Due to the nature of my work, I’m home a lot more than many dads and I am happy about this each and every day.  However, even the busiest homeschool dad can find teachable moments in the evening and the weekend.  This homeschool dad just has more opportunities to do so.  Daily tasks can take on a new educational spin, even if it wasn’t a planned lesson like [click here for Home Economics Home School Dad Style]. 

Chores Become School

Recently, I had one of my students fix my weed eater and in the process, he improved it and we did it on barter.  While Tadpole is not old enough to operate a gas weed eater; learning about how engines work and thanks to the, ahem, modifications made, seeing it in action is far easier than it was before.  Small two stroke engines are easy to explain but seeing the air intake plain as day really helps with the visual.  Before I started it, I took 5 minutes and now I have a 7 year old who understands the basics of how an engine works.  By combining this with the air filter change mentioned above, she has more engine knowledge than many adults. 

Science one Teachable Moment at the Time

I’ve been responsible for science since day one of homeschooling, however, many of our science lessons are lessons of opportunity rather than planned lessons.  Often times, it simply starts with Tadpole asking a question and either me answering or us taking a few minutes to research the answer.  Our start on simple machines last year began with a question as did our discussion on crystals, leading to us making sugar crystals of our own.  Much of the science I learned as a young child was thanks my father handling things the same way.  While he was not a homeschool dad, he was a teacher and adept at explaining concepts that were way out of the league of a 7 year old to a 7 year old and I find that I can do the same quite easily.  It’s about pushing the envelope and checking for understanding all the while checking for blank stares.