Category: Education

Will My Grade 1 Child be isolated?

With the COVID-19 situation evolving, many parents are concerned about their child’s safety in a school setting. And rightfully so. There’s something terrifying about putting your child in a vulnerable situation that could open them up for infection. So now you’re looking for satisfactory, homeschool alternatives for your grade 1 child that will measure up or surpass their current education. Well, you’re in the right place. Schoolio offers only the best materials for you and your child. 

So, you’ve found an exceptional curriculum that follows grade 1 Ontario curriculum but you’re still struggling with doubts about homeschooling your child. What concerns are you struggling with? 

Could it be the social aspect of homeschooling? I think that’s honestly the number one concern that I hear from parents when they’re considering homeschooling. ‘I don’t want my child to miss out on the social aspect of school.’ And fair enough, the stereotypical aspect of home school, would make you believe that children can’t be socialized while homeschooling. But I’m here to tell you that’s just not the case. 

My children have an excellent social network. In fact, my daughter has more friends than I do. But how? And where do they meet these friends? Every city has a homeschool group, or sometimes more than one. (And if your town doesn’t have one – start one!) These homeschool groups are run by talented individuals who care about the mental and educational well-being of your child. They care about their education and most importantly, their safety. Our local homeschool group has many different opportunities for socialization. Like ‘Bubble Homeschool Gymnastics’, where the children are joining a bubble of other children to have weekly gymnastics classes together. There are also art classes at art studios like, 4 cats! Swimming lessons, park dates, co-ops, French tutoring with other home school students, Soccer, outdoor PE, and the list goes on and on. 

There’s absolutely no reason your child can’t be socialized. There are so many different opportunities for them to get out there and make friends/see friends. When most people think of home school, they think of children out on a country farm, sitting in a field playing with sticks, never seeing other people or kids and possibly also having their education completely neglected. But guess what? That’s completely not the way!  

When COVID-19 hit and quarantine began, many people got a taste of having their children home for school.  And it probably confirmed their beliefs that homeschool is isolating, but how could it not be in that situation? That was called ‘Isolation schooling’, not home school. Homeschool is a much better, wholesome experience. So, let’s not make the mistake of putting isolation schooling and homeschooling in the same category. They’re so different. 

You’re worried that maybe your child won’t be getting the same mental stimulation and education as in school? Well, my friend, that’s also not the case. Schoolio takes education very seriously, while making it fun and enjoyable for your child. Following strict grade 1 Ontario Curriculum, you have absolutely nothing to worry about when it comes to making sure your child is learning the right amount of material. 

Maybe you’re afraid that you won’t be a good teacher, or that you won’t be able to handle that extra pressure on your own. First of all, don’t doubt yourself. You are a brilliant human being that makes the best decisions – like choosing to homeschool your child and utilizing Schoolio to accomplish that. Schoolio cares about you and your child. We are here to help. If you have any issues with your curriculum or questions about the content – just ask!  

If you are able to stay home with your child, then deciding to homeschool them will always be a wonderful decision. Sure, you’ll have some tough days, some days that you just want to end. But each day gives you another opportunity to help your child learn and grow, and that’s a gift. Don’t let the little worries stop you from doing something that you know would be beneficial for your child. You are a champion, and you are going to rock this thing.

Jaymee Davis is a stay at home/work at home/ homeschool mama. She believes in your ability to teach your children from home, and aims to help you reach this goal.

3 Things You Need To Remember Before Starting Grade 1

Congratulations! Your child has made it to grade 1! I have three children, grades one, three and four. With each one of my children, I always felt like grade one was a huge milestone. You’ve made it through JK and SK and you’re now on a more organized track of learning. With that said, it can still feel extremely overwhelming. I remember the night before my oldest started first grade, I was a wreck!  I kept questioning myself and worrying that maybe I wasn’t doing the right thing. I wondered if I should just register her for school. I wondered if homeschooling was really the best choice. I worried that I wasn’t using curriculum that stood up to Grade 1 Ontario Curriculum.  

