My New Goal for Educating my Children

Thanks to the disputable administration of my child's current school, my goals for educating my children have changed. It used to be finding a good school and delegating the responsibility of educating my children to them. Now it's  about finding a school that can help me act on the responsibility that is solely mine.

How can I say that I have been a good parent if the school I choose intentionally excludes the parent as part of the learning process? Is it not the main responsibility of a parent is to raise these youngsters and education especially in terms of academics is only a mere part of acting on that responsibility? And yet, the school is taking over most of their waking hours, bombarding them with facts then they call it education.

I've come to realize that parents' view of what they want their children to be become skewed once they enter the four walls of the school. It now becomes an unending race to achieve a somewhat deceitful goal, to be placed in a rank among honors, to be a valedictorian, to be attain the most number of medals, to win in the most prestigious national competition. What happened to the simple goal of raising your children to become a good person? To raise them in a way most pleasing to God so that when they grow up they may be able to glorify God through the things that they do?

I've heard of stories of parents menacing other people just so their children may achieve that deceitful goal. Others even resulted in physical violence that is simply contradictory to the supposedly ultimate goal. Have we as parents forgotten why we are blessed to have offsprings of our own? Have we forgotten what is important when the  end of our time has come? Do we want our children to value these pretentious things than be ready to face our creator?

I am scared of what I might become if I continue to travel this path. I've been that parent who meticulously goes over every test item to check for corrections. I confess to being frustrated when I force my child to study. I find myself in the faculty room questioning my child's grades. I stepped back and realize the horror that I've become. Is this what I want? Is this what I want for my children?

"I only have one shot at parenting and I want to do it right." I've heard this from someone and it almost brought me to tears. My heart is shouting the very same thing. I have to keep check my goals for parenting. Academic education is just a part of it and should not be the main focus. Now my aim is to educate my children about how to live their lives. A life that is God-centered, God-fearing, God-glorifying. Yes, I still want them to be good in Math, Science,etc but not because I want them to bag the highest honors, but because I want them to maximize whatever talent or gift God has given them.

3 Months' Progress

Since September I have been homeschooling my 2 year old son and, occasionally, my 6 year old daughter.

I'm happy to say that we've been making progress.

I've noticed that when my daughter and I make time to incorporate homeschool activities together with her school work, she manages to ace her tests. Now, we are trying so hard to find time after school to squeeze in some activities to help her strengthen her understanding of her lessons in school.  I try not to occupy so much of her free time so much so that she won't have time to relax and play. It becomes hard when she comes home drained and exhausted from school that most of the time I just let her take her nap in the afternoon instead. Hopefully, we'll have more time to do hands on activities soon.

As for my toddler, I am so proud of him for knowing his colors and shapes. Now, he is able to name and identify colors: red, yellow, blue, orange, violet, green, pink, black, white and brown. He can also name and identify the shapes: circle, square, triangle, oval, star, diamond, cross, rectangle (although he can't pronounce it very well) and occasionally hexagon. He can now answer the question, "what is your name?", in complete sentence. I can also see that he is a budding book lover since he always asks me to read to him his books and he enjoys our reading time so much that he even asks me to read his book thrice in a row. He can now count 1-10 without skipping any number and can count objects whenever asked to. He is now trying to count beyond 10 and reached up to 24. He can name the different animals in his ABC Book of Animals and can even give the sound of some of the animals. He can act out which way is up and which way is down. He is starting to identify whether the object is small or big and short or long. He can name and point to the different parts of his body such as: eyes, nose, ears, tongue, hair, armpit, lips, legs, arms, feet and hands. He can sing several nursery rhymes. He can make the sign of the cross and is starting to learn the prayer "Angel of God". He is also starting to identify the different letters of the alphabet. He can water the plants on his own. He can put away  his toys when asked to.

All these things make me feel very fulfilled as a mom. It is very rewarding to know that I was able to teach these things that they teach in school. I am happy to see their progress every step of the way. I am thrilled to discover their new capabilities. I am exhilarated to know that I am part of their journey to learning day by day.

These are things that I should be thankful to God for… for giving me the opportunity to experience these things with my children. I know that when they grow old, these are the times that I will remember, these are the times that I will cherish so much. Hopefully, they too will remember when they grow up.

Thank you Lord for these things!!!

...Only when ready

After 3 years of my eldest daughter in school, I noticed that the lessons are just constantly repeating and I wonder why this is so, Then I've come to realize that the schools now are not paying attention to the developmental readiness of each child.

I remember when my daughter was still a baby, I've read that not all babies develop at the same pace. Some may be early crawlers, or early walkers. Some may eat on their own by 1 some may be up and running at before a year old. We respect each child's individuality. we don't scold them, we don't reprimand, we don't consider it as a disappointment. We expect them to learn things on their own pace. Then parents put them to school at age 3 (others at 2 1/2 yrs) and all of this respect for their individuality gets thrown out the window. They are now expected to do what other children can do at certain time of the year. They're now expected to do what other children do at a certain time of the day. They become just a number in the statistics. A nursery student in a class of 20, for example.

