-- Aristotle
We chose to homeschool our preschooler because my husband and I understand that the first 7 years of a child is the most crucial in their character building. And true enough, our kid is like a sponge when it comes to absorbing new knowledge. Right now, her sleeping time routine would be cleaning up toys, shutting down the computer, brushing teeth. She learned how to shut down the computer at 3 years old. We hope to guide and develop her according to the morals that we deem are essential in building good character. At this point in her life, values formation is critical.
Also, I am a firm believer that every child has their own way of learning. There are kids that learn more when they read, there are those that want to experiment and explore while there are those that enjoy learning when they listen to the lecturer. We felt that if we homeschool her, we will be able to adapt to her learning styles. She proves to be very moody, sometimes she just wants to read, there are instances that all she would do is play and wants to be left alone. Right now, we can see that homeschooling her freestyle right now is the best way to educate her.
A holistic Approach in Teaching
We are trying to encompass all forms of learning and development to our child. We want her to learn not only the academics but would also want her to develop physical, emotional, and spiritual (and by spiritual, we did not mean religion) learning.
We give her time for what she wants to do what she wants like play with her toys, play the computer, play outside (at the rooftop), reading time, writing time, math time, etc. For each activity, there's a timer that we set especially for her computer time. We have never used a timer for her playtime. As for the computer time, we make sure that she observes the time and we enforce the stop time very strictly. There are instances that she requests for an extension but only to finish a certain quest she is currently on. I give her a minute or two. Discipline needs to be practiced at an early age.
She is also being taught household chores like making the bed, arranging her stuffed animals, putting her books back on the shelf, and in her bag. She sometimes assists me in washing the dishes and sweeping the floor. Right now, she understands that in order to have some video time, she needs to keep the floor clean after her playtime.
Compliance to Education Regulations
Right now, we do not have any regulations that we need to comply with since she's still a toddler and technically, her schooling should start next year.
Exams
I'm not sure if I got this correctly but I provide tests for my kid in order to gauge how much she learned. Sometimes formally where I prepare an exam on the board or on a piece of paper, sometimes we just do a verbal exam where I would randomly ask her an addition problem or just point at the word on the board. I like to keep her on her toes so she stays alert. The purpose of the exams is so that we can see if our teaching method is working well with her.
Spontaneity in Learning
We tried making mornings our study time. It was too challenging for both of us. For her because her mind is set into playing especially if she has a new toy. For me because well, I am too groggy in the morning to function properly plus I have tons of morning chores. So we tried different schedules. Weekly, we designated different time slots for our study time.
Soon, we found out that she learns best when she is at her happiest mood. (Who doesn't, right?) And so we turned her toys into learning materials. Her building blocks became letter and number blocks. Her stuffed animals while they are the learning material themselves, also were used in counting, roleplaying, and reading buddies. We had a "classroom" with all the stuffed animals as my students.
Now, I just ask her whether she wants to read, or write, play a game, watch a video. All of those promote learning so I'm not really worried. After all, she just turned 4.
Conclusion
Our homeschooling journey as of right now is more focused on character formation. Giving her a clear picture of what is right and wrong, which is nice and not. From time to time, we stumble upon grey areas but there was one thing I learned from my daughter in this homeschooling journey. While we as parents should impose that our children should listen to us, it is imperative that we also listen to them. Sure, they can't speak up well yet, sometimes they don't know the right words for their emotions. But if we would learn to listen to their cues, it will be much easier to figure out the best way of educating them.
As my child once said to me:
Nanay, you need to listen to me too! I listen to you, and you listen to me so we don't fight.
Photo from Canva
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