Homeschool Mode: A Day In The Life Of A Mom Teaching Her Child At Home on Holiday

It’s no secret that I’ve been doing a lot of research about homeschooling. Even though my child is still a toddler, I have been busy gathering resources, books, and learning from homeschooling veterans by attending conferences and seminars/workshops about teaching at home.

Since the holiday season is upon us, we had our “first day” of not having to go to toddler class, and being “officially on Christmas vacation.”  But I decided that it would still be a productive day of fun, creative play and a lot of learning for my daughter Drian.

I find that being able to expose her to a toddler class a few times a week while teaching her at home on the days she doesn’t get to meet up with classmates and teachers is a good balance in keeping her well-rounded.  There is much time to teach and lay the groundwork on moral and biblical foundations and reinforcing readiness for big school while at home, and there is also a lot of opportunities for her to make friends and get to understand authority figures like teachers on the days she attends her toddler classes.

I am glad that I have been investing in a lot of fun and educational materials and books here at home, and learning toys.  I snapped a lot of photos of my child as she went about her morning and lunchtime, guiding her gently in some activities, feeding her and cleaning up.  When I put her down for her nap early this afternoon, I looked through the photos on my camera and found, much to my delight, that most of her activities were creatively stimulating, and helped improve a lot of her pre-kindergarten skills. I thought I’d share some of the photos as well as the skills we were able to tap today:

Math Readiness Using Her “Let’s Count!” Fabric Poster

Drian counted from one to ten using the objects found on her fabric poster, and enjoyed the feel and texture of the velcro and colorfully sewn animals and objects on the cloth objects, like 10 apples that could be placed in the cloth basket, 9 mushrooms that could be stuck back on the poster with velcro, 8 fishes that could be returned in their net, 7 kites, etc.)

Reading Readiness

She identified the letters of the alphabet while pointing them out on her ABC poster as she sang “The ABC Song” and pointing out the letters on her alphabet ruler as well.

Color Identification and Hand-Eye Coordination

I let our child play with lacing beads, where she was able to make a little necklace by leading the beads on the string.  Using the same colorful beads, I asked her to group them into colors by making use of the bowls.  She also had fun pouring the beads from one bowl to another.

Music and Movement

Since it’s the Christmas season, we put on a Dora The Explorer DVD that had an episode called “Dora’s Christmas,” with a story about Dora and Boots helping each other to make sure they would be able to deliver Santa’s present up to the North Pole in time.  My child sang “Feliz Navidad” with the characters as she pretended to play the banjo.

Confidence-Building, Shape Identification, Visual & Spatial Relationships, Problem & Puzzle-Solving

I sat with my child and watched her play with her Mighty Mind puzzle games, and praised her when she completed three puzzles by herself.

Tidiness / The Value Of Keeping Things In Proper Order

Reinforced the lesson of being able to “pack away” and clean up after playing. She did so while singing to herself, “It’s time to pack the toys away, the toys away, the toys away…”

Hand-Eye Coordination, Bilateral Coordination, Brain-building, Right and Left Brain Activation

Drian played with her Stacking Cups and created her very own “pyramid structures.”

Reading Readiness (AGAIN! Haha!)

Sat with my child and read to her and with her the following books she chose from her bookshelf:

• The World of Dick & Jane and Friends (I remember reading these books as a child, and it tickled me pink to find that my child also enjoyed reading about the adventures of Dick and Jane and their little sister Sally and their pets Puff the cat and Spot the dog.)

• Ang Hukuman ni Sinukuan by Filipino author Virgilio Almario (I encourage Drian to read local children’s books as well, they help her learn Filipino words and phrases, and familiarize her with Filipino legends, fables, and culture).  With this book, she was able to learn the Filipino names of animals like Pagong (Turtle), Alitaptap (Firefly), Kabayo (Horse), Palaka (Frog), Lamok (Mosquito), and Crab (Talangka) and get to know the legend of Maria Sinukuan of Mount Arayat.