The Homeschool Saga
Lemonade out of Lemons
This was not the plan at all. To home school this little one on top of everything else… not quite my forte. But after receiving a “not yet” from the school in which we want to enroll our daughter, we really had no choice.
We live in Ukraine, but as American parents who have different levels of language, we need our daughter to learn English. You would think that adopting a child and keeping them in their home country would be easier, but in fact, we are learning that it is much harder. The reason it is harder is that she is not SURROUNDED by English like children in English speaking countries are. The full immersion is how children learn language quickly and well. We were so hopeful that she would get as close to a full immersion experience as we could with her attending this English school in Kyiv, but they have just passed a new rule that prevents her from auditing and requires her to have a base level of English.
We did look at other options, but this was our conclusion:
Ukrainian School
While this is not a bad thing, our little one only speaks Russian and having to learn Ukrainian (in school) AND English (only at home and church) would be overwhelming and would hinder the English —> and lengthen the amount of time it would take to be able to communicate with us.
They would require her to go into the 3rd class, while she is only academically at the level of Kindergarten or First grade - not good for anyone!
Other English speaking schools
There are two other PROMINENT English speaking schools in the city, however, both of them have a tuition around 25-26K (to put it into perspective, this is twice as much as our current fund raised salary)
The schools that are less expensive are on the other side of the city - traffic in the morning would take near 2 hour to get there and back.
Homeschool
What seems to be our only option until she can pass the basic English exam required for entrance into the first grade.
The thing is, it seems like we’re in a bit of a pickle. She must pass a basic English exam to enter the school that was set up to support missionaries and their children, but to get her to that level, she would need to be around English speakers (surrounded) everyday - and while, yes, Steven and I speak English at home, she KNOWS that we understand her Russian and therefore has less motivation and necessity to speak it. Additionally, playing the role of both teacher AND Mom/Dad, it is very difficult.
On top of language barriers, we have discovered that our daughter has some academic barriers as she has not been in school for 2 years. We are amazed everyday at her potential and she has shown us that she learns very quickly, however, she has not been given the opportunity for the past two years to learn and has, therefore, run into quite a large gap between where she is and where she should be.
That being said, we are now in the position of playing catch up academically while simultaneously teaching intensive English.
SO.
This is where we are. We are homeschooling 5 days a week and starting with the basics. We are learning days of the week, months of the year, the weather, the alphabet, basic mathematics, and of course English. On top of it all, she is now attending intensive English tutoring all 5 days a week (1 hour on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 1.5 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays).
I must confess that we have NO IDEA what we are doing, but we are making lemonade out of lemons and just going with the flow.
I am drawing on my experience as both a pediatric occupational therapist and a TBRI practitioner, but I realize that I have absolutely no teaching experience. We are all learning together as this little one is enrolled in the “School of Mama and Papa”!
Our takeaways so far are as follows:
Predicatability - we have used schedules and charts galore so that she knows what is coming and when it is coming. This puts her little mind at ease and helps her navigate the day, anxiety free!
Songs and Games - science has proven that we learn more when it is fun and meaningful! I must confess that I have GREATLY modified my technology policy and we are incorporating quite a few YouTube channels (a post on which ones to follow!)
Multisensory - As an OT, this one is almost required. We have made our learning multisensory and incorporate play-doh, kinetic sand, music, movement, and even smells and taste in our learning.
Outside help - Like I stated before, I am Mama and Steven is Papa. Sometimes we need to remain in that role and help our daughter to feel safe and secure. This means that sometimes our role as “teachers” is impeded and we have learned quite quickly that we cannot be the only ones responsible for her education.
