Homeschooling
When my son was born in 2015, the educational aspect did not cross my mind as something worrying at that time. My country was going through a difficult economic crisis, but this same situation made me focus on the immediate solution of basic needs. However, when my son It started in preschool, I soon saw with concern what we would face, the Venezuelan educational system has been one of the hardest hit by the economic crisis, teachers being the ones with the lowest salaries and also the same infrastructure of the schools have many problems, in my country there are three years of preschool and then comes the six years of primary school, the first year of preschool my son had classes for half the year because the teachers went on strike demanding a salary readjustment, the following year the pandemic and that caused classes to be suspended indefinitely, the following year it was the same, only this time the teacher sent tasks via WhatsApp to solve at home, only the first grade of primary school did my son attend school in person and this year he He is in second grade, the teachers' strikes have returned, so practically from the beginning my son's education has been at home and I have fully taken charge of his education, the school being then only the means to evaluate and certify the promotion of my son towards the following year, because the greatest learning is obtained at home. I have a degree in education, but this has been a challenge when it comes to my own son, however I have established certain criteria to make the educational experience as profitable as possible at home, below I share my appreciations about education at home according to my experience.
Rules and schedules
Although there is more flexibility at home than in a school environment, it does not mean that rules, limits, schedules and routines should not be established, because this is beneficial for everyone, for example my son has daily homework, these are based on aspects like mathematics and language, he must write and read, writing is based on a dictation and sometimes on a copy, in mathematics the exercises can vary depending on the topic we are addressing, and at this level my son practices addition, subtraction and multiplication , the complexity increases as he learns, but the rule is that he cannot use his tablet, watch videos or television without first completing his educational homework, reading is irreplaceable because it is necessary for him to read daily to create a habit that allows him to have greater verbal fluency and understanding every day, the issue is not forcing my son or blackmailing him with the reward of using the tablet, because there are even days when he prefers to do something other than play on his tablet, it is about that establishing rules that allow them to understand that education at home is as important as education within the school, establishing that rule based on respect is very important to achieve the educational objective.
Bibliographic or educational resources according to age
As a teacher and mother who teaches at home, one of the things that I consider extremely important is to look for a bibliography according to the grade in which my son is and also according to his level of learning and interests, in school not all children go to the same At the current level due to the pandemic and home education in these years, there are children whose parents did not meet their educational needs for various reasons and others who did, so to avoid this imbalance or difference from the group of children who share the same grade it is necessary to do activities that are appropriate to their level and not allow children to fall behind in content, having books or educational material is necessary, for example I am constantly looking for reading books because it is not good for children to read always the same because things are learned by heart and it is not the idea that children are like a parrot that only repeats a lesson, the idea is to look for new material to read and learn every day.
Vary contents
When the mother or father is the one who educates, the emotional part tends to mix and that's fine, you don't have to be an emotionless machine to teach a child, quite the opposite, you have to teach with love, however, you have to be firm and not be manipulated by emotions. The education of a child must be comprehensive, this includes three types of knowledge: conceptual, procedural and attitudinal. So the first refers to the theoretical content so to speak, the procedural is refers to how the child puts this knowledge into practice and the third means the attitude that the child has towards that learning, home education must have values and in this the effort and attitude of the child to achieve learning must be appreciated, looking for the integral development of the child, where not only the conceptual content of things is important.
Activities for the development of other skills
I not only teach my son the contents, but I also include other activities in his learning that help him strengthen motor skills and coordination, as well as creativity and problem solving. Drawing and calligraphy are good but I also teach my son crochet and macrame knitting, this helps him to solve mathematical problems, to observe and analyze images, to coordinate the movement of his hands with numerical skills, to follow instructions, have perspective of the visual proportion of the objects and the color, also something extremely important is that he is learning a trade and the value of work, he is also learning economics because he knows how much the weaving thread costs and how much he would have to sell a woven product finished for profit. Teaching at home is not only enslaving children to write in a notebook, it means teaching them values for life and although my son is 7 years old I know that this learning experience at home will be something important for his whole life.
This is my participation in the Weekend Experiences Community Initiative. I invite @tsunsica @yetsimar to participate
It is a great challenge educating children at home, I have my two children studying, one at school and the other at high school, due to the pandemic and the teacher strike, the children have lost the habit of studying because they lack the environment school to socialize with other students, thank God my wife and I are teachers just like you, we help our children by teaching with love, but in other homes there are parents who have no training and their children can help us, it is quite an education strong for these cases. I liked reading you, greetings
My son loves going to school because it is there where he can socialize with other children. It is also the place where children can develop skills such as public speaking, group work and behavior in a formal environment, however, in terms of knowledge and values, the Most of the education is done at home, because there is a lot of time when you are not attending school due to the economic and political problems of the country, it is a pity that not all parents can do education at home, it is difficult to work and educate the child at the same time, but if the parents don't do it, no one else is going to do it, so you have to make an effort to do it for the good of the children. Thanks for your comment 😊
Congratulations your publication has been chosen among the best of the day.
KEEP CREATING GOOD CONTENT.
Muchas gracias por el apoyo 🤗
I felt quite a bit of empathy reading this post, as my nephew was born in 2015 as well and I remember how everything slowly went down the drain for those years. My mother is also an educator and I confirm that their salaries are a bad joke, the protests go on, while the rulers get tired of spending the money they say they don't have on nonsense, it's really sad.
Your son is precious and you can see that he will grow up with good values, you are teaching him very well! <3
Thank you very much, as long as these problems in the country continue, the best option is to continue education at home, even when he attends school, we do most of it at home. Hug 🤗