I
am a little bit of a slacker writing this blog for our third week of
homeschooling. Things are getting busier but I know... NO EXCUSES!
More so, It seems such a perfect timing to talk about being busy and trying to get things done at the same time which led to the focus of my blog this week. Homeschooling is like a balancing act!
We were at a walk to benefit a local school for special needs children, when I heard a comment to my husband from somebody once she found out that we were homeschooling how I should not be distracted with doing house works while trying to teach my kids. True, it is a challenge not to be concerned about keeping the house in order, making sure meals are prepared, and laundry are washed and folded while preparing for everyday lessons. As a homeschooler mom, I understand that it is necessary to create a balance between my role as a "housewife", a mom and as my children's primary educator. I take all these roles seriously. I can tell you, I am busier now than when I was working full time. The difference though is now, life is more rewarding. Being able to stay with my two boys and taking a very active role in shaping their lives as good Catholics and hopefully responsible and conscientious individuals as they grow are such a blessing that I am always thankful for (special shout to my husband Steve).
Another balancing act that I'm sure a lot of homeshoolers encounter is, when should homeschooling stop being like a "typical" classroom to something that allows children to discover, explore and learn things that they have interest in and still maintain a "structured" curriculum and learning environment. Personally I am still learning to juggle with respect to these idea. Sometimes I still can't help to compare what I do to what other families do in terms of how they approach homeschooling. Am I being too structured? Is four hours of "classroom" learning enough each day? How are my kids learning compared to those who go to regular schools? Am I exposing them enough to develop their social skills? plus more. One advice that I am confident to share to families thinking to homeschool or into homeschooling... You can not do it on your own. There are tons of resources on-line, in the community and even beyond that we can access to make our homeschooling experience richer and more meaningful. We can choose and pick activities (or even develop our own) that we can use to enhance lessons to suit our kid's needs and interests. I am thankful to Seton for providing academic and even tech support to homeschoolers under their program, and I've been supplementing the children's learning with things I find suitable either on-line, from other parents or other resources available to us.
Some highlights of the week:
Monday: Anthony became a synonym chef and baked some "synonym" rolls to reinforce out synonym lesson this week from last week. Thanks to Miss Carroll and her blogspot http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/. Anthony also came out with the idea of attaching words that are synonyms as leaves of a flower after he sorted them out. Aidan worked on his fine motor skills by cutting blue paper strips and making a collage of Jonah's whale. It also served as a review for his color blue lesson. The kids love to listen to bible stories and this week's story was Jonah and the whale so it was a good connection to Aidan's art project. We also fed the Tiger puppet with picture words that begin with letter T to review his T lesson.
Tuesday: It was a little chilly but we still joined other homeschoolers for a picnic at a park where the kids had an opportunity to play and interact with other homeschooler kids. Aidan also had his first speech therapy after the picnic which he did great. My little boy is growing up so fast!
Wednesday: For our story time I read the kids these awesome books about synonyms which ended up to be so much fun (Stroll and Walk, Babble and Talk; Pitch and Throw, Grasp and Know by Brian Clearly). Libraries and librarians are great resources that we've been utilizing on a regular basis. Anthony also started writing alliteration poems in connection to the letter sounds we've been learning in Phonics. It is also a good way not only to introduce naming (noun), describing (adjective) and action (verb) words, Anthony's creativity is also develop as he comes up with his own (and oftentimes) silly sentences.
Thursday: We took our class outside as the weather turned out to be that perfect fall day. I've been slowly introducing geography to Anthony by using and making maps, pointing out places and routes that we encountered in his history lesson on the globe, while teaching him cardinal directions, and other parts of the map. Aidan and Anthony also did some stamping art using apples and leaves they collected in our yard.
Friday: Aidan had his swimming lesson and we ended up going to the beach where the kids did some exploring (Anthony loves finding crabs under rocks) and building "rock" sculpture. You can tell that our children's parents are biologist and engineer.
Going back to my previous concern, "Am I good in doing the "juggling act"? Time will tell but right now, I am just giving my kids the best that I can, and continuously asking God for help.
