Due to the fact that both Brandon and I are full-time students ourselves, we're frequently asked how we manage to homeschool as well. I touched on our method a bit tangentially in this post on our current schedule, but given the interest that that topic tends to generate, a dedicated post seems to be indicated.
I've mentioned before that we're a three-parent family: that's Richard (my former husband and the goblins' father), Brandon (my (very!) soon-to-be husband and the goblins' bonus dad), and me. We're a very close-knit family, and function as one unit rather than as two factions. All three of us contribute to the homeschooling, in different but equally valuable ways. Richard's arranged his work schedule so that he works from afternoon-evening, and his days off are Wednesdays and Thursdays instead of weekends. This means that we need no childcare that we wouldn't have needed if the goblins were in school. He does some of the academics on Mondays and Wednesdays, and this quarter will be spending Tuesday nights at our place so that he can be here when we leave for school at 7:30 on Wednesday mornings. He then takes them to his house and to their activities, then they spend the night there. He does art with them on Thursday mornings and takes them to their afternoon activities, then brings them home. He also takes them to their Friday morning activity.
Brandon and I tag-team the academics on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. I do most of the math instruction, but we split the rest and he often plays math games with Sofie or listens to her practicing her reading while he's cooking and I'm doing work with Ozzy. He's also quite handy/crafty/arty, and involves them in lots of projects. I have a Friday afternoon class, and every other Friday, after the goblins come back from their morning class with Richard, we all go to the university and Brandon homeschools the goblins in the café while I'm in class, then we go on a field trip.
I do all of the planning, researching, and the choosing of curricula. I also do the scheduling, and am generally the director (I suppose that's the best term for it) of the homeschooling. I sort out what we're teaching, when we're going to teach it, and how we're going to teach it. I do a slight majority of the teaching, though the dads help out with the open-and-go curricula, and I take sole responsibility for the subjects, like math, that are either unscripted or ones I've modified beyond easy recognition. I also do all of the editing and rearranging of curricula that aren't quite what we need, very often combining the best elements of multiple programs.
We're extremely fortunate that my parents are supportive both of our university pursuits and the goblins' homeschooling, though the latter took some convincing in the beginning. We arrange our school schedules in whichever way means we need the least childcare, and thus far haven't ever needed more than one day a week, usually only in the afternoon. This coming quarter will be the first time we've needed care in the morning, because I have a class that begins at 8:40. My parents live about 20 minutes in exactly the opposite direction (from the position of our house) from the university, which is a further half hour a way, so they've offered to make the mornings easier by having the goblins spend the night with them on Sunday nights, and will have them on Mondays until evening. Richard will come for 2.5 hours in the morning so that they're not "on duty" for quite as long, and also to do the morning's homeschooling. We never ask my parents to contribute to the academics, though they do drop them off and pick them up at the jujitsu dojo on Monday evenings (which is just five minutes' drive from their house). After the goblins come home after dinner, we cover a few more subjects before bedtime.
Because we're all so busy, we do frequently do history or math/science read-alouds during dinner, and sometimes the goblins do pen-and-pencil work during breakfast. We also ramp up the intensity academically during the university winter and summer breaks, to cover just a little extra ground and to "make up" the spontaneous days off we sometimes take and the week off we generally take before/during our final exams each quarter. Despite this, we do make sure that the goblins still have at least as many unstructured hours in the day as do most children in school with homework and extracurriculars.
I've mentioned before that we're a three-parent family: that's Richard (my former husband and the goblins' father), Brandon (my (very!) soon-to-be husband and the goblins' bonus dad), and me. We're a very close-knit family, and function as one unit rather than as two factions. All three of us contribute to the homeschooling, in different but equally valuable ways. Richard's arranged his work schedule so that he works from afternoon-evening, and his days off are Wednesdays and Thursdays instead of weekends. This means that we need no childcare that we wouldn't have needed if the goblins were in school. He does some of the academics on Mondays and Wednesdays, and this quarter will be spending Tuesday nights at our place so that he can be here when we leave for school at 7:30 on Wednesday mornings. He then takes them to his house and to their activities, then they spend the night there. He does art with them on Thursday mornings and takes them to their afternoon activities, then brings them home. He also takes them to their Friday morning activity.
Brandon and I tag-team the academics on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. I do most of the math instruction, but we split the rest and he often plays math games with Sofie or listens to her practicing her reading while he's cooking and I'm doing work with Ozzy. He's also quite handy/crafty/arty, and involves them in lots of projects. I have a Friday afternoon class, and every other Friday, after the goblins come back from their morning class with Richard, we all go to the university and Brandon homeschools the goblins in the café while I'm in class, then we go on a field trip.
I do all of the planning, researching, and the choosing of curricula. I also do the scheduling, and am generally the director (I suppose that's the best term for it) of the homeschooling. I sort out what we're teaching, when we're going to teach it, and how we're going to teach it. I do a slight majority of the teaching, though the dads help out with the open-and-go curricula, and I take sole responsibility for the subjects, like math, that are either unscripted or ones I've modified beyond easy recognition. I also do all of the editing and rearranging of curricula that aren't quite what we need, very often combining the best elements of multiple programs.
We're extremely fortunate that my parents are supportive both of our university pursuits and the goblins' homeschooling, though the latter took some convincing in the beginning. We arrange our school schedules in whichever way means we need the least childcare, and thus far haven't ever needed more than one day a week, usually only in the afternoon. This coming quarter will be the first time we've needed care in the morning, because I have a class that begins at 8:40. My parents live about 20 minutes in exactly the opposite direction (from the position of our house) from the university, which is a further half hour a way, so they've offered to make the mornings easier by having the goblins spend the night with them on Sunday nights, and will have them on Mondays until evening. Richard will come for 2.5 hours in the morning so that they're not "on duty" for quite as long, and also to do the morning's homeschooling. We never ask my parents to contribute to the academics, though they do drop them off and pick them up at the jujitsu dojo on Monday evenings (which is just five minutes' drive from their house). After the goblins come home after dinner, we cover a few more subjects before bedtime.
Because we're all so busy, we do frequently do history or math/science read-alouds during dinner, and sometimes the goblins do pen-and-pencil work during breakfast. We also ramp up the intensity academically during the university winter and summer breaks, to cover just a little extra ground and to "make up" the spontaneous days off we sometimes take and the week off we generally take before/during our final exams each quarter. Despite this, we do make sure that the goblins still have at least as many unstructured hours in the day as do most children in school with homework and extracurriculars.
2 comments:
Wow, I"m in awe of the way you, your BF, and your ex all get along!
Thank you! We're very lucky, and very determined. ;)
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