But then I remembered the many school interviews we had, and the tug in my gut that this just wasn’t right for her. I remembered that she learns at a much different pace than other children. I remembered that she needed that one on one attention that I knew I could give her, and the public-school system couldn’t. Homeschooling is such a journey, and honestly some days are tough. But each day that you put the effort in to teach your child, is a beautiful day. 

Here are 3 things you need to remember when starting your Grade 1 Homeschool Journey: 

  1. Stop pressuring yourself. Just the fact that you care enough about your child’s education to take on homeschool and sign up for Schoolio, is enough reason to believe in yourself. And remember that the decisions that you are making for your child’s education, are actually really great decisions. Second guessing yourself will only lead to anxiety, and that’s one thing you don’t need right now. 
  2. Every child learns at their own pace. It’s hard when you’re trying to go over concepts like reading, or math. And your child is just not putting effort into learning. Some days, your child may just need a small break. Change the scene. Take them out for a walk, get some fresh air. Play a game. Just like you probably get a little agitated when you’ve been working for a while, they also need patience, and a moment to refresh their mind. You don’t have to accomplish everything in the early hours of the morning. Your schedule is yours. If you need to change it up some days, then do it. 
  3. Be kind to yourself. It’s so easy to allow ‘mom guilt’ to sink in. To feel like ‘I’ve neglected the house work.’ ‘I need to spend more time reading with my child.’ ‘My kid watched too much tv today.’ Mom guilt is a bridge to ruin. Don’t go that way. Every day that you choose to wake up and homeschool, is a day that you rocked being a mom! You are seriously so amazing! So please, be nice to yourself and remember you are doing a stellar job! 

There was no Schoolio when I started homeschooling in 2016 or in 2017 when I began teaching my daughter grade 1, and I truly wish there had been. This incredible education platform cares so deeply about your child’s learning and your mental sanity. They spend countless hours crafting content that makes education fun, all while following the Grade 1 Ontario Curriculum. Nothing gets left out, it’s all there. You’re in the right place, and you’re doing the right thing. Naturally you’re going to second guess yourself, so let’s stop that now. You and your child are going to love this homeschool thing! Deciding to homeschool, was an amazing decision! One that you don’t need to doubt, you’ve got this! Don’t face this new chapter with anxiety, because you are going to rock this thing! 

Jaymee Davis is a stay at home/work at home/ homeschool mama. She’s been teaching her kids from home since 2016 and believes anyone can do it. She is here to help you reach your homeschool goals.

Let’s Talk About: Activities

So Lindsey, parents want to know is homeschooling boring? Wouldn’t my children get bored always being home? What are some activities that you’ve done with your children to make the homeschool days less boring and still give them fun opportunities?

“This is a list of all the activities my kids have done as homeschoolers, mostly all with the homeschool group we’re in (so seeing the same friends every time), and some outside our home city have been done as a family trip.”

Field Trips:

Fall Fair

Treetop Adventure World

Museum of Health Care

Theatre Performance- Christmas Show

Aquatarium

Geology Museum

Sir John A MacDonald House

Theatre Performance- Dinosaur Show

Woodworking Museum

Polymer Clay Art Class

Overnight at Upper Canada Village

Water Park Day

Art Museum

Toronto Zoo

Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament

Casaloma

Science Centre

Trenton Air Force Museum

CFSCE Communications Museum

Let’s Talk Science

Little Cataraqui Conservation Centre

Activities:

Academic Co-Op (once a month Sept- June)

Soccer (once a week in the fall)

Gymnastics (once a week Sept-June)

Swimming Lessons (once a week in the spring)

Track and Field (once a week in the spring)

Phys Ed. Program (twice a month Oct.- April)

Orienteering (6 week program in the fall)

Annual Homeschooler Science Fair

Weekly Summer Park Meet-Ups

Parties:

Not-Going-Back-to-School Picnic and Beach Day

Autumn Party

Christmas Party

Easter/Spring Party

Year End Homeschooler Sandbanks Beach Day

Year End Family BBQ and Bonfire

“Obviously different areas have different field trip possibilities and different group dynamics (some are bigger/smaller than others, some are more active than others) but this gives you an idea of what the social aspect of your homeschooling CAN look like, if you want it to. Sometimes we get so busy socializing we need to catch up on our academics! And if Covid makes all these socializing ideas impossible this year, just remember that the kids in school aren’t getting to socialize much either. All of us will be suffering pretty equally this year unfortunately.”

