Our Homeschooling Journey: First Month in Senior Kinder

Although we have been homeschooling for a very long time, this is the first time we were enrolled with a homeschooling provider. We have been enrolled since April and we have been waiting for our first day of official homeschool since then. By June, we were expecting the ebooks to be sent to our email. My husband has already bought the printer we'll be needing to print the workbooks and modules. Since I personally can't wait for them to arrive, I started working on the Subject Matter Outline that was initially sent to me when we enrolled.

Although, we experienced some hurdles with our homeschooling provider. Come June, no emails were sent. Since this is the first time I processed an enrollment online, I was having so much doubts, I was feeling so concerned. At the back of my head, I was worried I may have gotten scammed or something. I made a follow-up and it turns out that since this is only the second year our HSP has offered, renewal of their license to operate had some hiccups. I waited for as long as I can but in the end, we ended up having to switch to the Modular Distance Learning model as opposed to the full homeschooling model. Not much of a difference when it comes to the teaching model, I'm still my daughter's teacher, only we have an adviser with whom we will be submitting our quizzes and exams. Since this is the first time getting formally enrolled at a homeschooling provider, I thought this would be the best option for us at the moment.

Nevertheless, the entire family is excited to get started with our very organized, very systematic, very much awaited homeschooling journey. We were all looking forward to Day 1 of our Senior Kinder year.

The little kiddo jumped right into it. It helped that we had a lot of training in reading, writing, and math giving us a headstart on our lessons. And it's a good thing because, for the first two weeks, we did not have enough time to study because I needed to rest a lot to get better. It proved that homeschooling would be challenging but super bearable with the teamwork my husband and I exhibited during those difficult first 2 weeks.

As soon as I got better, my daughter and I got back to it like it was nothing. I am giving myself and her a pat on the back for doing a great job at getting ourselves back on track with the quizzes we missed. At a certain point, I was disliking the fact that I did not get the initial setup I originally intended but my daughter's flexibility with the schedules and the lessons, fast-paced or not, proved amazing.

Since my daughter is used to play-based learning, I make it a point that I insert some enjoyable games into some of my lessons. It makes me feel happy about all the educational toys I bought online. I may have gone a little bit too trigger-happy with my online purchases, most of them consisting of educational toys, books, drawing pads, coloring materials, etc. My husband has been eyeing the deliveries that kept knocking on our door at some time. Now, they've proven very useful for our study time.

Some of the lessons were easy, some very much enjoyable, but some prove to be extra challenging. I am taken aback by some of the parts of our lesson plan. If I'm being honest, there were moments that I was worried if my daughter's young mind will be able to absorb all these lessons. I have learned to trust my daughter's ability to absorb information. When we got to the lessons I thought would be hard to understand, she showed me that she has an open mind and is very vocal about things that are confusing to her.

It helps that at the start of our study time, we make sure to have a moment of meditation and relaxation. We close our eyes, hold hands, and set our minds to our daily goals for our study time. During our meditation and relaxation, I always remind her to keep an open mind to be able to receive new learnings and to always speak up when there's something she doesn't understand.

While my daughter shows me her kickass attitude when it comes to studying, I on the other hand, am drowning in the lesson planning and learning material preparations. One of the lessons that is surprisingly included in a kindergarten curriculum is Roman Numerals. This is one of the lessons we had to go over and over again. To make it easier to remember, I changed our DIY calendar dates into Roman Numerals. It's proven to be helpful and entertaining so far.

One of my online purchases was small whiteboards. Although we have a DIY plastic cover whiteboard on our wall, this mini whiteboard is also useful for quick notes, and for a sort of announcement for what we are going to study for the day.

We had an online presentation a couple of weeks ago where they were asked to present the community helper they choose. She chose to discuss veterinarians. Coincidentally, my sister's dog just died and she saw how sad her aunt is about it. That might have inspired her into choosing a vet for her community worker. There were also some important life lessons learned during the online presentation. Lessons about patience, respect, focus, and confidence.

At the start of each day, I always ask her if she's excited about our study time. This is in a way, setting the mood, slightly psyching her to be excited for the study time. It certainly makes a difference with her mindset prior to the study time. At the end of the 2 hour study time, I ask her if she had fun learning new things. It's a good conclusion to our daily study time each day.

We are some two more weeks away from our quarterly exams and with the way she handled the first month, no matter how challenging it was, I am confident that she'll do great. In this first month of our homeschooling, All three of us learned a lot about the lessons and the system that works best for us. Most of all, we learned a lot more about each other.

_{@romeskie is a full-time stay-at-home mom to a homeschooling toddler. Loves crocheting as a hobby. Maintains a mini food forest, aiming to grow more to achieve that farm-to-table homesteading. Learned how to cook after leaving the corporate world to take care of her family and is now starting to acquire basic baking skills. Learn more about her adventures and misadventures in the world of motherhood.
Connect with her through her Facebook Page: The Leftie Crocheter and on Instagram. Feel free to subscribe to her Youtube Channel: The Leftie Crocheter}