A Fruitful and Fun Day in our Homeschool

The only work I got to do yesterday in relation to my business is sending one email and a couple of text messages. I hardly accomplished anything I wanted to do at work but I felt very fulfilled and happy.

 

WHY?

 

Because I was able to spend ample time bonding with my eldest son doing some homeschool activities and playing with him.

 

Like most days, my eldest was not able to take a nap. His mind is always busy (just like me). So, I've decided to do some activities with him instead.

 

I asked him to practice writing his full name on his notebook. We've been doing this exercise for a number of years but we stopped for a while when he showed little interest. I just tried to squeeze in some writing practice in our other activities.

 

Recently, I became curious again on how much he has progressed in his handwriting skills. So, I tried again yesterday after a number of months of not practicing.

 

He has been so used to writing in print or capital letters. He's quite fast doing that. But I wanted him to also learn and eventually master writing lower case letters.

 

Thus, I asked him to write his full name with only first letters capital and the rest lower case.   

 

I was generally satisfied with how his letters looked. They were readable but he writes really SLOWLY. He pauses after writing every letter. hehehe It simply showed that handwriting isn't something he's excited to do yesterday afternoon. I still encouraged him to finish writing his full name. I asked him to write it twice.

 

Since I only asked him to put a period after the first letter of his middle name, he requested to write it in full on the next page. Of course, I was more than happy to oblige.

 

The next activity we had was spelling. He's been fond of spelling ever since he was two years old. Yesterday, I asked him to identify three things that start with the letter A. I asked him to name one item that can be eaten, another one that's an animal and the last one something that people can ride. He gave the following answers: apple, ape and ark. Then, I asked him to write down these words in lower case in his notebook again. I was glad he didn't complain and that he spelled them all correctly.

 

Then, we reviewed addition and subtraction. Since my eldest son is a kinesthetic and visual learner, I've decided to make him jump on the squares/tiles on our floor. I numbered some tiles from 1 to 10. Then, after I ask him questions, he jumps to the floor tile with the correct number/answer. Another reason I did this was to tire him somehow. hehehe He had fun jumping forward and backward like a frog. I also had fun teaching him Math.

Photo source here.

  

After that, he asked if we could play a game. I asked him what he wanted to play and he said he wanted to learn how to play Monopoly Junior. So, we got our board game and read the mechanics and played it for the first time yesterday. We had fun! We played several rounds before we stopped. By then, his little brother was already awake and was eager to play with his big brother. 

 

The boys had unstructured play at our garage after that.

 

I'm grateful that I have hired virtual assistants to do some of the work that needs to be done for my business. I'm also grateful that I can afford to delay some of the things I wanted to work on so I can spend quality time with my son yesterday. I'm grateful that I have this opportunity to work from home or manage a business from home and still spend time with my kids.

 

It's not easy but the hard work is worth it.

 

I thank God for mentors like Brother Bo Sanchez who teaches not only with his words but also with his actions that we parents can choose our kids over our work or career no matter how busy we are or  how difficult the challenge is if we want to.

 

I can always delay the launch of a book if I want to. But moments like these with my child are fleeting. I will have more time to write books anyway when my kids are much older and are not very dependent on me anymore. But while they are young and small, I want to spend as much time as I can with them.

 

The most precious memories I want to look back to when I'm old and grey are not the number of bestsellers I have written; but the many times I have spent quality time with my kids. For me, to raise godly and responsible kids will still be my greatest legacy.