There you have it, homeschooling doesn’t mean sitting at home by yourself with your kids. You can have many fun field trips, socialization activities and more.

Let’s Talk About: Co-Ops

Hey Lindsey, what is a Co-Op? And how can I run one in my own town or city?

“Great question! You may have heard homeschoolers mention co-op and not really understood what it was. Last year our homeschool group had a seminar/guest speaker on creating your own home co-op, so allow me share the wisdom with you!

What is Co-Op: Co-Op generally is any sort of “co-operative” grouping. The number of participants, rules, and themes can of course vary widely. It all depends on what YOU want out of it!

We participate in 3 co-ops, and all three are quite different. The local group we’re members of runs a large co-op. We meet once a month, and the co-op coordinator picks subjects for each month, like Science, Art, Phys Ed., Nature, World Cultures, etc. When we register our child(ren) for co-op, we also sign up for at least two helping spots (this is the co-operative part!). The classes are split by ages, usually 4-5 year olds, 6-7. 8-10, and 11+, but it varies each year based on the ages of who registers. There’s usually 12-15 kids per class, There’s also Nursery for siblings under 4. Each class has a teacher, assistant, and a clean-up person. So if teaching isn’t your jam, you can sign up for Nursery or clean up slots instead. If you do like to teach, you sign up for whatever age group and subject you want, and you plan, prep, and teach that class.

So your kid goes to co-op 10 times, and twice you teach, assist, or clean up. It’s a pretty sweet deal.

This is an awesome social time for the kids- first they have class, do a little learning, practice group manners and listening to an adult that isn’t their parent, and things like raising hands, standing in line, etc. that are normal “school” things but not normal “homeschool” things (in fact watching homeschoolers try to make a line can be extremely amusing ). After class, everyone eats lunch together and the kids have free time, which almost always leads to a giant game of tag or capture the flag or some sort of running, maniacal, being loud game. Parents get to socialize too, we all chit-chat while the kids run amok. This co-op is huge (40+ families), organized, and has registration fees that cover building rental, insurance, and reimburses teachers for any supplies.

The second co-op we have is a PE Co-Op (physical education) which I organize from Fall to Spring, to keep the kids active. Usually, I send an email for registrants, and make an email mailing list of everyone interested. Everyone sends me ideas for fun things to do around the city in the colder months (the co-operative part in this group is the idea generating). I slot all the ideas into different weeks. This co-op meets every second week. So the schedule gets emailed out, and it looks like: Week 1: Swimming at city pool, Week 2: Biking at BMX track, Week 3: Snowshoeing at provincial park, Week 4: Ice Skating at arena, etc. For this co-op, you show up, or don’t, if you want to, and you pay your own family’s admission fees. Everything is an open-to-the-public activity. It’s very low maintenance, once it’s planned and scheduled, it’s done.

The third co-op we’ve been in was a specifically themed co-op. Lots of ppl do this style of Home Co-Op. You find a few families that have kids similar ages to yours, or that are already friends, you pick a topic you all want to cover, or want help covering, and you split up the work. Some people do a subject like Geography, or Canadian Government. We did one last year that was a book club.

No one knows what the future will look like, Covid wise, for these sorts of get togethers, but it’s a little info for you to start mulling over in your brains, and maybe even figuring out how to run your own virtual version.”

Thank you so much Lindsey for all this amazing information on what a Co-Op can look like. Do you have more questions? Feel free to leave a comment and we will get back to you.

Let’s Talk About: Finances

Hey Lindsey, what advice do you have for the new parents out there that want to start homeschooling but are worried about the financial aspect of it?

