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There is no answer to how much do you call. Or to put it another way. However much the geese want. You need to learn to read the birds and then act like a politician and tell them what they want to hear.

Start out with very little just to get their attention and over time as you read the birds better and get more confident in your calling you will have a better feel of what to do.

Single geese, I've had pretty good luck just echoing back what they are saying to me.

Flagging is also very effective, but it will focus the geese right on you so unless you are well hid in the middle of the decoys, don't do it except to get their attention when they are far away. They can see that flag a longggggggggggggggggg ways off.

If you shoot a goose, plead for their mate to come back. Hoooooooooooonk, hooooooooonk, ... You will be surprised how often you will turn them around and bring them back after you kill a goose.

If you scout and be where the geese want to be then you've won most of the battle when it comes to early season geese. Put out a dozen decoys where the geese were before, and his well off to the side of the spread, or in the middle of the decoys if cover is really good. Hiding is the most important part. Then just a couple honks and flaps of the flag will put them right in your face most of the time.

There are plenty of videos on youtube. But yes, basically just waving a black flag. Since I don't hunt from layouts or pits, I literally have just a square black flag that I made myself. Since I only use it when the geese are far away, I just make slow figure 8's in the air and as soon as I get any sign of reaction, I pull the flag inside the blind so the geese don't focus on me. I actually learned this from a hunt I did on the Chesapeake bay when I was 15 and hunted in a typical duck blind on a bay. It worked, so why argue with success.

Now if I hunted in the middle of the decoys, I'd get a better looking flag and be using it when the geese were much closer.

An easy way to stay out that'll do well enough tool you learn to read the birds, is to just mimic what they do back at them. They honk, you honk. They double honk, you honk twice, etc. It's a starting point

Unless you or your dad are really big guys, get each of you a Rodgers LP goosebuster layout blind. On sale for $120 right now and they are nice little blinds. It's all I use and never had any complaints for the price.

If you stand back 25 yards and can easily see your blinds when they are brushed, then you aren't his good enough. That's the rule I always use

That's my layout blind all brushed into a wheat field on the whole right side of the picture.