Eclectic-unschooling for 2021-2022

This new homeschool year deserves to be more joyful. Why? Because my children deserve it. My family deserves it. There is enough challenges in the times already.  Our home is our cocoon of safety, peace, joy, and love. And so will it be with our homeschool.  How will this year be different with the previous years? We're heading full on with our Morning Time, and we'll be more of the eclectic-unschooling type, more-interest-led, and project-based.

For my own "professional development", and to help me navigate, I got hold of books specific for the journey:

• Better Together: Strengthen your family, simplify your homeschool, and savor the subjects that matter most (Pam Barnhill) - a Morning Time guide.
• Homeschooling with Gentleness: A Catholic discovers Unschooling (Suzie Andres)
• A Little Way of Homeschooling: Thirteen families discover Catholic Unschooling (Suzie Andres)
• Project-Based Homeschooling: Mentoring self-directed learners (Lori Pickert)

I usually just register for the free access of homeschool conventions, but this year I purchased passes (I can do this every, or every other, year) for two homeschool conventions ("paid account" had me really tuning in):

• Catholic Homeschool Conventions 2021 (I love that it gives me a lifetime access to the incredible talks!)
• Connect Homeschool and Intentional Parenting Summit 2021: Thrive at Home

 

Here's how our days are going to look like:

Morning Time starts at the breakfast table with Catholic Sprouts Podcast, and daily newsrounds from CNN 10, and/or Children's BBC Newsround.  Call to prayer with a hymn (it has been Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah), this allows the kid to transition from what they're doing to our main Morning Time. We pray the Rosary from Mon. to Thurs., Divine Mercy Chaplet on Fri., and St. Michael Chaplet on Sat. followed by the Gospel for the Day. 

For our Morning Time lessons, I use pre-made plans I bought from Pam Barnhill's Your Morning Basket (less planning for me).  And add some more materials that I want to cover (more planning for me) that includes Religion, Virtues, Classic literature, picture books, Filipino tales, and leadership.  

Project-based-wise, I let the older brothers pursue their own interests.  I had them plan their own schedule, and subjects they want included-- Religion (Faith & Life 7), Math (Sir Cumference seris, , Science, History, Literature, and  Writing. They also get to choose the topics they want to read.  No workbooks or assignments.  

For the first grader, we're doing Phonics, Handwriting, & Spelling using programs from Catholic Heritage Curricula.  We did not finish Math-U-See Primer last year, so we continue to work on the 2nd half of the book, afterwhich, we'll use picture books from the Five in a Row booklist & lesson guides along with subjects that include Science, Social Study, and Arts. Five in Row is a multi-level, literature-based unit study program.  For Religion, we are using Faith and Life 1 (she works on the activity book enthusiastically, as with most of her materials).

As for the four-year old, he unschools, along with the goal of reading to him 4 books in a day. He's also tuned in for our Morning Time.  And the 18 month old, she's a budding bookworm.  She loved to be read to, like the rest of them did (and still do).   

With the pandemic still raging on, our mental health priority takes a front seat.  It reminds us to re-think what should matter in our homeschooling, in our home-- our relationships, everyone's health and safety, our sense of peace, joy, and a full love tank.  The academics, they can be had at a more relaxed pace, with a more simplified content, because no one's really "left behind". Trust that learning happens naturally.  There are graces that God pours in this season, and the important thing is to open up a room for that.

 

The year of the pandemic

 This should have been posted before school started, but here we are on our 3rd trimester.  Just for documentation:  I've added two things to help manage our homeschooling life. 

1) An organizer system. Made a box each for M1, M2, an J3 (unschooled last year, but now had to do a more formal Kindergarten) where they obviously keep their books and notebooks.  A space of their own, pretty simple.  Things still get lost, and pens vanish in thin air, but there's some improvement-- the boxes continue to be in use. 

