Not Just for Mommies: Including Fathers in Homeschooling

Most primary homeschooling parents are mothers. However, when you choose to homeschool your child rather than to send him or her to a public or private traditional school, you and your spouse are both taking responsibility for raising your child in an educational environment. There are many social and economical reasons for which the homeschooling parent is usually the mother, but fathers should easily be able to get involved as well. Homeschooling is a family affair, and all members need to get involved for it to work.

First, both parents should agree that homeschooling is the correct solution for whatever problem you and your child are experiencing with public schools. If this is what you decide to do, one choice is to have each parent teach their children for equal amounts of time during the day. This entails both parents getting only a part time job. While there are benefits to this, disadvantages come into play as well. Part time jobs are usually not salaried, nor do they usually come with healthcare and insurance benefits, retirement plans, or other wise investment advantages found with full time jobs. Families also spend much less time together this way, and marriage problems can arise since spouses will see little of one another during the week.

Another plan is for one parent to quit his or her job and the other to work full time. This is what most families choose to do. However, it is important to have a clear understanding that the family must adjust to this one-income budget and that both parents must contribute equally, although this is not always by donating money to the family account. Mothers usually opt to stay home and take care of the homeschooling while living on the father's income. This is a fine solution, but fathers can also make wonderful teachers, so this option should also be considered.

Whatever the family decides, both the teacher and the parent who works full time should play important roles in their child's life. After schooling has taken place for the day in a traditional homeschool setting, be sure that your family spends time together simply doing recreational activities. You can also plan education field trips in conjunction with family vacations in order to get both parents involved. Whatever the case, when an important decision must be made, both parents should have equal say in the choice, regardless of who spends more time with the child or who brings home the money. By working together, both parents, not just the mother, can give their child a wonderful homeschooling experience

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