Thoughts About Homeschooling

If you are a parent of young kids between the ages of 2 and 5, you would have probably thought about preschool's options whether homeschool or send your child to formal school. Since Chesska is only 3, we rather chose homeschooling over the other options in the meantime. As a work-at-home mom and a former teacher as well, I know, I can take advantage of my time and teaching skills. Why spend lots of money for tuition fees when I am capable of teaching her (naman).

We actually started homeschooling Chesska since one year old. (Note: Husband is an awesome teacher too, better than I am) But I couldn’t consider it then formal and systematic homeschooling with all the lesson plans and time-framed activities. What we did was made sure she’s surrounded by educational and interactive toys, picture books, charts, etc. where she could have the opportunities to explore by using her senses, of course, with the proper guidance by us. But I have a confession to make that 70% of what she had learned was through watching educational videos and listening to music such as nursery rhymes. Studies show that music stimulates learning. I could vouch that it really helped my child easily learn the alphabets and numbers concept.

But the most important factor that I think works best in teaching a child is give your full attention first. In our case, when Chesska feels she is given much attention and love, she is interested and motivated to learn. We admired how she quickly learned a lot of skills such as identifying alphabets, naming shapes, identifying colors, counting numbers, naming animals, and pointing body parts before she reached this age. (I documented Chesska's learning progress here. )

Here are my thoughts on the benefits of homeschooling:

• relaxed and flexible schedule

• of course, it’s free

• plenty of opportunities for hands-on activities

• one-on-one tutoring

• provide lessons based on child's learning styles and needs

• strengthen the parent-child relationship

• discover where the child is academically

• less stressful for the child and parents as well

• opportunities to review the lessons if it's not understood on the first day

However, homeschooling has a few disadvantages too. One of them is we cannot provide the interaction and socialization she needs, knowing how unsociable Chesska is. That’s why we've thought many times in the last month whether to enroll her or not. I even asked consensus from mothers of older kids, just for clarification, of what age they really enroll their kids. I also asked my co-teacher who is currently teaching in the preschool if it's just okay to enroll my child when she's already four. She said, "it's really fine for as long as she knows already the basics before that age". Since then, I was enlightened. With regards to the social issue, our friend suggested to have Chesska join into a group of children called “Awesome Kids” every Sunday in the Church. There will be a gathering of kids where there are singing, drawing, story-telling, and other fun-filled activities. By then, she will eventually learn how to interact with others her age.

Just early this week, I already started following and implementing some activities from the Ebook which I bought online since I need to level up and enrich Chesska’s skills.

Here are the materials I am currently using for our homeschooling.

Chesska knew her ABC, Numbers (1-20), and Colors before three by letting her watch the videos consistently.

I currently use these tools for counting, sorting out shapes and colors, and learning patterns.

These books contain plenty of activities that involve matching, coloring, identifying, learning vocabulary, and counting.

I found this at the mall yesterday and bought it right away. This hands-on tool will soon help her demonstrate basic addition, and eventually the three other operations (super advanced! hehe).

Chesska was able to solve the puzzles except for the frozen ones in less than a week. Each box contains 4 sets of puzzles. Aside from developing logical thinking, puzzles will help develop fine motor skills by putting the pieces together.

I bought the exercise books last Sunday at National Bookstore to help her practice writing. I don't know, but Chesska is less inclined in writing than in coloring. I also grabbed a copy of phonics book in preparation for reading. She loves a bit more in reading (actually, pretend reading).

From now on, I am going to share our homeschooling journey. I will try to update my blog as often as possible for more homeschooling ideas and tips. Thank you for reading moms.

P.S. Here are our sample activities this week and previous week.

Counting: Fill the numbered eggs with marbles.