When nursery students are expected to trace the names of the colors and your child simply doesn't want to, your child gets a low grade for that. What if the child simply isn't ready for writing but he is very artistic and likes painting and coloring instead of writing the names, wouldn't that be a more appropriate way of teaching colors. What if a child doesn't like reading the words in the flash card but gives his full attention to reading books with lots of illustrations, wouldn't that be enough to enrich his vocabulary skills. What if a child seems to be lazy when answering loads of worksheets but actively participates in games, wouldn't the lessons incorporated in games be more appropriate in  teaching that child. In school, it isn't. Because what is accepted and deserves an excellent grade is a child who can do whatever the teacher tells him to do, with no respect to his character and individualism.

The schools now are so focused on academics that they move more and more topics and more and more subjects to a lower year. It seems now that the trend for schools is whoever teaches the most subject is perceived as the better school. And subjects taught are only those that can be graded, how about life skills, how about habits and values. If they can't be graded then it is at the bottom of the priority list of things to teach.

Why would they include the names of the continents when a child hasn't even memorized the letters of his name? Why would you teach the parts of a grasshopper when he doesn't even know what insects are? Then they teach colors and shapes for three consecutive years with the same objectives each time?

In school, it's all about following a certain syllabus at a certain time. The child's interest, developmental readiness, learning style, basically his individuality is not given importance. Sad but true!

I believe that teaching is most effective when the focus is on the learner. You teach what they are ready to learn. You teach when they are ready to learn. You teach in a way they learn most. You teach what is important to learn. You will be able to teach well when you learn about the one you are teaching.

What color is this?

An Intro to migui's learning of colors:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150461719453332

Painting with migui

Painting with my son Migui. Check this out!

This was actually taken last july16:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150401581373332

and so it begins...

   Yesterday was another reason why I should homeschool my daughter. While their discussion was still on the third polygon, we were able to finish five. Aia was able to name the polygons and copy their names. Today we are scheduled to do a review on it. We'll be using match sticks to show the different polygons.

   To exercise her writing, I asked her to rewrite yesterday's entry in her reminder notebook to a more appropriate notebook (writing notebook instead of composition notebook which they use in school). We discussed about margins and spaces when writing. By comparison, her rewrite was as if it were written by a grade1 student. It was neat and organized. All I had to do was remind her about her spacing. I was very pleased.

   Before going to bed we read three books. One book she read by herself with some assistance, the other two I read to her. I learned from Mason that a material needs only to be read once with a focused attention to be able to comprehend, and so that is what I did. The first two books were focused on recognition of the words, so she reads it out loud when she knows the word then lets me read the unfamiliar ones. The third was more detailed and longer than the others. It was also the first time we read it so we were focusing on comprehension for the third one. It was perfect for the application of Mason's principle. After reading I asked her some questions about the story. It wasn't the usual who, what, when and where that the teacher in school ask. I asked how she liked the story? How she liked the character and why? When she answered, I kept on asking why and she kept on elaborating her answer. It went like this:

Me: Did you like Mog(the cat in the story)?

Aia: Yes

Me: Why?

Aia: because he's good.

Me: why is he good?

Aia: because he saved the valley

Me: why did he save the valley?

Aia: because there was a heavy rain and it flooded and…(she continued to tell the story in her own words and understanding)

   PERFECT! We were able to accomplish our goal in just one reading. I was very happy. I felt a certain sense of accomplishment. Most importantly Aia was happy. She loves reading and discovering new things. This reading session was an ease to her because it was about understanding and making the story come to life in her head rather than memorizing certain details of the story.

Renewed Desire to Homeschool

   Today, I spent my time researching about homeschooling. I have read at a certain homeschooling web site key points on why one should homeschool and I felt strongly about the reasons given. The points given are completely in line with my principles about learning. I really felt in my heart that this is the way to go with my children. Even before, we have already started homeschooling since I give my daughter advance lessons during the summer. There was even a time that we've already finished studying one book before the school year even started.

   To examine further, I know my daughter's strengths and weaknesses therefore I know pretty well how to manage her study lessons to her  advantage. I also know her learning style so I know how to teach certain lessons based on that. For instance, I know that she loves Math and English and she learns them pretty fast. The pacing on her school set-up does not match her capability on these subjects. On the other hand, Filipino seems to be a bit of her waterloo since she practically grew up speaking mostly English. I think that she needs more time and to absorb her lessons to fully understand this subject.

   I know for a fact that she is a logical thinker and she loves figuring things out in order to make sense of things. This is not used to her full advantage in  the normal school setting. It is also advantageous to her to tickle her musical and spatial intelligence, something that is far fetched from the teaching style in school wherein the focus more is on textbook learning.

   Although she is doing well in school, I think that learning should be to her advantage by honing her to her full potential. I just think that the normal school setting is basically limited to what is written in their curriculum and time frame. I refuse to let her be boxed in to what the school deems appropriate for her to learn. I know what she's capable of and to not tap into these potentials is an offense to my child's intelligence. And so, it is with full justification that I decide to homeschool my daughter for good.