No Cats In Our Cradle!
© Joan Archer
For some of us, this is so totally out of reality, it can nearly make us weep!
Much discussion is generated around Fathers and Homeschooling. Where Mother is concerned, it seems to be an accepted fact that she will carry most of the educational load, especially where specific instruction is involved. For some reason, most fathers do not seem to come home from work looking forward to drilling little Johnny in his spelling and helping little Janey with her long division. I know many homeschooling moms work, too, but we seem more compelled to make certain our children are well-educated. Many homeschool dads think their input is limited to generating income to buy materials, and taking the kids off of mom's hands when she needs a break. To their credit, there are also many homeschool dads who are very committed to ensuring their children have a complete education, and fully recognise that, even though it may not be exactly fun to do long division, it is their committment to their child which pushes them to do so. Many, many times I have wished I was married to such a man!
My husband is a fine man, my best friend, and a fantastic husband. He loves all of our children equally, even though the first three are his stepchildren. He is definitely what I would classify a "winter soldier" and yet, the homeschool issue threw him completely.
I have always wanted to home educate my children, even when my eldest was born. I taught my two eldest to read by the age of four, and they were already doing simple math by the time they entered Kindergarten. I figured they would do fine with such a flying start, and did my best to supplement their schoolwork with work at home. I had my problems with the "system" of government at their school, but nothing truly disastrous. There was that little run-in with my eldest son's third grade teacher when I taught Michael to multiply into the twelves (he was only to go to the tens; his teacher said two more multiplication problems would only confuse him). Then there was that problem with my son Isaac's fourth grade teacher who showed the series "Roots" to the class, and Isaac pointed out that many African slaves were sold to slave traders by their own tribal leaders. That took a long time to die down, and Isaac was forever disillusioned by the authority of his teachers, and no longer trusted them as wise and honest people. Jasper's only problem was that he was being undereducated, and the people in charge of his formal education saw no shame in that. As I said, nothing really major. Just lots of little glitches. Okay, maybe one or two "biggies", but no one was arrested!
