To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool? That is the Question… (Part 1)

Some readers have been asking me why we have decided to homeschool our children seven years ago. Here is a blog that I wrote some time ago in as our initial reason why we decided to go this route.

As time went by, we found ourselves with so many challenges. Of course, I am not just a homeschool teacher, I also wear so many hats in life – just like everybody else. It always worried me that I was making my children late in their studies (what was I thinking? I’m still measuring them by the regular schools’ standards). In the seven years that we’ve homeshooled, there were 2 deaths in the family, I gave birth twice, countless numbers of hospitalizations and my hubby left us to work abroad for two years. During the first few years we homeschooled, I was also filled with so much self-doubt. Was I doing the right thing for my children? Shouldn’t I just go to work and help my husband earn money? Am I being a bad and lazy wife for deciding to stay at home with our children? So many, many doubts. With so many things happening to our family coupled with all of my self-doubts, it would have been easy to just give up altogether!

So here are some of the reasons why we’ve continued to homeschool:

1. You just can’t beat the family togetherness.

We’re together 24/7 and though there are days when it can just drive me crazy, the opportunity to guide each of our children is always there. I’ve always received comments and questions about how I can get all my children to obey me. This used to surprise me a lot because obedience is a given in our family. After receiving those comments, I started observing others and I can see that there are really some parents who find it hard to make their children obey them.

When their dad came home after two years of working abroad, I was able to decide that we will not be doing any school for about 3 or 4 months. Our family needed time to reconnect, to work again on strengthening our bonds. Since Dad was not able to work immediately, we had the opportunity to just enjoy each other at home and work on getting to know each other again.

2. There are plenty of options to take for the education of your children.

In regular schools, a child is forced to follow the system even if that particular system is not suited to their personality. That is why a child who happens to be kinesthetic and can’t stay put for long periods of time will not do well in a school setting where everyone is required to sit still for 45 minutes to an hour. The child who is so intelligent and who is working fast will be bored with a class’ slow pace. In the same way, a child who needs more time to work on a particular subject will be left behind. All these have resulted in the child being labeled as slow, stupid, dumb, problem child, etc.

With homeschooling, you are able to know your child well and work on her abilities. All of my children are different and this is how God made them to be. Over the years, I have slowly gotten to know them and their learning styles. In understanding their learning styles, I’m able to make curriculum choices that is suitable for them. Oh the joy of being able to throw out a curriculum that doesn’t work for my child and not forcing her to mold herself into the curriculum!

The reasons to homeschool are many and are mostly personal. I will end this part here and will write again soon!

I’d love to hear from you as well why you decided to homeschool your own children. You can post your comments here.

Review Preview: The Holy Bible: Mosaic - New Living Translation by Tyndale House Publishers with FREE GIVEAWAY

Two days ago, I received for review The Holy Bible: Mosaic by Tyndale House Publishers. For me, this particular review has many firsts associated with it. These are my following firsts:

1. It’s the first time I will review a Bible.

2. It’s the first time that I ever joined a blog tour.

3. It’s my first time to host a GIVEAWAY! Yes, one of you will have the chance to receive this very same Bible that I have for FREE! But you must read this blog to the end to find out how to qualify for the giveaway.

Wikipedia defines Mosaic this way:

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. Small pieces, normally roughly cubic, of stone or glass of different colors, known as tesserae, (diminutive tessellae), are used to create a pattern or picture.

It is from this standpoint that the editors and publishers have created this new Bible. I could not have said it any better than this:

On our own we are little more than bits of stone and glass. Together we are the Body of Christ. Holy Bible: Mosaic is an invitation to experience Christ in His Word and in the responses of his people.

The Key Features of The Holy Bible: Mosaic are:

1.  This is a New Living Translation Bible with accompanying “devotionals”. I placed the devotionals in quotations because I don’t really see them exactly as devotionals but more as weekly readings. The bible has a center column reference text with word study system.

2. The weekly readings are separated from the Bible itself. Though it is packaged as one, the first part of it contain 53 weeks of lectionaries following the church calendar year. The second part is the Holy Bible uninterrupted by human teachings.

3. Every weekly reading is accompanied by a full-color art, historic and contemporary, which will also assist you in your meditations.

4. The weekly readings are passages from the Old Testament, a Psalm, the New Testament, the Gospels and another suggested reading.

