We are blessed with a Homeschool Dad that loves to be involved in our homeschool!
It wasn’t always this way. He wasn’t particularly enthused about homeschooling at first. It took encouragement and enthusiasm from other homeschooling dads before he would agree to us homeschooling at first. Now, he is one of homeschool’s biggest salesmen!
So, how can your homeschool dad be involved in your homeschool? How can you encourage him?
First, make sure he feels welcome! My husband once admitted to me that sometimes he didn’t feel “needed.” I’ve never intentionally shut him out, but it was sometimes easy for me to get so absorbed that I didn’t realized he wanted to be included.
Also, don’t only show him the negative! I know many refer to their homeschool dad as “Principal.” But if all he sees of the homeschool experience is having to be the Enforcer or Disciplinarian, how can he enjoy it?
Here are some of the ways our Homeschool Dad participates:
1. Field Trips – We try to save as many field trips for family activity time, often on weekends, so hubby can join in.
2. Holidays – We are blessed that hubby gets federal holidays off. He might join in our regular homeschool activities, and he often acts as the “substitute teacher” while I take the opportunity to get other things done.
3. Take Over Certain Subjects aka. Taking Over “Classes” You Really Don’t Want to Do! – Hubby has been great about taking over certain activities and lessons for me. Recently, he has completely taken over science, I might also save up games, movies, or various parts of lessons that I haven’t been able to get to. He will do these with the girls on the weekends or evenings. He also works with them on their Spanish – which is good because being a native speaker, he is much better at it!
4. Evening Reading – When our girls were younger, I would save our larger group “outloud” reading for right before bedtime. If it was a book that I think he’d enjoy, Hubby would take over the reading of the nightly chapter. It’s great to get a break sometimes, isn’t it?
5. Extracurriculars – Hubby has always been willing to very involved in the girls’ activities. He took over a lot of the carpool duties when we were participating in the Upward Sports program, and has been my “heavy labor” for our American Heritage Girls troop when I ran it. Through other parents at our AHG troop, we found there was a summer archery program in our area. Which of course, would help them earn that AHG archery badge! My girls were dying to do it with their friends, but I was already suffering from major burn out. Hubby pursuaded the other dads into doing it with him, and so it became a Daddy/Daughter activity once a week that summer. And I got blessed silence one night a week!
6. Support of Me – Hubby wanted me to be sure to mention how a Homeschool Dad’s primary job is to take care of the Homeschool Mom! He has always been my sounding board to bounce ideas and issues off of, he’s my encourager and motivator. Be even more importantly, he considers it his job to protect me, even from myself. Maybe even mostly from myself! He keeps me going and keeps me from burn out. He sometimes plays “bad cop” when I’m too much of a softie.
7. Bring him to Homeschool Events and Homeschool Conventions! – Hubby’s first time at local homeschool “family events” and a homeschool convention made a huge difference in his support and understanding of homeschool. He was so excited to realize that homeschooling didn’t make us “weird,” it made us NORMAL! He went, expecting to just be “supportive” and be there for me, but meeting other homeschool dads, and participating in some of the “Dad” sessions opened his eyes to the great opportunities homeschool provided.
From my husband:
“I came to the realization that:
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- I can participate in homeschool and be more than the other adult in the house receiving the daily progress (sometimes) report. I am motivated to be involved.
- I don’t have to be great to be involved in homeschooling my kids.
- Involved means any of the following: Field trips with kids, reviewing school work, participating in Bible verses, giving your spouse a day off to homeschool, supporting your spouse just by listening, or picking up the most random thing for a science project on your way home from work, listening to your spouse and not providing an opinion when she says this was the worst homeschool day and the kids are going to public school tomorrow.
- My wife is amazing.
- What I enjoy most of homeschooling is that I get to spend a great amount of time with my kids.”
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8. Show and Tell – During the day, we leave completed work items on Daddy’s desk to show/read to him at the end of the day. My girls love this, even now in the preteen years. We might also put them by his seat at dinner, so we can talk about them. This is a good way for me to remember to have them read and review certain work with him.
9. Wall of Fame – One wall of his office at work is decorated with various art projects. I can tell when they are especially into a particular project because the girls only designate their most favorite work for “Daddy’s Office.” They love going to his office and seeing their work displayed. As an added bonus, this has sparked alot of discussions about homeschooling with his coworkers!
10. Heavy Labor – I’m sure us homeschool moms already take advantage of this one, but Homeschool Dads are awesome at hauling around the piles of books we collect. And dropping loads of them back at the library when needed. And carting piles of items to and from the basement, etc. Make sure they know how helpful and valuable that sort of participation really truly is!
11. Documentation – Our Homeschool Dad has been a massive help in the past with the documentation we needed for our portfolio. When we lived in PA, we were required to keep a book log, and hubby filled in the information. I just created the spreadsheet format for him, and would hand him the receipts we got from the library as we checked out books. He would then fill in the info as he had time. This was a HUGE help, because our book log was up-to-date and ready for me to just print and stick in our binder when portfolio time came around!
He has even helped me by going through the pages of book lists I’ve found, reviewing and reserving books from the library, and then tracking on our ongoing “wish lists” on what the library had or didn’t have. This was great to have when I was out and about, but also when grandparents wanted to gift the girls, I had a running set of ideas ready to share! This helped me keep very organized as I planned and prepared for upcoming curriculum.
Homeschool is such a wonderful blessing to our entire family. In addition to the “educational side,” it’s truly been a vehicle for our family to spend time together and enjoy each other.
This article has been adapted from a post on my older blog, Becoming a Modern Proverbs 31 Woman.
This post is a part of the Homeschool Success Hacks: Back to School Blog Hop series. You can find more posts and more participating blogger articles by going to this link. You can find my other participating posts here.
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