Is Homeschooling for You? And if It Is, How Can You Do It? [FREEBIES AND GIVEAWAYS]

CONTEST RESULTS  After ensuring the validity of entries, The Nanay Notebook is happy to announce that the winner of the raffle is NADIA DE LEON.  Congratulations! See you at the Homeschool Conference 2014!  Please email me your full name and mobile number so I can submit them to the contest organizer, Manila Workshops. Warm regards, Blessie Adlaon

On a signal-number-2 day in August, my kids are all in "school."

• My 9-year-old is learning Java Script. 
• My 7-year-old is doing typing lessons (currently at 15 wpm), and later she will make loom band bracelets, which she will sell to our neighbors at P50 each. 
• My 5-year-old, who has never been inside a formal classroom, is reading aloud the Act of Contrition.

Welcome to our world. This is what homeschooling in the Adlaon residence looks like.

Why Homeschool?

Every homeschooling family has its own reason. In our case, our three main reasons are

1. protection and preservation of the children's innocence;
2. the freedom to teach our kids what we believe is truly important, in the way we believe children should learn; and
3. financial flexibility.

I will discuss each of these very briefly:

Preservation of Innocence. In school, away from teacher supervision, I saw and heard a lot of things that I now know children should not see and hear. In other words, garbage freely entered my mind – and once garbage enters, it's very hard to take it out. 

Now is not the time to discuss what happens when one's mind is sullied. But I know it is something I do not want for my kids. Homeschooling is one way I am able to protect them until they are discerning and spiritually strong enough to protect themselves.

Freedom to Teach. Do you ever feel that your child's school is teaching too much too soon? Does your child wake up extremely early, sleep very late, and have little to no time for play, because there is schoolwork to do? Do you feel helpless in the midst of it all?

My husband and I refuse to feel helpless in the way our kids are educated. That's why we chose to take full charge by homeschooling.

Financial Flexibility. My husband and I are both freelancers right now. Income is unpredictable. We don't always have money in June. 

By homeschooling, we can enroll in September or December or whenever the money comes. We decide what books to buy, what field trips to take, and we never have to spend on PTA fund raisers. 

Want to Learn More?

Click image to enlarge

Manila Workshops, The Learning Basket, and Unilab, supported by the Homeschool Association of the Philippine Islands (HAPI), are proud to present the Homeschooling Conference of 2014, entitled Educating for Life: Homeschooling with Passion, Purpose and Confidence. It will be held on September 6, 2014 at the Bayanihan Arts and Events Center (8008 Pioneer St., Kapitolyo, Pasig) from 8 a.m. (registration) to 5:30 p.m.

The speakers and topics are

• Irma Chua (Educating for Life). Irma is a mom of six and has been homeschooling for 20 years.
      
• Dennis Poliquit (The Hands-On Homeschool Dad). Known as “Big Daddy Jake” over the radio airwaves, Dennis is a hands-on homeschooling dad of two sets of twins and one singleton.
      
• Moira Bunyi (The Confident Homeschool Mom). Moira has a postgraduate degree in Family Life and Child Development and has been homeschooling for five years now.
     
• Yen Galagnara (Learning in the Digital World). Yen was a “housemate” at Pinoy Big Brother Season 2. She homeschools her three children while she runs a Korean language school.
     
• Jen Bellosillo (Introducing Filipino Arts, Culture, and Heritage). Jen has been homeschooling for six years now. She mentors other homeschooling parents as a CFA (Catholic Filipino Academy) parent coach.
     
• Tina Rodriguez (Homeschool 101: Getting Started). Tina, mom of three, is a work-at-home and homeschooling mom who advocates her faith through her blog, Truly Rich Mom.
     
• Donna Pangilinan-Simpao (Conquering Homeschool Fatigue). Donna is a medical doctor. She homeschools her three children. She is also the founder of the Facebook group "Homeschoolers in the Philippines."
     
• Ivy Marquez (Nurturing the Love of Learning). Ivy homeschooled her three children up to high school.

Learning Fee (and How You Can Get a Seat for FREE!)

The cost of attending the conference is as follows:

• Php 1000 per participant
• Php 1500 per couple (We encourage both parents to attend!)
• Php 500 per child (7 to 18 years old)
• Php 500 for PWD
• Php 500 for groups of homeschoolers; with a minimum of 5 persons per group

However, you have a chance to attend the conference for free! (Yes, FREE!)

Simply join our contest via Rafflecopter below and win TWO FREE SEATS to the conference! (Yes, TWO!)

But wait. There's more. You'll also get a heaping bag of craft goodies, sponsored by Bee Happy Crafts.

So of course you want to join the contest. Now here are the mechanics. To join:

1. Like Bee Happy Crafts on Facebook.
2. Like Manila Workshop on Facebook.
3. Like the Learning Basket on Facebook.
4. In the comment box below, leave a comment using an email address we can use to get in touch with you in case you win.

Each of the above equals one entry, for a total of four. (The more entries you make, the bigger chances of winning!)

Now if you want to further increase your chances of winning, please also like my Facebook business page, Facebook.com/WishPhilippines, the first local online wishlist publisher in the country, and follow me on Twitter, @WishPH.

This contest runs from August 13 to 22, 2014, Philippine time. Winners will be chosen through Rafflecopter and announced on August 23. Prizes (free seats and craft materials) will be given at the conference site on conference day.

Now if you can't wait for the contest results and want to register right now, please visit homeschoolingconference.com.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Nanay Notebook is written by Blessie Adlaon, a work-at-home and homeschooling mom of four. Check out our About page to know more about this blog's author and our policies on advertising, press releases, and reposting.

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Kolbe Academy FAQs for Enrollees in the Philippines

1. Are they open to having enrollees that use a different curriculum (e.g. Sonlight, Catholic Heritage, etc.)?

Yes, they are. You as the parent have the right to choose what curriculum to use with your child. The main thing is that you are able to prove to Kolbe, through proper documentation, that your child indeed learned the materials that are contained in the curriculum you used.

2. How do you send in your sample works, grades, etc.?

We scan them and save the whole set in PDF, then we email them to Kolbe. The documentation is arranged per quarter, but we compile all quarters so we can send them in one blast at the end of the year.
For high schoolers, however, it is highly recommended that you send quarterly reports quarterly, not annually.

3. Do you do all subjects?

No. For grades 1 to 3, we only do reading, phonics, grammar, math, science, and religion.

The full Kolbe curriculum includes geography, spelling, and history. We will include geography and history starting grade 4.

If you wish to teach Philippine history and geography, you may do so, but you will have to find your own curriculum and books for them, because Kolbe does not supply such materials.