2) I just want to keep the kids together, and spend time with all of them before they go work independently, hence, the "morning time".  We start with praying the Rosary (Mon to Thurs)/ Divine Mercy chaplet on Fridays/ St. Michael chaplet on Saturdays, and almost daily read up a Saint story. Then depending on the day, we read stories on virtue/character, Bible study, poetry, Filipino stories, classic literature, or do picture study. This morning time thing is specially helpful with a infant, and her ever changing needs as she reaches different stages and milestones. It has been like a... lighthouse. 

The rest of the "study time", the boys work independently on their Math/Science/Literature/Writing/Social Studies/Religion... depending on the day. Electives are Art, Music, Genius hour (where they pursue whatever interests them).

Writing has, and continues to be an area of struggle for the boys, especially M1, so I've invested on IEW. So like most of the world during the pandemic, they are also doing their learning by video streaming.  They're in fashion like that. (Seriously, though, I would highly recommend to most parents to explore homeschooling as there is such a huge difference from online/distance learning, where, as I understand, kids spend hours and hours staring at the screen.  If sitting in a class can be hard enough, how much more in that kind of set-up? Makes me wonder how much learning is really happening for most of the students?)

The boys are now also using Google and YouTube for their research.  Layers of filters in place, and enforcement of screentime.  Also subscribed to Epic!  With more kids reading, an ebook subscription platform can come in handy, and is cheaper. It's a techie-er year.  

Okay, it all seems like it's regular schedule.  It has been a blessing that we do not have to suffer such drastic change, school-wise, when the pandemic reached our shores.   But we do miss traveling-- visiting relatives, seeing other places, field trips, moving around in the city, and the kids miss their friends from the neighborhood, too.  I'm thankful for the wide open spaces in the village, and the 5 of them having each other for playmates.  It lightens the burden the of living through a pandemic.  If there's anything that we have to learn, it's to focus our energies on things that matter-- relationship, building up ourselves to be good people, and matters of faith and all things eternal.

 Our academic year ended three weeks ago after what felt like another year of drudgery. In fairness, within the year I got pregnant for the 5th time and during which, we tried to cover our curricula as much as we can so that we do not lag behind schedule as I expect to really slow down once the baby was born. Also, the boys did most of the work independently, but not before the was hormonal momma barked orders around. 

Some of the gems we found, and progress we made: thevirtualinstructor.com for art skills, Sitting Like a Saint by Greg Gotta do (a book on Catholic mindfulness for kids), Learning How to Learn course at Coursera, kayaking for M1, J3 unschooling herself and now she is [formal] Kindergarten-ready, rosary in Latin in the mornings, unsupervised use of power tools for M1, M2 progressing with violin lessons, M1 and M2 interest-led crafts (tiny robots, carton & styrofoam  battletanks & battleships in 3D, J4 potty-trained (at last!).

Yes, this time will be remembered in history as the year when the corona virus hit the world and had it on its knees. Friends said the kids were lucky because they were already homeschooling (indeed, in terms of education, we didn't have to fumble in the dark). But the thought that you couldn't go out felt like prison. The kids missed playing outside, and interacting with their friends in the neighborhood was severely restricted. So, for a time, for the sake of their mental health I let them out, with the constant reminder to do the precautions against Covid-19... physical distance of 1 meter between friends, wearing of mask, and hand washing. They play in the rain, and the mud with every rainfall. Every hug I get from them I cherish.

My 7-Step Homeschooling Get-Start

Step 1: WHY do you want to homeschool?

• Have a mission/vision.
• Cultivate a homeschool mindset, starting with education paradigm shift.

Step 2: Identify the homeschooling METHOD that fits your family best.

Step 3: Get more information

• Join a SUPPORT group.
• Consider buying the book, iHomeschool.

Step 4: Do you prefer to…

• have DepEd-aligned curriculum thru [accredited] PROVIDER?  Inquire, and enroll with your provider of choice. 

