August 6, 2020 (Thursday, MECQ)

Dear Diary,
 
Today is the sixth day of homeschooling for my seven-year-old son. We skipped one day because yesterday was our rest day and his father was around so we spent quality time together. Besides, this is a wise decision since we are really distracted when my husband is around.

Even though he woke up at 9 am today, we started at 2:45 pm because I wasn’t feeling well this morning. Nevertheless, he still made the bed in the morning after waking up. He actually made the bed thrice already by the time we started.

After he started his computer, I asked him to check the date as usual. He was able to easily identify it. He also edited today’s date on his notes. 

We prayed and I decided to correct his behavior today. He was usually antsy and not focused when praying so I called him out for that and explained that we should be earnest and behaved while we are praying. Otherwise, we are disrespecting God and it is not good to do. He realized his mistake and I advised him to pray and say sorry. He did as advised.

After the prayer lessons, I asked him to check the weather. It was easy for him to identify that today is a cloudy day.

Next, we practiced the national anthem. He spent 45 minutes and tried to master the first stanza before we decided to continue tomorrow.

We watched a video for Values Education about a PWD girl and I explained to him how disabilities are not reasons for us not to be able to work hard and achieve our goals. 

My husband came home at 4 pm while we were discussing Values Education and my son got distracted again. He acted up and I was about to lose my patience so I decided to call it a day by 4:45 pm. It is quite ironic that we are discussing Values Education when this happened. But I read somewhere that it is not always sunshine and rainbows with homeschooling as it is with traditional school and in real life. 

I decided to teach my son a lesson so he would value our study sessions. I asked him to do house chores after he asked that we stopped studying. I explained that studying is quite easy as compared to working. And that if he does not like to study, then he should try working instead to see which is easier between the two. 

I also told my son that I am cancelling his Netflix access as well as his mobile phone access and his Roblox access. The only thing he could choose to do is work. But that if he chooses to study, I will return all access to his leisure activities, which he is allowed to do whenever we are not studying.

Despite the punishment, I am secretly hoping and praying that my son learns his lesson and I hope that we can start anew tomorrow. Today I have to use tough love to teach him what is right.

In less than 15 minutes after our supposed end of class, he requested that we study again after he finished his first chore. My prayer was answered and he learned that it is easier to study than to work.

Today’s subjects included:
- Values Education
- English
- MAPEH

We are way behind in lessons due to the distractions on our fifth day and the distraction today. I hope we catch up soon.  I finalized “his notes” for today and prepared the lesson for tomorrow in 5 minutes. That’s it for our sixth day!