4. Do you teach Filipino?

No, although I tried on our first year. My problem was the lack of good curriculum and materials for teaching the subject.

If my kids are ever required to take a validating exam in Filipino, they will fare like other children who were schooled using the US curriculum.

I agree that this can be inconvenient. This is why my children are transferring to a Philippine-based homeschool provider this year.

5. Do you buy all their books?

No. I get most of our materials online. You can get cheap or even free digital versions of McGuffey’s readers on Google Play, Project Gutenberg, and Amazon.com.

We subscribe to Starfall.com for my kindergartener. There are online flashcards at Factmonster.com. There are also plenty of printable exercises you can get for a P500 annual fee at Schoolkid.ph.

I sometimes browse the textbooks at National Bookstore for the occasional textbook gem.

The only books I get from Kolbe are their religion books. I used to get them using Johnny Air, but if you order the books right after you enroll online, they can be shipped along with the curriculum.

6. How old was your child when you enrolled her in kindergarten?

My second child was almost six years old when she enrolled in Kolbe’s kindergarten. My eldest was seven when he enrolled in Kolbe for the first time, in first grade. They did not ask if he had gone to kindergarten. But that could have changed, since US schooling policies seem to require kindergarten now too.

7. How much time do you spend homeschooling?

I hesitate to answer this question because you may interpret my answer to mean how much time YOU should spend homeschooling.

The point of homeschooling is that you get to adjust everything to your child’s individual needs. I recommend that you carefully gauge how long your child’s attention stays, and when the child has obviously become tired, don’t push it.

When my eldest was in first grade, he could tolerate two hours of class. When my second child was in first grade, she could only tolerate one hour of class.

You may ask, how was my second child able to finish her lessons in half the time?

Actually, the lessons were short enough to be finished in one hour time. My eldest child took two hours because when he was done with his lessons, his mom made him do extra practice!

Today, we have done away with the clock. I give them their tasks for the day, and if they are able to satisfactorily do their lessons in fifteen minutes (that means no mistakes on the exercises), they can go.

What do they do the rest of the time? They play. They study the things that really interest them.

They have drawing lessons through YouTube. They make their own dragon models out of cardboard and glue stick. They use Android apps to learn French vocabulary. Right now, as I type, they are exploring the properties of reflection and iridescence using flashlights and old CDs.

8. How much does it cost?

Please click here for my complete post on that.

9. How do you find Kolbe Academy so far?

Their curriculum is excellent for busy working mothers who are looking for an affordable curriculum with maximum flexibility. Their religion curriculum is excellent for Catholics. They are loyal to the Magisterium. I love that.

But this year, we are transferring to a Philippine-based homeschool provider because I would sleep better knowing that my children have Filipino and Sibika at Kultura in their curriculum. Also, Kolbe's flexibility is not quite suited to my personality.

Nevertheless, we will continue to buy Kolbe's curriculum and books for religion.

Note: This FAQ list is based on my experience and is not officially sanctioned by Kolbe Academy. To get information straight from them, please visit their website, kolbe.org, and find their contact information there.

Other questions? Please ask them in the comments.

The Nanay Notebook is written by Blessie Adlaon, a work-at-home and homeschooling mom of four. Check out our About page to know more about this blog's author and our policies on advertising, press releases, and reposting.

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Book Review: Mga Kuwento Ni Lola Basyang, from Tahanan Publishing

This year, for our homeschool Filipino curriculum, we're not using textbooks. Instead, we're using "real" books. The goal is to expose the children to the true beauty of the Filipino language and, at the same time, Filipino culture (social studies integration!). To do that, we have compiled a reading list of Filipino storybooks for my kindergartener and second grader.

And what Filipino reading list for children would be complete without that timeless classic, "Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang," right? So we got one. Mommy, being the cheapskate that she is, did not want to pay for separate books, of course. Instead, we got an anthology of 12 stories from the publisher, Tahanan Publishing, for just P275. I'm still congratulating myself on getting a pretty good deal!

So what do I and my kids think of the book?

The language

In a word: beautiful. The language of "Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang" was something any purist would easily fall in love with. There was not a single word borrowed from English. I could imagine my lola from Bulacan telling me the stories using exactly the words used in the book:

May isang pag-asawang napakabait na malaon nang kasal ay hindi magkaanak. Mabuti nga't mariwasa ang kanilang kabuhayan, ulila man sila sa anak na mapag-aaliwan sa kanilang tahanan... ( from "Ang Prinsipeng Unggoy")

Of course, my kids had a hard time understanding everything at first. I had not wanted to translate or simplify anything at the start. But the kids complained that they could hardly understand anything I was saying, so eventually, I compromised by reading as is and then translating and simplifying:

Si Timo ay gumapang sa bubungan ng tinurang bahay ... bubungan means "roof," ... hanggang siya'y makababa sa dakong azotea ... Azotea is ... you know when you have a second floor in your house and you have a door on the second floor that leads outside, but there's a place for you to stand without falling?

Azotea became a favorite word in our house for about three days. 

The story plots

The plots were, I almost regret to say, not for general patronage at all! For instance, when I scanned the first story, "Ang Sirena sa Uli-Uli ng Ilog Pasig," I was shocked to see the violent ending:

"Siso, yayamang ikaw ay ayaw nilang alpasan nang hindi ka mapasaakin ay hindi ka rin mapapakaninuman!" at biglang kinagat si Siso sa gulung-gulungan. ... Iniwan ng Sirena si Siso na nagdaranak ng dugo.

In other stories, there were words such as "lintik" and "ulol." Apparently, our ancestors did not mince words; they called a spade a spade.

But I also I realized that this lack of censorship is part of Filipino culture: We are a warrior people. Suffering, daring, war -- these had been our lives. Death -- and violent death, even -- had been our ordinary reality. We could not shelter our children from them, so we didn't. Instead, we had carefully trained our children so that they could live with and survive violence without being overpowered or consumed by it.

Did the kids like the stories? Yes, they did!

I think it is precisely this lack of sanitation that attracted my kids so much to these stories. How do I know they liked the stories? Well, "Maryang Makiling" is a story with two parts. After the first part, I told them I'd read the second part the next day. (The first part alone was already much longer than our usual bedtime story.)

You know what seven-year-old Josh did? He took the book and struggled through all the hard words of part 2 all by himself, just so he would know what happens next to Timo and Maryang Makiling.

So will we continue reading these stories at night? Well, I plan to keep reading the stories, but I'll probably be censoring out the parts that make me too uncomfortable. When the kids are bigger and more thick skinned -- maybe when they're 10, as the publishers recommended this book for that age -- maybe then, they could read the stories by themselves and not be too horrified by the parts that now horrify their mom.

