Setting up a classroom atmosphere in the house is not easy because of the constant distractions around such as neighbors or delivery guys knocking on your door, the bed, the TV, the phone ringing, etc. In order to set the classroom I feel, I do the following preparations like a clockwork:
- I turn on the diffuser and diffuse our favorite essential oils for mental focus;
- I then add the school supplies and my flask;
- I choose music from Spotify to help my kids focus;
- The books and notebooks are taken off the shelves and put within reach from the table;
- Finally, I make sure the kids take their baths before we start. I noticed that they are more manageable and alert when they’re not hungry and just had their bath.
One of the most challenging part of homeschooling is finding ways to teach a certain topic in fun ways so that kids will be able to retain information. The best way to teach them is to always incorporate play, according to our homeschool provider. For Ian’s Science topic of Observing Things in Science, we had a memory game. Ian also did a quick scavenger hunt for non living things around the house. For living things, we plan to visit UP campus soon so he could point out all the living things.
This is Ian with his scavenged loot for his Science topic about “Observing
Things and Non Living Things” for Science. I asked him to describe each item in his cart in terms of color, size, feel, and smell. For sense of taste, I asked him to do so during our lunch. I also had both my kids taste water with salt because my eldest’s science topic is about matter and its physical properties. For solubility property of matter, I exhibited salt as solute being dissolved in water, the solvent. I realize that we hit multiple Science topics for both my students with just one experiment. That’s what I love about homeschooling – this kind of flexibility and multi-faceted learning saves time!
For my son’s HELE topic which was Entrepreneurship, I asked him to watch select Shark Tank videos for kids on Youtube. If there’s one thing I dream for my kids – it’s for them become successful inventors and problem solvers someday. By having them watch Shark Tank, I was hoping to inspire them both to become future entrepreneurs. For Nereus’ HELE, our goal for him to come up with business plans at the end of the year. I know this is pretty advanced, but I guess in a way I’m already molding him this early to think like an entrepreneur.
I apologize for the blurred photo but I very quickly captured this image while I had a phone call. I find this moment heartwarming – with my eldest teaching his little brother about subtraction while mommy was busy taking a call.
I don’t normally like being distracted by calls but since I’m also a Financial Advisor, I can’t just not take calls for fear that one of them could be an urgent call from a client in distress. I’m at my clients’ beck and call in that case. However, my patience was tested last Thursday because I got called by three (3) telemarketers during our class. I politely told each that I was busy with my kids.
I’m posting my food pictures here as sort of pat on my back because I still managed to cook my kids’ favorite food despite our busy schedule. You know when you are a homeschool educator, you level up your multitasking skill because you lose so much of your personal time and space! I want to commend all homeschooling mommies and daddies out there for putting so much effort in keeping their patience and sanity for their kids. Being a teacher and a parent is NO easy feat.
Below are series of photos of my kids creating clay figures and paper beads for this week’s MAPEH. This week’s activities led me to discover something about my son, Ian. He is a bit lazy. But instead of complaining about his tasks, I discovered that he would look for ways to finish his task at the shortest possible time. In Filipino, his character may be deemed as “madiskarte”. There is a section in his Values book where he was supposed to write his parents’ name. Instead of asking me to spell out my name, he went to our metal door and took the “long-forgotten” magnet that has my name on. He just copied it to his book.
In addition, during our arts session he was supposed to follow the instruction on the book on how to create a fish sculpture. He was having a hard time forming the fish using the clay, I could tell from the way he scratched his head. So he took one of our small ceramic fish containers and molded his clay into it. My eldest told him he’s cheating for doing that. I told him, it’s not cheating. It’s finding ways to make his job easier and in my book, that’s innovative and admirable. I do need to remind my eldest once in a while that his brother is only six. Haha!
I’m proudly presenting my kids’ art works – clay fish studded with beads by Ian; and necklaces for boys by Nereus. One of the necklaces consists of paper beads that Nereus rolled using old card stock and elastic string. For the paper bead project – we were able to cover two topics already which were, upcycling for Science, and paper bead art for MAPEH.
At the end of each day, I’m finding myself mentally and physically exhausted, but also feeling fulfilled. My kids are learning from me, that’s most important. We sure are bonding now too, more than ever. My kids may hate me sometimes for being a bit strict but if there’s one thing I like about my sons is that they unconditionally love me despite my flaws. I love my kids, hence, I am fully committed in taking charge of their education.
The Fabulous Scientist 