“A new homeschooler asked me this exact question the other day about the costs of homeschooling. This is one of those questions that can have a WIDE variety of answers… depending on your curriculum choices, and how many field trips and activities you choose to go on. So it’s a tricky one to answer and can vary widely, but I can tell you how it breaks down for us. I’m a planner and that goes for my home life as well as school so I track all our finances every year.

For the last 4 years, we have averaged $800/year for homeschool costs. This is for TWO children, so $400/year/child. These numbers include our curriculum, supplies, field trips, etc. Anything I wouldn’t have spent if I wasn’t homeschooling.

Now before you balk at spending that kind of money, let me give you a quick comparison… In 2016 when both my children were in public school I also tracked our spending. We spent $850 ($425 per child) on public school. Most people think of public school of being “free”, but think about that for a minute… From Back to School supplies to the teacher’s year end gifts, the public schools are constantly asking for money! And you have less choice in what you spend your money on and what you get for it. Back to School supplies, the “right” clothes for fitting in, indoor shoes, field trips, hot lunches, valentines for the class, milkshake day, pizza day, candy cane day, etc etc etc, the bbq, the fair, the auction, REPLACING THINGS THAT ARE STOLEN, teacher gifts at Christmas and year end, the fundraisers (oh so many fundraisers!) and the things your kids *need* to fit in (ever spent money on a fidget spinner???). It adds up!! I would say we were very middle of the road for participation in school events. We bought into enough special events that the kids didn’t feel left out, but didn’t do every single one, we didn’t get hot lunch every day but did get it on Fridays, we bought *something* from the fundraisers but we didn’t go crazy, etc. So again, you could spend more or you could spend less than we did, this is just an example. Homeschooling costs some money for sure, it can even easily cost more than public school, but you do get to decide for yourself what it gets spent on. 

Our Curriculum: I mostly build my own homeschool curriculum, but I do buy a few units/programs here and there. You could choose to purchase really expensive programs for every subject and easily spend $1000/child/year, but you can also get really good affordable premade curriculum as well. You could make all your own curriculum or unschool and spend a lot less, but I always say you’re going to spend either money, or time, one or the other. Which you would rather or can feasibly spend depends on your own situation and family. I would say we are middle of the road when it comes to curriculum purchasing, because we spend around $200/year.

Field Trips: We go on SO MANY FIELD TRIPS. In public school they usually take 2 field trips per year. We average 2 field trips per month. We are not middle of the roaders here- I take them on almost every field trip that gets offered, organize plenty of my own for our group, and just love getting the kids out in the world and away from the books. So we probably max out our spending on field trips! (And dang it, Covid, you’re going to ruin this for us this year!!)

Activities and Extra Curricular’s: Ok this is a hard one because does it count as homeschool if you do it during the daytime, instead of evenings and weekends? I ended up tracking our extra curricular spending separately from homeschooling because most of it we would have been doing anyway. In a lot of cases homeschooling has actually saved us money on these activities. For example, my daughter always wanted to do gymnastics, but at nearly $500/year we could never afford it. Now she does gymnastics through our homeschool group, at $180/year. Technically homeschooling cost us that extra $180 because we weren’t spending anything on gymnastics before, but now she gets to do an activity she wasn’t able to do before. A lot of places that cater to children are sitting empty during daytime hours, and will give homeschool groups a steep discount. (Don’t get me started on how much more relaxing and family oriented our lives have become now that our evenings and weekends are free of bustling about to extra curricular activities!!)

Supplies: You really don’t need a lot of supplies to homeschool, and most of what you might use you probably already have in your home (like craft supplies, legos, and writing utensils). We spend WAY less money on supplies, clothing, and shoes, than we did when the kids were in public school.

I hope that break down helps some of you out. There’s so much variety of spending options with homeschooling, especially curriculum, but sometimes it helps to hear (see) at least one person’s experience as a starting point, and I do feel that we’re very middle ground spenders in the homeschool world.”

As always, thank you Lindsey for helping us with the financial aspect of what homeschooling can look like. Homeschooling can be accomplished, even when living on a tight budget.