For now, though, I still want them to hear the stories. I want them to bask in the language. It is very seldom that I find such well-written Filipino stories. I am not about to deprive the kids of them, simply because their mom was such a squeamish chicken.

To buy Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang, you can contact Tahanan Publishing's sales department at (+632) 813-7165, or visit their showroom at Ilaw ng Tahanan Publishing, Inc., Unit 402, Cityland 3 Condominium, 105 V.A. Rufino corner Esteban Street, Legaspi Village, Makati City. Click here for more information. You can also buy other high-quality Filipino books published by Tahanan Publishing online at The Learning Basket.

DISCLOSURE: This is not a paid post. The author has received no compensation in any form from anybody to write this article.

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The Best Way to Help Your Child Learn (and Enjoy) Filipino

It's ironic that, considering we are all Filipinos, a lot of us consider the Filipino subject in school to be a difficult one. It's our own language, for crying out loud. Why does it have to be so hard?

Well, here's what I think: Filipino is hard because the curriculum and textbooks were designed with the presumption that the readers already understood Filipino. So the expectation is higher than what the average learner can actually achieve.

Why? Because the sad truth is, the average learner does NOT know Filipino -- at least, not the kind of Filipino that you expect them to study in school. They know the shallow, adulterated street Filipino. Show them a closed door and they will say it is "sarado," which I think is a corruption of the Spanish word "cerrado." Will any of them say it is "nakapinid"? Are any of them familiar with that Filipino synonym? I wouldn't bet on it.

No shortchanging, please

So how do we help our children learn and enjoy Filipino? Let's expose them to the language in an enjoyable manner -- by giving them high quality Filipino books!

When I say "high quality," I mean books that have beautiful pictures and, most importantly, purist language. Too many so-called Filipino books I see in stores nowadays shortchange us by incorporating English words into their supposedly Filipino translations, or they use ordinary Filipino language.

Now I'm not saying that exposure to everyday Filipino is useless. If your children are hardly ever exposed to the Filipino language in your household, and they can't even compose a five-word-long Filipino sentence, then exposure to everyday Filipino may be just what they need.

But if your kids already speak and comprehend everyday Filipino, what's the point in exposing them further to it? It's time to level up!

Top-quality Filipino storybooks

This year, our homeschool Filipino curriculum is composed entirely of reading Filipino stories from Filipino books published by the best publisher of Filipino books I've found so far: Tahanan Publishing. For our lessons, we got "Mga Kuwento Ni Lola Basyang," by Severino Reyes; "Ginto Habihan," which is an anthology of Palanca Award winners; and "12 Kuwentong Pamasko," a Christmas story anthology.

We started reading "Mga Kuwento Ni Lola Basyang," but we stopped after one story because (1) the Tagalog was very deep and the kids had a bit of a hard time, although they still enjoyed it very much, and (2) some of the stories were rated Parental Guidance (PG). Severino Reyes, apparently, did not design this book for four-year-olds!

(How deep is the Tagalog, you may ask? And exactly how much did my kids enjoy it? And what makes me say the stories were rated PG? And at what age can you let your children read it by themselves? Find out in my book review of "Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang," by Severino Reyes.) 

Gintong Habihan also used deep Tagalog, but less often. It was lighter reading for the children -- and it was not PG at all (and yes, they still enjoyed it, ha ha). And gently, they were getting exposed to Filipino words, becoming familiar with the true sounds and spirit of the language, which made it easier for them to decode meanings from context.

I believe that as my kids get to read more beautiful Filipino stories, they will learn that Filipino is something that is fun and beautiful, not something that is difficult and boring. Then, perhaps, when the time comes that they have to study "Ibong Adarna" and "Florante at Laura," it will not feel like drudgery. Maybe they will even savor the experience, as the authors of those wonderful Filipino classics had meant their work to be savored and enjoyed.

DISCLOSURE: This is not a paid post. The author has received no compensation in any form from anybody to write this article.

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Kolbe Academy Homeschool: How Much Does It Cost?

I received an email asking how much Kolbe Academy costs, so here's the quick answer (if you can't see it, you need to turn your computer images on):




(Image too small? Click on the image to make it bigger.)

You can see from the table that

• the more students you enroll, the less it costs for each student; and
• your second/third/fourth/etc. enrollment costs less than your first.

When we enrolled Josh in grade 1 for the first time last year, we spent around P10,000. This year, with Josh re-enrolling for grade 2 and Bea enrolling for the first time for kindergarten, we spent around P16,000.

Payment is via credit card. You need to call their US office to give your credit card details.The first time, I called them through my Globe cellphone and it cost me 15 pesos per minute. Next time, I'll be getting Skype credits instead, so it should cost me only 1 peso per minute. The phone call took about 10 minutes because the person who answered my call and I had some trouble hearing each other.

Don't worry about giving your credit card details to a stranger. They have a small and trustworthy staff, and you can easily verify that you are talking to a staff member by checking Kolbe Academy's staff page. 

Are there installment options available?

Yes! You can pay via five installments. The first installment is upon enrollment. This first installment is one-fifth of your total tuition amount, plus a 35 dollar Overseas Family fee and a 5 dollar credit card processing fee.

The second installment is one-fifth of your total tuition amount, plus 5 dollars credit card processing fee. It is charged to your credit card on the first day of the month you begin your homeschooling.

The third, fourth, and fifth installments are one-fifth of your total tuition amount, plus 5 dollars credit card processing fee. They are charged to your credit card on the first day of your second, third, and fourth month of homeschooling.

For instance, if you register on May 5 and start school in July 17, your card will be charged on May 5, July 1, August 1, September 1, and October 1.

When can we enroll?

You can enroll any time of the year. Josh finished his school year in May. The moment I submitted his grades and exams for validation, I also registered him and his sister for the next school year.

You can start the school year any time you like, as long as the previous school year is over. Last year, we started in August. This year, we started in July. Summer vacation is not mandatory -- but of course, no teacher would want to skip it! (My kids do not yet know they are entitled to a summer vacation, so we could have just gone on and on and on, if I had preferred to do it that way.)

What does registration include?

With registration, you get 

1. the full curriculum for each subject. This lets you know what you are expected to do every day and what you are expected to accomplish every week;
2. quarterly exams, so you don't need to keep a detailed anecdotal portfolio of your child's schoolwork, as is often required of homeschoolers;
3. validation of the quarterly exams by Kolbe advisers, so everyone knows your child has been graded properly;
4. transcript and report-card keeping, so if you want to transfer your child to another school, you've got all the necessary documents ready (incidentally, this means your child will have a US transcript, since he/she is effectively enrolled with a US private school);
5. advisor services, in case you're having trouble teaching a subject or need assistance with other stuff related to your child's homeschooling.

