Back to School... At Home!

After taking a long break, homeschooling was back to schedule yesterday Friday, 4 January 2008. Our first day of schooling in 2008.

I started with a pep-talk with both Joel and Ethaniel. The usual thing about completing their work, not getting distracted, they are getting a year older - therefore have to do a little more work and etc. Afer that, I laid hands and prayed blessings on them.

I must say, that it went better than expected. Ethaniel sat through his Phonics and Math without making too many jokes and funny faces, I had to keep reminding him that he needs to concentrate :-/.


Joel did finish most of his work but not all. Joel has been having problems with Math due to multiplications. So, I sat with him to memorize his multiplication table from 2 to 12. He had problems with 8, so we skipped it and went to 9. I also prayed for him so that God will help him grasp his Math. I was thinking of sending him to Kumon... Not sure if that will work... Anyway, I will try praying for him and working through his multiplication table and see how he progress.


I plan to come up with a schedule for them to tick-off when they finish it. I will implement that next week.

Whilst we were in the car this evening, Joel commented that he enjoyed doing his homework on Friday. It sure shocked us! Usually, he will find every excuse under the sun to avoid homework! Ivan said,"You are the only one in the whole wide world who enjoys doing homework!" Eventhough Ivan was an "A" student, he hates studying. Too much of studying in his younger days, I think.

Homeschooling is not easy and downright tough at times! There are many struggles, frustrations, tug-of-war, daily practice on patience, creative ways to stop myself from hitting my head on the wall, self-control to not rip my children's limbs apart and uncontrollable urges to purchase industrial cellophane tape and hand-cuffs.

Homeschooling is so closely related to parenting. E.g. His diligence in completing his work now will determine his attitude in his future life an employee, employer, husband, father and son. Its difficult to be a lazy son but a diligent employee. But if he is diligent at home, the likelihood of him being diligent outside is much greater.

Enough for now, I will blog more about our homeschooling journey as we go along...

Joy of homeschooling. See, so cute!