Dads!!!!!

This week we're chatting about Dads! How does Dad participate in your homeschool? Is he the principal? The encourager? The wallet? What makes your husband a fantastic homeschool dad? In what ways does he enrich the homeschool experience? And don't forget about Grand-Dads! How does Grandpa help out?

Tim is an awesome homeschool dad! Here are several ways in which he adds to our homeschooling experience:

*Read alouds-He is our main read aloud reader! He normally reads to the boys before bed.  By that time I am too beat to read much so I appreciate that he fills in the gap.

*Math-This year Tim is going to help me with my weakness...Yes, I have many of them!  One of the most observable ones is that I am terrible at math.  This year our oldest is doing Algebra I and is somewhat struggling with it (Who am I kidding?? I am struggling with it!). Tim is going to spend some time with him each night going over his work.  I will still need to do the main teaching, but the fact that he will help will greatly relieve some of my anxiety.

*Discipline- Over the years I have had to call Tim from time to time when I am struggling with one of the boys.  Normally it is an issue where they aren't motivated to do the work.  He talks to them over the phone and encourages them to push on.  Sometimes that means setting some boundaries and consequences in place.

What about the grandpas in the boys' lives?  The boys actually have three grandpas. My dad is awesome in buying the boys quality books that we could use in our homeschool. A few years ago he bought them, Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide to the World's Wildlife. What an awesome animal encyclopedia!  We have also gleaned from his experiences growing up on a cattle ranch.  My dad went to a one room schoolhouse growing up, and the boys have enjoyed listening to his experiences.  My dad is also a wildlife photographer and periodically sends us his pictures.  We then can do some research...like when he sent us a photo of a watusi.

Their other two grandpas have helped them with projects such as building models and flying rockets and remote controlled vehicles. One of them, who plays the banjo, gave us recordings of him playing and historical background information on banjoes when we were studying them.

The lives of our boys have been greatly enriched by dad and granddads!