Registration does not include books. Kolbe Academy has recommended books, and you can buy them from the school's website. Note that the books are recommended, not required. You are perfectly free to use local textbook or skip textbooks altogether. 

We bought Kolbe's textbooks in our first year, because it helped us feel more secure that we were doing this homeschooling stuff right. But this year, Mommy is more confident, and we're using regular storybooks and Internet resources instead.

If you buy textbooks from Kolbe, note that you'll probably spend as much for shipping as for the books themselves. I got Johnny Air Cargo to save on shipping. My books cost about P3,000. Shipping cost about P3,000 too.

By the way, if you wish to contact Kolbe Academy directly, you can email them at homeinfo@kolbe.org. One thing I love about this school is that their customer service is so great. They always answer all emails within 24 to 48 hours.

More questions? Feel free to ask!

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First Week of Homeschool with Kolbe Academy, SY 2013-2012

Today ends the first week of our second school year with Kolbe Academy. Josh is in second grade while Bea just entered kindergarten.

Our previous school year actually ended less than two months ago, in the third week of May, but we decided to start this school year early so that we'll have our routine set by the time I give birth to my fourth student a few months from now.

In case you're wondering, here's our routine:

1. After lunch (whatever time that may be), Josh and Bea 

• wash their plates, 
• clear up the living room, 
• set up their little plastic chairs around the center table, (the living room is our classroom)
• put Mommy's chair at the "head" of the table, 
• brush their teeth, 
• take a bath, and 
• get dressed for school.

We have no uniform (though some homeschooling families do).

2. We start with a prayer. This week, we're doing the Our Father in Filipino. When they've mastered that, we'll move to other Catholic prayers, all in Filipino. (Last year, we did them in Latin, but I've realized the kids need to learn them in Filipino too, so we are rectifying that lack of insight this year.)

3. We sing the national anthem. We don't have a flag yet, but we'll get a small one soon so that the kids will learn that they have to face it.

4. We recite the Pledge of Allegiance (Panatang Makabayan). (I miss the original version.)

5. We start our class. The kids don't use school bags; we keep all our school stuff -- books, pencils, glue, etc. -- in a big box that we call "the school box." It sits an arm's reach away from our school table, known the rest of the day as the center table.

6. After one hour, we have recess. This consists of a cup of Milo for the students and a mug of coffee for the teacher. Bea's school day officially ends at this point, but if she wants to extend (she sometimes does), that's fine.

7. Josh has one more hour of class. Josh's school day lasts two hours. This is enough time when you're teaching a small class. As a matter of fact, we finished last year's curriculum earlier than expected, and Josh was still able to master his lessons pretty well, as evidenced by the results of his exams, provided by Kolbe Academy. (Forgive the apparent motherly pride; it is all in the interest of complete and honest reporting.)

8. The students scatter off. And the school day is done.

Two heads are better than one

One thing I've realized is that it's easier on the teacher and the student when there are more students in the class. Last year, when Josh was my sole pupil, I was always breathing down his neck when he did his exercises. There were times he got so tense, he actually broke down and cried. There were times I got so tense, I had to walk out of the class to stop myself from hitting him.

I'm not proud of it, but it's the sad truth. One of my friends actually suggested I take Prozac before class.

Now, with Bea around, Mommy's attention is divided, so her overly high expectations are also divided, and the pressure on each pupil is halved compared to last year. Josh is visibly less tense. Mommy is no longer a monster teacher. Bea actually thinks school is fun.

Game plan

Our goal is to complete Kolbe Academy's curriculum as soon as possible so that the kids can be free to focus on their true interests the rest of the school year.

To avoid repeating lessons that the kids have already mastered, we started the school year with a pretest. This way, I know which lessons I can safely skip without sacrificing my students' performance when exam time comes. 

For instance, in Josh's case, I found during the pretest that he has already mastered the entire Phonics curriculum for the first quarter. So we're skipping the first quarter lessons and doing second quarter lessons instead.

At the end of the school year, Josh will be taking an exam from the Center for Educational Measurement Inc. (CEM), in addition to Kolbe's exams, to help Josh become familiar with formal testing environments. It is also to reassure Mommy and the grandparents that Josh is learning everything he needs to learn for his grade level. (Daddy's faith in Mommy's teaching skills seems solid.)

Bea will not be taking such exam yet because CEM only offers such tests for grade 2 and up.

If you want to know more about homeschooling under Kolbe Academy, don't hesitate to ask by leaving a comment below!

The best teacher for our kids is the one who loves them most.

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FREE DOWNLOAD: The Philippine K-12 Curriculum

This year, the Philippines finally took the big step and implemented the K-12 curriculum. It's true, we are ill-prepared for it, but in my humble opinion, this step is something like childbirth: No matter how much you prepare for it, you are often still caught flat-footed when the time comes -- but it's an inevitable step you need to take before you can get on with the extremely rewarding business of raising a child.

In any case, I know you're here not to hear about how much I love the K-12 curriculum and why. You want the curriculum download. So here it is. Please right-click on the links below and click "Save link as" to save the files on your computer:

Full K-12 curriculum (21.2 MB)
English and Mother Tongue (2.5 MB)
Filipino, Health, ESP (2.2 MB)
Filipino, Grades 1-10 (2.84 MB)
Araling Panlipunan (576 KB)
Mathematics (1.3 MB)
Science (10.6 MB)
Kindergarten (1.2 MB)

(Files uploaded June 18, 2012)

UPDATE: NEW English K-12 curriculum (uploaded April 17, 2013)

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Homeschooling and the Working Mom

Supergirl was single and had no kids
(Photo by Sam Howzit)

In the past three posts, we talked about when it would be good for parents to consider homeschooling for their children: bullying, ADHD, and other reasons, such as giftedness, mental retardation, distance from school, religious conviction, and financial flexibility.

I also promised I would talk about homeschooling and the working mom, that is, moms who work outside the home.

Let me get direct to the point: it is very difficult for a working mom to work outside the home and homeschool at the same time.

Even stay-at-home moms and work-at-home moms have their bad days with homeschooling. But a working mom who homeschools will really be stretching herself to the limit.

How about staying at home?

If you know in your heart that it is in your child's best interest to be homeschooled, because he is being bullied in school or for other reasons, then ask yourself this next question: is it really necessary for you to be working outside the home?

Take a calculator, sit down, and look at how much you could save from staying at home, not commuting to work, not paying for childcare, not paying tuition, not eating out every day, not drinking designer coffee.

