Raiz Roots Homeschool Month 1: Finding The Joy In Learning Through Personalization

The end of September wrapped the first month of our Seashore study at Raiz Roots Homeschool. Watching our children blossom over this last month was truly a blessing. Arturo and I poured our love into planning this school year for our children. We could have easily enrolled them in an online school, as I worked for one for five years, but we wanted to use and build a curriculum around our children’s interests: nature, cooking, robotics, and Spanish. To be honest, planning for our children brought back the joy of lesson planning and teaching that I have been missing these last few years. 

With the help of the Nature School Activities Book and Llamitas Spanish, we began our study of Seashores in both English and Spanish. We began investigating different types of sand, and coastal landforms, and Arturo and I facilitated conversations around what they already knew about oceans and what they wanted to know. Our children finished that first week of school with so much excitement and I sat there proud that we could give them these experiences and foster such engagement. 

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Summer was ending, and we had been promising the children a trip to the beach. So we took our newfound knowledge to Fiesta Island in San Diego, CA. The children made predictions about what types of sand they would see. We discussed sand dunes and bays, and collected sand and seashells to observe under a microscope and create art. Our children have been walking around with the shell prints they created for days.

The best part has been hearing our children talk about how much fun they are having. The ocean facts are never-ending, and the Spanish retention makes my inner-niña envious (in the best of ways). That joy was our biggest goal when we decided to homeschool our children. As an educator, I have encountered so many students who seemed burned out by the monotony of school. They lacked motivation because they weren’t interested in what was being taught. How different would schools look if students got to choose what they were learning? How many students could we prevent from slipping through the cracks and dropping out of school?

Raiz Roots is about empowerment through self-exploration. I am grateful that we can give this gift to our children, and it is our goal to share this gift with any families who desire it.