Technically, we’re done with homeschool for this year. I’m done with the goals I’ve set for my boy this year and for my daughter, she’s done with all her books. But I’m not officially ending our homeschool yet and ‘declaring’ a school break, since I feel that I have a lot of reviewing to do with my kids. We will take a bit more time to review all the year’s lessons first and only then I can declare an official school break. I’m not actually in a hurry since I still haven’t ordered our homeschool materials for yet. I’m aiming to start in mid-August. So, that gives me a month of review and maybe 2 weeks of break! Yes, we’re like homeschooling the ‘whole year’ since we actually get a lot of breaks in between because we travel a lot.
And yes.. whew!! I’m done with this year’s homeschool.. I can take it easy from this time on since we will just be doing reviews and other fun activities!
With our kids always being cooped in the house for homeschool, we make it to a point to have regular outdoor activities for our kids. This just doesn’t give them fresh air and exercise but a chance to meet people and explore the ‘world’ around them. Being outdoors really provide a lot of learning opportunities for our kids, so we really try to squeeze these in our schedule. Where’s our favorite destination for outdoor activities here in Hat Yai?
Songhkla - There’s the beach, the playground, the monkey park, the hill overlooking the city, the zoo.. oh, there’s countless of things that can be done in Songkhla with our kids.
Hat Yai Park- Here we can go biking ( there’s bike rentals available), boating, fish feeding, skating, jogging and play in the playground.
Mountain Top- on the mountain above the park, there’s a Planetarium, another playground and one can see the beautiful sunset from up too.
PSU Lake- here our kids can go jogging or climb the trees surrounding the lake
A few weeks ago, Philippines celebrated it’s 115th Independence Day. Even thought it was declared a national holiday in our country, but since we’re currently living in Thailand ( and I’m so behind our homeschool schedule) , it was a homeschool day for us. But to commemorate our Independence Day, I taught my daughter ( who’s half Filipino, half Malaysian) to sing our Philippine National Anthem. Afterwhich, I gave them a short lesson on the history of the Philippines. Here’s the video that I took of my daughter singing our national anthem.
I think she did fairly well even without condenser microphone at musicians friend , and considering that she’s doesn’t speak Filipino. The song is actually a bit difficult and quite fast too.
I would love to have our kids go for extra classes. My daughter is actually keen on doing art classes while my son would be interested in music classes. We’ve actually checked on a few schools but then, we don’t find them fitted for our budget. It would be great if those music schools are well equipped with all the stuff like zoom r24 at guitar center but then, I think they’re just too pricey. My only option for now is to find someone who’s talented enough to teach guitar or a musical instrument for my son and maybe I can continue giving art lessons to my daughter.
We don’t use our homeschool room anymore. After our plans of moving out, that room became more of a stock room. So now we do our homeschool in our living room. It’s good thing that the kids’ tables and chairs are just made of light plastic so we can easily put them away when not in use. I actually like our new homeschool room setting now. I just sit on the sofa while teaching my son and at the same time I can watch my daughter while she’s doing her Maths, Grammar and Writing. What I like best is the easy access to the kitchen. With living room just near the kitchen, I can actually multitask. Before, I had to run up and down the stairs if I’m doing something in the kitchen.
I don’tknow for how long we will be having this homeschool set up, but I kinda like it better here and maybe we will be doing this on a permanent basis. We can always turn the homeschool room into a library with brown christmas lights and reading area for the kids.