Speaking of designer coffee, brainstorm, too, on what luxuries you are paying for that you could do without.

It might turn out you can afford to live on one income after all! In addition, you will be teaching your child valuable lessons in frugality and finding joy in non-material things.

Here's another option: you may be able to do your work at home. This article would be too long if we listed here the ways to find work you can do at home, but this blog has talked about that several times in past articles. Now, suffice it to say that many mothers have done it, and you can too.

Nonetheless, there are situations when you really have to keep working outside the home. What then?

Maximize your resources

There are two things that can help you homeschool your child even when you are not at home: the Internet and a tutor.

Admittedly, this goes against the traditional way of homeschooling, where the parents teach the child personally.

On the other hand, it still fulfills a good number of homeschooling's obejective:

• It protects your child from bullies.
• It protects your child from negative social influence.
• It gives your child one-on-one attention.
• It gives your child time to independently and thoroughly pursue his or her own interests.

The Internet is full of resources that can help your child learn almost painlessly at home. I have listed some of them in a previous post, Educational and Child-Safe Computer Sites. 

Time4Learning.com, in particular, gives your child U.S. state-approved curriculum up to Grade 8. Now that the Philippines is moving to a K-12 educational system, Time4Learning's curriculum becomes compatible with our own.

For Filipino and Araling Panlipunan, you can get your child textbooks from local bookstores, and let your child read through those and answer the exercises.

When you get home at night, and also on weekends, you can go over the child's lessons together to see what  needs to be reviewed or supplemented.

A tutor can also help you ensure that your child is studying and learning at home as he should.

Of course, none of these come cheaply. Nonetheless, I would venture to say that it is still cheaper to do it this way than to enroll your child in some of the best private schools in the Philippines.

You may ask, can I do it without help from the Internet or a tutor?

I would not advise it. You would be burning your candle at both ends. Don't try to be a superwoman. Remember that Supergirl (Superman's cousin) was single and had no children.

By the way, here's one last advice: get yourself a support group. We have one on Facebook and another on Yahoo Groups. If you're interested in joining these groups, let me know and I will invite you to them (the FB group is by invitation only).

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Is Homeschooling for Your Child, Part III: Other Reasons

(Graphics by nornir)

So far we've talked about (1) bullying and (2) ADHD. For me, those are major reasons to homeschool your child. Here are other reasons:

3. Other exceptionalities. If your child has been diagnosed with retardation or giftedness, your child might benefit more from personalized instruction (in the case of the former) or independent learning (in the case of the latter).

Keep in mind that a child with retardation's greatest needs are to learn basic life skills (e.g., cleaning oneself, fixing up one's own room and surroundings, crossing the street safely, washing the dishes, following instructions) and a vocational skill that will let the child earn her own money when she grows up (e.g., handicraft, maybe clerical work, depending on the degree of retardation), and basic literacy, depending on the degree of retardation (e.g., reading, writing, counting, color and shape identification).

A gifted child, on the other hand, can learn well enough by herself. All she needs is the right environment -- the necessary materials, the necessary time, the necessary freedom. Instead of putting her in school where she will need to wait for the rest of the class catch up to what she already knows, why not let her study at home and use the time (and money) you save to enroll her in ballet class or gymnastics or astronomy or whatever she's interested in?

4. Transport issues. Either school is too far from your home or your child is too sick to travel the distance.

Some kids have to travel an hour to reach school, and I'm not talking about kids in far-flung barrios with no roads and no cars. When I was in high school, I rode a school bus that had to make 30 stops from the time I got in to the time we got to my school. That's an hour and a half, one way.

Or maybe your child is ill and too weak to travel to school. That does not mean you have to stop her education and let her run after lost time when she recovers. Let her have her schooling at home instead.

5. Religious conviction. This is not so much an issue in the Philippines, where religion has not been outlawed in the classroom. Still, some parents would like a little more religion in their child's education, or maybe a little less, or maybe a different sort of religion.

In our family, this is one of the primary reasons why we homeschool. I wanted my children to learn more about religion than I felt was being taught in our regular schools.

The best part is, as I am teaching our children about our faith, I am learning too -- I am learning things about my faith that they did not teach me in school.

6. Financial flexibility. The big difference between homeschool and conventional schools is that in conventional schools, costs are dictated. The school decides not just how much to charge for tuition but also how much you need to spend on field trips, graduations, etc.

In a homeschool setup, you can spend as little or as much as you like, and you decide when to spend. If you have a lot of money, you can choose the most expensive curriculums available -- some are even more expensive than what you pay for tuition in conventional schools. You can go to Bohol and Beijing for your field trip, so that your child can see the Chocolate Hills and the Great Wall of China personally. You can enroll your child in Ballet Manila for PE class. You can buy her a microscope and telescope for science.

Or you can use a free curriculum downloaded online, take the ALS exam for validation (very cheap, almost free), go to PAGASA Planetarium for your field trip (P25), and let your child improvise materials for art and science to strengthen her imagination and creativity.

No one will make you pay P800 to go to Enchanted Kingdom and SM Mall of Asia for your field trip. You don't need to pay P200 for a hard-bound diploma holder for your preschooler if you don't want one.

Okay, lecture over. Any questions? Please feel free to ask in the comments box below. I always reply within 12 hours.

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Is Homeschooling for Your Child, Part II: ADHD

(Photo by jimpetr)

Yesterday, we talked about reason 1: bullying. If your child is being bullied in school, it is a good idea to look at homeschooling -- before it's too late.

Reason 2: ADHD. If your child has been labeled with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, his teacher is basically saying that your child cannot sit still long enough in the classroom to learn and to let others learn.

Without getting into an argument about the validity of such diagnoses or whether such a disorder really exists in the first place, allow me to propose that if your child is unable to sit still in school, then for his own good, he should not be there.

(And I say this with my Special Education degree from the state university to back my words.)

Let's digress a little and talk about eating styles for a second. Some people, like my friend Sampy, like to eat their food in a specific order: they finish up their cheeseburger, then they eat up their fries, then they dig into their sundae, then they wash it all down with a glass of Coke.

If Sampy learned like that too, she would fit very well in school.

But some people don't eat like that. I take a bite of my cheeseburger, then follow it with a few sticks of fries, then I take another bite from my cheeseburger, followed by more fries or maybe a spoonful of sundae. Now and then, I would have a sip of Coke.

Fortunately, I don't learn like that, which is probably why I did okay in elementary school (where there were no bullies to distract me).

But some children do learn like that -- they like their lessons in random bits and pieces.

