Homeschool Dads
at the Helm
By Bill Tomlinson
Homeschooling as a
stay-at-home dad with
a mild disability that
leaves me tired most of
the time would be
impossible but for a
loving wife and a cooperative little
daughter. Oh, she (Abby) did not start out
being all that terribly cooperative. But
when she finally understood the homeschool formula: 12SW – 9D = 3SW + 9P,
i.e., 12 hours of school work minus 9 hours
of dawdling equaled 3 hours of school
work plus 9 hours of play, cooperation
became her middle name.
My main job is to ensure that Abby
stays on track. It is also in my favor that
she relishes the idea of not having to ask
me for help. However, when she just
“doesn’t get it,” she knows she can come to
Dad, and no matter what the question, Dad
will help her think through the problem
with an encouraging word!
We have established a set plan for book
work, though we deliberately hold it
loosely so that we can make appropriate
adjustments for those times that call for
great adventure. We expect Abby to do her
required work every day, and she readily
complies. Only an occasional reminder of
the “homeschool formula” is necessary
(most days)! We used A Beka Book®
exclusively for fourth grade, but we are
branching out for fifth grade and using
Saxon math, LIFEPAC® (Alpha Omega
Publications®), and some others.
Not only do we get through the book
work, but we are always on the lookout for
adventures. My fun starts when the adventures occur! Let me share some stories of
our recent “adventures”—from the
discovery of hoarfrost to detective work
about who or what had visited our yard
when we weren’t looking to researching
the history of a shipwrecked vessel tossed
ashore by storms close to our home.
The Hoarfrost Adventure
It was quite cold a few weeks ago here in
the Oregon’s Bay Area, Coos Bay/North
Bend. I took Abby out front on our large,
sloping lawn and introduced her to hoarfrost. Hoarfrost comes in many forms, but
in our neck of the woods, it rises up out of
areas of the lawn that are devoid of grass.
It grows in little adjacent columns about
2–3 centimeters in height. Like tiny
soldiers standing at attention, or a breaking
wave suddenly frozen, the hoarfrost rises,
lifting all at once a paper-thin layer of dust
and lawn debris, raising its own roof as it
grows. It was all quite lovely.
The Scat Adventure
Long after the book work is done, in our
“walk-abouts” on the property and elsewhere Dad may find something interesting, like say . . . scat! For those who do
not know, scat is, well, animal droppings.
And so “Ladybug” (our nickname for
Abby) is summoned to the site of Dad’s
discovery of strange scat and close examination is made—well, as close an examination as one might wish to make where scat
is concerned! Then it is back to the
computer, where a thorough investigation
is carried out. Maybe we’ll find out who
came by and maybe we won’t. The joy is in
the search!
The Shipwreck Adventure
And then there are those opportunities that
come once every half-century or so. Our
family lives in the bay area—Oregon’s Bay
Area, that is. The opportunity to which I refer
involved two terrific storms that occurred
back to back, which shifted large quantities
of sand on the seashore to reveal . . .
