Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



Active Topics || Favorites || Member List || Search || About Us || Help || Register || Login
Tea and Conversation
 4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Subject Topic: Schooling while Dad is home Post ReplyPost New Topic
Author
Message << Prev Topic | Next Topic >>
kristinannie
Forum All-Star
Forum All-Star
Avatar

Joined: Jan 27 2011
Location: West Virginia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1363
Posted: June 08 2011 at 10:35am | IP Logged Quote kristinannie
I am not sure if I put this in the right place so feel free to move it.

This is our second full week of homeschooling and it was the first time that Daddy has been home while we were doing school. He works at a hospital and has a strange schedule so he has weekdays off most weeks. His day off last week was our field trip day with the homeschool group so it didn't matter.

Anyway, he was cleaning the kitchen (can't complain about that) during school and it was really distracting DC (we school in the attached dining room). So, he went down into the garage to do some stuff down there. The kids were still really distracted. I think just knowing that DH was home just made them lose focus. Will this resolve itself over time? I am wondering if I just need to schedule school on days that he works. I was actually looking forward to schooling with him at home so that he could take care of the littles if they were being disruptive.

What is your experience with this?

__________________
John Paul 8.5
Meredith Rose 7
Dominic Michael 4.5
Katherine Elizabeth 8 months
Back to Top View kristinannie's Profile Search for other posts by kristinannie
 
Mimip
Forum All-Star
Forum All-Star
Avatar

Joined: Feb 17 2009
Location: Florida
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1526
Posted: June 08 2011 at 2:19pm | IP Logged Quote Mimip
Kristin,

This is one of the first questions I asked this board!!! My husband is in Law enforcement so we dealt with this for many years. We did several different things depending on our season in life.

1. Morning time with Dad: My dh bikes or runs every morning so we decided that on school days he would bike a bit later and take everyone with him. This could look different in your house but the idea is that they all get "Daddy time" BEFORE school begins. With our two youngest (that aren't in formal school) he would also read or play with them when I started school with the olders. Also I suggest HE does the moving around and you stay in your "school area"

2. On the days Dad is off, we are off. Yes that means less work done in the course of a month but we virtually school year around here, with different types of schedules, so it works for us. This especially worked when my kids craved Daddy time and worked wonderful as a special motivator ie: Dad's off tomorrow, let's see how much work we can get today so that we can have fun tomorrow.

3. Leave the house. These were the times that I wanted to do something important for one of the kids and the distraction was too much. We would head to the library.

4. Daddy= read aloud subjects. We do group work for our Science, History and Religion so most of those are read aloud and Dad sure can do that! These are the days that we get a ton of History read and discussed and the days the notebooks get project type things in them. It also helps that my dh is a wonderful artist. (me, not so much ) so he draws for them in their notebooks (think Roman warriors!)

5. Daddy= real life experience. When Dad is around is when my girls have learned to cut and weed the grass and all sorts of other things like changing the filter in the airconditioning. When my husband used to have 3 days during the week off we would rotate, dd1 was his helper the first day, dd2 the next and then the boys the 3rd day. Worked great to motivate since if they weren't up to date, they could not help.

Hope those ideas help somewhat. I know others deal with the same situation and I'm sure will pop in

__________________
In Christ,
Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
Back to Top View Mimip's Profile Search for other posts by Mimip
 
mamaslearning
Forum All-Star
Forum All-Star
Avatar

Joined: Nov 12 2007
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 927
Posted: June 08 2011 at 6:47pm | IP Logged Quote mamaslearning
I was going to suggest adjusting the schedule so you don't always school when Dad is off work (like Mimi suggested). That might mean you are doing work on a Saturday, but that might work out better than trying to keep the kids focused when Dad is around during the week.

__________________
Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool
Back to Top View mamaslearning's Profile Search for other posts by mamaslearning
 
ekbell
Forum All-Star
Forum All-Star


Joined: May 22 2009
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 747
Posted: June 09 2011 at 5:43pm | IP Logged Quote ekbell
My husband's hours changed after we started homeschooling so now he's always home during lesson time (he works late afternoon, evening hours) We do take one day a week off so that daddy time isn't always structure.

It did take a bit of getting used to but our routine settled down fairly quickly.

Something we've found effective is that he's effectively 'room monitor' - if one of the children are being distracted and distracting daddy is the one who helps out. Having him actively enforcing the routine goes a long way. Another bit is that morning lessons are set up so that there is room for less scheduled time if work is done diligently. Project work is scheduled for after daddy goes to work.
Back to Top View ekbell's Profile Search for other posts by ekbell
 
ekbell
Forum All-Star
Forum All-Star


Joined: May 22 2009
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 747
Posted: June 09 2011 at 6:00pm | IP Logged Quote ekbell
My husband's hours changed after we started homeschooling so now he's always home during lesson time (he works late afternoon, evening hours) We do take one day a week off so that daddy time isn't always structure.

It did take a bit of getting used to but our routine settled down fairly quickly.

Something we've found effective is that he's effectively 'room monitor' - if one of the children are being distracted and distracting daddy is the one who helps out. Having him actively enforcing the routine goes a long way. Another bit is that morning lessons are set up so that there is room for less scheduled time if work is done diligently. Project work is scheduled for after daddy goes to work.
Back to Top View ekbell's Profile Search for other posts by ekbell
 

If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login
If you are not already registered you must first register

  [Add this topic to My Favorites] Post ReplyPost New Topic
Printable version Printable version

Forum Jump
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

Hosting and Support provided by theNetSmith.com