I’m  excited to answer this questions for the Virtual Homeschool Coop. Every homeschool household is different so the reasons to homeschool must be different as well.

1. What was your original reason? Did it have to do with a situation or was homeschooling a lifestyle that you knew you wanted?

Before I answer this question we need a little background. I was born and raised in Mexico, a country where most people don’t know what homeschool is and if they hear about it they think it must be illegal not to send your kids to public school. So I never thought I would be homeschooling my kids.

When my oldest child turn 3 I sent him to preschool, I wanted him to learn english from someone else, we only spoke spanish at home. He actually did great in school, we loved his teacher, everything was great, he learned english really fast and he actually learnd to read when he was 3. When he was in preschool I started to like the idea of homeschooling him, being home with him and his sister all day and sharing the schooling expirience sounded pretty good. And also he was alredy reading at 3 years old (english and spanish) so we thought that we needed to do it so he could work as his own pace so we decided to homeschool him once he started kindergarten. 

2 . Have your reasons change on why you homeschool?

The first reasons haven’t change but we have added more reasons to it.

When my son was 4 almost 5 he was diagnosed with autism. That became a new reason to homeschool. We belive that we can meet his necessities better at home and nobody is going to have more love and patience for our son than us.

Also my daughter who was 3 at the time was having a hard time in preschool. She cried everyday for like a month or so. Teacher told us that she didn’t do anything and she just sat there all day long, I didn’t want that for her, it wasn’t necessary and she was suffering for not reason, I mean she could learn better at home on the environment she was use to and where she felt comfortable. Now she is almost 5, reading above her grade level and enjoying being at home more than anything.

Another reason I can name is that I can teach my kids spanish, not only to speak and understand spanish but to read fluently, I can teach them about my culture, Mexican history and traditions. That means a lot to me and I now I have the time to do it.

And of course we can add God into our homeschool lifestyle.

Homeschool also adds a lot of flexibility, you can do what you want when you want to do it. You can take breaks when you need them and you have time freedom to explore the world around you. 

3. Do your reasons resemble a conviction of your lifestyle?

Maybe it resembles. We love the idea that we are educating our kids and not somebody else. As young kids the influence they get is really important for their personality and their formation. 

Blessings!

Abby

Hace un tiempo escribí como habíamos empezado nuestro ciclo escolar 2016-2017. Comenté que cambié algunas cosas y hoy les quiero contar como nos ha ido.
La verdad que este ciclo escolar nos ha sido mas fácil, Chris (6 años) trabaja independiente la mayoria del tiempo, yo solo estoy de apoyo si necesita ayuda en algo. Le doy sus libros, hojas, material, etc y el trabaja solo, al final yo reviso su trabajo y terminamos con lectura, tiene un libro con historias y poemas en inglés que me gusta escucharlo leer para corregir cualquier error y también elige algunos otros libros de capítulos que dejo que lea solo. Igual para español me gusta escucharlo leer y corregir cualquier error que tenga. Pero la verdad para su edad su habilidad para leer ambos idiomas esta muy bien y su comprensión ha mejorado mucho.

Esta semana que acaba de pasar Chris se enfermo y la verdad que no hemos hecho escuela a ese ritmo. Hemos leido y visto peliculas educativas, jugamos juegos de mesa pero como pasó la mayoria del tiempo en cama no le di trabajo específico. Espero este lunes empezar de nuevo con la rutina escolar y despacio continuar con nuestro trabajo.

Por otro lado estoy sorprendida como Sam (4 años) ha mejora en su lectura en inglés. Aun le faltan muchas palabras por aprender, pero desde que deje, digamos, de darle clases de lectura en inglés ella sola ha aprendido las palabras y lee infinidad de palabras y parrafos e historias completas. Después de habernos tomado ese descanso parece que ya esta lista para hacer escuela mas formal, cuando ve a Chris hacer escuela ella pide también hacer escuela con él. Así que empezaré a agregar poco a poco libros para inglés y matemáticas por ahora y un poco mas adelante, quizás el año quentra agregare español para ella.

Me siento muy bien con respecto a este ciclo escolar y espero que así siga.