If your child is one of these children and you forced him to finish 45 minutes of science before touching grammar or math, he would be heartily sick of science at the end of five minutes, in the same way that he would be sick of cheeseburger after ten consecutive bites uninterrupted by the taste of fries!

If you were homeschooling your child and you knew that he learned like this, you could set in front of him all the material he needs to finish for the day and let him go at it in his own sporadic fashion. All you have to do is sit beside him to answer questions and make sure he's studying instead of having his third snack that afternoon. (Yes, even in homeschool, kids like to play truant.)

Will your kid learn this way? I can assure you, he will learn more in this manner than he will learn in school -- and he will enjoy it more too.

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Is Homeschooling for Your Child, Part I: Bullying

(Photo by Marzie)

First off, let me begin by saying this: Not every family, and not every child, is a good candidate for homeschooling.

You should not homeschool if

1. you spouse vehemently opposes it, or
2. your child vehemently opposes it, or
3. you just felt pressured to do it because you've been told "it's what good mothers do."

Well let me tell you now: I had a good mother, and she did not homeschool us.

On the other hand, homeschooling was not a very realistic option during her time. She probably didn't even know the option existed.

But now, lots of us know this option exists. And yes, there are times when it is wise to take this option.

So when should your family consider homeschooling your child?

Reason 1: Your child is being bullied in school.

Bullying is something that no child should ever have to live through. It's inhuman. If your child was bullied by her playmates in daycare, you would probably switch to a different daycare. If your child was bullied in painting/soccer/dance class, you would probably let her stop attending the class or find a different class for her to attend.

But when our children are bullied in school, we let them stay in that school with pacifying words such as "Don't pay them any attention."

Parents, you have to understand: it's impossible not to pay attention to a bully. Even if they don't attack you directly, they will attack you emotionally. 

The physiology of a child allows her to heal from physical attacks relatively quickly, but the psychology of a child will suffer from the effects of an emotional attack for a long, long time.

I should know; I was bullied in school. By the grace of God, I survived it. But I still believe I will go to heaven when I die because I had already been to hell when I was in school.

Do not make the mistake of ignoring this, parents. Children who have heard "Don't let them get to you" from their parents often enough will eventually learn to just keep quiet about the bullying they receive. Then their parents think everything is now all right.

The next thing you know, the child tries to kill herself. Sometimes, tragically, the child succeeds.

One thing I've often been told before is, "These experiences will help your child grow into a better person. It will teach her to handle difficult people."

My answer is this: Maltreatment does not turn us to better people. Situational adversities, such as poverty or failure or physical handicaps, provide occasions for us to become stronger when we overcome them. But the cruelty of another human being does not turn us to better people.

If we sincerely believed that human cruelty is, in the long run, good for our children, then why are we so quick to cry "Foul" when a teacher spanks our child, even if we know in our hearts that the teacher had the best of intentions?

If my child needs to learn to handle difficult people, he does not need an encounter with a bully for that. He has his parents to practice on.

Again, parents, if your child is being bullied in school, please strongly consider letting her get her education at home.

Why not? Inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, US President Abraham Lincoln, finance wizard Andrew Carnegie, the Jonas Brothers, and my favorite author, Louisa May Alcott, were all homeschooled, and they all turned out okay. (For a more complete listing of famous people who were homeschooled, click here.)

In the next parts of this series, I will give other situations where homeschooling may be a good option for your family, and how you can homeschool your child if you are a working mother.

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REVIEW: Time4Learning.com

As mentioned in my previous article Educational and Child-Safe Computer Sites, we've signed up at Time4Learning.com, hoping it could help us in our homeschooling.

Time4Learning is a paid site, $20 per month, or approximately Php900. We signed up because during the demo lesson, Josh enjoyed himself so much, he practically begged me to sign up so that he could keep taking more lessons. On my part, I gave in because I liked the idea of a computer giving lessons for me.

It's now been three days since we signed up.

Well designed

One thing I have to commend Time4Learning.com for is that the modules are really very well designed. Josh learned all about contractions, compound words, food chains, water cycles, adding three numbers, and a good number of other things, with very little mental anguish on his part and practically no effort on mine.

The lesson plans take a bit getting used to, but once you become familiar with how it works, it's quite easy to use. If you're following a set curriculum from a different curriculum provider, like we are, you can browse through the lesson plans to find the particular lesson required by your curriculum for the day, note the chapter and subchapter, and click the links to them quite easily.

One feature that I think would have been helpful for users in this situation is a search box, but I couldn't find one anywhere in the site, not even in the forums and in the site map.

If you are homeschooling independently, you could simply set your child free to roam through the subjects, with just the instruction that he needs to complete a certain number of activities per day. Modules that are completed are marked "Complete," so it's easy for you to check what modules your kid has already done and which are still pending.

There is also a reporting feature that lets you view what lessons and activities your child has done throughout the day, and what his or her scores in the exercises and quizzes were.

A record is kept by the system on your child's hours and dates of attendance, as well as activities and scores, so if you're independently homeschooling and need to keep a portfolio, this site would be well worth your money.

All or nothing

But after our two days of use, we cancelled our account with Time4Learning.com. Fortunately, the site has a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so if you cancel your account within 14 days of activation, you get a 100% refund on your payment.

Last night, I received the email saying my refund has been processed and should appear in my account in five days max. I received the refund confirmation less than 24 hours after I cancelled my account.

Why did we cancel?

As I said, the site is great. It's fully featured, well designed.

It was too much of a good thing for me. It made the temptation to relegate all teaching to the computer. I missed teaching my boy -- but at $20 (or nearly Php1,000) per month, I felt obliged to maximize the benefit.

Do you see what my quandary was?

Then, too, there was for me the issue of paying for things we don't really need. Josh loves science so much, he would have learned the lessons from his own voracious reading, even without Time4Learning.com. The record-keeping feature was not of much use to me either because our family does not need a portfolio to get our kids' education validated. We are already enrolled with Kolbe Academy in Napa, CA, so that takes care of validation.

I couldn't shake the thought at the back of my mind that if I only got what I really needed from the site -- that is, the language and math lessons, without record keeping -- I may have needed to pay maybe just $10 per month.

But Time4Learning.com has no such options. It's all or nothing with them.

Recommendation

So would I recommend Time4Learning.com? Yes.

• If you are a working mom with little time to teach your kids personally and want his or her computer time to be productive, or
• If you're homeschooling independently and want an easy record-keeping system to prove that your child has, indeed, been spending a specific number of hours and days in school and that he or she is learning something during those times, or
• If you feel that $20 per month is a small price to pay for the kind of academic mastery that Time4Learning.com will surely help your child to attain,

...if even just one of the abovementioned conditions apply to you, then I think you will be completely satisfied with Time4Learning.com. 

