The Wallicks along on their adventures in homeschooling. Courtesy of Nate Wallick

When dad Nate Wallick had to choose between enrolling his three young kids in public school or leading them on adventures – cliff jumping, canyoneering, and carp shooting across America – it was a no-brainer. Adventures would be had, and there’d be no public schooling at all.

So Wallick, 40, a firefighter from Chicago with a phys-ed degree, and his wife, Sally, packed their furniture and fled the suburbs for a farm a few miles outside Peoria, Illinois. He got his captain’s license, bought a boat, and started leading extreme fishing tours to hunt the carp that teem and jump like crazy from the Illinois River. He takes clients out to shoot the fish from motorboats with bows and arrows tied to strings.

Sometimes they even do this on waterskis.

When their kids were old enough, the family pointed to places on a map where they’d never been and hit the road in the RV they got just for this purpose. The kids didn’t enroll in public school. Instead, they experienced homeschooling as few know it. Wallick and his wife had discussed this before they married.

For the last four years, their homeschooling has combined rip-roaring adventures with studies on the road. Sally taught lessons in reading, writing, and arithmetic while en route to try canyoneering in Arizona, cliff jumping into Kinkaid Lake, and repelling down a waterfall. Wallick—who went to public school and attended college on a football scholarship – says he is “trying to raise brave children.”

“I think, as a parent, we should try to have a good idea of our kids’ personalities and what their potential is and try to push them towards that,” Wallick told The Epoch Times. “It’s trying to raise brave children, and you have to do things that require bravery.”

Wallick coached their eldest boy, Gage, 10, through his fears of cliff jumping. Afterward, Gage begged to be pushed to face more of his fears. Wallick has had other parents call him crazy. The dad insists he is safe; he always checks the depth of the water before they jump.

He enumerates the benefits of their adventures during the school year: The beaches aren’t busy because it’s not peak vacation season; Dad isn’t so exhausted from work that he just wants to zone out with a beer; the parents watch their kids grow, guiding their expanding minds while they retain the knowledge because they’re always learning. For the Wallicks, family comes first.

Carp fishing on waterskis and cliff jumping. Courtesy of Nate Wallick

Wallick says he went to public school and had no gripes with it. But he and his wife wanted their Christian values to guide their kids.

“I went to public school, and I felt like I got a decent education,” Wallick said. “Now, have the schools changed since I went to public school? Probably.”

Nowadays, many parents place their children in classes for eight hours a day, he says. Then, they’re sent home with homework for a few more hours. Wallick believes that if all the wasted time were cut out, they’d be done in two hours.

Speaking to The Epoch Times from a campsite at Clinton Lake – a nuclear power plant cooling lake in Illinois – the Wallicks offered a hopeful vision for their kids’ futures.

College loans and manual labor jobs aren’t off the table, but the father is steering Gage toward becoming an entrepreneur.

“I kind of want to start a toy store,” said Gage, who also loves boats and playing airsoft like his dad, “a toy store that has all kinds of cool army weapons, like, quality stuff.”

Canyoneering in Arizona. Courtesy of Nate Wallick

One big thing about starting a business, the father teaches, is that hard work equals rewards. Harsh hikes into freezing waters, winter ziplining, and death-defying plunges are all followed by a euphoric sense of success. It feels worth it. Everyone is high-fiving.

“We’re preparing to set them up for success in the future,” he said. “I was never exposed to that type of deal, never. It was basically, I was going to be stuck doing a [manual] labor job.”

“I want to give them that vision, and then what they do is their decision,” the dad said.

Now, as they paddle around the nuclear power plant’s cooling lake, the dad says the present adventure has been a blast and will end soon.

“As long as my kids don’t grow a third arm, it will be alright,” Wallick said, laughing. They’ll head home tonight. Gage, his sister, Charlee, 9, and their brother, Axton, 7, will get on with feeding the rabbits and chickens on the homestead. Many forts will be built in their junkyard and classes mastered before they set out on their next homeschool adventure.

Written by Michael Wing for the Epoch Times ~ October 7, 2024