Bendiciones.

Abby

This las week’s assignment fot the Virtual Homeschool Coop is about having a natural disaster plan. I don’t really had a plan but I really should.

We live in a state where tornados are common. Although, since we moved here we haven’t got a tornado. But we have heard the alarms, that means «go to safety» have a basement? Go there. Thankfully tornados didn’t form this year here in our city. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be prepared. And I never thought about our homeschool. I need a plan! Here is my plan:

1. Do you have a 72 hour kit that is your go to homeschool supply?

I actually don’t have a kit, but if a tornado comes I would put some of our books in a backpack and take the backpack with us to the basement.
2. What are the natural disasters that you prepare for?

As I said before, we have tornados where we live. Have you heard of tornado ally? We are right there. And also, we are preparing for a very cold winter, lots of snow. We need to have enough food in case we can not leave the house, etc. Hopefully this predictions won’t happen and we’ll have a nice winter, not to cold, not to much snow.

3. Do you have a kit that lets them work to keep the feeling normal?

I don’t. But in a case of an emergency we would be ok not doing school for a while, we could read a lot and that would be enough for us. If we have internet available we could work online, easy peasy all in one homeschool is an excellent resource and we use it a lot.

In case that we can not leave the house we will continue working in our curriculum.

4. What are your most loved and faithful books that are your treasures that you feel you can not loose?

I guess that this books will be the ones in my backpack in case of an emergency.

I would put in my backpack a few books, all of my son’s  ACE paces, he uses the english and spanish ones for second grade. Then we can not forget our Easy Peasy readers, we have the learn to read and the first reader. Then I would take my planner and my kids daily binders along with their binders where I keep the work they’ve been doing this year. I think I need a really big backpack, because I still would take more books with us, I will let the kids choose the books they want to take with them, chapter book, early readers, anything they want. 

A simple plan for us is enough because our kids are young.

Praying for all of you who are in the middle of a natural disaster.

Abby

This week’s assignment for the Virtual Homeschool Co-op is about our reading list.
I will be answering the following questions about reading in our homeschool. But before I start I want to say that I have 3 kids 6 years old and under. So I will be talking mostly about my 6 year old son, Chris, and a little bit about my 5 year old daughter, Sam.

Let’s get to the questions.

1. How and where do you get your book list?

We go to the library as much as we can and I let the kids get the books they want to read, this way they really enjoy their reading time. I usually get a couple of chapter books for Chris and I let him decide which book he wants to read for «school». 

Sam is still learning to read so we choose little readers for her. I’ve tried to follow a curriculum with her but it was a struggle, now that I let her choose what to read she has improved her reading and she has gained a lot of confidence.

In addition to the library books, Chris is reading EP First Reader, which is part of easy peasy all in one homeschool. It is a great book divided by day, it has a total of 180 days. Usually a chapter per day. This book includes books and poems and some questions about the books, etc. We love it! They have a free online version or you can buy it in book form. «>

That is what we did.

2. How big is your book list?

Except for the EP First Reader, we make the list as we go. Right now we are reading the magic tree house books, we just started with the number 1 but we will probably be reading the first 4 books, but like I said, we make the list as we go.

3. How do you assign reading?

Chris usually reads a chapter per day of the book he chose and one «day» of EP First Reader, both of them every day. But I’m pretty relaxed about it, if he doesn’t want to read one of the books on any given day that is totally fine by me. He is always reading anyways.

I don’t assign anything to Sam she also enjoys books and she reads without being told. I sit with her every day and we read together, as well, as much as she wants and what she wants to read.

4. Do you reward and give incentives to read?

We have a sticker chart, for every day that Chris reads his EP First Reader he gets a sticker, but honestly we forget a lot of the time.

5. Do you quiz for comprehension?

We follow the assignments for the EP First Reader and there are some questions there, but for the other books he usually reads them by himself and I don’t ask questions.

And that is how we do reading. I think that is really important to teach the kids to love books and reading, but we are relaxed with our reading and that is working wonderful in our house.

Blessings!

