Cinnamonhuskies:

Dh and I differ on homeschooling opinion currently

My husband and I did intitially. He didn't want to homeschool the children and I did. I had a couple of years to work at making my point for homeschooling without feeling the need to rush into pressing him into it. My oldest was two when I suggested it to him.

I discussed my bad public school experience and the fact that the children would be attending the same schools, discussed his bad experiences with him, explained what I wanted from an education for the kids, discussed options and let him know what my fears were and also my concerns about where I might need more guidance and more support.

Several incidents in the local school, meeting an impressive homeschooling family and all our discussions resulted in his deciding homeschooling was the best option for us. We haven't agreed on all the details of it but we are together in this.

We homeschool, my hubby wasn't thrilled with the idea at first and still struggles with it sometimes (mostly with labels others give homeschoolers).  However he is in total agreement that it's the best option for our family and our children.  This is our second year, my oldest is in 1st grade now.  I still struggle, I'm not a perfect teacher by any stretch but I know he's doing better w/me than he would in a traditonal setting.

So...what if you went about it from this slant.  Let's say hubby still says no that he doesn't want you to homeschool.  What if you still sent them to traditional school this year, but then "schooled" them at home.  I am sure you are spending LOTS of time helping them with homework or even teaching them concepts that they aren't understanding.  Make that work VERY obvious to your hubby.  I'd wait till he got home, let him see you do the work with them.  Let him see you interact w/them and teach them what the schools aren't teaching.  Let him know about any and all issues that the kids are facing in school.  Make him come with you to parent/teacher conferences, attend back to school night, call the principal if your kids face issues with classmates again.  I know he's probably really busy, but so are you and he needs to understand first hand what your kids are dealing with at school.  Maybe if he really understood the severity of the issue, he might be more apt to agree to trying to homeschool again.

I think that was a fantastic suggestion, Heather.

Awww, thanks!

Thanks ladies! Lots of great ideas here. I am going to have a sit down chat with him and explain my concerns, fears and what I want for our children. The oldest 2 are quite gifted (one in science and logic, the other in art and music) and their schools don't do much with any of those. I would like to bring more science, music and art into their curriculum. I was a preschool teacher for 13 years so I am very comfortable building around a theme for the art and science and using the Abeka and BJU curriculums I have for math, history, geography and English language. I definitely agree with letting him see my teaching style when he is home. In the past we did our homeschool while he was at work, and they now do their homework while he's at work, so he's never seen me interact with the kids on schoolwork. That, I believe will help as well as me re-stating that these are his kids and I want his opinions and help. Maybe for now I will just supplement at home, although that doesn't help with the other situation. I have a 3 year old so helping out in the classroom would be only once a week at most. Also, I get the feeling that because my girls are 3rd and 5th the teacher's don't really want or need helpers.

Tinamarie:

Also, I get the feeling that because my girls are 3rd and 5th the teacher's don't really want or need helpers.

Maybe, but I was very active with my daughter's classroom when she was in the 5th grade. I hope that whatever you decide, it works out well for you and your family.

 You've gotten some great ideas and suggestions (umbrella homeschooling groups can be wonderful sources of material, socialization, and deeper education).

Another thing to bring up is that you'd like to see your children have continuity and consistency in their education, because those things are proven to help children succeed both in continuing education and life in general. Since you're military, it's very likely that you'll be stationed elsewhere again in a year or two, which will mean disrupting their education. As a child that went through many, many moves to different school sytems, I can definitely tell you I did not get the education my less-frequently moved peers did. There were large gaps in my cirriculum, and things I covered so many times I was bored to tears (I was "taught" the book "The Scarlet Letter" 8 times in high school, for example, but had never read many of the other classics). This type of gap left me at a huge disadvantage for things like the SATs, foreign language, etc. 

Homeschooling your children would allow you to keep continuity of education, ensuring that moving around so much doesn't interrupt their learning.  Your cirriculum, their schedules/classes, and their progress wouldn't be interrupted and changed with every move.  

There have actually been resolutions and bills debated to address just such problems, so it's pretty easy to verify that even the US government believes that military children are often at a disadvantage in education due to frequent moves. Homeschooling could help alleviate that. 

I was home schooled and I been homeschooling for 30 years .. I would dicuss what happened and the response of the school ..  I believe that there several homeschoool groups in HI .. a friend of Mine was there for 11 long years according to here took 5 years to not smell like pineapple .

I will pray for you and your kids