3 Months' Progress

Since September I have been homeschooling my 2 year old son and, occasionally, my 6 year old daughter.

I'm happy to say that we've been making progress.

I've noticed that when my daughter and I make time to incorporate homeschool activities together with her school work, she manages to ace her tests. Now, we are trying so hard to find time after school to squeeze in some activities to help her strengthen her understanding of her lessons in school.  I try not to occupy so much of her free time so much so that she won't have time to relax and play. It becomes hard when she comes home drained and exhausted from school that most of the time I just let her take her nap in the afternoon instead. Hopefully, we'll have more time to do hands on activities soon.

As for my toddler, I am so proud of him for knowing his colors and shapes. Now, he is able to name and identify colors: red, yellow, blue, orange, violet, green, pink, black, white and brown. He can also name and identify the shapes: circle, square, triangle, oval, star, diamond, cross, rectangle (although he can't pronounce it very well) and occasionally hexagon. He can now answer the question, "what is your name?", in complete sentence. I can also see that he is a budding book lover since he always asks me to read to him his books and he enjoys our reading time so much that he even asks me to read his book thrice in a row. He can now count 1-10 without skipping any number and can count objects whenever asked to. He is now trying to count beyond 10 and reached up to 24. He can name the different animals in his ABC Book of Animals and can even give the sound of some of the animals. He can act out which way is up and which way is down. He is starting to identify whether the object is small or big and short or long. He can name and point to the different parts of his body such as: eyes, nose, ears, tongue, hair, armpit, lips, legs, arms, feet and hands. He can sing several nursery rhymes. He can make the sign of the cross and is starting to learn the prayer "Angel of God". He is also starting to identify the different letters of the alphabet. He can water the plants on his own. He can put away  his toys when asked to.

All these things make me feel very fulfilled as a mom. It is very rewarding to know that I was able to teach these things that they teach in school. I am happy to see their progress every step of the way. I am thrilled to discover their new capabilities. I am exhilarated to know that I am part of their journey to learning day by day.

These are things that I should be thankful to God for… for giving me the opportunity to experience these things with my children. I know that when they grow old, these are the times that I will remember, these are the times that I will cherish so much. Hopefully, they too will remember when they grow up.

Thank you Lord for these things!!!

...Only when ready

After 3 years of my eldest daughter in school, I noticed that the lessons are just constantly repeating and I wonder why this is so, Then I've come to realize that the schools now are not paying attention to the developmental readiness of each child.

I remember when my daughter was still a baby, I've read that not all babies develop at the same pace. Some may be early crawlers, or early walkers. Some may eat on their own by 1 some may be up and running at before a year old. We respect each child's individuality. we don't scold them, we don't reprimand, we don't consider it as a disappointment. We expect them to learn things on their own pace. Then parents put them to school at age 3 (others at 2 1/2 yrs) and all of this respect for their individuality gets thrown out the window. They are now expected to do what other children can do at certain time of the year. They're now expected to do what other children do at a certain time of the day. They become just a number in the statistics. A nursery student in a class of 20, for example.

When nursery students are expected to trace the names of the colors and your child simply doesn't want to, your child gets a low grade for that. What if the child simply isn't ready for writing but he is very artistic and likes painting and coloring instead of writing the names, wouldn't that be a more appropriate way of teaching colors. What if a child doesn't like reading the words in the flash card but gives his full attention to reading books with lots of illustrations, wouldn't that be enough to enrich his vocabulary skills. What if a child seems to be lazy when answering loads of worksheets but actively participates in games, wouldn't the lessons incorporated in games be more appropriate in  teaching that child. In school, it isn't. Because what is accepted and deserves an excellent grade is a child who can do whatever the teacher tells him to do, with no respect to his character and individualism.

The schools now are so focused on academics that they move more and more topics and more and more subjects to a lower year. It seems now that the trend for schools is whoever teaches the most subject is perceived as the better school. And subjects taught are only those that can be graded, how about life skills, how about habits and values. If they can't be graded then it is at the bottom of the priority list of things to teach.

Why would they include the names of the continents when a child hasn't even memorized the letters of his name? Why would you teach the parts of a grasshopper when he doesn't even know what insects are? Then they teach colors and shapes for three consecutive years with the same objectives each time?

In school, it's all about following a certain syllabus at a certain time. The child's interest, developmental readiness, learning style, basically his individuality is not given importance. Sad but true!

I believe that teaching is most effective when the focus is on the learner. You teach what they are ready to learn. You teach when they are ready to learn. You teach in a way they learn most. You teach what is important to learn. You will be able to teach well when you learn about the one you are teaching.

Teaching a 6y/o and a 2y/o together

How do you teach a 6y/o and a 2y/o at the same time? This is how I manage…

Late this morning while taking their breakfast, we started our Saturday homeschool sessions. I asked my 6y/o to pick any plant from our pocket garden and try to draw it (Nature Study).

