Making use of the husband

As many others have noted, when the spouse who is not the primary homeschooler is home on vacation, the whole routine tends to go right to pot. Last vacation time, we just gave up on home schooling altogether, because too much was going on. However, for the beginning of this week, I'm trying to keep it going, because the next couple of weeks are going to be so hectic, what with moving and everything.

So, I have found out that the first step is to ADMIT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. That is, to acknowledge right up front that David's being home is so exciting to the girls that adding him to the mix would really disrupt the routine we have established, making it harder for us to get done what we have to. That, plus he tends to make them feel the pressure of "performing" more than I do, which makes them nervous (ok, it makes Madison nervous; those things don't tend to rattle Ella). I will admit that my internal attitude about home schooling is akin to John Galt's: "Get the hell out of my way!" But, my admiration of Rand aside, this was the time for diplomacy. So, this time, I asked David to stay out of it unless I could find a way to incorporate him.

Fortunately, he understood, being a man who appreciates routine...and also fortunately, we have the luxury of doing our home schooling in our basement playroom. So it was easy for us to be out of the way.

And, I have to say, it has worked well. The girls both had things to show him and would pop upstairs when they had accomplished them, Ella asked if she could read her phonics book to David rather than to me, and they both practiced their drama class play for him. He read to them about Indians. Otherwise, we stayed below ground for the morning, and they weren't too distracted.

However, it did show me that I am definitely the one to do this. I gave Madison Thanksgiving-oriented spelling words this week: thanks, giving, potato, turkey, Pilgrim, and Indian. We practiced them below-ground, and then she wanted David to give her a little test. They spent some time going back-and-forth about the words, with her spelling them incorrectly much of the time.

Later on, he remarked to me, "Hey, you were pretty loose about making her do the spelling words."

"Well, she has the whole week to learn them," I said.

"Oh," he said.