What essentials do you need to homeschool your children successfully? A master’s in education? Classroom experience? Lots of money? None of the above, in my book.
Here’s my list of homeschool essentials:
1. A supportive spouse
Let’s talk about the first one: a supportive spouse.
God worked a miracle in my heart to help me embrace homeschooling. Then, I found myself desiring something that my husband did not approve of.
A supportive husband provides the balance needed in the homeschooling process.
My husband and I are best friends. We talk about everything. We agree on everything.
To say it was hard while we wanted different things for our children would be a huge understatement. Thankfully, it only happened for a couple of months.
Did we talk about having children in pre-marital counseling? Yes. Did we discuss how we were going to educate them? Sure. But I wasn’t a mom. I did not know that, one day, I would feel I could not breathe if my children spent seven hours away from me, five days a week.
Having children changed my perspective on homeschooling.
Well, God changed my husband’s heart, too. He agreed to homeschool and here we are.
What a team we make, the two of us! I have always been into Humanities, while he is a computer geek and a scientist at heart. Combining our forces, we love guiding our children’s education, talking about developments and making decisions as we see fit. We joke that he is the principal of the school, but he really fulfills that role.
A supportive spouse can
- counsel
- congratulate
- pick up the slack
- endure till the end
- keep you sane
- teach a subject you don’t like
- read to the kids
- drive them to co-op
- listen
- laugh
- pray
- brag
- love
- accept
- forgive
- encourage
- etc etc etc
I personally know some homeschooling mothers who are either single or whose husbands barely tolerate homeschooling. These moms have done an amazing job without a supportive spouse. They prove it can be done even without a supportive spouse, but they tell me how difficult it is.
For me, a supportive husband represents the #1 homeschooling essential.
For more interpretations of the homeschool essentials, check out these great blog posts from my friends on the Crew.
Laura @ Day by Day in Our World
Julie @ Nurturing Learning
Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures
DaLynn @ For the Display of His Splendor
Lori @ At Home: where life happens
Nicole @ Journey to Excellence
Brandy @ Kingdom Academy Homeschool
Meg @ Adventures with Jude
Sarah @ Delivering Grace
I agree a support spouse is essential. It’s so essential that I didn’t even consider including it my posts because I would not be home schooling my children if my husband wasn’t supportive. He was the one who first started looking at it. He convinced me that we needed to home school our children. I’m so glad you wrote about supportive husbands!
I love the list of things that your supportive spouse will provide. That list is personal and so very true. The supportive spouse creates the environment of success. With that, homeschooling would be counter-productive. Great post!
This is so true! I love having my husband’s input, love, and support for homeschooling!
Oh yes! I agree 100% with this essential! I couldn’t make it through my week without my husband’s shoulders to lean on! He lets me de-program. He also is great for offering up new solutions to things that have us stuck in a rut! Homeschooling would be so much harder without him for sure! Great post!
Oh yes, I absolutely could not homeschool without support from my husband. I am so thankful that he is 100 percent behind what we do at home.
A supportive spouse is definitely something you want when going against the culture, which homeschooling still is! It took a while for my husband to agree and have us transition to homeschooling. What probably helped is that he was unhappy with my eldest son’s school experience and the fact we were paying thousands of dollars for it! Now he is the one who talks me down from the ledge when sending all the boys to school sounds good.