The HP Academy of Homeschool Shmool

This year, we finally took the plunge and decided to homeschool the girls. It wasn’t a sudden decision; I informally homeschooled the girls before we put them in for Kinder, and it was always one of the options, albeit not the most likely one. Until now.

Why did we decide to homeschool? Three main reasons. First, we want to be sure that the girls build a strong foundation. And not just in academics; we want the girls to have Christian values—integrity, excellence, a heart for service, kindness, among others—firmly in place.

Second, we want to customize the girls’ learning experience. They both have excellent reading and comprehension skills, and they have an extensive vocabulary, but their handwriting needs a lot of work (yes, handwriting is still important even in this digital age; read more about it here, here, and here). Their Math is acceptable, but can always be improved. Science is exciting for them, and they’re up to the challenge of learning more. They know a lot of historical tidbits, but local history could be beefed up, as well as appreciation and pride in our own Filipino culture. And speaking of Filipino—they don’t. Speak in Filipino, that is (my fault). The Hubby and I agree: if there is only one thing that the girls will learn this year, it will be Filipino.

Third, we all could use a lot less stress. The drive to school—which is only 7km away, and about 20 minutes on a Sunday—usually takes 45 minutes to an hour and a half (sometimes two hours!) on a school day. And because there is no school bus service to our area, I had to pick up the girls, and the uncertainty of getting a ride to the school and back was nerve-wracking. Of course, we also had to get up and moving much, much earlier, a feat for us night owls.  Then there’s the struggle with homework (now everything is homework! *cue evil laugh*), school projects, costumes, and attending school events. Now that we’re homeschooling, we’re more relaxed, and we have had fewer blow ups (mommy included).

As a bonus, the total cost so far is still about half of what we would have spent if we enrolled the girls in their old school. That isn’t even counting the cost of transportation! Our curriculum choice and materials are not the cheapest either, although I did try to source secondhand and preloved. We also are enrolling with a homeschool provider to make sure that getting our schoolwork credited with the Department of Education (DepEd) is easier, and to help keep us on track.

We’re only a few weeks in, so we may still be in our honeymoon period, but school has been enjoyable so far. We are still getting our groove, and we’ve had starts and stops and a few humps.  But I enjoy the fact that the kids argue less, and I can see distinct if small, improvements in their handwriting. Raine is considerably more fluent in Filipino, and she actually attempts to speak the language now.

I also need to get used to reading out loud, for chapters at a time. We chose a literature-based curriculum, and I underestimated the amount of reading aloud needed. Still, we believe in this style of learning, so I will just suck it up and continue to read aloud. We’re also looking for good quality audio books that don’t cost too much. The kids, Raine in particular, are also starting to enjoy reading aloud to each other, so that’s a good thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to be more organized, and have a dedicated space for homeschool. For now we do school at the work table, at the dining table, on the couch, in bed, and in the garage. We also do school in the car, and while waiting in line at the bank, for our service in church, for our food in the restaurant… isn’t homeschool amazing?

In my next post, I’ll talk more about our curriculum choices, and our homeschool provider.