We officially started homeschooling last year March, and I must say it has been one journey! In this article I would share with you why I chose the approach I did, how we did and what we will be doing this year. 

What did we do? 

The year started with us enrolling In a mummy &me playgroup once a week and I absolutely loved what I learnt there. Before then I was scouting the internet on what curriculum to use for my 2 years old and how I was going to teach him colours, numbers and alphabets but in the course of my research I found a better way. 
Theme based approach.
For the early years, I found this very practical and less burdensome on the child because they get to learn diverse things under a themed umbrella, which broadens the scope of the theme and incorporates real life into our everyday experience. 

How did I get it? 

I went on the internet to check for themes, checked through and picked some that applied to us and what we had available. Came up with the list in this post. We started and documented the process, via pictures, articles & videos. What I also did was for each week based on his developmental milestone I created activities around those themes. 

What worked?

The theme approach as a whole worked very well for us and I think I will be doing the same thing this year again, we had different categories of our focus based on his development and what I felt was important for him to explore at any given time. 

We also enjoyed out field trips and outings as we went to quite a number of places this year and learnt a lot from the trips. 

The pace and schedule I created for us also worked and it wasn’t too cumbersome and was flexible enough for us when we didn’t feel like doing anything. We only had structured activities 3 times a week and free play & TV for the rest of the week. 

I started doing a review & assessment of my child weekly and I didn’t quite keep up but I observed him a lot more to notice his patterns and what he was interested in so I could continue to leverage that in his education and I must say that it’s been helpful and I will be putting to use things I learnt this year about him and doing more assessments. 

What didn’t work.

The year-long themes; Initially I thought we would work every week and do activities but I just quickly realised how much break is needed for mama. We took like 3 breaks this year which made it effectively about 30+weeks of theme based activities and I am planning accordingly now. 

Staying at home: homeschooling doesn’t mean it happens at home and honestly I think my son is already too familiar with home, so he would request for TV and run around during circle time and sometimes even not wanting to do anything and I know if we went somewhere else he most likely won’t do that. It was frustrating sha. I am working on doing up a room for the duration of our homeschool. 

I didn’t do my best; I had a burn out, so I slacked a lot. I don’t beat myself up over it but I did make up for it with all the outings we went for in December. One thing I am sure of I gave him a great experience in 2019 and I am willing to go all out this year. 

What I am doing this year?
I have prepared for this year and I will walk you through everything I did in my instalive session that will hold 13th of January on my instagram account. Do follow me @thecuddleblog to learn more about it on there. 

How was your homeschool year 2019? What will you be doing this year?