G’Day Bruce,
firstly apologies for the late reply. It’s the old cliche - life happens.
I gather from your message that you’ll be taking an active role in teaching your kids. If you’re willing to share, I’d love to learn how you and your wife are going to approach things. I sometimes ask dads from homeschooling families what role they take in their kids’ education, and quite often the answer is essentially “not much.” That’s not to be critical of such families, but only to say that I feel like I’ve found a kindred spirit when I come across a father who wants to be directly involved in educating his children.
To be honest, Bruce, I’m about as involved in the day-to-day teaching as those other fathers you’ve talked to. I’ve taught exactly one lesson in the past month.
What my wife and I did was to work out our strategy together, before the year started. That was (is) my main contribution. We’re still getting our act together big time. We didn’t get as much accomplished in our first month as we hoped, and we just had a discussion about ways I can help our daughter practice her math so that she gets more time there. Beyond that, every second night, I work through a devotions book with my daughter, and I try to make sure she understands the important lessons in that.
My personal plan is that as the kids get a bit older, I will contribute more by helping in the application of what they have learned. We’ve talked about summer projects that make use of what they’ve been taught during the year. I also hope to exercise their reasoning, debate and critical thinking skills when they are older by posing topics for discussion. I’m not good with kids this young - I need God’s grace and mercy daily to make it through.
At the last homeschooling convention we were at, they had a speaker named Israel Wayne who gave a talk for the men. He said that he tells people that “I homeschool, and my wife helps,” even though she does the bulk of the day-to-day teaching. His point, I believe, was that we fathers need to be actively supportive and set the overall direction, even if we can’t teach every lesson. I think he had a good point, even if I didn’t like the specific wording he used, which is why I say that “we” homeschool - perhaps that was what gave you the idea that I would be right in there in the classroom.
I hope that was a little clearer, and I feel I could ask the same questions of you - we are neophytes on this journey, and I am always on the look out for ways to do things better.
God Bless