In the majority of homeschool families the trend is for the mother to be the primary homeschool teacher, as the father is usually busy with the day job that supports the family. This does not mean that the father in the homeschooling family can not contribute to the learning of the homeschool students. Here are some ideas to apply if you want to help your children as a homeschool dad.
Stick With The Strengths
The father should not act like a replacement homeschool teacher for the mother. He should hone in on the subjects that he is good at and help the homeschool students with doubts in those. If he can figure out a schedule for holding regular weekly classes in these subjects, all the better.
Plan Outside Educational Activities
This does not mean just playing out in the backyard with the homeschool students. The homeschool dad has the opportunity to actually organize outings for the kids where they will have a chance to see or learn something new. It could be a field trip to a national park, a visit to the local museum, a musical recital or even a play performance. The idea is to expose the kids to something different each time. They go off with the father for these activities.
The Project Supervisor
Project based learning is a good experiential learning experience for homeschool students. The homeschooling father can be made in charge of these projects. He can supervise the process, guide the children on how to make progress and share the benefit of his experience with them without actually stepping in as a teacher in the homeschool classroom.
The Chore Guide
There are a number of chores that the homeschool students can be shown how to help with around the house, and as they grow older, outside the house as well. The homeschool father can become the guide for these chores. He can give demonstrations about how the chore needs to be done, then mentor the homeschool students as they learn to perform the chores by themselves. All the kids should learn at least five chores around the house.