More so, It seems such a perfect timing to talk about being busy and trying to get things done at the same time which led to the focus of my blog this week. Homeschooling is like a balancing act!
We were at a walk to benefit a local school for special needs children, when I heard a comment to my husband from somebody once she found out that we were homeschooling how I should not be distracted with doing house works while trying to teach my kids. True, it is a challenge not to be concerned about keeping the house in order, making sure meals are prepared, and laundry are washed and folded while preparing for everyday lessons. As a homeschooler mom, I understand that it is necessary to create a balance between my role as a "housewife", a mom and as my children's primary educator. I take all these roles seriously. I can tell you, I am busier now than when I was working full time. The difference though is now, life is more rewarding. Being able to stay with my two boys and taking a very active role in shaping their lives as good Catholics and hopefully responsible and conscientious individuals as they grow are such a blessing that I am always thankful for (special shout to my husband Steve).
Another balancing act that I'm sure a lot of homeshoolers encounter is, when should homeschooling stop being like a "typical" classroom to something that allows children to discover, explore and learn things that they have interest in and still maintain a "structured" curriculum and learning environment. Personally I am still learning to juggle with respect to these idea. Sometimes I still can't help to compare what I do to what other families do in terms of how they approach homeschooling. Am I being too structured? Is four hours of "classroom" learning enough each day? How are my kids learning compared to those who go to regular schools? Am I exposing them enough to develop their social skills? plus more. One advice that I am confident to share to families thinking to homeschool or into homeschooling... You can not do it on your own. There are tons of resources on-line, in the community and even beyond that we can access to make our homeschooling experience richer and more meaningful. We can choose and pick activities (or even develop our own) that we can use to enhance lessons to suit our kid's needs and interests. I am thankful to Seton for providing academic and even tech support to homeschoolers under their program, and I've been supplementing the children's learning with things I find suitable either on-line, from other parents or other resources available to us.
Some highlights of the week:
Monday: Anthony became a synonym chef and baked some "synonym" rolls to reinforce out synonym lesson this week from last week. Thanks to Miss Carroll and her blogspot http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/. Anthony also came out with the idea of attaching words that are synonyms as leaves of a flower after he sorted them out. Aidan worked on his fine motor skills by cutting blue paper strips and making a collage of Jonah's whale. It also served as a review for his color blue lesson. The kids love to listen to bible stories and this week's story was Jonah and the whale so it was a good connection to Aidan's art project. We also fed the Tiger puppet with picture words that begin with letter T to review his T lesson.
Tuesday: It was a little chilly but we still joined other homeschoolers for a picnic at a park where the kids had an opportunity to play and interact with other homeschooler kids. Aidan also had his first speech therapy after the picnic which he did great. My little boy is growing up so fast!
Wednesday: For our story time I read the kids these awesome books about synonyms which ended up to be so much fun (Stroll and Walk, Babble and Talk; Pitch and Throw, Grasp and Know by Brian Clearly). Libraries and librarians are great resources that we've been utilizing on a regular basis. Anthony also started writing alliteration poems in connection to the letter sounds we've been learning in Phonics. It is also a good way not only to introduce naming (noun), describing (adjective) and action (verb) words, Anthony's creativity is also develop as he comes up with his own (and oftentimes) silly sentences.
Thursday: We took our class outside as the weather turned out to be that perfect fall day. I've been slowly introducing geography to Anthony by using and making maps, pointing out places and routes that we encountered in his history lesson on the globe, while teaching him cardinal directions, and other parts of the map. Aidan and Anthony also did some stamping art using apples and leaves they collected in our yard.
Friday: Aidan had his swimming lesson and we ended up going to the beach where the kids did some exploring (Anthony loves finding crabs under rocks) and building "rock" sculpture. You can tell that our children's parents are biologist and engineer.
Going back to my previous concern, "Am I good in doing the "juggling act"? Time will tell but right now, I am just giving my kids the best that I can, and continuously asking God for help.
No comments:
Post a Comment