I have my now 4yo with me at home in the mornings (may attend local language pre-school part-time next year, but that still keeps him home for the rest of the day :-), in the afternoons ds2 of 6 is home, too. We are a multi-lingual (OPOL method plus additional language input), multi-cultural family. I only offer the 'minority' language, and offer learning and experience through this language to them, at home and beyond. My ideal is, in addition to everyday togetherness and learning through a variety of random experiences, to have at least a few occasions per week where I will actually sit down with my child(ren) (mostly seperate, rarely together :-) and actually get through some focussed 'learning activity/ies' with them, for instance through pre-school magazines/reading/writing/counting/vocabulary/word recognition/interesting topics. The main goal is a rich language/cultural input from my side of the family, which is also half of their heritage, and which I'd like to pass on to them for many good reasons.
I often find it hard to 'achieve' those goals set (and activities are not even stricty planned nor structured, it comes when it comes and we may take out the material needed when there is just a good vibe for it). But my ability to implement this always feels shortcoming. I'd also like to add that my youngest doesn't have a great attention capability and is, in my eyes, 'suspected spd'. So it takes a good insight in the day, his day and his vibe (and of course also mine and his brother's ;-) apart from anything else to be done to find a good moment for such active teaching with ds2 (the same counts for realising such activities with ds1, but that's somewhat easier because he can already work much more independently and canstimulate himself, and I was able to investe hugely in such activities with him when he was younger while his brother was napping).
What often happens (lol, or doesn't :-) is all being set for our plan only to get interrupted by a third party (may be dh, ds1, a neighbour dropping by, more often my ds2 wanting to play with neighbouring kid when he hears their voice(s) or sees them outside, or because of a (mostly the same)wandering neighbouring child wanting to come and play/distract ds because she is bored herself, ...). These things are not necessarily to be seen as negative, and I love for my son(s) to experience contacts with neighbourhood kids and unexpected fun. But in reality those often become unwelcome interruptions or change of plans preventing or disrupting the language/cultural 'schooling plans'. As I said, those ideal moments for doing so are already rare regarding my ds2 who has specific needs and characteristics, who is mostly very rigid in his expectations and who is pretty restless alltogether, so when I find a good moment with him, I grab it with both hands!
For instance, this morning, first springtime sunny morning, ds2 and I had our first outdoor breakfast of the year, and we had everything ready for our one on one activities (in 'minority' language/mother tongue), and not even 5 mins into it, our ever wandering neighborhood girl came along and basically creates another situation, and also: gone is the learning vibe. Result: me ending up entertaining the girl in environment language and unable to simultaneously trying to do what planned with ds in other language, and my own ds2 within minutes ending up playing on the terrace nextdoor with another young child. End of the day: there was no ideal moment anymore for another chance to take up the 'planned activity', nor to focus intensely on 'minorty language development'. and this perspective makes me sad, and frustrated. I also want to add that to me it does not feel right for me and my ds(s) to need to stay indoors to do these parent-child activities when weather outside is too nice to do so because other people might disrupt our 'method'.
I do my best to be a consensual person in the interactions with my family members (and beyond), I also have those learning moments with my children but those are never obligatory type 'lessons', more sit-down pleasant activities to do together, I never focus on those moments as lessons or have to's either and do not intend to, the whole thing should just be interesting and fun and connecting.
Also, a 4yo or 2yo girl (or even their mothers or grandparents) won't understand what it's all about for us, that this is important to us and to my childrens development. And basically spomeone elses presence, just makes otherwise planned activities not work for my ds2.
I really want to give my dss this richness (especially ds2 lacked in this regard in comparison to ds1) but I just seem to feel constantly disabled to do so, and I can say that am pretty flexible, but time goes fast and I see valuable things/moments getting lost this way.
Anyone who gets what I mean by this?
Did/do any of you experience(d) a similar situation? Any suggestions to do better?
In short: how do you deal with similar situations where you have certain homeschooling plans for the day, that are important to your family, and where those plans get (regularly and randomly) interrupted by others who are not actively homeschooling?
I often find it hard to 'achieve' those goals set (and activities are not even stricty planned nor structured, it comes when it comes and we may take out the material needed when there is just a good vibe for it). But my ability to implement this always feels shortcoming. I'd also like to add that my youngest doesn't have a great attention capability and is, in my eyes, 'suspected spd'. So it takes a good insight in the day, his day and his vibe (and of course also mine and his brother's ;-) apart from anything else to be done to find a good moment for such active teaching with ds2 (the same counts for realising such activities with ds1, but that's somewhat easier because he can already work much more independently and canstimulate himself, and I was able to investe hugely in such activities with him when he was younger while his brother was napping).
What often happens (lol, or doesn't :-) is all being set for our plan only to get interrupted by a third party (may be dh, ds1, a neighbour dropping by, more often my ds2 wanting to play with neighbouring kid when he hears their voice(s) or sees them outside, or because of a (mostly the same)wandering neighbouring child wanting to come and play/distract ds because she is bored herself, ...). These things are not necessarily to be seen as negative, and I love for my son(s) to experience contacts with neighbourhood kids and unexpected fun. But in reality those often become unwelcome interruptions or change of plans preventing or disrupting the language/cultural 'schooling plans'. As I said, those ideal moments for doing so are already rare regarding my ds2 who has specific needs and characteristics, who is mostly very rigid in his expectations and who is pretty restless alltogether, so when I find a good moment with him, I grab it with both hands!
For instance, this morning, first springtime sunny morning, ds2 and I had our first outdoor breakfast of the year, and we had everything ready for our one on one activities (in 'minority' language/mother tongue), and not even 5 mins into it, our ever wandering neighborhood girl came along and basically creates another situation, and also: gone is the learning vibe. Result: me ending up entertaining the girl in environment language and unable to simultaneously trying to do what planned with ds in other language, and my own ds2 within minutes ending up playing on the terrace nextdoor with another young child. End of the day: there was no ideal moment anymore for another chance to take up the 'planned activity', nor to focus intensely on 'minorty language development'. and this perspective makes me sad, and frustrated. I also want to add that to me it does not feel right for me and my ds(s) to need to stay indoors to do these parent-child activities when weather outside is too nice to do so because other people might disrupt our 'method'.
I do my best to be a consensual person in the interactions with my family members (and beyond), I also have those learning moments with my children but those are never obligatory type 'lessons', more sit-down pleasant activities to do together, I never focus on those moments as lessons or have to's either and do not intend to, the whole thing should just be interesting and fun and connecting.
Also, a 4yo or 2yo girl (or even their mothers or grandparents) won't understand what it's all about for us, that this is important to us and to my childrens development. And basically spomeone elses presence, just makes otherwise planned activities not work for my ds2.
I really want to give my dss this richness (especially ds2 lacked in this regard in comparison to ds1) but I just seem to feel constantly disabled to do so, and I can say that am pretty flexible, but time goes fast and I see valuable things/moments getting lost this way.
Anyone who gets what I mean by this?
Did/do any of you experience(d) a similar situation? Any suggestions to do better?
In short: how do you deal with similar situations where you have certain homeschooling plans for the day, that are important to your family, and where those plans get (regularly and randomly) interrupted by others who are not actively homeschooling?
.
), but would she get bored and wander off if you were strict about this with yourself?
