The fishing pole!!

Hello Dads!

I know that it has been a while since my last post! Sometimes it seems as if life just gets in the way of things we want to do! And such is the story of the fishing pole. My son got a fishing pole with a reel for Christmas 2009. It has been lodged in a corner of our living room, serving much the same purpose as the exercise equipment in our bedroom, none!

Finally, the weather relaxed it's fiery grip on summer and actually cooled down to the lower 90's a week or so ago. Excited, my son and I rushed to the local store to purchase some sinkers and fishing line to put into the good ole Zebco 33 reel, because I know that is what we needed....right? Wrong! We came home got our line, our sinkers, our pliers, and outside we went to start this new chapter in this father and son relationship!!

And wouldn't you know it!! The reel was pre strung with fishing line!! We proceed to thread the line through the loops to the end of the pole, and tie our little metal sinker on the end. Now we are ready for that magical moment. I, as father, master, and commander of our universe...proceeded to "show" my son the finer points of casting the line, as if I, a guy that had been fishing once when I was 8 years old, knew anything about it.

 But that's the joy of being a dad....the bluff!! I held the rod straight out in front of me while "feeling" the button and grasping the handle to orient myself to the rod began to say "Son, the first thing you do" as the sinker falls onto the ground in front of me. I recover quickly and start swinging the rod over my head to cast and....the sinker falls to the ground. I reel it back up and once again I am going for the classic casting position and .....the sinker falls to the ground.

I look at my son...he looks at me...I'm thinking...this button is sticking....he says "That's good Dad!" "Good Job!" "Can I do it?"  I say "Sure" you hold this and I'll be right back", as I head to the house to Google How to cast a Zebco 33. Then I hear...BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! I spin around, as my son starts reeling in the sinker that just went 40 feet on his first cast. He giggles, I yell, "that's pretty good son, try it again!" This time, BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ, as the sinker leaves our yard and sails into the neighbors yard...accross the street! He giggles again, I cry!

I get my son, my youngest daughter, the pole and off to the local park we go to "practice" some more. We get to the park, and he cast twenty more times beautifully, then my daughter wants to try it. I'm thinking, I'll be here all night, when I hear BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Yep, her first time touching a fishing pole and casting, and she beat his distance 15 more feet! She giggles, I cry!

I think we have much more to learn about fishing, but as my kids taught me, sometimes you just learn by doing, and relaxing and having fun. This will be a great chapter that we are about to write, and I'm sure that as my kids get older, one day they will be sitting around saying....You remember the time we taught Dad how to cast a fishing pole!

May God Bless Homeschooling Dads and families the world over! See you next time in Dad's Homeschooling Garage!