It's been a month since we started our 2nd grade. Before we started our month, I scheduled an orientation for me, my student, and the official PE teacher, Tatay Ritsard. I originally planned for our first day of school which was a Monday to be the orientation day, but that would mean our 1st day of study time will be skipped since there was a lot to discuss during the orientation. So I scheduled it on a Sunday instead. The PE teacher invited me to coffee so I thought we could have our Grade 2 orientation at the coffee shop instead.
Sundays have officially become our family day. We usually go to parks but this time, we just went to the coffee shop. It's a good thing there are so many coffee shops all over our place, we just had to choos the most quiet one so I can discuss our year to my eager not-so-little student.We ended up in the Dear Joe cafe. My daughter kept on asking me who Joe was, Tatay had to explain about the radio show that was a hit a long time ago where the DJ reads out letters sent to Joe.
While Tatay was ordering our drinks, the little person and I had a little bit of selfie time. :)
While sipping our coffee and chocolate drinks, we started our orientation. I wanted to have an orientation because I noticed that my little one has a lot of things she wants to do during the day. Sometimes it clashes against our schedules and there are instances that she couldn't finish her assignments amd memory keeping because of this. I integrated her playtime, free-reading time, even her gadget time into our homeschool rhythm.
She particularly enjoys our 4-day study days. During the orientation, I discussed our daily outlook. She asked to add some books into her study time and asked if we could remove some of the books she doesn't like. We came to the agreement that we we will lessen the frequency of reading those booms she doesn't like, but wi will not remove them entirely. And likewise, her book wishlist is to be added in the study booklist.
My daughter's free reading eats up a lot of time of her day. There are days when she would really sit on a book until she finishes it and once done, she would excitedly tell me what the book was about. That's really a good sight to me. But, this puts her a tad behind on some of her homeschool tasks. It's not yet that concerning but I'd like to keep ahead when it comes to her habit formation. Hence, the orientation.
Our little orientation at the coffee shop helped her understand her responsibilities as a student, while still being able to enjoy her childhood. She knows she has responsibilities already but she also knows that she has to make time for leisure and enjoyment. Us grownups usually struggle with keeping the balance of responsibilities and fun. That is why as early as now, this little person gets to train herself the balancing act of life.
This orientation was also aimed at showing her that a family is a team and that everyone has their part in the plan - even the little persons too. Most of the times, kids are kept in the dark when it comes to the plans about the family. With her education, I'd like to make sure she knows what's happening, she knows the activities we plan on doing, so that she have things to look forward to. I gave her the orientation so that we will all be on the same page whe it comes to our homeschooling journey. This way, she could also raise her questions should there be anything that confuses her.
I know she's still young but habits are best formed when children are at this age. The early on kids are exposed to discussions like this, the better they become at planning ahead and thinking of the future.
