Are you planning to become a homeschool father? In my travels to conferences around the country I am finding a large number of young Catholic couples with newborns and pre-school children interested in Catholic homeschooling. This article is written especially for the thousands of Catholic families that will begin homeschooling over the next few years. For you dads who are planning to become homeschooling fathers my advice is this: get prepared now! It is easy for a father to think that homeschooling will fall almost entirely on his wife's shoulders. A young Catholic father with a single newborn child looks to the future wanting to have at least six children and each of them homeschooled. What are his plans? Well, he will have to buy some school books, send his wife to a couple of seminars, put up a few shelves, and attach a chalkboard to the classroom wall. If he is really committed, he might even plan on installing a few cabinets for school supplies. No big deal, right? Wrong! The homeschooling question that I am most frequently asked is, "How does your wife do it?" "How does she manage homeschooling with eight children in your family?" She can't. It is a colossal mistake to think that your wife can homeschool several children alone. Even when both mom and dad are directly involved, homeschooling with a large family is challenging. It can be done. Seemingly impossible challenges can be met, if you have learned the necessary skills, have the right equipment, and are adequately prepared. If you are planning to homeschool three or more children, then both mom and dad need to get prepared now. Most moms face the challenge of homeschooling with too much apprehension. Many think they could not possibly do it. Yet, motivated by a deep maternal desire to protect and nurture her children, a mother will seek the necessary assistance in preparing for the job. As a result, she is prepared for the task. Such is not the case for the majority of homeschooling fathers. Thinking that they will not need to become too actively involved in their homeschool, they wait until it is far too late to start preparations. Homeschooling for mothers of larger families becomes an experience like "hitting the wall" while running a marathon. At a little over twenty miles, your body has burned up all of its carbohydrate reserves. At this point in a marathon your body is screaming, "Stop." It takes sheer willpower to continue the next few miles to the finish. For the average family, after you begin homeschooling three or more children the wife "hits the wall." All her reserves are gone and she feels like quitting, yet she agonizingly perseveres. Her husband suddenly realizes that if his children are going get the precious homeschooling that he desires them to have, then he needs to get involved. For many fathers the discovery comes too late. You can't expect to jump into the middle of a high demand period in your family's homeschool and expect instant success. Without preparation you can't adequately provide the assistance your wife needs. Larger families with unprepared fathers are liable to wash out of homeschooling. You young men, who are engaged and/or preparing for marriage, now is the time to start your homeschool preparations. You have vast amounts of time that will disappear once you have children. Young husbands and fathers of one or two children, scramble! The clock is ticking on the time remaining for you to get up to full speed in your homeschooling skills. It takes at least three to four years to develop mature skills in any significant endeavor, whether business or sports. Preparing to be a homeschool father is not an exception to the learning curve. Be prepared and take up the challenge. We initially planned to list in this issue the seven steps necessary in preparing to become a homeschooling father. With further reflection, we decided it was critical to precede the seven steps with the underlying reasons why the advanced preparations are necessary. Next issue we will present the seven important steps to take in preparing to become a homeschool father.