         OR

• CUSTOMIZE? (Refer to step 2.) Choose CURRICULUM...

• under a provider (open curriculum).

                  or

• independently.

Step 5: Acquire books & other materials.

Step 6: Plan your schedule. 

Step 7: DIVE IN!

• Science of Learning
• Jade’s parenting booklist (because relationship is key)

SY 2019-2020 Opening

The bulk of our materials for SY 2019-2020 has arrived!  I'm glad it arrived when it did and not a few more days late as I now only have 4 days to prepare before we formally have our first day of school (I have to read all the introductions and guide to parents).  The arrival of materials always feels like Christmas to me.  The kids are excited as well (but only because it includes a box of Tinker Crate).  But I also feel overwhelmed.  Last year was a rush, and probably a blur, as my focus was to get all the busywork-- the workbooks, done... never mind that I took a lot of shortcuts.  That's what long, frequent vacations without bringing along the workbooks do to our family.  And with that came the feeling that we went through most of our lessons just for the sake of ticking a 'done' box, but with not much learning.  However, their experience in Texas and Nevada was probably more enriching than all those busywork, so that kind of made up for that.  

This year, we don't have plans of big travels, so I hope to just follow the daily lesson plans, and take it easy. But I remind myself to keep things simple as this mom will definitely have lazy days especially as I approach the third trimester of pregnancy.  With the birth of a new baby, a family transition even before the second half of the school year.  Again, I expect to deviate from the routine that a daily lesson plan gives.  I've been there twice before.  

As we were unpacking, I gave a mini pep talk to the boys: this year we'll work at being more perseverant, diligent, and patient with the schoolwork, with ourselves, and with each other.  Simple. 

For this year I will use another Grammar, and Spelling material with my eldest. I love Language of God (CHC), but the kid struggles working on it that we most both end up upset when it comes to writing sentences.  So, I'll be trying the free Language Arts curriculum from The Good and the Beautiful.  For history (also a literature/writing program), I got for us Connecting with History: World History from a Catholic Perspective for it's classical approach.  According to a review, it focuses on humanities, and has lots of reading and application of grammar and writing. I think one of the best materials that I will incorporate this year (and the subsequent years) is Pilgrims of the Holy Family.  Even the dad is looking forward to the activities (I made him in-charge).  And it is with reading the introduction of this book that I realized how blessed we are to be [independently] homeschooling... that if overwhelm is my homeschooling 'storm', this insight by my eldest son (with whom I not only struggle with Language Arts, but with a lot other homeschooling and non-homeschooling issues as well) is my calm in the middle of the storm.  It goes, "...by teaching proficiency in a variety of life skills for the purpose of developing well-rounded young men and women whose primary aim is to know, love, and serve God." I know he was listening when, referring to the last part, he said, "because to love God we have to know God, and to serve God we have to love God..."  It did seem like he merely repeated it but I know in my heart that his understanding is deeper, and this was something he took with him from a previous lesson. My son has learned one of the most, if not the most, important lessons he needs to learn.  I thank and praise God for that. 

There are many more moments that remind me to look at the positive side, and the blessings of our homeschooling journey, like when they apply the virtues of modesty, and honesty in testy situations.  But as we open this school year, the insight of M1 above is my encouragement, and perhaps, God's way of saying, you got this!

Homestretch

At week 30  out of 34-36, we're at homestretch.  Just a slight back-log h our reading practice, otherwise, everything else is right on schedule, hence, will be able to finish our books for the school year. 

With a toddler in tow, we were core subjects-heavy for the year, almost side-stepping the electives, but enrichments--humanities, arts and music are important in their holistic development, so lately I've been incorporating and tried catching up with picture study, and also a weekly plan and determination to finish our ArtAchieve.com Level 1 before the year ends.  Also started the boys with  learning the recorder with Yamaha Advantage.  (Now I know that music class in high school was not for nothing). 

