I know of a number of dads who have been the parent volunteer in their child’s classroom for a day or gone as a chaperone on a school field trip and it got me to thinking about how nice it would be if my husband would be the parent volunteer in our homeschool classroom for a day. It would be nice to have an extra pair of hands and someone to help at the point where I have multiple kids needing my help at one time. That wasn’t my primary reason for wanting to have him in our classroom though.
You see, over the years, The Husband has often questioned whether the kids are learning enough in homeschool. It has been the topic of many “discussions” and the source of resentment building on both our parts. I have often thought that if he wants to talk negatively about homeschooling, he should at least be involved enough or ask enough questions to know what the kids are learning. This dynamic was obviously not healthy and so I decided that this year would be different. I invited him to be the parent volunteer for a day and eliminated the chances of any objections by offering to homeschool on a holiday Monday so that he would not have to miss a work day. If there hadn’t been a holiday that week, I would have homeschooled on Saturday to enable him to be there.
The kids loved having Daddy in their class! We finished more than half an hour sooner than usual because there was another adult to help when the kids had questions and in a way, I could be in two places at one time! I forgot to take pictures of The Husband on “Bring Your Daddy to Homeschool Day”, but I now have a few rare pictures of myself teaching on the camera that he must have taken.
Bring Your Daddy to Homeschool Day was a big success, capped off when The Husband decided to take 3 of the kids on a 14 km mountain bike ride after we finished. The best part didn’t happen until a few days later though, when my mom-in-law and dad-in-law stopped by and happened to mentioned that The Husband had told them what a good job I was doing homeschooling! Rumour has it that he told them about what a great idea the workboxes are, how much the kids were learning, and that they were learning things about history that even he didn’t know (he is a huge history buff!) in their great history program (Story of the World)! Success!
I would highly recommend to all other homeschooling moms out there that they invite their husbands to be their parent volunteer for a day. It worked so well for us. I appreciated The Husband’s help; the kids absolutely loved having him there; he grew a better understanding and admiration for what I do and I believe will now see why my prep time in the evening is so critical and that he will be able to rest assured that our kids are learning enough.
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Love it! I told my husband that it would be great if he could get familiar with how “it’s done” so that when I am gone in the afternoons he can pick up where we left off. I think it’s easy enough but he was a little scared to try. He will be “observing” on Monday.
What a fun idea! The kids must have loved it, and how nice for you to have a teacher’s aide!
Mark has totally taken over Math in our house, which is thrilling to me. He loves Math, I do not, so I figured he should teach it because then the kids are learning from someone who A. thinks Math is fun (ugh) and B. knows what he is talking about. It’s perfect for us. It’s funny..when we started this homeschooling road, Mark often says he was of the “we’ll wait and see attitude”. Now he is more of a home-school proponent than I am. I think when our husbands see what the results are, they see the value. (although I have to say, he has been asking me for weeks now, “so..when do you think you’ll start school?” lol!)
My hubby is a homeschooling advocate because he’s a graduate. Ha. Rhyming! It’s more me that struggles with whether they are learning enough or if I’m doing a good enough job. There is SO much out there to choose from and to learn…sometimes it feels overwhelming…ya know.
I love love love the bring your daddy day idea! I’m gonna have to try that one out!
And your school room looks SO great! I love the uncluttered-ness and wall cling map!
Thanks for popping in over at my place today.
…danielle
Awesome! In my family, we’d have to bring Grandma…I’m going to tuck this idea in my back pocket.
Oh how I love this…including Dad.
Such great ideas…and I love the photos!
~Kara @ The Chuppies/NOBH
How wonderful that he shared how terrific you are a teaching!
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing it.
What a great idea! While my husband is completely on board and knows that they are learning we may have to make a big deal of “bringing daddy to school one day!”