But if you're just looking for exercises to supplement the instruction you already personally give to your child, I would say you could check out the other sites I mentioned in Educational and Child-Safe Computer Sites, which also provide excellent (though not as well organized and not always as didactic) materials for free.

Incidentally, should this review encourage you to sign up for Time4Learning, would you please tell them that you were referred by Lucy Abigail "Abby" Sasscer, the person who had referred me? This would earn for one of her kids a free month of membership. Thank you so much!

DISCLOSURE: This review is not paid for in cash or in kind by any individual or organization, and certainly not by Time4Learning.com. However, if you have an account with them, reviews such as this will merit a $25 honorarium. In the interest of transparency, Time4Learning will require that you post a disclosure statement that you received such sum from the company.

Questions about Time4Learning.com that this post did not answer? Please feel free to ask in the comments below.

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Educational and Child-Safe Computer Sites

Source: Ian Britton FreeFoto.com

If you're reading this post, you must have a computer at home. And if you're like me, your kids probably know how to use it. And you probably worry sometimes too (in my case, I worried often) that your kids may be getting into sites that are not exactly safe for kids.

So when I got this list of child-friendly, educational Web sites from my friend Abby Sasscer, who runs the Sacred Heart Home School, I immediately put the links in the kids' browser white list and blocked everything else! Now I know that even when my kids go online, they're not viewing anything violent, pornographic, obscene, materialistic, hate-filled, etc., etc.

What's more, the sites are educational! Just this afternoon, my son Josh learned all about compound words, contractions, living and non-living things, thunderstorms, ants, and armadillos in his two-hour session at Time4Learning.com.

If you want the same peace of mind that I've recently gained, you might want to check these links out too:

Starfall.com: I use this site for my five-year-old. It contains free activities beginning reading and early literacy.

EWTNKids: Since my family is Catholic, I especially liked this educational Web site by the EWTN Global Catholic Network. It contains all sorts of free activities teaching Catholic kids about their Church and their faith. There are also dot-to-dot puzzles, dress up games, music activities, etc.

Sheppard Software: Has free fun games for all sorts of subjects and grade levels. There was a game where an equation was displayed and you had to shoot the fruit that displayed the correct answer. (The kids were supposed to play it but I couldn't resist and had to "borrow" the mouse just this one time!)

Fact Monster: This site, I found myself when I was looking for arithmetic flash cards for Josh. The flash cards are great for motivating my son to practice math. The rest of the site is filled with activities and materials on other subjects such as sports, science, vocabulary, etc.

Time4Learning: We use this for our homeschooling because it provides U.S. state-standard curriculum (i.e. K-12) and activities for our kids. It's our first day to use it and, as mentioned above, Josh learned a whole bunch of stuff in a two-hour session. There is a free demo, but you have to pay to access the rest of the materials. Cost is $20 per month for the first kid and $15 for all other kids that follow. If you're not homeschooling, you might still consider the program as it is cheaper than getting a tutor -- and more fun.

SpellingCity: This is a sister company of Time4Learning. This site focuses on teaching your kids spelling, parts of speech, and vocabulary. A lot of materials are free. Paid membership, which allows you to register up to five kids in one payment, is just $25 per year.

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FREE Downloadable Printable Award-Winning (and Perfectly Legal) Children's Books!

I'm supposed to be working to make up for yesterday's lost work day, as I had to play nurse to hubby who had an attack of supraventricular tachycardia (in layman's terms: super-fast heartbeat, super-low blood pressure, very dangerous. It sent him to the ICU in 2009.)

But just as I was about to start working, my friend Rich (pilya, maganda, at may magic powers) sent me this excellent link: http://canvas.ph/downloads.htm.

Mommies (and daddies), if you haven't clicked on the link yet, do so now. It will lead you to this excellent site where you can download wonderful, downloadable, printable, and absolutely free children's books written by Filipino writers. (Tarie, are you reading this?)

What's more, the downloading and printing out are perfectly legal, authorized by the publishers themselves, God bless them!

Of course, once you've read these wonderful, award-winning stories to your kids, you might want to buy the hardback versions. They are available in Fully Booked, the Ayala Museum and at 1/of Gallery in Serendra.

Let's support Philippine literature and early literacy! And cheers to free books!

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Free Download: The Philippine DepEd Curriculum for Second Year High School

Here's the next installment of the Department of Education's high school curriculum:  second year (sophomore) subjects:

English II
Mathematics II
Science II
Filipino II
Araling Panlipunan II
Music and Arts II
Physical Education II
Edukasyon sa Pagpapahalaga II

I don't have the curricula for the third year and fourth year subjects yet. Will post when I find them.

DOWNLOAD TROUBLE? We've been receiving reports that Docstoc has been requiring payments. If this happens to you, you can also download the zipped files for free HERE.

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Free Download: The Philippine DepEd Curriculum for First Year High School

Here's the new high school curriculum that the Department of Education will be using in 2011. If I am not mistaken, it is based on the Understanding by Design (UbD) curriculum framework -- a rather difficult framework, resulting in a rather complex curriculum design.

So far, I have the curricula for year 1 and year 2 subjects.

Click here to download the Philippine freshman curriculum for the following subjects:

English I
Mathematics I
Science I
Filipino I
Araling Panlipunan I
Music and Arts I
Physical Education I
Edukasyon sa Pagpapahalaga I

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A Peek Into the Nanay Household

A couple months or so ago, the TV crew of Net 25's MOMents came to visit our home.

Here's what came out of that visit.

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Homeschooling Question 2: What About Socialization?

The socialization issue is arguably the most frequently asked question not by homeschoolers but to homeschoolers.

"If you keep them at home, what will happen to their socialization?"

Well -- what is socialization anyway?

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines socialization as

1. to make social; especially: to fit or train for a social environment
2. to constitute on a socialistic basis; to adapt to social needs or uses
3. to organize group participation in; to participate actively in a social group

This Filipino mom presumes that when parents ask about socialization, they refer to definitions 1 and 3, so we'll answer based on those.

Trained for a social environment

In homeschooling, do we get to train kids for a social environment? Absolutely! After all, who could be the best teacher for kids to learn how to play nicely, how to share, how to apologize, how to help -- who better than the kids' own parents?

Are these skills that a child can learn from other kids? Can the blind lead the blind?

Some would say, "Learn by doing." It makes me think of a baby taught to swim by getting thrown into the water. What are the chances that the baby would sink instead? How many of us have reached adulthood without really learning good socialization skills because we were never explicitly taught?

