Diana's Homeschool Blog

As the parent, you are not only homeschooling your kids, you are also creating a "family culture." Whether it is intentional and strategic or by default, your family culture is shaping each of your children, giving them a sense of who they are in the world. This is one of the most important parenting tasks we face.

But, how do we do this—especially in an authentic way? What areas do we focus on, what will work for OUR family? These are important questions to ask, and they become powerful when we answer them with wisdom and enjoyment.

If this reasonates with you, you might find it helpful to read the related blog—What's In Your Cupboard?

This Father’s Day, June 19, we will celebrate dads. Today, I’d like to share the top 3 traits of homeschool dads:

• Understanding his kids
• Investing in his kids
• Being intentional at home

To bring it to life, here are three of my favorite stories—all from New Zealand!

1) Understanding his kids

At a homeschool meeting in Rotorua, NZ, I was asked how to deal with the frustration kids faced in learning to write. As I tried to pull together some relevant thoughts (since teaching history is area of expertise, not writing), a Maori dad asked if he could share his thoughts—which were brilliant. (Read about it here) What impressed me most that day was that dad had obviously spent time considering the challenges his children were facing. . . He had put himself into their shoes in order to understand why it was difficult to learn, seeing things from their point of view.

The relationship between student and teacher is one of the most significant factors in successful learning. When you are both parent AND teacher, the relationship becomes even more significant! Learn what happens when your children feel "safe" to learn in this new episode of my Homeschool 101 videos.