4th Grade - Homeschool Made

by Mom Menchie

In preparation for this school year, we put a sticker chalk mat on one side of our wall to serve as our board lesson. It was divided into two parts. The upper part is being used for our math equations or other subjects while the lower part is for the imagination-unlimited scribbles of Aim, our two year-old son. This keeps him busy so Zek, our incoming fourth-grader, can focus on his lessons. Unavoidable as it may, Zek’s interruptions becomes productive as well since he engages himself in making drawings for his brother’s entertainment,  just like some figures on his coloring books.  

In addition to, Zek really loves his LEGOs since he was a toddler so we prepared his Lego Star Wars theme this year by printing out his book tags and his Journal book with lego mini figure pages that he can draw on to his favorite famous series lego characters whenever he needs a timeout (for his event story-writing to be transferred in his e-journal posting http://readyaimzek.blogspot.com/ ).

At the beginning of each week, we sing the national anthem – Lupang Hinirang on Mondays and we follow it with morning calisthenics and a hearty fruit, rice and choco-drink breakfast. Then we give Zek the printed worksheets of LEGO math, practice for reading comprehensions and spelling from http://www.superteacherworksheets.com before we slowly introduce him again the formal CFA textbooks. Admittedly, Zek gets easily bored and his focus has been our main concern ever since so we have to stay away from the books as much as possible and put the daily lessons into some other materials just to make them “attractive” or else it will be a whole day of struggle and mind setting mood for us.

Homeschooling our eldest son for 4 years in CFA now is really not an easy task with all the challenges and even emotionally-draining dramas in some occasions. We almost gave up the past two years, even requesting for recommendation letter with certification of good moral character, in our attempts to enroll Zek into one of the traditional schools. But we still end up with homeschooling upon realizing that this is still the BEST SCHOOL for him after all and that with more patience and creativity from me and my husband as parents-teachers, his learning environment and pattern will be better. The most important for us is that our family is learning and growing in love as we spend priceless time together, which traditional schools will simply “robbed” away from us. 

May this year be a more fruitful learning one for all of us. More than following the academic standards and lesson plans, we do need to follow our own children’s path of learning and to make our Lord as the great teacher who will lead us and guide us according to His divine will. 

God bless us all.