5. Included in the weekly readings are writings from contemporary and historical writings from many Christians across the globe.

You can experience the Holy Bible: Mosaic online here.

Below is a video with Mosaic’s General Editor Keith Williams telling what this Bible is all about:

Tyndale House Publishers have been generous enough to allow me to host a giveaway of a hard bound Holy Bible:Mosaic. Here are the rules for this giveaway:

1. This giveaway is open only to all Philippines residents.

2. Follow or subscribe to my blog for a raffle coupon.

3. If you have a blog, post a link of this blog on your blog and you will get one raffle coupon.

4. Post a comment not exceeding 50 words stating why you want to win this Bible or a question HERE and you will get another raffle coupon. Keith Williams, the General Editor, will be dropping by this blog on Nov. 20, 2009 to respond to your comments or questions. Every comment and/or question will earn you a raffle coupon each.

5. Finally, you have to include your name and email address within the comment for me to be able to contact you if you win.

For every action you take, you must specify on this blog so that I can take note of how many raffles to put in your name.

This giveaway is open starting today, Oct. 29 until Nov. 19, 2009 midnight.

Note: If you are the winner of this giveaway, I will send you  a certificate that you can use to claim the Holy Bible:Mosaic from Tyndale. You will have to mail this to the US, indicating your name and address, and Tyndale will ship the Bible to you. Shipping fee is covered by Tyndale.

The Holy Bible: Mosaic is also available at Amazon.

* While I did receive a copy of this Bible to review, this is not a paid review.

Ebook Review: Countdown to College – A Homeschoolers’ Guide to Winning Scholarships by Kim Anderson

Countdown to College – A Homeschoolers’ Guide to Winning Scholarships, authored by Kim Anderson, a homeschool mom who has been there. With her guidance, her two daughters earned nearly a million dollars in scholarships. In this ebook, she gives valuable insight and advice to helping your homeschooled child get ready for college, search for scholarships, prepare a portfolio and develop relationships with mentors who can give the student a solid recommendation. This valuable guide is filled not just with ideas but actual information on which organizations your child can join to build up her portfolio. She talks about the value of acquiring a college education for your sons and daughters. She also details here an organization that is geared specifically for homeschoolers.

Since I have a 14 year old daughter, I am always interested in anything and everything that pertains to preparing her for college. My daughter does a lot of extracurricular activities that I would like to record and present as a part of her portfolio. I also would like her to qualify for scholarships for her college education. However, everything is just in my mind and I still have no idea on how I can put it all together. Countdown to College has helped me to solidify these ideas in my mind, further giving me more ideas in creating a portfolio for her. Although, a lot of the information provided is applicable for those who live in the USA, there are still plenty of information that we Filipinos can use.

The good thing about this ebook is that you can buy it either on a per chapter basis or as a whole. The website is also full of information that you can peruse before purchasing the ebook. Kim Anderson has written a valuable guide for preparing the homeschooled child for college.

Go here to check out and purchase this ebook.

If you are checking out colleges, one great place to look is phoenix
university review
.

Pain, Pain, Go Away!

A few months ago, I fell down forward on our bedroom floor. Our helper had just waxed our vinyl flooring which made it very slippery. We’ve never had our flooring waxed before, the wax was only for the marble floors in our living room but for some reason she decided to wax the vinyl floors in our bedroom. At first, my 2 year old very active Flash Boy kept falling down. I thought that this was just due to him being very active. But soon I found out that it was because of the waxed floor. About two days after, I was going out of our bathroom and I slipped. I fell down quite hard and hit my left hand on the cabinets, my left elbow and left knee also bore the impact. After this, my two middle fingers started to swell a bit and hurt. My elbow and knee hurt for a few minutes then the pain was gone. I asked my husband if we should go to a doctor for the swelling of my fingers, he said we should just wait a while and maybe the swelling will go down. After two weeks, my fingers still hurt. Somebody advised me to get an xray of my fingers but I never did. Online casino Ireland. ###

Because of my sore finger, I couldn’t type for very long periods. I have to stop every once in awhile and rest. After a few weeks, I started to feel pain on my left upper back going down to my left upper arm. When the pain started, it was excruciating. My muscles would twitch from my back down to my arm and then I would have these intensely painful muscle spasms. Every movement brought so much pain. Hubby and I went to a doctor after a week of this pain and the doctor prescribed muscle relaxants. She said it would make me drowsy. On the contrary, it did not only make me drowsy, it made me very sleepy. I had to take the muscle relaxants three times a day. Which means I was asleep for most of the day. Of course, when I’m sleeping I couldn’t feel the pain, but once I wake up and get up from the bed, the pain is back. Not as intense as before, but still painful. I did not take the meds on the third day because I can’t sleep all day. I had children to teach and a home to manage, books to review and more things to do each day.

