Are you excited about the idea of homeschooling but not able to do it because your husband is skeptical about homeschooling? Don’t worry – you’re in the same boat as a lot of women! Many people don’t want to homeschool because they believe many myths about home education. Gently asserting the truths of homeschooling, as opposed to propagating the myths is a great way to convince your husband to homeschool. Doing this, in conjunction with a loving and winsome manner, will go a long way to winning him over.
In this article, we’re going to talk about 10 ways to convince your husband to homeschool, namely to:
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- Talk about the benefits of homeschooling
- Assert how wonderful nature is for kids and tell them how home education is a great way to get more nature
- Compare the freedom homeschoolers have to the lack of freedom in schools
- Compare the hours schoolchildren spend in school compared to how much they need to
- Show your husband how he will be able to spend more time with the children
- Tell him he’ll be able to teach his favorite hobby to the kids more easily (surfing, fishing etc)
- Show your kids how great homeschooling is and let them petition their Dad for you
- Show your husband some homeschooling statistics about the great academic achievements of homeschoolers
- Dispel the socialization myth
- Ask him why he doesn’t want to homeschool.
Let’s dive in and find out how!
Talk About the Benefits of Homeschooling Using Statistics
Sometimes people believe the negative (and false) rhetoric about homeschoolers performing below average on standardized tests.
Perhaps they heard someone saying homeschoolers can’t socialize properly because they haven’t been to school.
Sometimes these homeschool myths are spread maliciously, but most of the time, I believe, they’re just propagated because that’s what people really think about home education.
There are some amazing homeschooling statistics that show home-educated students are doing well in almost all areas tested.
They do particularly well academically and socially.
Furthermore, they have great relationships with their families and become productive members.
Dispelling these homeschooling myths might just be the easiest way to convince your husband to homeschool.
Talk About Nature & Tell Husbands How Homeschooling is a Great Way to Get More Nature
One of the sad things about children going to school is that a lot of them miss out on getting connected with nature.
Instead, they spend hours inside when they could be out in nature.
As Charlotte Mason says, nature is a wonderful teacher, and she can educate children wonderfully.
There are also some physical benefits of nature, and this is a salient point most men understand very well.
For some reason, men often connect with nature and, as my husband says, feel ‘wooed’ by it.
Try to paint a picture of the family traveling around the country in a caravan as you all experience the great outdoors in a way school families can’t.
Show your husband he can take them camping, fishing, and surfing any time.
NOTE: If you teach using the Charlotte Mason homeschooling method, you can guarantee nature will be an integral part of your homeschool as you go for plenty of nature walks!
Compare the freedom homeschoolers have to the lack of freedom in schools
For many children, a school can feel like a prison, especially if they’re shut up inside a school building for hours.
One of the most persuasive reasons to homeschool that my husband identified in my interview with him was that homeschoolers tend to have more physical freedom than schoolchildren.
When I asked my husband what was the most effective thing I did to convince him to homeschool, he said:
When you promote the idea of the free-ness to learn and that the child has that space to learn and explore things and make mistakes. I kind of wish I’d had that space. I mean, I’ve never built a shed or a house, surfboard or something. And just to have that space and freedom to have a go and make a mistake and knock you down and revise your plans and try again. That freedom to make mistakes appealed to me. And, I think childhood and teenage years are an ideal time to make mistakes and learn. That’s how we grow. I can think of a few homeschoolers who really impress me (not to say there’s not a stack of people who went to school who don’t impress me) – there’s that too. That was nice to see actual real-life people who’ve done it.
For many males, the appeal of being physically free is a big one. While many girls are able to sit quietly, it tends to be the boys who are itching to burst onto the playground every recess and lunchtime break. Even so, both sexes love the outdoors, especially when they’re encouraged to interact with it at an early age.
Compare Hours Schoolchildren Spend in School on Homework VS to How Much They NEED to Spend
Some of us believe that the amount of hours we spend at a desk correlates with our school grades.
However, this isn’t always true. The evidence says we tend to spend too many hours on schoolwork – especially in the younger years.
Therefore, another great way to convince your husband to homeschool is to talk about the benefits of doing less schoolwork and spending more time doing equally educational things (you can find this evidence in this book).
Most men can see that schools spend a tremendous amount of time in busywork, settling students, disciplining them, and shuffling them from one class to another.
On top of this, parents spend time dressing their kids in school uniforms, writing notes, driving kids to and from school as well as a plethora of other time-wasting tasks.
