Homeschooling for a year – Sharing our experience

Homeschooling was something I wanted to do when Myra was two years old. I came across this idea on a social media platform and the reasons behind homeschooling totally resonated with my ideology. But then I was alone and single parenting you hardly get anytime to yourself. So just when she turned 3 , I enrolled her in a school close by. The whole purpose was to give her an outing and have some time for myself.

Then came 2020 and the pandemic and the indefinite lockdown, and closing of schools. Classes were happening online and both the reasons for Myra going to school – her outing and my time to self were ruled out. It was like god telling me that what you wanted you must experience and hence I decided to homeschool Myra till the pandemic said goodbye. Also online classes made no sense to me.

As for Myra she was very happy with this. Her first two years in school had been good. But as the curriculum increased and the school started emphasizing more on discipline in class, my wild child started detesting school. In the initial days she had be excited to go to school and now she as much disliked schooldays. So the pandemic and homeschool were both welcomed by her.

I have experienced that at her age she disliked all kinds of formal learnings. She did not enjoy her dance class because it was formal, despite of the fact that she enjoyed dancing and music.

She did not like school despite of the fact that she loves books and had no problem with any school work.

We started our homeschooling journey last year with Myra in grade 1. Last month we completed one year.

Curriculum we followed

I decided to go with the regular school curriculum so that Myra is prepared to join back school whenever the time is right and she is ready.

So I bought the books for her grade followed by the school. Apart for that I also used a set of phonics books and some fun activity books to make it interesting for her. I am not at all a creative mommy to create worksheets etc for her. But yes I did take a lot of inspiration from Pinterest to help me teach her in a simple fun manner.

We also enrolled in the Olympiad exams. The only reason was to gain experience. Though I must say that her studying for olympiad helped her gain a lot of application based knowledge for her sunjects. While the text books only talk of concepts, Olympiad tests how well you can apply those concepts.

We are again homeschooling this year and we are definitely going to appear for Olympiad again this year, in case they do let us appear again as a homeschool candidate.

Our Homeschool Routine

I set a time based routine to have a bit of discipline for us. So 9.30am to 12.30am was our homeschool time. But really speaking we only studied for an hour and a half max in this period. There were a lot of distractions happening around home. And truly speaking that was good enough for a 6 year old.

In this school time I would also make her do some coloring or cut and paste kind of fun activity. We also did some reading together.

I was flexible with her homeschool days. If she did not want to study we declared a holiday ( not allowed too often though), rainy day was a holiday, guests home became a holiday, trips to hometown became a holiday, mama not well was declared a holiday and so on. But don’t read me wrong, despite of all those holidays we could accomplish a lot of academic work and lot more, when we did study.

Apart for her school time she would pick up a book from her shelf anytime and read. Also we have a bedtime reading routine. So learning happened all day through.

My opinion of homeschooling based on my journey of a year.

Myra even after a year at home is quite happy to continue homeschooling. Luckily for her the neighborhood kids have been a good company and she did not feel the need for more. In fact when asked by someone which school she goes to instead of feeling odd not having a school to name, she takes a lot of pride in saying that she is homeschooled. I guess my confidence in my decision to homeschool her instills that confidence in her.

This year again since the schools are functioning online we continue to homeschool.

First talking about my apprehensions:

1. My biggest apprehension in homeschooling is lack of company for her. Though she has never really expressed it as such. She is happy with her hour plus park time in the evening.
2. She is a single child. So her interaction with other children is very limited, and even more limited when homeschooled.
3. I feel things may be different once the schools start.

What makes me happy:

1. We learn and study what we need to. Say in case I feel the need for more math I shift my focus to that.
2. There is so much freedom in not having the stress of exams, homework, assignments etc, both for her and me. It is stress free option
3. We can accomplish so much more than when she would go to school. In a class the teacher has to go as per the speed of the whole class. But at home we study based on our learning ability. So we get the opportunity to explore more.
4. We are pursuing two extra classes in the week. We are learning French and another art and craft class. We choose to follow what we enjoy. We are not stuck with something we do not enjoy for the whole academic session.
5. Myra loves this, and that is a big thing. Since she enjoys learning in this environment she does not feel repelled by the books or the idea of studying. When I see her struggling with a subject, making her dislike it somewhat, I tweak something to rebuild the interest. Being her mom I understand her much better.
6. She is more independent in completing her work. I only have to sit with her to learn new concepts. She can complete a lesson and the questions at the back on her own. I feel that is a big skill for a child her age.

There are many more benefits of homeschooling, but this is what I specifically experienced until now.

Eventually the schools will open up and we would have to make a choice. I believe in living the moment and so I am really not thinking much about that. Will cross the bridge when it comes. For now it is homeschooling for us and we are liking it!

I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z and this post corresponds to letter H!