Homeschool Journey Re-visited

It has been a long while since we updated our kids homeschooling page.

But last Saturday, June 13, my wife and I had such a great time in an interview by Ms. Christine Plata of South Pinanays group with Ms. Laksmi Maluya of Go-Pala Homeschooling that we are taking a few Q&A excerpts from the interview.

Disclaimer: This is not a verbatim transcription of the interview because we added some more ideas and clarity to hopefully guide those parents who are contemplating about homeschooling their kids due to the uncertainty of the education system in the on-going pandemic.

So here goes.

How many children do you have and what are their names and ages?

We have 2 sons. Our eldest is Matt Ezekiel who is now 16 y/o and the little guy is Mark Ephraim  who just turned 9 y/o.

Have your children always been homeschooled or have they at some point attended a private or public school? How was the adjustment like?

Both our sons are homeschooled since pre-school. Matt upon reaching 7th grade transferred to the traditional school in Laguna and Aim, now on third grade, is still is ongoing home-schooling.

For Matt's case, his main adjustment was unfortunately quite difficult in terms of peer group pressure. At the time of his transfer, his Filipino language is not yet proficient and, being the new kid on the block experienced bullying. His moral compass was also challenged by other kids who opposed him in words or by actions. (For example, we have taught him that lying is not OK and yet his classmates says it is OK. Playing gadgets inside the classroom is not allowed and yet he sees most of his classmates doing it). In time, though, he slowly adapted to the campus norm and is fine now.

Why did you choose to home-school your kids?

Since year 2000, my husband's work was China-based so our whole family was also with him there.

When Matt reached 4 y/o (yr 2008), we started looking for a Chinese school to enrol to but we never felt comfortable all along. Being both Catholics, we know for a fact that a communist country like China will never teach children about God and morality. The other option which is for me and Matt to go back to Philippines and be separated from my husband is also off the table. So then we started to look at the concept of home-schooling. 

           

Meanwhile, Bro. Bo Sanchez of the Light of Jesus and founder of "The Feast" community, has started his own home-schooling provider called Catholic Filipino Academy in year 2005. And being readers of his write-ups and oversea followers of his Kerygma Family, we came into conclusion that this is it for our Matt. So we enrolled him there and, as they say, everything is part of our family history.

Now comes pre-school Aim in the year 2016. We were thinking of directly enrolling him in a traditional

school since we are residing already in Laguna. However, knowing the fact that Aim is G6PD deficient, his health can be easily compromised by his environment and surroundings. So after some discernment and consultations with other home-schoolers like Ms. Laksmi, we finally decided to choose to home-school him "independently".

You see, Matt was enrolled with a provider, which was in a nutshell, like transferring the whole classroom set-up into our homes - there are lessons plan to meet, scheduled quizzes and exams to take and projects to complete. We have good support system from parent-coaches but it was still stressful and ultimately not fun in the long run. We accepted the fact that that kind of track learning was not suitable for our family.    

So for Aim, we chose to let him work according to his own pace and focusing on his strengths and

interests like creative arts and science projects in order to squeeze other subject matters. It's less

stressful for us and more fun learning for Aim.

What are your top 3 benefits of homeschooling your children?

Above all things, we are grateful that our children are growing up learning and nurturing our spiritual and family values inside our home. Hopefully, they will be able to absorb these into their hearts and be "strong" once they are finally on their own.

Next, the time we spent with each other is just super. In the traditional set-up, many parents leave

for work even before their child wakes up and get back home late when everybody starts to retire for the night. That's about an hour left a day for good bonding, if parents are not dead-tired from the long clocks at work and horrendous traffic. For us homeschoolers, we get to bond 24/7 with our kids. We mix family trips with educational trips. We serve in our spiritual communities that nourishes our kids social skills with the right crowd. We get to see our children smile a lot, get to affirm them of our love when they are sad, encourage them when they feel down, and remind them if misbehaving. Mushy as it may sound, our kids grow up fast and any lost time is irreversible. The next thing we know, they are grown ups and are off to their own lives.

Third, our children are enjoying their childhood. If they want to ride a bike, they can. If they want to go for swimming, why not? If they want to meet other home-schooling friends, it is just a schedule away. The kids today at a very young age is already exposed to such burdensome school requirements that they forgot what it means to be a kid, to enjoy life, to have fun in learning.

How does a parent become qualified to homeschool his/her child/children? Can anyone do it?

Honestly speaking, not anyone can do it but anybody can make it work given the right attitude and right conditions.

Right attitudes of any would-be parent-teachers includes:

1. patient – calm perseverance to teach their children even if their un-teachable mood. 

2. creative - a natural knack for different learning methods that matches his/her child's interest

3. resourceful - with endless stream of information, fun ideas and networks of support

Right conditions includes:

1. a designated learning area away from distractions like gadgets and TV

2. a flexible schedule and line-up of activities to avoid lull moments

3. at least 1 parent is full-time teacher

But above everything else, the parents unconditional and affirmative love for their child is the most important ingredient to have a successful home-schooling adventure.

What advice would you give first time parents who will be homeschooling this coming school year?

1.    Be convicted to succeed and be committed to the upcoming joyous learning experience with your kids.

2.    Turn your home into a fun learning school where both you and your kids are going to discover their potentials and learn their life-skills while bonding with you.

3.    Every child is unique so there is no one-solution-fits-all to begin homeschooling. Discover your child’s learning habits and work your way from there.

We wish all new first-time homeschoolers the best of luck and the best times you can have with your children.