Abby

Oh, the negative comments. We always have negative comments, it doesn’t matter what part of our life is there will always be negative comments. 

Before getting started here is a link to the Virtual Homeschool Coop website.

I haven’t had a lot of negative comments, maybe because my kids are young and strangers may think they aren’t old enough. I don’t know. The only few times I have heard a comment from a stranger I usually smile and ignore the comment and go on. The only negative comment that I remember is from a cashier. When she learned that we homeschool she immediately asked: why? I smile and I may have laughed a little and we went our way.
If we talk about family, I don’t think our family agrees with our decision but we live far from home and family that they don’t have the opportunity to tell us everything they wish.

My dad one time asked me: what about college? And I just say well, that’s on them. If they want to go to college they can.

My mom, who is a former teacher in Mexico and she was a good teacher I might add, told me once: well you can homeschool them now that they our younger and let them go to middle and high school. Another comment she has told me is: I do think that homeschool is great and that they can learn better because they can have one on one interaction, but what about socialization?  My answer was, kids in public school don’t socialize that much, they’re always sitting and they are expected to be quiet for 6 hours or more. Besides PUBLIC SCHOOL ISN’T THE ONLY PLACE WHERE KIDS CAN SOCIALIZE. And that is it. I do want to add that my mom has been amazing, I can always talk to her and ask her advice and she also sends me books, she buys us new books but also she has given us books that she had from school, when she was teaching.

I have received other comments from my mother in law, my sister in law, etc but nothing to bad, I don’t get offended. And my sister in law is amazing, I can always talk to her about all this homeschooling stuff, the good days, the bad days, everything.

And there you have it. I’m pretty relaxed about it, I usually let go.

Blessings!

Abby.

Yay! My first virtual Honeschool Coop assignment, this is so fun!

Before I begin, if you want to know more about the Virtual Homeschool Coop go to the blog or you can also check the youtube channel.

Now, I’m supposed to say how structure or relax is our homeschool from 0 (no structure) to 10 (high structure) in 3 categories: curriculum, daily rutine and space.
I would say I’m a 5 curriculum wise. We’re really interested in unschooling, but not having a curriculum makes me nervous, specially since English is my second language and my son loves workbooks and worksheets. So my son has curriculum for languague arts, reading, spelling, math and spanish. He is not learning to speak spanish, he alredy speaks and reads spanish, but he is learning grammar and spelling. As for the rest of the subjects we don’t do a specific curriculum, sometimes we do something from easy peasy and sometimes we do nothing but read and read. Now my 5 year old daughter is a free soul, she doesn’t like curriculum and for this year we are letting her be. She is really creative and alredy reads, so we focus in a lot of reading, she reads to me and I read to her, she chooses what to read. Sometimes we also do some hands on activities. But as I said we are letting her be.

Our daily routine would be a 2 or 3. I have tried in the past to have an schedule but it only lasts a couple of weeks and that is it. We try to start our homeschool around 10 and we are done by 12. The rest of the day is for independent reading and play.

We do have a school room, but it is more a storage room for our homeschool stuff. We don’t spend a lot of time in there, we do school anywhere and everywhere. So I think that makes as a 1? 

Considering all of this I would say we our a pretty relaxed homeschool family. We want our kids to have enough time to do what they like to do and enjoy life.
Blessings!

Abby.

Hello, everyone. Do you know what the virtual homeschool coop is?

Well, is a group of awesome homeschool moms or dads, etc.  that share their homeschool experiences. You can check them out here.

Before I start doing any assignments I want to introduce myself. I will be answering the following questions.

Introduce yourself to the community and who you are.

I’m Abby, a 29 year old homeschool/stay at home mom. I’m from Mexico (forgive my English), I have a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, but I do love staying home with the kids.

How long you have been homeschooling?

This is our second year homeschooling, so I’m really new to this concept. Before this I didn’t have any idea that you could educate your kids at home.

How many and how old are your homeschool children?

I have 3 beautiful kids (I’m their mom, so yes, I do think they are beautiful and also smart), my son is 6 years old, my daughter is almost 5 years old and the baby girl is almost 3 years old.

