Originally Posted by
Kathy
Maybe take him out to meet some other homeschooling families? (Including some other homeschooling dads, if possible.) A lot of reluctant/unsure-about-homeschooling dads find this helpful, I think.
Also, agreeing to “try it“ doesn't even have to be committing for the whole year, necessarily. If you guys decide to go for it (or give it a go), if you both later decide it's not working out for you, you have the option to put her (or them) in mid-year even, if that's what you feel the need to do.
Also note that even if you don't decide to homeschool (or not right now, or whatever), that still doesn't mean that you have to put your son in school this year. Not sending a kid to JK doesn't have to be “homeschooling“; for many, it's simply “not sending him to JK“. Four year olds don't need (legally nor developmentally) school of any sort, public, home-based, or otherwise, and not opting in to the optional public-school year of JK doesn't have to be anything out of the ordinary, anything “homeschooling“, or anything beyond just letting him be a little 4 year old at home with you. Remember, most provinces in Canada don't even have a JK year. So it's perfectly fine to leave your DS out of the homeschooling equation and just look at him as a wee kid at home with his mom.
So really, this is a decision that you're primarily making about your daughter. Ask yourselves, are her needs (not just academic, but all of her needs, including emotional, etc.) being well-met by what you're doing now (school)? Do you think they'll be well-met by doing the same thing next year? Or might you better be able to provide for some of those needs/happiness/etc. yourselves? There isn't really any harm in giving it a try and seeing how it goes: it's second grade, after all; providing for the learning needs of a single second-grade child isn't that difficult or high-intensity, and if it really doesn't end up being a good fit for your family, you can always try something else, including trying school again at any point if you end up deciding together that it would be a better fit for her needs.
I also think that, if one parent disagrees with the other, school shouldn't be the necessary default just because it's more common. The decision to homeschool or public school (or other) should be decided by both parents. Disagreement doesn't mean that school should automatically win out just because it's the societal “default“: he shouldn't get to make you public-school against your will any more than you should force him to homeschool against his will. Discussion is needed, and this needs to be, ideally, a choice that you make together. If you feel heart-achingly strongly about not sending your kids to school next year/nurturing and educating them yourselves, that is just as valid as equally-strong feelings in the opposite direction. And if he feels less strongly about public-schooling/not-homeschooling than you feel about homeschooling/not-public-schooling, then that really ought to be weighed into consideration, rather than public school getting extra “points“ on the scale just because it's seen as “normal“ or default.