Discover the joys of homeschooling and parenting!
The kids always enjoy art. It’s one of their favourite activities. And it’s fun for me, too. I asked them to do two projects today — collaborative work to do a group art work. They were very pleased with the final results especially since they worked so hard. There was a big mess in the process but I suppose that meant they were having a good time!
I have missed teaching the kids since we lost our househelp. So I have been trying to get back into the routine of our daily homeschooling schedule. The kids were “rusty” when I asked them to do their work a few days ago. They responded a little reluctantly, but we managed to kick things off once again. I am nearly a month behind where I should be with them. But I am not going to panic. Okay, just a little. By God’s grace, we will finish it all soon!
Oh and someone asked me recently if my kids get a summer break. We don’t take an extended break away from learning because learning is a natural part of our daily life. We may take a two week break so I can regroup for the next school year. Otherwise, the homeschooling goes on. And if there are interruptions during the year due to trips, family vacations, or untoward incidences, we can take a few days off from studying and make it up as the year goes by. In other words, we are pretty flexible when necessary but we don’t need to stop homeschooling for two months straight just because its summer. And we still get to enjoy summer. 
I have a teacher’s assistant, also known as Edan, my second son. He is an incredible help to me when it comes to homeschooling Tiana. With his methodical and systematic way of doing things, he comes up with activities for her to do when the others are homeschooling or like a good soldier, he will implement assignments that I delegate to him. Tiana calls him “Teacher Edan” during her lessons and what a relief it has been to have him preoccupy her so I can give attention to Titus when he needs one-on-one instruction.
I have told Edan many times how valuable he is to me. And the thing is, he really enjoys being a teacher. He gets a deep sense of fulfillment out of the experience and he is quite patient. Sometimes, he does get annoyed when Tiana doesn’t focus. But hey, she is like 2 years old. Her attention span is 5 minutes or less.
Today, I laughed when Edan said, “Mom, it is going to take Tiana ONE YEAR to learn all the things that you asked me to teach her!” She was a bit distracted when he was asking her to complete a pattern. But most of the time, he’s got her attention and she is participatory and engaged. The benefit to Edan is that he is learning communication skills and reinforcing his own knowledge of academic matter…not to mention putting character traits into practice.
Seeing my kids look out for each other is one of my delights as a homeschooling mom. It’s not easy to teach four kids who are at different levels and have varying needs, but Edan’s assistance provides me with daily encouragement. Multi-level homeschooling is so much easier when siblings contribute and help one another. Furthermore, I am realizing that children respond to the expectations you have of them. Whenever I see Edan volunteering to teach Tiana, I say, “You are such a great teacher, Edan!” It motivates him to live up to this positive label.
One time, a bunch of his cousins were coming over and he told me, “Mom, I am going to take care of all the younger kids. I will plan the games and activities. I will be in charge.” He named each one of the kids he was going to be responsible for. He left out Elijah and an older cousin because, according to him, they could fend for themselves.
I took a couple of photographs of Tiana homeschooling under “Teacher Edan.” Some of the activities were ideas I learned from reading about the Montessori method.
We took a day trip to a farm for our homeschooling today. The kids learned about “green farming” from an agriculturalist who explained how to plant seedlings, do hydrophonics, vermiculture and the like.
It was fascinating for the kids and for me! I learned alot about organic ways to plant and farm. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. Vermiculture is a way of composting using earthworms to speed up the process.
Lord willing, when we move to a house, we can have a little garden — Edric’s fantasy. For the time being, this knowledge went to the kids’ science files. What better way to learn about innovative farming methods than to experience it for yourself? The kids (well, the boys) liked the worms part the best. Of course they did. Yehey for learning experiences that are not confined to four walls of a classroom!
Garage sale homeschooling. That’s what I would like to think of our garage sale experience two weekends ago. Elijah got to put his math skills into practice. He earned 1,500 pesos for selling toys. The other boys sorted through their old things and put prices on each item.
This was a collaborative effort between Tan-Chis and Mendozas that turned into a fun bonding day for all of us. Our own family didn’t earn much, just 7k at the end of the day but hey, people were willing to buy our junk and our home was majorly de-cluttered. Plus, Elijah learned how hard it is to make money. He was trying to convince a whole lot of people to buy our old toys and I thought he did a great job.
