These uncertain times have all put our lives at greater risk and it’s heartbreaking waking up to bad news with rising numbers of those infected by the Covid19. I’ve been holding up my tears to be honest. But it’s all okay to cry too. Like most of us, we do our best for our children and our families are our top priorities to stay safe. The painful reality above all is there are those who will have it worse than us, losing their jobs and many have already lost loved ones. My thoughts and prayers mostly go out for them and to those working on the frontlines now who will keep enduring the threats of the virus and help save more lives. But when WE ourselves do our part of seriously ‘social distancing’ within our communities and following restrictions in place, altogether it will ripple a positive impact and the world will get back to its feet sooner rather than later. It’s a huge social responsibility not just depending it all to our government leaders who have their own families to take care too and make harder decisions that will keep changing depending on how this pandemic will unfold.
So how is this affecting our homeschooling recently?
Pixie, now 7 years old, has never been sent to any public/private school. Every time someone asked me why, I always straight out gave the answer — It’s become our lifestyle choice to have more flexibility and incredibly grateful we are able to continue doing this as long as we could. I only work as a part time Wedding/Lifestyle Photographer (mostly shooting on weekends) while Brian works full time. I did have an engineering degree but choosing to be a Full time Mama to Pixie has been my most fulfilling career. Pixie has been able to learn in many possible ways over the years and not limiting her time to explore things passionately and create more dreams to inspire. Reading a book series about taking care of animals has made her dream to become a Vet someday. And not just that, be a singer and a ninja warrior too! Why not, right? We’ve made other financial sacrifices too since only one of us is working full time. But we get by with what we can and mindfully living in ways within our means. In return, we are richer (not with money in our bank account but) with our flexibility of time to be able do more with Pixie especially.
Across the whole world, many parents now have no choice but keep kids at home while schools are being shut down for an uncertain period of time. It sure sound very daunting and downright stressful to many especially those “working at home” at the same time. Sadly, some schools might be putting more pressure to working parents too as they navigate extending to ‘online learning’ with the teachers.
I’ve been asked by a few friends how they can navigate this “temporary schooling at home” too amidst the global pandemic. This year is still our 3rd year of officially homeschooling (counting from Kindergarten age) and it has put us in the same challenging situation as everybody else too. Homeschooling is usually perceived wrongly by many unfortunately. But for us, it didn’t involve just staying at home and being lockdown or isolated. We go out for the most part of our week, visiting our favorite places (beaches mostly) and do ‘life learning’ outdoors, picnic-ing under a tree, looking over the ocean views. We meet up with fellow homeschool friends for unstructured play in different parks and playgrounds, or join ‘homeschool’ events with other families. But whenever we are at home, we do our chores and Pixie has learned the habit of creating her own checklist, with a flexible time. We argue sometimes in between too. Well, actually a LOT. We sure have our own share of good and bad days. Pixie doesn’t listen to me 100% of the time and I’m guilty too of threatening to put her to public school many times if we aren’t going to work as a team. She always cry back with a “Nooooo, I love to keep homeschooling forever’. So, we sort ourselves out and start over again. There’s always the possibility we might change our path as time goes and that’s gonna be okay too. So while life allows us to be still on this journey, we will embrace every joy and chaos each day.
So my answer to anyone asking “how to homeschool amidst covid19?” will not likely work for everyone. But I will strongly say, let’s take it all easy and focus on spending more unhurried times with our kids, if possible. Cook together with them. Watch movies together. Cuddle and kiss more. Dance together. Read and read more together. Being with each other is really more than enough. When this pandemic is all over, we will have a lot of learning experiences to remember and talk about.
When I certainly need a break from Pixie ( yes, we Mamas need breaks too!), I grab that chance when she’s engaged reading independently or doing something else. I know some kids thrive on a more structured learning so you do what works for your own families too but remember to not put too much pressure on yourself and the kids. There’re lots of free links out there now that you can download or access to fill your kids’ with activities while being stuck at home. Pixie is learning Japanese via DuoLingo. It can be overwhelming what and where to start right?? I’m no expert and I’ve tried to replicate “school” at home before too but after realizing that it’s not working for Pixie, I’ve dropped the idea and aimed more at learning as we go naturally, focusing more on what her interests were and work towards being self-directed and build up her lifelong love for learning. You don’t need to replicate school at all while being lockdown at home during this pandemic. Our kids never stop learning whatever it is they’re doing.
I’m only able to share what has worked for us and maybe they, too, can be applicable to your own household. There’s going to be a different dynamic if you have more than 1 kid, but I’m sure you’ll eventually figure out what works for each child. (I only have one kid and a puppy so far though but trust me, it still feels like I have 3 kids raising Pixie anyway). Because, not all children learn in the same way and each child will learn anything if allowed to go on it’s own pace. It took many twists and turns and lots of mistakes for us too until we finally got our own rhythmn and not being on a strict routine entirely. I preferred our week to start slow at home and by midweek is when we are always outdoors and at the end the week, we have our downtime as much as possible.
Most of our days (before & during the pandemic) covered learning areas as listed below (in a flexible order & lots and lots of break time in between). Do we do all of them all the time? Oh, definitely not. Whenever we’re lost in our tracks, we’ve learned to change course if nothing works out and try another day.
Homechores – after waking up, Pixie fixes the bed. on laundry days, she has learned how to use the washing machine so I let her wash her own clothes now. having a new dog at home also adds chores for her to learn like cleaning up potty messes.
Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner (Pixie prepares her own breakfast when she can, helps setting up and cleaning up the table while we listen to podcasts (lately listening to ‘David William’s books) or she picks any book to read along while eating)
Morning Devotions – Pixie has learned this habit over time every morning (but I still remind her too!) and she gets to practice her writing and comprehension by reading daily stories that teaches her character building principles.