So I just kept on and tried to ignore the pain everyday. Unfortunately, having this pain left me exhausted by the middle of the day. Everyday, I found myself so exhausted. I could not concentrate on what I was doing. I had trouble teaching my kids because I would be so sleepy. I was grumpy all the time. My husband and kids suffered through my grumpiness almost daily. My back and arms were constantly painful and I didn’t know what to do. I’m unable to blog because I felt exhausted. I became so bothered by this that I started praying to the Lord to lead me to the right person who can help.

One day last week, when I was at a fastfood, I was reading the newspaper. I read about this doctor of chiropractor and he talked about relieving body pains without medication. I took down his number and immediately set an appointment.

Last Monday, I went to his clinic. I described to him the pain that I was having. He probed a lot until I told him about the fall that I had a few months ago. He said that was probably the cause of all the pain that I felt. When I hit my hand hard, my neck absorbed the impact. He adjusted my spine and my neck. In layman’s terms, I would say that he cracked my back and my neck. Lo and behold, I did not feel anything much right after. Except that I noticed myself sort of standing much taller and in general I had the feeling of lightness in my body, as if I could breath much better.

It’s Thursday now and I’ve noticed many other improvements. I am no longer exhausted as before. My back and arms still hurt, but the pain in my finger is totally gone. I am amazed! I could breathe easier and I have more energy. Wow! The back and neck cracking really worked! I must admit that I paid a lot, but the improvement in my body is well worth it. I’m still due for another treatment pretty soon.

I thank God and the good Dr. Cancio for what he does. I know that God answered my prayers and sent me to Dr. Cancio.

Philippines Homeschool Support Group Directory and Info

On this page, I will be listing down different homeschool support groups and homeschool providers in Manila as I receive information from the group. You can check back here often, I’ll continue to update this list.

Living Saints Homeschool Support and Tutorial Center

Contact Information:

         Martine De Luna

         Coordinator for Homeschool  Support Program and Tutorials

         Telephone 723-66-09 

         Email: [email protected]

Services / Support provided:

We provide "homeschool support" (that is, complete academic support for parents and children who are homeschooling. This includes lesson plan management, proctoring of tests and exams for the homeschool provider, assessments, scheduling of field trips and sports programs with other homeschoolers. We also provide tutorials for both homeschooled students and day school students.

Curriculum used:

We are not a curriculum provider. We are a service provider offering academic and extra-curricular support for homeschooling families. When it comes to assisting a family with their homeschooling, we can work with whatever homeschool provider the family is using as their umbrella program. Or, for those who are independently homeschooling without a curriculum, we can help plan out academic lessons according to the national standards for curriculum scope and sequence.

Rates:

Our rates vary from service to service, depending on a family's needs. 
Tutorial packages: From P2,200 monthly to P5,700 monthly, depending on no. of subjects and tutoring hours needed 
Sports programs: From P2,000 - P3,000 per ten sessions 
Field trips: From P100  to  P600, depending on venue and nature of the field trip

 

The LIGHT House SPED-Teach, Inc.

Contact Person:

Bange Torres    Janice Alberto   (we're both SPED teachers)

Contact Numbers: 492-6905 & 491-5017 & 0917-7923624

Email: [email protected]

Address: 70 Calamba St., Sta. Mesa Heights, Q.C. (near Banawe St.)

Services / Support provided:

Academic tutorials, IEP, case management, referral for psychological evaluation, educational assessments, reading & math programs, individualized program for learning gaps, modified instruction for ACADs of homeschoolers, SPED consultancy, therapies, science high school and college entrance exam reviews

Curriculum used: open

Rates: depending on needs of child

Current Affiliation:   TMA Homeschool, Tabernacle of Faith Christian Academy (Mainstreaming)

*we also handle kids from other regular schools for therapy and tutorials.

Note from Michelle: If you would like for your group to be included here, please email me the details.

Kreative Kids, Moms & Dads Schedule for October

Please go here for the schedule.