Just read a review of the movie Captain Fantastic, which I already watched 2 months ago.  It mentioned "nature schooling".  Google "nature pedagogy".  Nature schools or forest schools have cropped up in Europe, and the movement has started in Australia. Here in our city, everyone's kid is in Kumon.  Nature schools would have been a better alternative, in my humble opinion.  Anyways, so I searched on the topic, looking for how to's, and curricula, only to realize that we have it all along.  Nature study, nature walks.  We're just a little behind.  Should commit to weekly nature field trips once the baby is out and we can be out and about nature trekking.  And there are quite some places we can explore (ah, the advantage of living in the province). 

So, I've bought our books for the incoming school year, (though we homeschool year-round).  They're on their way.  Everything has been delivered to my sister in the US, which my parents w ill bring home with them.  Excited.  How can I not be?  Went SOOO over the budget.  Excited for the things we'll learn.  Praying with the coming year, learning will be more interesting for the kids.  Still more textbook-based, especially with the language arts program, but with how I have splurged on the materials, investing on non-curriculum materials, I'll take it as a lesson to learn to part with textbooks and have the courage to go for the more interesting, living books than be stuck with the drier textbooks, in the future.

As for record-keeping, a typical course of study, and achievement records (which includes materials used, date of completion, and credit) for first, and second grade levels, for the 2 boys have been filed, and will do for now. 

Field trip: Provincial Library

Our first field trip for the school year was a visit to the provincial library.  The collection of children's books weren't as exhaustive as I would have wanted.  It didn't generate as much excitement from the boys, (though the little girl wouldn't let go of Pancake, Pancake by Eric Carle.)  I showed them some books that we used to play on the CD, they recognized it and were smiling about it.  We read a Madeline and the Old House in Paris (John Bemelmans Marciano).  We checked out, and scanned pages of some more books.  Like I said, it wasn't a very big collection but there were books I'd definitely would like to read to the boys, musty as the old books are.  It's too bad they don't allow the books to be borrowed and brought out of the building, because people don't return the books.  I'll surely bring them back for story time.

After, we made a side trip to the pet shop where a duck's webbed feet got M1's attention, as did the white mouse running in its wheel.

First day for SY 2016-2017

It's our first day of school for SY 2016-2017.  It has been a long day for the boys because they were used to having just 3-4 subjects/day during the past few months, and today, we have to cover additional subjects, 7-8 core, in all.  But fear not, lest I kill their interest in learning, we'll have to fine tune our sails this week so both mommy and kids will have an over all happy journey this year.

We're using the following materials:

For M1:

Reading: Bigger Stories for Little Folks, Devotional Stories, Devitional Stories Too
Grammar: Language of God (Level A)
Handwriting: CHC Handwriting 2
Mathematics: Math-U-See Beta

For M2:
Reading: Little Stories for Little Folks, What Do You Like to Do?, What Can You Do? (Easy Readers)
Spelling: My Very First Catholic Speller
Handwriting: CHC Handwriting 1
Mathematics: Math-U-See Alpha

For both M1 & M2:

Religion: Faith & Life 2 (Student Text), Book of Saints
Science: Behold & See 2, Science 2 for Little Folks, Onions in my Boots
Social Studies: Explore the Continents
Character/Values: Laying Down the Rails, Building Good Character
Art: A Childs' Book of Prayer in Art, ArtAchieve.com
Music: Making Music Praying Twice, Classicforkids.com
P.E.: Swimming, golf
Literature & Poetry:  various age-appropriate living books
Filipino: various Filipino children's books

For the teacher:
Lesson Plans: CHC Lesson Plans for First Grade, CHC Lesson Plans for Second Grade, CHC Lesson Planner
Language Arts: Creative Communications
Mathematics: Math-U-See Alpha, & Beta Teacher's Manuals
Misc.: MaterAmabilis.org


________________________________
Our Lady, Star of the Sea. Pray for us.

School about to end, plus something new on the site

We're in our last weeks of our school year. We're basically just making up on lessons that fell behind schedule because some days we just got a little lazy to learn formally with the textbooks.  We're ok with the pacing though, we still have a month for vacation which means less risk for the equivalent of the summer slide.

