3 ways I add Homeschooling into our day

I know what some of you might be thinking – if you follow me then you’ll know I have school-aged children. So why the homeschooling? This is aimed more at little Miss Annabelle, than the other kids. Ever since her tongue tie diagnosis, I have been anxious about her place on the educational ladder. She’s had to play catch up, which hasn’t been easy but she has done such an amazing job at getting up to where she needs to be. 

She is amazing at her letter & number recognition – her ability to do mental maths never fails to impress me! Which makes me OK with the fact her writing still needs a little work and her reading could improve too. However, we will smash those this year because, in the grand scheme of things, she’s still only 5 {almost 6}. 

However, I’m quite lucky that Annabelle has always loved doing worksheets at home. In fact, some days she actually insists! Whereas other days we might have to say “If you do 1 worksheet and some numeracy then you can have some Roblox time”. This method works quite well too, thankfully. So do I incorporate homeschooling into our day? Even after a day at school!

We signed up to Reading Eggs & Math Seeds

Back in March 2018, we signed Annabelle up to Reading Eggs & Math Seeds. There was an amazing offer to get both programs for one amazing price, so we took it. Annabelle’s school does provide Reading eggs to their pupils, but only from Primary 4 – which I think is a shame. However, Annabelle loves doing some Reading Eggs & Math Seeds and I am more than happy for her to have the PC time because I know what she is doing is educational. 

Plus, with kids as young as 5/6yrs, I think it’s a great skill for them to learn. Annabelle, at the age of five, can use the keyboard & mouse of a PC with ease. This has shown useful during computer time in class which I am informed of due to the comments I receive on her reports. 

I subscribed to Twinkl

Towards the end of 2018, I signed up to Twinkl. I mentioned it before in this post, that Annabelle loves a worksheet. Twinkl is amazing because it has hundreds of thousands of resources from preschool up to high school. I am forever printing off worksheets that I feel Annabelle would love to do. 

Currently, Annabelle is doing worksheets that are all about counting up to 30. This is also something her Teacher asked the class to revise over the Christmas break. So we have the 0-30 number train to use as a reminder, we have cutting out and glueing numbers in sequence sheets – this also works her wee fingers to strengthen the muscles, which I hope will help to improve her writing skills. 

So you can see how beneficial subscribing to Twinkl can be. I absolutely love it and it’s only £5 something per month! 

We built a book nook!

Now, it’s nothing fancy – it’s literally a duvet cover and some fairy lights. But it made Annabelle squeal with delight at the mere mention of it and skip around her bedroom when she saw it all finished. Making it 100% worth it. The reason for it is, the Husband and I feel as though we have failed her in the reading department. Sure, she does reading as part of her daily homework for school. But we don’t or haven’t carried that on as frequently beyond that, as we would have liked. Therefore, she is a little behind in that department. Not massively so, just, with her speech delay journey, it has set her back with pronunciations and reading a little bit. 

Having a large family can make it a little harder to give everyone that one on one time that they need. We are guilty of letting that become an excuse. I mentioned on my Instagram post a while ago that poor excuses will never make up for us not reading to her more. So, to encourage the extra reading and to make it more magical and fun – I built her a book nook. 

I even printed her off a special bookmark because she is currently being read Doctor Who: The secret in Vault 13 – which she loves. Her Dad and I are taking turns each evening to read her a few pages. Then, it’s her turn to read us a book. So far, it’s working well and I am loving that we have made reading time more present in her life once again. 

Now, you might be an educational Mum {like me} or not – either way, is completely OK. This is just me trying to help my baby girl because of her very lately diagnosed tongue tie. I cannot stomach the thought of her not being where she needs to be and clearly she needs that extra help at home because schools can only do so much. Also, it’s not on the shoulders of her Teachers to fix what the Doctors missed. That wouldn’t be fair of me to leave that on them and if I did, Annabelle wouldn’t excel in school.

So, I am doing whatever I can, however, I can to help her and do you know what? She is smashing it! 

So there you go, 3 ways that I incorporate homeschooling into our day. I don’t do everything with her everyday, we mix it up and do whatever she is in the mood for – but the book nook reading is an everyday thing. Best part? She has grown to love it! And we’re all chipping in to help her and tonight is Ellie’s night, then Daddy’s, Jacobs and then my turn again at the start of next week and I cannot wait! I love storytime with her and even more now that she loves it too!

Do you have a child enjoy anything I have mentioned above? I’d love to know! 

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Other posts you might not want to miss:

• Winter themed Tracing Worksheets | Free Printable
• Speech delay update