While she is doing this I gave my little boy a place of his own to draw and scribble as well. He is now practicing his fine motor skills to prepare him for writing. Here he is proudly showing his work.

Just as expected, the 2y/o was just at it for a few minutes. Then he started to become restless. So, we moved on to the next activity: "Big and Small". I showed him drawings of objects that are big and small. I drew the objects using crayons because I noticed that colourful pictures get his attention longer than just plain drawings. Plus, it gives us a chance to review lessons about colors. (Colors and Sizes)

Meanwhile, the 6y/o just finished drawing so I asked her to label the different parts of the plant (Science). Since the 2y/o was now all over the place looking for something else to do, I asked him to water the plants (Science: taking care of plants). It is an activity that he likes to do all by himself.

After awhile the 2y/o was again distracted and wanted his picture taken.

After the 6y/o finished labeling the parts, I asked her if she wanted to color her work, and so she did. (Arts) While waiting for the6y/o to finish coloring, the 2y/o now moved on to the next topic: animals. He pretended to be a dog, down on his hands and legs while barking.

Finally the 6y/o is done.

So after their morning activity, they had a break and let loose. (P.E.)

Then they're off to take a bath while I prepare for lunch. And that's a wrap of our morning session.

Lazy Monday

It's early morning and Aia just didn't want to go to school. So instead she came with us to the store and we had our lessons there.

Topics discussed for today:

1. Other things animals use for protection (Science)

              -Aia saw a video of a snake eating a rat.

2. Writing "fifteen" & "sixteen"

Aia went to the wet market with me. She was my little assistant. She was naming the vegetables that we saw as we go. Then she requested for bananas. I bought a kilo, which was all gone by the end of the day.

Review Sunday

We just had a  short review about the things that studied the past week. The topics are as follows:

1. Body covering of animals (Science)

2. Numbers 11-15 (Math)
3. Parts of the house (English)

4. This is, That is, These are, Those are (English)

Again her cousins came by and had lunch with us. After which, I believe they played "model model" until late in the afternoon. HAHA!

Saturdays are Homeschooling days

This is what we did today:

We discussed about body covering of animals.

Using the paper mosaic technique, Aia tried to resemble the scales of the snake.

Aia's snake with scales.

 

After doing our activity, she wanted to make a card for Daddy using what she learned about mosaic.

After our activity, Aia cleans her study area while singing the Disney Junior song, "..let's clean-up the mess!"

For our culinary class, Aia makes Buko Pandan Jelly. Here she is measuring the water.

The little chef, stirring the jelly powder in the water.

Aia blowing the steam from  the jelly.

Here's the excited little connoisseur.

The first one to taste...

 

After our culinary lesson, mommy teacher had to cook lunch but not before another real life lesson. Coincidentally, we were having milk fish for lunch but before I clean and cut the fish I just had to show Aia the actual scales still attached to the fish. I let her touch the fish and its scales. She even helped take the scales off. Here is the picture below. Later, Aia observed some scales under a magnifying glass. She made a brilliant discovery, and so did I.

After our lunch Migui and Aia ate the tasty jelly. They both loved it!!!

Hooray for lil chef Aia! 

After lunch, Aia practiced writing "thirteen"&"fourteen".

Later that afternoon, her cousins came by and we had dinner together. She played with them till they had to go home (can't remember what time but it was late)

What color is this?

An Intro to migui's learning of colors:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150461719453332

Painting with migui

Painting with my son Migui. Check this out!

This was actually taken last july16:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150401581373332

Migui on colors

Yesterday, I was so happy that my son, Migui (who is 2yrs 2mos), was able to identify colors red, yellow and blue.

A month ago I started introducing to him the different primary colors using pieces of cloth with vivid colors. I have a cloth for each color. I then held each cloth while I say its name. Migui, who is very good at repeating what he heard, repeated the name of the color after hearing me say it. He easily remembered the names but could not match the name with the cloth representing the color. He would pick-up the blue cloth then say "yewow". After several days of repeating this exercise, he all of a sudden refused to say the color's name, instead he would say Antoine(Migui's first name) for the color red and Daddy for the color blue. At first, I was so puzzled by what he meant. I knew he was trying to say something, I just didn't knew then. I then realized that he was identifying the colors and associating them with the things in his life. For instance, most of Migui's shorts are color red so when he sees the red cloth he would say Antoine, while daddy's pick-up is color blue that's why he says "daddy" when he sees the blue cloth. I continued with the exercise but he refused to say the colors or say them but fail to match them with the right cloth. Then we had a break.

I was surprised when after several days of not doing our "colors activity", he looked for our cloths yesterday. At first try, he was able to name the color of each cloth correctly. Hooray for Migui!!! I guess all he needed was a break.

We are now adding colors white, pink, purple and orange.

