It takes a Dad sometimes

This year my husband has gotten involved with our kids education more, by holding weekly mentor meetings with our children. This has been a blessing in so many ways. My boys are getting older and looking more to him for validation and an example of what they could grow to be. They crave his respect and his time. While I am still the primary teacher, and he rarely participates in lessons, his time with them each week is something they look forward to, and knowing they will be accountable to Dad for what they did that week makes them want to do well. I have walked in on these meetings a few times and found them engaged in animated conversation about magnetic polarities as my son reports on what he did in science, or about building character and following through on what we say we will do, when Dad notices someone is being lax in that area. I am grateful to feel that he is part of the team and that our homeschool is important to him; his support in this area is so valuable. He was not without reservations when I first decided to homeschool, but he has always tried to support me and give me confidence, and he has increased in his confidence that homeschooling works over the years. It is a great blessing to feel that I am not alone in my efforts now, and that he will back me up not only in the areas of discipline but in education, too. I am excited about the future as we grow together in teaching our children.

Inspire....and Require?

I am a fan of the Thomas Jefferson Education philosophy, one of the tenets of which is 'inspire, not require.' Another tenet is 'you are the expert on your own family.' Both of these ideas place a large responsibility on the homeschooling parent. I am wrestling a little with the idea that maybe in my family, inspiring will have to include a little requiring. In my grand mommy visions, my inspiring would consist of my example, the environment I help create, and surrounding my children with love, great books, music, and opportunities. I still hold to that vision and work to be an example of constant learning myself. I am finding, however, that my boys are very motivated by requirements, and even ask for them. They love knowing what is expected of them and having a visual gauge of where they are at and how far they have to go. My goal is for them to love learning for learning's sake, not because they will get a sticker or a checkmark or even recognition for it, but it seems that at least for now, that is an important part of their education to them. So I have tried to compromise by having them help come up with the items that will be on their chart, and how often they want to commit to doing those things, with some input from their Dad and I as mentors. This seems to be working so far. I still fear sometimes that having the charts will mean they will do the bare minimum to meet their requirements and nothing more. But I have found that certain things they are excited about they will beg to do on days it is not scheduled, and they often choose to do certain subjects more often than the minimum requirement for the week. They choose the order they do them in, and often choose their own way of fulfilling a requirement (ie. reading a math classic, math on the computer, creating a math game, using manipulatives, etc). There are still subjects that would probably not even be on their chart if it weren't for Mom and Dad strongly encouraging it (handwriting is one that none of my boys seems terribly inspired to do, ever!) but we keep it short and they seem willing, now that it is on the chart, knowing they are free to do the other things they love more as much as they want as well. I often worry if I am 'doing this right,' but I am grateful for the sentiment that all parents are qualified to be the experts in their home. It gives me confidence that, with prayer and study of my children's needs and temperaments, and lots of willingness to constantly work to improve our educational methods in whatever ways are needful, we will be able to teach our children well.