---------

I made some changes in the layout of this blog.  The links are placed in another page instead of the sidebar.  The links are not an extensive list of resources, they're my go-to/preferred sites.  What I'd usually recommend to friends.  I've also made another page of articles.  Posts that made so much sense to me-- something that I could've written myself!  And, I definitely liked that they're backed by science.  I'm just having challenges navigating the parenting waters, so they're some sort of lighthouses.  Or life-savers.

Making noise again

It's been quiet here for quite a while, 10 months to be more specific, but only because outside the blogging world we've been kind of busy. Homeschooling with an infant.  How we did it?  It's just really taking each day at a time.  Very thankful we're using CHC. We stick with the core subjects most days.  The rest of the time, the two boys are left on their own to play.  And, we unschool--among the highlights were kite-flying with the grandfather, and, we've started learning to whittle. This year, we also had a headstart of about 2-3 months (finished early the previous year), so we don't feel hurried with our schedule.

Now that baby J is almost 16 months old, she's also asking for read alouds a lot.  Lots of Mother Goose rhymes and singing.  She pulls books from the shelves and looks at the pictures-- voila! Another bookworm! So, yeah, I have 3 students now under my wings.

I already have most of M1's books for the incoming year, from the same curriculum catalog, CHC.  Additional materials will include a book for picture study, art lessons from ArtAchieve.com, and piano lessons from Hoffman Academy.com (M2 will learn these subjects with him). M1 is asking if he can start inventing already, so I'll probably burn some more cash to get that Little Bits kit.  

For M2, he's in the middle of Kindergarten (K1 & K2 combined, for a year) program, except for Science, and Religion, which he took with M1, grade 1 level.  He works fast, and is enthusiastic most of the time to homeschool. This kid has a great attitude, doesn't complain a lot, and is very kind.

On parenting.  The biggest challenge of parenting, in my humble opinion and experience, is coming to terms with one's self.  Despite knowing that among the keys (and probably the most important) to parent well is to set the example, it has truly been a humbling experience.  After 7 years of being a parent, I see my eldest, and the result of my so-called parenting. He's a great kid, but I also see how I could've done better (or, how I've inflicted damage?).   Now more than ever I realize and feel the impact of that. If there is someone I have to "parent" it's myself first. Sort out all that angst (where did it come from, anyway?).  When time flies so fast and you just have a window, and you don't think you did everything perfectly, you just get anxious sometimes... and that's where I am right now.  Anyhow.  I've managed to get a hold of some books.  If you're like me who's keen to improve parenting skills, and be intentional, these are my run-to reads:

• The 5 Love Languages of Children,by Gary Chapman
• Personality Plus for Parents, by Florence Littauer
• The Whole Brain Child, by Daniel Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson
• How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk, by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish
• Building Character, by David Isaacs

5 Field trips

It has been almost two weeks.  But these field trips are worth blogging.

During our two-weeks vacation with the grandparents, my dad, their grandpa took them to several field trips that I had to beg for at least a day of rest in between adventures. My dad turns out to be a great unschooler, specializing in field trips.

First off, we went to Tagaytay where they saw the volcano and the lake surrounding it. The "island within a lake within a volcano within a lake" was better appreciated with Google Earth.  The view was seen while in the vicinity of the mini zoo this back-to-back field trip. Although I'm not a big fan of zoos here in the Philippines, because of the animals' less than ideal condition (they belong in the wild), the kids would have a better appreciation of the wildlife they read in books.  They got to touch several of the animals, namely a tiger [cub], a python, an iguana, a cockatoo, an owl, and fed parakeets. M1 also rode a horse!