A week's progress

     It's been a week since we've been consistent with our routine and I can say that there has already been an improvement with my daughter. It has been a week that we are constantly reading stories before going to bed and I can say that it is something she looks forward to every night. Before, it used to be a drag to ask her to turn off the TV and go to bed but now I just have to say "reading time", then she'll happily turn the TV off, get her book then sit beside mommy. I let her choose what story we'll read from the collections in our book. She likes it when she feels she has a say on something. Sometimes when she finds the story too short for her, she'll even ask for another one. After we read a story I ask her some questions like how she likes the story and the main character.   I don't make it sound like a quiz. My questions are not too long or too detailed. I just want to know if she had paid attention to what we've read.

     I love the fact that she's very enthusiastic about our reading time. You see, I didn't grow up with my mother reading to me so this experience is new to me as well. I find it fascinating when her eyes light up whenever there's something exciting happening in the story. I am very much delighted that a simple prompt of our reading time can call her attention away from the TV, which is a challenge to do before. When kids now are very much like zombies when in front of the TV, it's nice to know that there is something that she'd rather do with me than be in front of that box, and that's reading bedtime stories.

     I feel closer to her with every story we encounter… more connected. Every night when she discovers a new thing from a story, I, in the other hand, discover something new about her. I learn a new thing that makes her giggle, makes her laugh, or just makes her smile. Sometimes something makes her sad, makes her mad, makes her wonder, makes her wish and even makes her dream. I am happy… I am happy that she can experience all of these with me. No teacher can ever come as close to the deepness of learning and connection that we experience every night.

and so it begins...

   Yesterday was another reason why I should homeschool my daughter. While their discussion was still on the third polygon, we were able to finish five. Aia was able to name the polygons and copy their names. Today we are scheduled to do a review on it. We'll be using match sticks to show the different polygons.

   To exercise her writing, I asked her to rewrite yesterday's entry in her reminder notebook to a more appropriate notebook (writing notebook instead of composition notebook which they use in school). We discussed about margins and spaces when writing. By comparison, her rewrite was as if it were written by a grade1 student. It was neat and organized. All I had to do was remind her about her spacing. I was very pleased.

   Before going to bed we read three books. One book she read by herself with some assistance, the other two I read to her. I learned from Mason that a material needs only to be read once with a focused attention to be able to comprehend, and so that is what I did. The first two books were focused on recognition of the words, so she reads it out loud when she knows the word then lets me read the unfamiliar ones. The third was more detailed and longer than the others. It was also the first time we read it so we were focusing on comprehension for the third one. It was perfect for the application of Mason's principle. After reading I asked her some questions about the story. It wasn't the usual who, what, when and where that the teacher in school ask. I asked how she liked the story? How she liked the character and why? When she answered, I kept on asking why and she kept on elaborating her answer. It went like this:

Me: Did you like Mog(the cat in the story)?

Aia: Yes

Me: Why?

Aia: because he's good.

Me: why is he good?

Aia: because he saved the valley

Me: why did he save the valley?

Aia: because there was a heavy rain and it flooded and…(she continued to tell the story in her own words and understanding)

   PERFECT! We were able to accomplish our goal in just one reading. I was very happy. I felt a certain sense of accomplishment. Most importantly Aia was happy. She loves reading and discovering new things. This reading session was an ease to her because it was about understanding and making the story come to life in her head rather than memorizing certain details of the story.

Renewed Desire to Homeschool

   Today, I spent my time researching about homeschooling. I have read at a certain homeschooling web site key points on why one should homeschool and I felt strongly about the reasons given. The points given are completely in line with my principles about learning. I really felt in my heart that this is the way to go with my children. Even before, we have already started homeschooling since I give my daughter advance lessons during the summer. There was even a time that we've already finished studying one book before the school year even started.

   To examine further, I know my daughter's strengths and weaknesses therefore I know pretty well how to manage her study lessons to her  advantage. I also know her learning style so I know how to teach certain lessons based on that. For instance, I know that she loves Math and English and she learns them pretty fast. The pacing on her school set-up does not match her capability on these subjects. On the other hand, Filipino seems to be a bit of her waterloo since she practically grew up speaking mostly English. I think that she needs more time and to absorb her lessons to fully understand this subject.

   I know for a fact that she is a logical thinker and she loves figuring things out in order to make sense of things. This is not used to her full advantage in  the normal school setting. It is also advantageous to her to tickle her musical and spatial intelligence, something that is far fetched from the teaching style in school wherein the focus more is on textbook learning.

   Although she is doing well in school, I think that learning should be to her advantage by honing her to her full potential. I just think that the normal school setting is basically limited to what is written in their curriculum and time frame. I refuse to let her be boxed in to what the school deems appropriate for her to learn. I know what she's capable of and to not tap into these potentials is an offense to my child's intelligence. And so, it is with full justification that I decide to homeschool my daughter for good.