Okay, let me now let out that big sigh of relief. We are officially done for the 2019-2020 academic year, as we finished the year-end portfolio presentation and assessment of my kindergartner, Little Miss. My eldest finished his two weeks ago.
While my fifth grader has his portfolio presentation quarterly, Little Miss, at KG only needs two presentations - half year and year end. These are only for assessment and purposes, and not really graded from the teacher's end. All her grades on her report card are input by me as her facilitator.
Homeschooling a Kindergartner
When we started homeschooling as a family, my eldest was already on the third grade and of course, already knew how to read, write, and do basic math operations. This time with my second, it's different as everything needs to be taught by me. We start from scratch.
Easy, but not easy. This is how I'd describe our journey. Easy, because this is what we as parents naturally do-- teach our children. Isn't it that we are the ones who first teach them the colors, shapes, counting and alphabet before we even send them to school? Not easy because there are times (as in most of the times) when it is hard to change your persona from a parent to a facilitator or teacher. The children need to understand that their mom takes up two roles (and more) in the household - a mother and a teacher.
Learning Through Play
I would say that we sailed through and accomplished our learning goals this year mostly through play. Please don't judge me when I say that we did not even touch some of our books this year!
I can even say that we mostly did an unschooling approach to her and just let her lead our learning process. She decides what we do for the day-- which was mostly crafting and arts. I do not have anything against it, for as long as we are able to insert a bit of reading and math here and there.
She isn't the one to sit for a long time doing worksheets, so we do lots of Math and Language Arts orally. The plus side, we can do this practically anywhere.
We are also lucky that we live in a city that offers lots of family activities that are mostly free. Pre-covid, we try to take advantage of these amenities and events.
If course it also matters a lot that she has two other siblings who she can play and learn with. It is very vital especially now that our social interactions and outdoor activities have literally stopped.
In her assessment today, I was both excited and anxious. We barely prepared for today, apart from the part that I showed her what I have added to the presentation. These are compilations of our recent activities, so I trust she can "show and tell" them with ease to our Learning Advisor. Her reading has also improved a lot, including her comprehension, and she can also solve math problems. However, when I asked her some review questions last night, she just shrugged and gave me a blank look. Que horror!
In the end, she managed to pull through almost two hours of presentation and assessment via video conference. Whew! Imagine making a 6 year old girl sit for that long! I was watching from the side and was proud of how well she did.
Key Take Aways
Get the cue from your child. Not everyone is alike, especially in their learning styles. You cannot expect one child to be exactly the same as the other, even if they are both your kids. Get to know how your child is able to learn easily, and take it up from there. So far, this Little Miss is both a kinesthetic and visual learner.
They take in what they see and hear. As they say, "Monkey sees, monkey does." Teach my example. You cannot expect them to be great readers, if they don't see you do it. They won't find interest in things they do not see. Set the learning atmosphere at home. In our household, books and art materials are always within reach, and we try to limit screen time. Limited screen time lets them explore and play with their imaginations more.
Don't stress. Trust your child, as you should trust your ability to become your child's facilitator. You know your child the most, and you know their limits. Don't stress if your child is not able to grasp at once what you are teaching. You are not racing with anyone. Take your time and be patient with your little learner.
Make it fun. I keep saying "facilitator", as this is what we really should be, instead of imposing things to our learners, it is our job to make learning easy and enjoyable for them.
Be intentional. When things get rough, go back to the beginning. Remember why you homeschool. What are the core values that you want your child to learn, and why we don't want to put this upon the shoulders of other people?
A New Journey Awaits
We are just starting, and we have got a long way ahead of us. As we start the new academic year, I shall have three homeschoolers, officially. My eldest shall be Grade 6, Little Miss, Grade 1, and yes, Little Man shall be KG!
It will be not be an easy road, I am sure, but the rewards are definitely worth it in the end. These formative years are not to be exchanged for anything else, and I am glad to be a hands on parent to my children. They are kids only once. I love that I get to see them grow into amazing individuals by my own two eyes.
Does each child get individual assessment by any external advisor each year? 2 hours is certainly a long time for a young child to retain attention in one stretch. School lessons are usually much shorter.
I'd be interested to read about how the homeschooling is regulated and what criteria you're required to meet in UAE. Perhaps that could be a challenge for the community, because everywhere is so different.
Homeschooling, though not illegal, is not recognized by the Ministry of Education in the UAE. Since most of the population are expatriates, any family who choose to homeschool are encouraged to utilize curriculum that is recognized in their home country. There is a huge homeschool community here, and it keeps growing especially now we are in the midst of a pandemic. L
As for us, we opted to enroll with a homeschool provider for the purpose of accreditation and records keeping. They have several learning programs like the Tech program which is entirely based on online modules- finish them and you're done, grades forwarded to the partner school. Our program is where they assist us with the curriculum, suggest books, etc., and each quarter we have to present our progress to a Learning Advisor.
I didn't there was such a big population of expats there! Sounds like there are lots of different approaches.
Oh! More than 88% of the population here are expats. Like you can barely see locals. Most of the working population are expats.
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That number of assessments seems control freak overkill, I get annoyed with our annual visit and I get on really well with our moderator! 🤣
If it’s any consolation two of my kids are teenagers and we still barely touch the stupid books 😵
Sounds like the year has gone great anyway 😄
Yeah, thinking that we need to prepare twice as much next year already burns me out. 😂
I am already tuning the mind of this girl, saying that come Grade 1, she will have more subjects to focus on that we didn't have in KG. Well, let's see what happens! Hope to still have lots of hair after. 🥴😵