Let’s Talk About: The Armour Our Kids Wear with Lindsey

Lindsey refers to her child’s attitude as ‘school armour’, what exactly does she mean? Let’s find out.

“I’ve always referred to the attitudes my kids had to wear in school as armour. It’s an attitude, and the attitude says: I’m tough.

I don’t listen to authority because good citizenry isn’t popular.

I don’t care about my grades because learning is for nerds.

I’m sarcastic because it’s funny and makes my immature friends laugh.

I’m rude to my siblings because only my peers are worthy of my respect.

I back talk to my parents because I’m too cool to be a good listener.

I’m cool.

I’m too cool to be a good student, a good sibling, a good kid.

When our kids get home from school each day, they’re exhausted. The weight of carrying their armour around all day has worn them out. Some express this with meltdowns, tantrums, overwhelming emotions (crying or getting angry for no reason). Others express it with bad attitude, being disagreeable, back talking. And others have to zone out, stare at the tv or a video game. And some may tip the other direction, and have an explosive amount of energy, pent up from containing their true selves inside their armour all day. I saw this happen with both my children.

Removing their armour takes time.

March Break, one week, it’s not coming off. Maybe by Thursday or Friday they’re starting to shed the armour and their behaviour is improving, but by Sunday they’re suiting back up again, ready to take on the school environment on Monday morning.

Christmas Break is better, two weeks, maybe two and a half, and by the end of week some of the armour has fallen away and you’re starting to see your sweet, kind child again. It always made me so disappointed if Christmas Break didn’t start until *just* before Christmas. I’d rather the kids have more time off before Christmas than after, more time to shed that armour attitude before the holiday comes around!

Summer was always the best. I couldn’t wait for summer break! Give them a week, give them two, and boom! my sweet kids are back! They’re getting along, they’re friends again, they love their parents and are willing to show it, they’re playing age appropriate games again! They always seemed to regress in terms of interests and play in the summer, but in a good way. They don’t have peers watching them and assessing their every move and decision for “coolness”, so they will engage in more juvenile games. Especially an older sibling playing with a younger one.

I noticed as my oldest promoted through the grades, that it was taking longer and longer for him to shed his armour when school took a break. I could see that with each passing year, the more he wore the armour, the more he became the armour. I felt that if something didn’t change, he would just become the kid he was while wearing his armour. Maybe that’s what an obnoxious teenager is after all, they are your sweet child, trapped in the armour they wear to protect themselves from the world?

And what of the kids who don’t figure out how to wear the right armour? What of the sweetest, gentlest, kindest and most naive of our children? Those without armour are the ones who fall victim. They get bullied, they are nerds, they are outcasts. They’re in danger of feeling rejected, shunned, being physically harmed, emotionally damaged, or developing mental illness. Not wearing armour isn’t the easy way.

Our kids need to wear their armour. Until our school systems are torn out at the roots and rebuilt in a better, healthier, more kindness and community based way, the best we can do for them is help them polish their armour. Help them carry the load. Be understanding, patient, and kind when they seem distant, rude, and unreachable. Teach them to use their armour as a shining knight would, to defend those they come across without any on at all. Our kids can’t remove their armour if they feel their parents are angry, annoyed, or impatient with them. That’s not to say that bad behaviour doesn’t require discipline, but try not to start believing they are the armour and not the kid underneath. You know who they are. Who they really are. Be as patient and understanding of the stress and weight their armour puts on them as you can. And be there, waiting for them, when they do find those times that they’re able to drop the armour off, shed its weight, and be themselves.”

I love this armour metaphor that Lindsey is talking about here. Are your kids holding tight to their armour from school? There’s hope. As Lindsey said, it takes understanding, patience and kindness even when they’re driving you nuts with their attitude. Lindsey was able to peel back the armour that her kids were wearing – you can too!

Free Homeschooling Daily Schedule

“What’s everyone’s typical day or routine like homeschooling?”If you are wondering the same? Looking for some ideas on how to start your planning?