Our Homeschool Diary #5: Take the School Outdoors

One of the advantages of homeschooling is the fact that it opens up the learning opportunities of a child in many ways. He is not confined to the four corners of his classroom but he has more freedom to learn that which interests him more, in a manner that he can easily understand.

Children are naturally inquisitive. They have lots of questions in their minds. My kids are obviously the same. Being homeschooled, Kuya is now able to explore more about his areas of interests. He loves science and learning random facts/trivia about anything and everything. To satiate his curiosity, he reads a lot of science books and watches educational videos. We are able to augment whatever we learn from our discussions with our outdoor escapades too.

It Was a Boring Friday

We are lagging behind on our history lessons. We really need to catch up though, since our Q2 Portfolio Review is fast approaching. As a student, I did not really like History. Maybe that is also the reason why we are not able to focus much on the subject. I know, "teacher issues", LOL.

The confines of the 4 corners of our home is making me sleepy, at the same time My Little Monster is also doing everything he could to bother us. I thought, we need a little bit of sunshine and some fresh air. So, pack up our homeschool resources and off we go to the playground.

Little Monster joins for a few minutes to "write" and cut the papers but he later on settles down at the playground. There are two small girls playing, so he joins them at the slides.

After we finish a chapter, Kuya joins Little Monster at the playground while teacher Mommy relaxes on the green grass and does "grounding" and some photography with her smartphone.

Grounding or earthing is a process wherein we connect our bodies directly onto the earth. It is said that the earth has a slight negative charge while our bodies, over time, build up a positive charge that eventually causes health problems. Grounding is said to help our bodies equalize the positive charge and put our bodies back to its neutral state.

Whoops! Do you notice those blooms on the dates tree?! It is one of the signals that summer season is fast approaching. At the height of summer, dates palm fruits ripen and get to its dark brown color. Whoah, we really need to maximize the colder breeze and line up more outdoor activities while we can.

I also love these lovely yellow flowers. I kind of relate them to Japan's sakura or Cherry Blossoms, only that, I have not seen an actual sakura and of course, they are pink. Now yellow.

The natural lights from the sun can really make wonders to the photos taken with my smartphone. I am quite satisfied at how the pictures came out.

We Skipped our Q2 Portfolio Review!

We are cramming on our History subject and a good "alibi" came in handy. We have a Homeschoolers' Family Day with our homeschool partner! Our portfolio review is originally set for February 24. We are working double time for our portfolio when the announcement came:

Image Source

Yey! This is our chance to meet with fellow homeschoolers and personally connect with them. The children also have a chance to play with other kids.

Look, we've got a big homeschoolers family here in Abu Dhabi! No prize for guessing where we are on the photo. _{(Image Courtesy of the HGME FB page)}

In the end, it is a well spent afternoon with the HGME family. My kids could not get enough of the playground and opted to stay even after most families have dispersed. However, the winds started to blow strongly and brought about dust so we also left after some time.

Our Next Portfolio Review

Our appointment is moved to two weeks later so we have ample time to prepare our projects. We are anyways 95% done, we just need to catch up on History short quizzes. We'll get by and make it on time (we have to, lol!).

Our Previous Homeschool Diaries

Our Homeschool Diary # 1: We Need to Purchase Books! - (let me know if you got these)
Our Homeschool Diary #2: Freedom & Responsibility
Our Homeschool Diary #3. Portfolio Review. Trust Your Child.
Our Homeschool Diary #4. Boundless Learning Outside the Home.

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(All photos are owned by the author unless otherwise stated.)

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