Second field trip was a visit to the National Arts Center. It's the big red-roofed structure one can see sitting on a slope of Mt. Makiling in Laguna.  There they saw a view of Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the country, and a smaller lake, Alligator Lake.

On the third trip, M1 got to do some ice-skating at the Mall of Asia. We hired an instructor for 2 hours as the mother is not good with it either, aside from having a baby to take care of. M2 would rather not. Maybe next time, when we parents can skate along with them.

Fourth trip was their 2nd time to the Mind Museum.  Among the perks of being homeschoolers: us parents can honestly print out homeschool ID cards that say "TEACHER", present it at the ticket booth, and get the discounted rate for teachers-- which we did! The boys continued to be fascinated with the exhibits, especially that of the outer space. Since we arrived a little late in the afternoon already, we were left with only one show to watch.  While we waited for our ride home, they boys passed the time at its educational playground.

The 5th and last field trip was a boys day out (with Poppa & Lolo) at Anilao, Batangas, where they went snorkeling. Prior, the boys aren't confident with their snorkeling, but there and then, I supposed they were forced by the situation to learn, and so they were able to enjoy the underwater scenery of corals and colorful fishes.  And so they went home with animated stories to tell about the biggest fish they saw, a sea urchin, etc.  Unfortunately there was no octopus lingering around, which at the time was the animal they had their fascination on.

So, what happens after the trips?  How do we follow through?  Do we make book reports, etc.? Well, we're not really textbookishly nerdy, so, no, we don't give them assignments to summarize their learning experiences (only I blog about it).  We just let the experience enrich their lives.  A lot of the topics that can be discussed, we already have read about in the past, or have casually talked about (or will talk about).  But the experiences are already there in their memory banks, a resource we can readily tap on.

How we did the early years to Kinder

We finished Kindergarten level last January, and we’re now in the middle of vacation. We plan to start his 1^st Grade on April. Here’s the long and short of our ‘Early Years’, and how we’ll do it all over again with the 2 younger siblings.

Charlotte Mason’s method was the closest fit for our family. I liked her concepts of the art of gentle learning, and how it seemed so natural-- developing good habits, getting acquainted with nature, exploring with the five senses, growing in their spiritual lives, and playing outdoors. (See SCM Preschool guide).  We patterned our curriculum after Mater Amabilis Preschool (MA).  Sometimes we used  a sprinkling of other methods and materials, as each method offered something appealing. During holidays, and on very laid-back days, we shifted to unschooling.

The early years are formative years. For us, this was about bonding with the kids, and starting them with the right habits, character and faith formation. We read classic read-alouds to them while they sat on our laps. Play (see more play & learn activities) was definitely encouraged. When it comes to toys, I preferred the classic wooden toys for them.  They explored outside. We listened to children & classical music CDs.  And we talked to them a lot. We had no television, and they were not allowed electronic gadgets.  A parent’s self-improvement was also critical at this stage for character formation because these things are caught and not taught. We also got to know their personalities, and learning style better.  For this stage, I would also highly recommend Before Five in a Row. 

For Kindergarten, we used Catholic Heritage Core Curriculum, a couple of its elective materials, and we continued to stay close to MA as much as possible, and also unschool, and continued the things we've been doing for preschool.

Resources:

• Education Is
• The Early Years: A Charlotte Mason Preschool Handbook
• The Unschooling Handbook
• School starting age:  the evidence

Birdwatch 1

The pied triller below is now under the care of the 2 boys.

It was found in our lawn this morning, unable to fly.  According to M1 it was safer for the bird to be kept inside the house so it will not be run over by cars.  M1 identified the bird right away, with its black eye marking, as we browsed through Birdwatch.ph's galleries (our bird @ Gallery 5- Family Campephagidae, also pied triller).  We made sure we were looking at the right picture by also checking on the shape of the beak and the color of the plumage.  What we learned is that the bird feeds on insects it catches on the ground and while it is flying.  We also listened to samplings of its song and calls on the internet while our actual live bird is still weak to make lots of its own noise. 
Photos taken by M1.