Book Work (for english or math we use a little structure but working in a pace that Pixie can handle, a few pages at a time with no time limits)
Read- Aloud time – ever since Pixie was a baby, we always have a read a-loud time together every single day and night esp bedtime. It’s been the greatest key how Pixie learned to read eventually.
Chapter Reading – we pick a book of choice to read by chapters she independently reads on her own (currently finishing Prince Caspian)
Creative Arts – Pixie has grown to love drawing, painting, sketching, doodling every day and very proud how she’s going along well with it so far. It helped a lot that we started early on when she was still younger and kept her ‘art materials’ always easy to reach when she was still learning to hold a crayon or pencil, so she can freely learn and get engaged. Along with less screen time (esp below 2yo) and less toys at home to distract her , Pixie’s creative and imaginative side has naturally developed into what is is now. She tinkers ideas out of just paper or cardboard, or tissue rolls and loves playing pretend all the time animating different objects she sees at home.
Music – I’m not exactly the ‘singing’ type but I sing to Pixie and play music since she was born. So, that exposure helped developed Pixie’s love in singing I guess. And she sings A LOT (the moment she wakes up, while taking a bath, while we walk or drive and loves writing stories and her own songs. recently she just learned playing the ukelele (we’ve created a youtube channel in case you want to listen to some videos I uploaded) whether this leads her for a future in singing or not, it’s certainly has filled her childhood with fond memories (I cry everytime I watch her old videos)
Science, History & Geography – We don’t stick to any curriculum for these units but learn naturally as we go out and about our days, from bush walks to beach trips, pick an experiment randomnly, nature journalling, navigating where we go and learning from watching video documentaries & listening to podcasts . Recently we’ve learned how this Covid19 started and how Viruses infect us.etc.
Physical Health & Dev – Pixie had joined ballet dancing and martial arts before. Her new obsession since last year is her ninja warrior obstacle classes. She also continues to do gymnastics. (all these classes now have stopped until the pandemic settles down) So to keep her physically active, we do our own exercises in the backyard, watch fitness videos online or just do crazy dancing like nobody’s watching. 🙂
Project Work – we spontaneously just pick a project to work on weekly whatever fits our mood & time frame or if an interest sparks her (crafts, gardening, woodworking, painting walls,, etc)
Life Skills – We do ‘Life’ together and it’s been the most rewarding. Pixie’s social well being has developed naturally being exposed to different kinds of people we meet (not just kids of similar ages) and different places we go to (libraries, groceries, post offices, musueums etc). And being outdoors – climbing trees, biking, bush walking, swimming in the seas and playing more has always nurtured her wild spirited character and has continued to build up her confidence and courage.
I wished I could document the daily things we do but here’s a glimpse in photos of what homeschooling has been like for Pixie (favorites from last year and some recent during the pandemic restrictions)… I have gazillions of phone photos not included here but I try to update our instagram account for our own record too.
How Pixie usually start her days…
Our dining table serves different purposes everyday.
Currently, Pixie enjoys using Singapore Math Books.
Break times usually involves snacking or baking or just free play for Pixie.
Followed by afternoon tea time reading her books. 
Some days, she stays in bed longer and chose to read as long she loves.
One time, we joined a worldwide cause, #FridaysforFuture walk, to raise awareness on Climate change in our local neighborhood.
Since we moved to our own house, Pixie independently prepares her own breakfast mostly. Her favorites to make: french toast, scrambled eggs or just cereal.
Board game favorites: chess & scrabble.
Spider with her egg sac. We randomnly find spiders or different insects in the backyard and keep them for a while to study. Creepy I know.
Self-portrait & Sketching practices.
No other place we rather be but in the beaches and bring our lunch and books with us.
Weekly playdates looked like this (before the Covid19 pandemic happened)
Backyard picnic is always a favorite thing we do.
And yoga at home. Obviously, Pixie is way stronger and flexible than I am now. 
Last Christmas, we got a new puppy and named him Coco. Life has never been the same and can’t imagine living without him with us anymore.
We joined recently an event with homeschooling families learning Living History on Medieval Ages (medieval wars, archery and some artifacts)
With more on-going Covid19 restrictions, we’ve been just spending our outdoor sunshine days in the backyard.
Biking will have to be limited in the backyard too for the meantime.
We made a little sign out in our window.
Ukelele fills up Pixie’s days.
Behind these images are the other realities of course. Because like any other families, we have our moments too. I remember on my earlier year of homeschooling when I sank down the floor and at my wit’s end. Well, homeschooling is just parenting too. And there were those days when it was heavy. We all go through different battles at any point in our lives. But more than anything we need GRACE from all that’s happening now. That’s how we get up and do it all over again, breathe deep and stay hopeful. And YES, things after Covid19 will definitely get better, too. We all have never imagined this pandemic will happen in our lifetime and in our kid’s lifetime. But we will get through this no matter what it takes. If not now, or not next week, but someday it will. So hang in there everyone.
Stay home, stay healthy, stay safe!!! (if this post will help you in anyway, I’m grateful. Feel free to share it or get in touch with me if you need to ask something regarding homeschooling too) xx
“Trust your natural instincts, even when you don’t know what to do., because if all else fails, you still know how to be a parent. You still know how to read books to your children. You still know how to spend time with them and share the wisdom of your years. And you still know how to love them and nurture them through the difficult and joyous seasons of life. “ – Ainsley Arment
(I have been reading this book by Ainsley (and wished it was released before I started homeschooling) and it’s become my “Homeschooling Bible” since it’s first release last year, if you’re looking for something to read too and get your cup filled with soooooo much enlightenment & inspiration! )
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