Do your husbands know what the CM method is?

I think my husband’s answer would be, “Oh, my wife handles that.”  (*L*)

Really, my husband is a farmer, so he walks into the house throughout the day and catches me homeschooling – sometimes reading aloud on the couch, sometimes helping with math, sometimes while I’m tutoring my daughter in the Barton Reading and Spelling Program, sometimes listening to music, sometimes drawing in our nature journals, etc.

I think my husband knows what the components of a CM education is (because he sees us doing it) but he probably doesn’t know what to label what he sees.  I’ve talked to him about how I’m running the homeschool and he helps me think through decisions I have to make, so I end up explaining the why’s and wherefore’s to him.  But I’m not sure he would be able to say to someone, “We follow the Charlotte Mason philosophy in our homeschool.”

What an interesting question!  I wonder if my husband feels like he’s in the dark.  I don’t think he should – by times I talk on and on and on about homeschooling and our homeschool and the books I want and whatnot.  But maybe he does.

I just asked my husband what he knows of the CM method.  (For perspective, we’ve been homeschooling over 10 years, started with unit studies, and have been more CM for several years now.)  He described it, in essence, as learning with great literature instead of just force feeding kids facts, and having a wide variety of subjects including the arts.  So he could verbalize more than I expected.

Now, my husband is pretty involved in the actual day to day homeschooling for a few reasons.  First, he’s home on Mondays, so he simply joins right in with whatever we’ve got planned that day and leads whatever I ask him to or another child asks him too (ex: kids love doing science with dad, one loves reading with dad).  Second, we’ve got a lot of medical things to deal with which means appointments galore that I tend to be the one handling, so he has stepped up to take over homeschooling when those appointments happen.  To be able to do that he has to be familiar with the plan, the routine, and the kids have learned that they are just as responsible for their learning as either parent.

I had my husband read through SCMs description of the 5 approaches to homeschooling when we were thinking about doing it. He choose the CM approach as the one that made the most sense, which I had already chosen myself. He knows of CM and does not like classical (in the modern sense) I think he would tell somebody we do CM but wouldn’t be able to fully describe it.

My dear attentive listening husband. Yes, he knows what CM method is, and is whom I narrate to, a lot. He has listened to all my narrations after each book I read, workshop of Sonya’s I have watched, and seen the results of the gentle art of learning.  He has jested with me, “is that a living book?” He is supportive and even has pointed me back on track with CM method when I panick or am wooed by new curriculum. He’s a good man.

I’ve used at least some CM methods from the beginning (8+ years ago) and several years ago we switched to mostly CM.  It seems each year I’m including more and more CM methods.  This is the first year I’ve really discussed her methods with him, so he could probably say the basics about it at this point.  Before this year he just knew we used “real books” instead of textbooks.  lol

He started teaching art last spring and has recently gotten involved with some handicrafts.  I’ve been trying to include more boyish handicrafts, so he’s been a great help with that (and been having lots of fun with the kids).  Before our recent move he was too busy (and tired) to be very involved with school.   He has helped me pick out curriculum in the past, but generally he’s been more of a sounding board than anything.

We are like Karen and sarah2106.  He supports homeschooling, but would reply that “My wife handles that.”  He may add in a comment about all the books everywhere too!  I am pretty sure I am the only one in our household who knows who Charlotte Mason was, but they see a lot of Simply Charlotte Mason on many of our resources.

I just asked my husband and he said,”Ya, I think I know who it is you like and the way she thought the children should be taught.” And, “Well, not in detail, but I kind of know what you guys do.”

He definitely supports me in our home school and hears Charlotte Mason’s name on a daily basis. And he supports my book addiction and when I need him to act as Superintendent, he steps up.