What is your homeschool mission statement?

I don’t have a mission statement but I can tell you what I want for my kids and our family. I want to create wonderful memories, and to have enough time to do so. 

What is your homeschool approach?

We don’t have an specific homeschool approach. We read a lot, in both, English and Spanish. We do some hands on activities, we watch educational videos and movies, etc. 

Where are you located on this planet?

We live in the US.

How was the social media platforms helped you with your homeschool?

They’ve been really helpful, specially pinterest and youtube. I get a lot of ideas from those platforms, I would be lost without social media platforms.

What are you excited about getting out of the VHC this year?

I just wanna get to know other homeschooling families and share our experiences.

And that’s it.

I’m really excited to be part of this amazing community.

Blessings!

Abby.

Ha pasado bastante tiempo desde que escribí aquí en mi blog, y es que con 3 niños de 6 años, 4 años y 2 años se mantiene ocupada uno bastante, y más si hacemos escuela en casa.

Este ciclo escolar hemos empezado de una manera y ya vamos por otro camino, tan rápido hemos cambiado de rumbo. Pero ¿por qué ha pasado esto?

Bueno como una madre que hace escuela en casa me gusta estar leyendo de métodos de enseñanza, explorar tipos de aprendizaje, etc. Además  de que me gusta buscar cosas que puedan servir mejor para mis hijos. Y lo que pensé que serviría para mi niña pues no ha funcionado.

Mi niña es la niña más alegre, le gusta explorar, es muy activa, muy creativa y mil cosas más. Esas cosas no le permiten estar sentada leyendo libros de texto o contestando ejercicios en un libro. Ella necesita libertad de crear, de jugar, de imaginar y soñar, de disfrutar su infancia. Algo que aveces pasamos por alto los adultos.

Así que este ciclo escolar he decidido eso, dejarla soñar, crear, jugar, imaginar. Cero curriculum para ella. Quiero que disfrute aprender, y el aprendizaje es natural en el ser humano, especialmente en los niños. Vamos a leer bastante este año, yo a ella y ella a mi. Vamos a jugar, soñar e imaginar juntas.

Al final de cuentas la vida es la mejor escuela.

¡Bendiciones!

Abby

Hola  a todos, hoy quería escribir un poco de como criar a niños bilingües. Ser bilingüe hoy en día tiene muchas ventajas y nosotros como padres queremos darles a nuestros hijos todas las ventajas que podamos.

Pero ¿cuáles son esas ventajas?

1. Hablar 2 idiomas nos ayuda a enfocarnos y distraernos menos.
2. Los niños bilingües tienden a ser mas creativos que los que solo hablan un idioma.
3. Les permite entender otras culturas mejor.
4. Tiene ventajas en conseguir mejores trabajos y mejor pagados.

Estas son solo algunas de las ventajas. Pero ahora hablemos de el porque enseñarles un segundo idioma cuando son pequeños. ¿Será lo mejor?

Algunas personas piensan que es mejor enseñarles un segundo idioma cuando ya aprendieron bastante bien un primer idioma. Pero aquí les dejo las ventajas de enseñarles un segundo idioma desde pequeños.

1. Los niños tienen más facilidad de escuchar los diferentes sonidos que hay en un idioma y se les facilita mas pronunciarlos correctamente.
2. Los niños, la mayoría del tiempo, no sienten pena al hablar un segundo idioma como un adulto que solo se pone barreras por temor a pronunciar una palabra mal, los niños no conocen de eso y más fácil intentan sin importarles si se equivocan o no.
3. En algún lugar leí que la edad perfecta para aprender un idioma nuevo es de los 0 a 5 años, luego la siguiente mejor etapa es apartir de los 5 y antes de la adolescencia. Al llegar a la adolescencia nuestro cerebro guarda la información de un segundo en una parte diferente a donde la guarda el cerebro de un niño. Por eso los niños hablan un segundo idioma de una manera mas natural que nosotros como adultos, lo procesamos diferente.

Creo yo que estas son las ventajas principales por las que deberíamos enseñarles a nuestros hijos un segundo idioma, hay que darles esa oportunidad.