Homeschooling experiences

My home schooling programme

Anandita was 6 years when I started home schooling her. The duration of each session was 45 minutes to an hour each day. I started off by making a weekly plan to help myself get more organized and disciplined about this process. I was not unschooling her but home schooling her. So though there was flexibility in the process, there was also planning.

(1)WE did a lot of ‘free play’. That included playing with blocks, copying shapes from blocks, playing with dough, clay, peeling potatoes, grating a carrot, beading and also playing with 8 piece puzzles. This was essential for her fine motor movements as well.

In home schooling her I used the (2) “MIND MAP” method. For example if I decided to take the topic of REPTILES, I would make a Mind map of all the reptiles I knew. The mind map would be detailed and specific in a simple way. Reptiles that lived on land, reptiles that lived in water, reptiles that lived in water and land. and other details on each reptile.
The there would be another breakup. Taking each individual reptile (snake, lizard), Anandita would be explained to in a personalized way about the specific reptile. I would have my information ready with me; saw a picture book on lizards, an encyclopaeia, .Time spent on this was about 3-5 minutes depending on her attention levels. I also linked the reptile with a TV programme (say on national geographic) or a trip to the snake farm etc., visiting the library to see books on reptiles.
This was a creative learning process for me. I realized that she loved music and song so I would make up songs on the individual reptile we were studying. I would use stuffed toys, give the lizard a name etc.The options are endless when you get into the groove.


To encourage future reading, I used (3) sight words. I showed 2 every day. I would introduce a new 3rd word every alternate day. I would flash it to her. Here again I had to see if she had not picked up the 1st two words I would not introduce another new word yet.
When I had to revise with her, I would label it as a Magic word and she would have to find it.

I am her mother who lacks objectivity many a time. So I decided to use a small puppet of Toto the monkey. It was a hand puppet that was Amits baby toy and I would tell her Toto wants Diti to find the magic word and she would respond better to this than to Mummy asking her to find the word.

I started (4) a phonetic programme for her. I made large flashcards of the BIG alphabets and small alphabets. I used ONLY the small alphabets first. When she became comfortable with them I introduced the large alphabets as Mamma ‘A’ and Baby ‘a’.
The process I used was introducing only ‘one’ sound per day. Day one was only alphabet ‘a’. We would sing a song a..a..a..a…a…a for apple
a…a…a…a…for alligator etc.The options are limitless.
I would end the session by using some general sight words using the Ladybird reader series of Peter and Jane.

I did make sure to give her breaks between different sessions.
I gave her options to paint, doodle, sand play, water play depending on her mood and my patience levels.
Lots of games like joining the dots, tracing a picture, finding out what’s the difference between 2 objects.

She learnt about reptiles this way. She learnt about different types of transport, parts of the bidy, sense organs, fruits etc.
When I started teaching her about the parts of the body, we made a body song.
“Where is my upper arm”? (Show it)
See how I lift!

Where is my elbow?
See how I bend

Where is my wrist?
See how I flex

Where are my fingers?
See how I grip!

Where are my hands?
See how I clap!

For sense organs, we cut different types of fruits, made a fruit boat out of them, a milkshake, spoke about the color of the fruit, how it smelt, how it tasted.Anandita was an active participant in this. She discovered that the coconut had a hard shell while some fruits were pulpy and some had a prickly outer surface.

I avoided using much paper. I used a white board or a simple blackboard. She needed a lot of approval, so rewards were there-stars and smiley.