Homeschooling With My Two Kids || A New Challenge For A Working Mother

Hello everyone. I'm new to this community and this is also my first time posting here. I was invited by @romeskie to post my personal experience here in homeschooling my two kids. This is not her first time inviting me here. It's just that I keep on delaying for the reason that I honestly had a hard time allocating my time with household chores, homeschooling, crocheting some made-to-order items, and managing with my small online business (Crochetters Collection) in social media such as Facebook Page, Instagram, and Shopee. I just finally come up with my mind to give it a try after I did my laundry today and sew some sack bags that my uncle asked me to do for him. What's the connection? Well, none, but @romeskie wanted me to try out new things and expand my horizons. Why not start by sharing my homeschooling experience since this has been a fairly new experience to me.

Before this pandemic, when Deaver, my eldest, was in the first grade, we used to get up early on weekdays to prepare for school. After I dropped him off at school in the morning, I returned home to do some errands and in the afternoon, I picked him up after his classes, leaving my youngest at home with my husband. Raven was still practicing writing anything on the paper at that time, his hands clutching the pen in a grip. The only issue at that time was that we have to get up early so Deaver won't be late for his first subject. We used to commute by motorcycle in which we travel at least 15 minutes going to school. And it's really difficult when it rains because we sometimes get soaked. I occasionally checked his notebooks for assignments, taught him for a short period, and assisted him with his projects. In other words, I only have a very limited amount of time in supervising his education because I entrusted everything to their teacher and I still had to attend to the needs of my youngest while crocheting and doing some house chores. Plus I didn't have any issues with the way he reads because he is a fast learner. So generally, I was pleased and satisfied with the setup, perhaps because it was the usual.

But I was caught by surprise by this sudden change. This pandemic changes everything that we were used to. The government (here in the Philippines) didn't see any reason to postpone the classes until this outbreak is gone. Therefore, the Department of Education had decided to continue the education of the children through "Distance Learning". It's a way where children need to study at home. There are many ways of " Distance Learning" such as listening to the radio, watching television, online classes through the use of cellphones, laptops, and desktop computers, and lastly, the modules. Based on the survey, the majority of the parents had chosen to use the modules (self-learning materials being printed by teachers) in assisting their children's education since internet connection here in our place is not good or stable and not all students have laptops or cellphones or television nor radios.

So by the school year 2020-2021, they started to implement homeschooling, letting the parents guide their children in accessing or answering their modules. After learning this, I told myself that I need to allocate my time wisely in performing all the tasks. I know it won't be easy then. But I was a little confident because I know Deaver's capability and for Raeven, I know it won't consume most of my time because he's only in a kindergarten where modules only consist of few pages and we were given a longer period in answering them.

At first, I was doing fine with juggling all my responsibilities but as the days passed it gets harder. I seldom share posts in Hive because I was feeling burned out for the whole day. I even tried waking up at 4 a.m. to begin crocheting after posting, updating, and replying to comments on social media. But then I still think that my time wasn't enough. I had to sacrifice or delay some of my works like making new designs of crochet tops that I once planned and my journey in Hive became on and off. I even experience depression where it affected my performance of doing my responsibilities. I went back to normal because of consistent morning prayer and I found that very effective. Talking and crying to the Lord Jesus is very comforting and uplifting.

Then I tried to be active again with all my tasks. My homeschooling with my children became smooth. We're doing it in the morning after breakfast while I did some crocheting.

I let Raeven answered first his modules since it's just a few pages. I let him write his name repeatedly but after three lines (3x of his name) he would just cry and begged to stop because he's tired already. Same with writing numbers, he can't also take it longer but he likes to add color to the fruits, vegetables, toys, and many more. He likes to make a collage or anything that pertains to sticking some small paper cuts with glue. He also likes to draw a lot of something like robots, sharks, dinosaurs, and monsters. It's not good but at a very young age, he was able to form some. And I guess it's a good start.

After him, Deaver will read and tried answering the questions in the modules. I just correct them if it's not right or shows him first how to do it especially mathematics. Sometimes, when I'm too engrossed with my crochet, he just copied the answer key located at the back of each module without reading and understanding the story and questions. I told him that by doing so, he wouldn't learn anything. I know he was in a hurry to play outside but if I just let him do it, our homeschooling will be useless. Sometimes I get irritated when he can't follow my instructions or keep on asking the answers without reading first the directions and he just says that he misses his classmates and how he wishes this pandemic will end soon so they will have their teacher back.

I know I get harsh with my kids at times, especially when the lesson takes longer than expected, since I have something else to do at that time. I felt bad about myself at times and wished I could be more patient with them. I even wished that the pandemic would end soon so that they could return to school and I could concentrate on my online ventures. However, there are some factors over which we have no control. It wasn't my original plan, but there was nothing else to do but move on.

As the schoolyear progresses, I am slowly learning how to overcome the hurdles we encountered when we started the Distance Learning. It gave me the opportunity to further manage my time, allowing me to juggle my online tasks, household chores, and motherly duties. By the time they wake up, I'd have done a big chunk of my daily to-do list giving us ample time for modules and family bonding through learning. I also learned to value boundaries and the importance of me-time. As a mom, I am used to giving everything I got for my kids. Through homeschooling, I learned to allocate a time only for myself. My weekends are fully reserved for my crochet projects and other needlework.

Slowly, I am starting to like and appreciate the concept of homeschooling. I am learning a lot while I am teaching my kids. With this current set up, I am able to witness their every milestone. Also, I get to know them even more since I am personally seeing their personalities and I get to spend more quality time with them. As a bonus, I am always at peace that my kids are safe and sound inside the confines of our home. For my kids, they are loving the idea that they don't need to wake up early anymore just to get to school on time. Our home is their school now. The problem of going to school soaking wet from the heavy rains is no more.