Dear Kitty,

 
Today we finished our last chapter of The House at Pooh Corner (we've also read all of Winnie-the-Pooh).  It reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes.  And a childhood long gone by.  It made me think of oppressed children and their lost childhood.  And it made me think of children the ages of my sons stuck behind the school desk.  And now I think I know what the [homeschool] moms meant when they say that the worst day in homeschool is still better than the best days of school.  Although my kids are not yet reading words on their  own (oh, but they do read!  why else would they like opening books?!) and doing their math operations,  I celebrate these days of Legos and backyard explorations; and the comfort of having a brother for a constant companion; and the pretensions of being a peregrine falcon and of being a manta ray; and evolving interests, from cars to animals to dinosaurs; and of getting dirty with mud and more dirt; and the reluctance of taking a bath at the same time refusing to finish taking a bath; and the fascination with experiments without a hypothesis to prove or counter.  And as I send them off to bed, I wonder until when will your tail provide a soothing passage to sleep.  I think of your future and the days when you will turn to memory and nostalgia.  Because these, too, will pass.  But until then, I'm glad to have given them the opportunity to live their days like Christopher and Calvin in the land of enchantment and imagination. 


J

Cool to Unschool

I've been telling those who bother to ask what we've been up to that we've been on vacation for the longest time, since January, and our school year starts on September.  And that's for our 1st official year of homeschooling.  Come to  think of it, since homeschooling is not just going-to-school-only-it's-done-at-home, but more of a lifestyle, really, homeschooler's don't really go on vacation mode.  I've just realized that we're not really on vacation but just on the more unstructured extreme of homeschooling-- UNSCHOOLING!  We've taken a break from M1's textbooks, all those phonics, math, and writing.  But we continue to read.  Everyday books lie around, they scan pages, fascinated by the pictures.  At times they ask me to read, at times they don't.  They open story books and encyclopedias.  And of course, they learn from their play, from building blocks to pretend play.  They learn from the things around them.  Last week, they swam with whale sharks. When we got home we read on whale sharks, and other sharks.  We sometimes watch video clips of wild animals.  They're fans of the blue whale.  The other day, we again went to the beach.  M2 insisted we take home some sea water so he can conduct an experiment:  he wanted to see what will happen if we mix the sea water with oil.  Imagination flourish.  Today, they had their art moment (without any cue from me).

From the book, I'm reading, it says, trust that the kids are learning.  I believe they are. It's like knowing kids are growing and getting taller each day, you can't tell that everyday, but when you take their measurements, there's no denying that they've grown.  I'm not sure about M2, but M1 sure got my introversion, but engage them in a talk, you'll be amazed by the knowledge they've amassed at their age.

Meanwhile, I'm still in the middle of the book.  It gives me comfort in times when I can't sit down and be like the ideal homeschool moms blogging about their creative homeschools, that for our family we're doing just fine.

Links to Simple Solutions by Abby Sasscer (Seton)

I love homeschool mom/author Abby Sasscer's Simple Solutions series of articles.  Very helpful, and it works for us.

•  4 Simple Solutions for Teaching Our Children Calmly and Effectively.
•  The #1 Secret to Being Patient and Strong with Your Children.
•  How to Get Acceptable and Appropriate Behavior from Your Children… in Public
•  4 Tips to Teach Your Children to Obey Out of Love - Not Fear

Ways to be Kind to Your Child (links)

Kindness [to kids] is something like taking time to smell the flowers, know what I mean? 

100 Ways to be Kind to Your Child
52 Things to Say to Make Your Child Feel Great 

Arts & Crafts for Boys (link)

Thank goodness for some of the world's ultra creative moms who make arts & crafts simple as cut & paste.  Again, linking for future source of ideas.