If you could eliminate all those fluffy hours in a day, you’d be left with so much time!
And this is what you see when you homeschool your child. In fact, most homeschools only spend around 2-3 hours doing formal schoolwork a day! Amazing!
Talk About Spending More Time With the Children
When fathers work long hours, they often get less time with their children than they would like.
I heard of one father who did fly-in and fly-out work who had this problem.
He worked three weeks on and four weeks off. But, during the four weeks he had off, he only got to see the children after school hours.
This father started homeschooling and was soon excited about its many benefits.
Although they’d started homeschooling because their children ‘weren’t getting enough of Jesus in their school,’ he’d found the added benefit of getting so much more time with his kids than he had anticipated.
He is now teaching them to surf, and next year, they will go on a trip around Australia when he takes his long service leave.)
Dads Can Teach Favorite Hobbies to the Children (Surfing, Fishing, and so on.)
Although most fathers are thrilled at being parents and spending time bringing up their children, many miss the hobbies they engaged in so freely before they were married or became a Dad.
As such, showing them they can spend more time doing these hobbies can be a great way to win them over.
Don’t have time to surf anymore because you’re babysitting?
No problem, because you can babysit while you teach your kids to surf!
Love to spend more time fishing, but you can’t because you’ve got to pick the kids up from school?
No problem, because home education will give you more time to do extracurricular activities during traditional school hours!
Let Your Kids Petition Dad!
Are your kids on board with the homeschooling dream?
Ask them to plead their case before their dad – though not in a wingy way, of course.
Because most parents love to give good gifts to their children, your husband will be more easily persuaded if he sees homeschooling as the desire of all the people he loves.
Which brings us to you…
Happy Hubby – Happy Wife
If you’re a woman who loves to control the relationship and you fire up every time your husband disagrees with you, you’ll be a hard person to live with.
Most of the time, this also means you’ll be a hard person for your husband to love and he won’t be as willing to do nice things for you…things that please you.
But, if you’re good friends, convincing your husband to homeschool will be much easier because he’ll want to do nice things for you.
Essentially this comes down to being a woman with a quiet spirit. Crosswalk has words of wisdom here:
A woman with a gentle and quiet spirit is not a cantankerous woman, or a disgraceful or foolish woman, as is described in the Proverbs. A woman with a gentle and quiet spirit is one who is calm, not worried; quiet, not stressed. She is quietly trusting in her God to come through in ways that perhaps her husband cannot comprehend. A quiet spirit says, without words “I’m not going to worry about this situation because I know my God is in control. [CrossWalk]
So, make sure you’re on great terms before you try to convince your husband to homeschool.
Dispel Socialization Myths
Sometimes your husband might not want to homeschool because he believes his children will not learn how to socialize with others in the community or their workplace when they grow older as they won’t have learned social skills in school.
However, if you tell your husband that home-educated students learn social skills just as well as schoolchildren, you might get him to think about giving homeschooling a try.
You could also present different statistics that say homeschoolers are great at socializing so long as parents value socialization and acknowledge it’s important.
Ask, “Why Don’t You Want to Homeschool?”
Catch your husband in a good mood and ask why he doesn’t want to homeschool.
Sometimes men clam up when they’re sick of talking about a subject.
But, if you calmly ask him why he doesn’t want to homeschool, you might find a reason you can easily dispel (i.e. he’s worried about the kids getting into college if they homeschool).
Also, if you go into the conversation promising not to blow up if he says something you disagree with (education is a highly emotive subject!), you can come to a great solution.
You might be able to suggest that you homeschool for a short period, and if it’s not working, the children can return to school.
Subscribe to How to Homeschool (my Youtube channel!)
Have you caught the homeschooling bug?
Eager to delve deeper into the realm of unconventional education?
Well, my curious comrades, rejoice!
There are splendid avenues awaiting your exploration.
Firstly, hop on over to my YouTube channel, where a treasure trove of homeschooling wisdom awaits. From practical tips to delightful anecdotes, I unravel the mysteries of homeschooling with a touch of wit and wisdom.
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Enroll in the Homeschool Parenting Program
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Conclusion
Enumerating the benefits of homeschooling, dispelling homeschooling myths, and being gentle when you approach your spouse is a great way to persuade your husband to homeschool. When we fail to be gentle, our husbands don’t want to come to the party on anything we’re talking about – even if it’s reasonable! However, if we’re gentle and loving and we respect their point of view and objections, we can have an intelligent conversation about moving forward.
