Homeschooling in Kuwait

I am a work-from-home-mom with a money-making Web site that works for me 24×7. Others may think that since I work from home, juggling both my WAHM career and family is easy or that I have enough time in the world to spare. A big NO – esp. the past 9 months wherein we had no maid. Thank God for sending us a new maid – a heaven-sent. I’m on my way to reconnecting with myself. My kids are happy, too. Hubby and I can go out together, have a date, watch movie, do and be more…hopefully.

Though I work from home most of the time, I also go out from time to time to work. In the past, I used to go out every Friday (whole day) just so I could work for 10-12 hours. Now that we have a new maid, I am planning to go out 3x a week. I’m currently outside to work but I’m just not in the mood yet to work so I thought of updating this blog.

I recalled a conversation I had with a mom yesterday. She also has a 4-yr old daughter who will be enrolled in a KG school by Sept. She was telling me that her daughter now knows how to write her name, how to count from 1 to 100, and more. I was thinking that my almost 4-yr old daughter isn’t like that. But not comparing, my daughter is way ahead in some areas than other 4-yr old kids. The mom told me I should stop engaging my daughter in gadgets like iPhone etc. She said that when she saw my daughter tinkering my iPhone. She told me that my daughter should instead watch Dora or study the alphabet, etc. I told her my daughter is bored with such stuffs, so instead she watches or listens to audio books for kids in my iPhone, or watches youtube videos on how to bake a cake etc. There are times, too, that my daughter loves to watch tutorials on how barbie puts make up! Uh-oh.

While my almost 4-yr old daughter doesn’t know yet how to write her name, how to read, how to write, count from 1-100, add, subtract, (well, how many 4-yr old kids know these things?), she’s simply amazing at her age. She thinks and speaks in English, her accent is perfect, and she can converse well with adults. How many can do that at a young age? She watches English movies and understands them well. She watches instructional videos from YouTube, and more. While I may worry at times because she doesn’t know how to read yet or write her name, but her mental development or rather comprehension is way beyond a 4-yr old! Reading can be learned, and so is writing. But comprehension is something that one shouldn’t learn. It’s as natural as breathing. And when a kid doesn’t know how to comprehend, true learning becomes a problem.

While writing this post, I am thinking about where the ‘problem’ lies as to why my daughter isn’t reading nor writing yet at her age. You see my daughter doesn’t want to be taught. For as young as 2 months old, I saw in her one thing – DEFIANCE. When I taught her the sound of the lion (growling) at 2 months, she started to mimic the sound from that day and forward – at 2 months! How many two months old know how to growl like a lion? I really scolded myself for teaching her the sound of a lion because she was then growling real hard, and so I thought she was hurting her throat every time she growled and growled without being told to. She started to sing at 2 months. She was able to sing and say the words “I will” in a song that we’re singing when she’s 3 months. And many other developmental milestones…However, as I previously wrote, my daughter doesn’t want to be taught! She learned the alphabet without me telling her that this is A, B, C, and so on…I just sang the alphabet to her whenever I had the time. And one day, she surprised me that she knew all letters. I didn’t teach her how to write, but one day, she surprised me when she said, this is how to write C, H, A, and a few other letters. Sometimes, I’d scold myself for not teaching her THAT MUCH. But how? Maybe if I’d forced her to ‘learn’ with me, she’s able to learn more about reading and writing. But I’m thinking, too, that should I have been so tough on her to do this and that stuff, she wouldn’t have been thinking independently…

Kids learn at their own time, pace, and space.

My youngest daughter, over a year old now, surprises me everyday. Like my eldest daughter, I’ve never been too hard on teaching my youngest girl. Her learning is so rapid that I often wonder “where and how on earth did she learn that?” Two days ago, my youngest daughter was doing exactly what her big sissy’s doing when having tantrums – like making face while hands are on her chest in a corner (exactly the same corner that her big sis goes to!). I laughed real hard when I first saw it but at the same time I scolded my 1st born. I told her to set a good example to her baby sis because she’s mimicking exactly her behavior.

Last night, my youngest daughter also surprised me when she mentioned the shapes and she got them correctly – like the star for the wooden star, and round for the other shape that she was holding.

Kids learn through examples and from the behavior of others.

I should better watch out on how I behave in front of my kids most of the time than burden myself on what to teach my kids — because they’re geniuses in their own ways.