Boy Get Crafty by Red Ted Art

How we started to homeschool

I'm tempted to link to another article on how to start homeschooling (ok, I will... check this out). But let me tell you how did my husband and I start homeschooling our boys.

Homeschooling isn't completely alien to us. It is not a foreign-sounding term, quite self-explanatory, plus we know someone who had tried homeschooling. So, we were aware that there is actually such a thing. But still, we didn't bother to explore the world of home education. Which was why it never crossed our minds to send our kids other than to a regular school. Until we chanced upon a forwarded email, an article about all the wonderful things that this option to educating our kids has to offer. It pretty much openned our eyes, so much so that it convinced us there and then. So, the first step was finding out the reasons WHY we wanted to, and should, do this. Why take on the responsibility of educating them when we could've just worked hard and send them to a good school?

Step 2 was RESEARCH. About anything and everything under the homeschooling sun. Educate yourself. This could be a little time consuming, but not necessarily expensive. That's what the internet is for. I started looking up how to homeschool-- how to and what to teach the kids, lesson plans, curriculums, resources, books, support groups, providers, legal aspect (local rules and the take of the Dept. of Education), how to keep records, etc. Along the way, I also found out that there are actually different methods to teaching your child, different schools of thought when it comes to homeschooling (like Mason, Montessori, Waldorf, eclectic, classical, etc), different learning styles, even good parenting, and childhood development. For starters, things can get overwhelming (and to think, our kids are just toddlers). And when it did get overwhelming, I read articles that gave very sound advice-- not just on the technical aspect of homeschooling, but encouragements that are very much from the heart... just parent-to-parent, heart-to-heart talk. Also, clear up doubts and concerns that discourge a parent from taking this road.

Next was putting all those research to good use. We came up with a monthly, weekly, and/or daily SCHEDULE. Taking hold of teaching materials of our choice. Since we haven't signed up for a provider yet, we had to come up with a GOAL, a checklist of what the kids should've learned by the end of a period. In short, this stage is really about having a definite, solid PLAN, and getting ORGANIZED. Warning: there were lots of revisions, and there's always a need to step back, and do step 2.

Then of course, the action... diving in, and actually homeschooling.

The rest is optional (but can be helpful)... keeping a blog, becoming an advocate, attending homeschool conventions, so on, so forth.

My personal tip while still figuring the whole thing out: if your child is in his early childhood, read to him everyday, bring him out for a walk often, let him play a lot; if he is older and had been attending the usual school, talk with him about your decision to homeschool, ask around for reviews/feedbacks about homeschool providers (Philippine homeschools), and get one. Always spend quality time with them, and really get to know them. Be a good example.

Last but not least, pray... pray for God's blessing and guidance so that we may be successful with this endeavor, and be able to raise children that are not only achievers in every aspect of their lives, but are also pleasing to His eyes.

Pointers on raising a moral child

Lots of nice stuff floating around FB, but this one, I have to link to from here. Because it's true for our family, "Yet although some parents live vicariously through their children’s accomplishments, success is not the No. 1 priority for most parents. We’re much more concerned about our children becoming kind, compassionate and helpful."

• Praising their character helped them internalize it as part of their identities. The children learned who they were from observing their own actions: I am a helpful person. 
• Praise appears to be particularly influential in the critical periods when children develop a stronger sense of identity. By the time children turned 10, the differences between praising character and praising actions vanished: Both were effective. Tying generosity to character appears to matter most around age 8, when children may be starting to crystallize notions of identity.
•  Shame makes children feel small and worthless, and they respond either by lashing out at the target or escaping the situation altogether. When children feel guilt, they tend to experience remorse and regret, empathize with the person they have harmed, and aim to make it right.
• Parents raise caring children by expressing disappointment and explaining why the behavior was wrong, how it affected others, and how they can rectify the situation.
• Children learn generosity not by listening to what their role models say, but by observing what they do.

Model, model, model!

Full article:
Raising a Moral Child