I help my son with that as needed.

 

He is also our PE teacher. I am a good teacher, but a terrible coach. We've got the boys doing about an hour of PE five days a week, but we wouldn't if it weren't for my husband's participation.

[Aquinas Academy]

DH works full time and has to travel a lot for his work. He's both the native French speaker and the scientist in the family so he helps with both subjects in the evenings and on weekends. He also joins in on family read alouds which are often history related.

[Matryoshka]

Dh took over math with one of the twins last year - I still handle the other two girls. It had nothing to do with level of math and everything to do with mom and this one dd butting heads over math. :tongue_smilie:

 

This year for the first time he's going to be running 3 of our science labs - we have a small coop, and are doing physics, and it seemed to make sense to have the electrical engineer do the electronics labs. The other dads are also pitching in, as they also have technical/science degrees. The moms will still get a full 1/2 of the labs to run, but that's better than all of them!

 

He's also volunteered to help mentor the Mindstorm robotics this year, but dd seems to be losing interest. He should've anted up last year when she was gung-ho.

[ChiMomNP]

What subjects does he teach? Does he work part time or full time? What has been your overall experience with being a teaching team? Curious!

 

My DH teaches math, spanish, logic, and helps out with science and history. He will be taking over 100% for high school and has really stepped in for middle school. It works really well for us.

[Hwin]

He does M, W, Th and I do Saturdays.

 

I do all of the planning, and am here to pick up the slack if he didn't get everything done for M/Th (Wednesday is an easy day.)

 

We both work full time, but he is home more during the typical schooling hours. We usually have Sundays together; if he worked Sundays, I would do school that day. Since we are all home, it's a family day.

[Mommy22alyns]

Right now DH is unemployed, so he teaches Sylvia's LA and math while I teach Rebecca. It works really well, but I sometimes miss being so intimately aware of where Sylvia is academically.

 

Before he was unemployed, DH taught the girls art/music on the weekends. I was fine passing that off to him and he really enjoyed it.

[Forget-Me-Not]

Mine helps. He doesn't have anything that's formally 'his' subject to teach. . . he just sort of adds in what he can when he can. He usually handles reading (most of which we do at bedtime; he and our oldest just finished reading The Hobbit) and if I'm really fried or whatever, I can just say would you please have DD do her math or would you please read a chapter out of SOTW to them, etc. etc. etc. And he's really good at finding impromptu lessons at random times, especially science related stuff. We sat in a restaurant one afternoon and had an extensive discussion about salt. . . how it's mined, what are the different types, etc. all from DDs question about why the restaurant was claiming to be using sea salt :lol: I often think he'd make a really good unschooler.

[Abbeygirlsouth]

Through the years DH has always taught at least one child Science and Math through Physics and Calculus. Elementary years were a little iffy, as he didn't always follow through but by the time high school came around he had it down.

He does work full time so he teaches and grades in the evening, and assigns homework for the next day. He's also taught the semester required of Economics, and Personal Finance.

 

I usually teach/facilitate foreign language (Latin, Spanish, French), Eng/Lit, Bible/Philosophy, History, Government, Art....all the other "stuff."

[LaxMom]

"Helps" would be a misstatement here. We are both actively involved in just about all aspects.

 

My husband works full time, but he's fire department so he works 24 hours, then is off for three days; in effect, he works 1-2 days per school week. I work part time, mostly in the early morning (5:30-9), so I get home shortly after school starts on those days.

 

I used to do the purchasing and planning, but he has gotten more interested in that this summer, so we now both go over curriculum choices / scheduling / prep, either sitting together or on our own.

 

Last night, we were looking at Latin. There was an I'm-Gonna-Learn-Latin dance. He is such a dork. :D

[justamouse]

He is my saving grace. He teaches algebra to Dd 16, and does it when ever she needs. :D He works about 60-70 hours a week. They get mathy on weekends, or, over breakfast if she catches him.

[Oops, duplicate account :/]

I really enjoyed reading all your posts. This is a whole other side of homeschooling that I was clueless about. It was neat to learn more about it and how it works in your home. Thanks!

[Lawana]

This is the first time dh has been involved with our schooling. He has taken on history─ancients this year. Despite resistance from ds, it seems to have real promise. He loves history, and is a good teacher. (If only he would keep sessions to 60 min, as promised.)

[Running the race]

My husband reads my daughter's Sonlight history core. He asks her reading comprehension questions on the readers. Puts figures in the timeline book (something I never got to with the boys). He has a certain time to help and will do what needs to be done. He doesn't do any actual teaching of writing or math or anything like that.

[HS Mom in NC]

My husband works full time and then some. Most of the time is from home.

 

He teaches High School Science and Math. He also reads aloud literature to the kids most every day. The older two are 13 and 15 and they youngest is 6.

[laughing lioness]

What subjects does he teach? Does he work part time or full time? What has been your overall experience with being a teaching team? Curious!

 

My dh works f.t. but he has a flex schedule and works from home 2 days a week (so he's home 4). The 3 days he's gone he is gone till ~ 10 p.m.

 

He teaches karate, and works out with the kids (jogging, calesthenics) most days when he's home. He also teaches science, Bible, apologetics, history, social science. He is a polymath and a gifted teacher so it kinda flows naturally.

 

He does go to NASA and NOAA daily and often has the kids looking over his shoulder, talking about astronomy and the weather. They look at these sites on their own now and we'll often be found in the yard, day or night, in all kinds of temps, sky watching.

Our older kids have gone to weekly Bible studies that he's taught for years. He taught Apologetics for our program we ran 2 yrs ago which met weekly, with assigned homework.

He is a social scientist and often discusses articles in Science News, BAR, Nat'l Geo etc. along with other research in his field that he is aware of.

 

He reads aloud occasionally but often listens in the evenings to read-alouds and joins in the discussions.

[Zebra]

For awhile (when my personal life was pretty complicated) DH was teaching math, for about a year. He works full-time and I don't work, but things were THAT crazy.

 

It was actually nice in a lot of ways. DH got a taste of what I go through every day, and I think it was nice for dd to experience a teacher who does things a little differently.

 

We figured out pretty quickly that the way it worked best was for me to completely keep my nose out of it ;)! I am in awe of those of you who team teach, that is pretty neat.

 

I may have him take over math again in a few years, when it gets too hard for me.