Good socialization is taught by showing nothing but good socialization. It is not taught by showing bad examples and saying "don't."

How are police agents taught to identify fake money? Not by showing them the infinite possible variations of fake money. Instead, they are shown the genuine article. Mastering nothing but what is true, they become sensitive to what is false.

"But," some would protest, "there has to be venue for the kids to practice their socialization skills." (see definition 3)

Participating in a social group

I, for one, think that the Filipino family is a perfectly valid social group. ("What are we -- chopped liver?") But in addition, homeschoolers are not really locked into their houses, as some might imagine.

Filipino homeschoolers have playmates on the street, cousins a few kilometers away, neighbors, members or their art/music/theater/swimming class, etc.

True, homeschoolers don't get to interact with all of these people at the same time, for six hours a day, five days a week. I dare say, most Filipino school kids cannot do that in a classroom either. If they did, they teacher would scold them for talking in class.

Socializing outside of school

In fact, I know from my own experience that if a child does not want to "socialize," she can avoid doing so even if you put her in school. I socialized with mostly the librarians for a good number of years in elementary and high school. I socialized with churchmates and co-athletes and co-firefighters in college. In all my many years in school, I know I hardly ever socialized with classmates.

School, to me, was an interruption in my socialization.

But going back to our topic: Socialization, like any other skill, is one that does not need to be "done on stage" all the time. Actors spend much more time at rehearsals than on stage. So do musicians. Athletes could begin training at five years old and never join a sporting event until they're maybe ten or older.

There can be no harm in teaching our kids socialization at home and exposing them to nothing but the right way to do it for so many years before we release them to the world. Then, they will not be floundering, but strong and well trained for socialization. When they do go on the world's stage, they will be ready, and they will do their socialization right.

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Homeschooling Question 1: How Do You Get Accreditation?

This is part 1 of a series of homeschooling questions I would like to answer through this blog. One of the first questions I get asked when people find out that I'm homeschooling my children is this:

How do you get accreditation?

There are four main ways to get accreditation for your children's homeschooling:

Accredited Philippine homeschool programs

One way is by enrolling them in an accredited homeschool program. Some of the best-known ones are The Master's Academy (TMA) and the Catholic Filipino Academy (CFA), the first homeschooling program in the Philippines with a Catholic curriculum.

Foreign homeschool providers

Many homeschoolers in the Philippines are enrolled with foreign homeschool program providers such as Seton Home School and Kolbe Academy. (My kids are enrolled in Kolbe.)

Are these schools accredited in the Philippines? No, they are not BUT they are registered as private schools in the United States. They provide official report cards and transcripts of records that you can provide to schools here should you decide to enroll in a local school. The process is completely the same as if you were transferring your child from a regular private or public school in the United States.

The Philippine Validating Test (PVT)

The third way is by taking the Philippine Validating Exam from the Department of Education.

I deliberately put this as the last option because it involves transacting with the DepEd, and one thing I've learned in all my years as a public school teacher, then later as a homeschool teacher, is that you never want to transact with the DepEd. It's a tedious, time-consuming, and frustrating task.

Still, if you don't want to enroll your kids in a local or foreign program, the DepEd is your most likely recourse towards accreditation.

You only let your kids take the PVT when you want to transfer them to a regular school, because it can be taken only once, not every year. At the time I asked (in 2010), the PVT costs around 100 pesos per level, per subject.

Incidentally, the PVT is taken not only by homeschoolers but also by children who go to regular private schools that have not been accredited by any of the Philippine's school accrediting bodies such as the PAASCU.

In order to be able to take the PVT, you need to keep records of your child's work: answered textbooks, scrapbooks, journals, work portfolio, etc. This is not an exact list. The key is "the more, the better." DepEd needs to be sure that you did educate your child all those years.

Note: If you do not want to transfer your kids to a conventional school but only want a formal assessment of your children's education, do not rely on the PVT. Instead, you can go to a private entity, the Center for Educational Measurement Inc. (CEM). This organization will allow you to test your child per subject, per grade level, at a very affordable fee: around four hundred pesos per test.

The Alternative Learning System

There are Filipino moms who do not believe in subscribing to a curriculum. Instead, we let our children learn life skills -- such as basic literacy, financial literacy, and vocational work -- through actual practice.

For academics, we let them study whatever interests them, be it dinosaurs, Catholic saints, the history of ballet, etc. This is based on the premise that true learning (the kind that stays) only occurs if you are interested in what you are studying.

This is called unschooling. For unschoolers, you can check out DepEd's Alternative Learning System. The nearest public school should be able to give you more information on this.

To take the ALS, you need to be at least 11 years old (for the test that gives you an elementary school diploma) or 15 years old (for the test that gives you a high school diploma).

You can also register with your nearest public school so that your child can get learning modules so that he can pass the ALS exam. Note that these modules are not compulsory. If you have your own well-designed modules and implement them well, your child will probably pass the test.

While the ALS can be an attractive option, be aware that the test is purely in Filipino for all subjects except English, so children who do not speak Filipino well may have trouble taking it.

The backdoor

Some college or high school entrance exams still ask for your child's class ranking.

Philippine Science High School will let your children take their admission test as long as they have grade records (from ALS, PVT, or any accredited homeschool program or foreign private school) that show no grade lower than 85 in English, Math, and Science, and nothing lower than 80 in other subjects.

We have not been able to get definitive information on whether the University of the Philippines accepts independent homeschoolers (i.e., not from an accredited homeschool provider). We've talked to different people and we got different answers. At this article's writing, it is safe to say that the University of the Philippines has its door closed to homeschoolers -- but Ateneo de Manila's door is wide open!

If you're a parent who is determined to enroll your child in schools that do not accept homeschoolers, you can homeschool your child until fourth grade, then take the PVT, then enroll the child in a regular school for the last two years so that the requirements of graduation in regular schools can be fulfilled, and you'll have that class ranking you need for the college or high school you are aiming for.

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Free Download: The Philippine Basic Education Curriculum for Elementary School Students

School has started for the rest of the Philippines, and while my kids and I had begun informally homeschooling last April, we weren't following a specific curriculum yet.

Well, Teacher Mommy has finally realized that while teaching spontaneously is fun, a lesson plan and a curriculum are invaluable when it comes to pacing and directing your lessons.

So I downloaded the Philippine Basic Education curriculum today for all elementary subjects. This is the curriculum used by the Department of Education. We'll be following it in our household, and I'll be supplementing it as necessary.

If any of you homeschooling moms are interested in using these curricula as well, you can download the zipped files for free HERE.
 

Looking for the NEW K-12 curriculum? Click on the link to go to our K-12 curriculum download page.

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