'Homeschooling' Tania Day 1

On my last post, I talked about 'homeschooling' Tania.
I put 'Home school' in quotes because honestly I know nothing about homeschooling. I don't know anything about its curriculum and whether Indonesia has a home school curriculum. However, my view on Home school, in my opinion, is basically learning at home in a more organized and structured manner.
We have been doing a 'play and learn' principle with her which means we inserted information and learning during anything we do with her as well as answering her questions in an informative way. For example, we were looking at rain outside the house and ask her where does rain comes from. We then explain to her the water cycle (in language that she can understand of course). We learn color and counting and shapes when playing with her toys etc... Praise God! Her development is astounding. We have no goal of pushing her to be a prodigy. We simply wanted to get her ready of what education world she will face in the future through having as much fun as possible. Through this process, both Simon and I will also have the privilege of growing and learning with her (KIDS are wise beyond their age!) as well as getting to spend these golden times with her.

Thus, the principle of Tania's 'Homeschooling' is fun and valuable learning time for her and for us too. The current goal is to help her acquire basic learning skills such Alphabet (saying the letter, Spelling, writing/drawing the letter), Numbers (saying the number, counting and writing).

Tania is currently slightly advanced. She knows all the letter and number (up to 10). She spells really well. And has already began 'drawing' (if not writing) the letter when we spelled it for her. She can write her own name and spell it - also Mommy, Simon, Nene, Tete etc. Her love for books and reading is noticeably above average compared to other Ambonesse kids. Of course, we have to read them to her. However, she will always take the book and tell the story back to us again. I pray she will be an avid reader one day.

THE "TANIA's HOMESCHOOL"

So yesterday was our 1st official Tania Homeschooling day. Below is the picture of what we've prepared for her.

Basically, we will have more and she (I) can use most of our Language center learning Props in her learning (and vice versa). as you can see in the above pictures are some of our "starter-kit"
Top picture : Old small handheld whiteboard for her to doodle. She already tried to write OPEN (the N is erased when I took this picture). This board usually serve as her shop sign (OPEN-CLOSE). She writes open when she open her pretend store and shouted 'Hello, Customer!" and coax us to shop. Then erases it and writes CLOSED and said "Sorry, We're closed now!".
I also use our old cutlery tray to put her coloring pencils for her easy use. together with her marker, eraser, pencil sharpener etc... Along the run it might contain more.

Bottom left Picture : is the red shelf that she chose yesterday. We bought it at Hypermart for Rp. 96,000,-. She wanted Yellow but the yellow one is 3 shelved and with wheels. And more expensive than what I can afford. So as I explained to her, she chose red. - She's a very understanding girl. The bottom shelf holds her stationary tray and her reading books. I will show what she's reading on the next entry. The top shelf holds her working book, coloring book etc. Still more to be done but this way, she will learn how to tidy after session.

Bottom right picture : is the book we currently use. Before this I print out some worksheets but I haven't got the time to prepare one especially with her as I am still occupied with Campus teaching and preparing teaching materials for our language center. So when she picked up this book yesterday and suggested us to use it, I couldn't be happier. The book boast to be the IQ test book for pre-K and K level. It turned out to have some fun stickers inside. It has lots of different activity sheets.

As soon as we get home, we set out the place for her shelf, which currently next to my teaching class and next to the sofa. She then collected her books and we decided what to put in each shelf. She then took her little purple chair and perched herself on the coffee table in the living room. I think this will be our station for the time being.

She can't wait to get home actually. After we bought the book, I still need to do some shopping. She asked to read her book on the trolley as I shopped. As soon as we get home, she immediately gets to 'work' and appeared to enjoy it very much. I love watching her seriousness. As she already know alphabet, I introduce her to the shapes of the numbers she copied it quite well (for a 3 y/o). But I didn't push further. On this matter, I like to follow a scheme of : Introduce - Explain - Follow her lead. I introduce the learning topic, explain a bit then see if she wants to continue. if she does we will but she is welcome to stop anytime. The bottom left picture is me reading the instruction for each activity. She cannot be stopped. she wanted to finish the whole book. hehehehe... however I managed to convince her to stop at page 14 (of 48).

I planned to do at least 30 mins - 1 hour 'Home School' session with her and add some more if she wanted to. Then alternate this days with art and craft or hands-on activities.

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