We can’t wait to do this again!
There are some days when I wonder how I am going to get through homeschooling my children. Titus and Tiana woke up with a bad cough (a cough that has lingered for several days). Titus threw up phlegm. My two older boys rolled out of bed in slow motion and walked about in slow motion.
I was waiting for them to finish their breakfast so we could get the day started, but they were all lingering around in their pajamas. I knew I would have to play the role of motivating mom. Honestly, I don’t like having to do this. It’s tiring.
I love it when they wake up, perky and alive, excited to learn. Well, the reality is, homeschooling goes through its ups and downs. Children get sick, moms get sick (and pregnant!), attitudes get in the way, spiritual issues have to be dealt with, and the kids need constant training, instruction, and discipline. In fact, homeschooling often feels like it is a character education not just for my kids, but for me. The obstacles and hurdles make me dig down deep and remember that I’m doing this in faith, not always knowing what’s going to happen next but confident that my equipper and sustainer is the Lord.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. (James 1:2-3 NASB)
Endurance does bear fruit, and I hope in the fruit of all this labor – the days when the eyes of my children twinkle because they have overcome a task they thought they couldn’t do, when they progress through their material like bullet trains, when they make new discoveries and bubble over with creative inspiration, when they have insights about their relationship with God, or when they tell me, “I really like being with you, mom. Thanks for teaching me.” These moments do come and when they do, I’m re-charged and ready to go again.
I’ve had to come to terms with the reality that homeschooling is my cross to bear in this season of my life. It’s not the load that I mind so much as the self-denial it requires. Jesus says, “Pick up your cross daily, deny yourself and follow me.” It takes a whole lot of self-denial to homeschool. I have to deny the temptation to control my kids or to compare them with one another and with others. I have to deny my pride and tendency to take credit for their successes. I have to deny the doubts that plague me when I feel like, “Oh gosh, are they learning anything?” I have to deny my own comfort and liberties when I would rather do something else besides sit through a morning of teaching my children. I have to deny opportunities to serve myself and pursue my wants because homeschooling is the all-consuming lifestage that I am in, and I really don’t have time to do much else. I have to deny my own laziness when I want to lie down in bed and sleep because this pregnancy is tiring me out!
Just recently, I was having a conversation with playgroup moms about homeschooling. At one point, we were all talking about the difficulties we have to deal with. They said something like, “You are blessed because your children are smart. It’s easy to teach them.” This comment hit me on two levels — carnal and spiritual. Let me talk about the carnal first. I was a little bit hurt. It’s the same way I feel when people think my pregnancy is “easy” because I am not puking all the time. Sure, Joy is pregnant, but it’s nothing for her. It’s her fifth child. No biggie, she’s been there and done that before. She just pops them out. Well, I may not puke and my kids may not appear to be “struggling” learners, but homeschooling in our house is not always a postcard.
Good gracious! My kids have days when they act plain dumb. I mean, just this morning, Titus looked at the word “PET” and couldn’t read it. Really?! After finishing the entire Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten level so that he was proficiently reading four to five letter words and a bunch of sight words, and then he looks at me and says, “I don’t know that word?!” Was this a cruel joke? Did his cough give him a foggy brain? Did too much of the IPad over the weekend slow down his capacity to think?
My response was, “Okay, hon, we won’t homeschool today. You are not well and you should rest. But this also means that you won’t do Reading Eggs on the computer either. Your brain needs to take a break.” (Reading Eggs is a great phonics program which he was only entitled to access after he learned to read.) I meant well but he busted out into tears and then vomited out his phlegm because he kept crying. Lovely morning, eh? (You can refer to paragraph 1 about the vomit). I explained to him afterwards that I really wanted him to take it easy and get well. He was fine and spent some time playing with insect stickers instead.
Let me go on…Friday morning, Edan said, “I don’t want to do any work today.”
“Oh really? And what would you like to do?” I wanted to explore this.
“Nothing.”
Very calmly I replied, “Okay, you can do nothing. That’s fine with me. But this means you will stay home and do nothing while your brothers and sister go to playgroup and you will also do nothing when they watch a movie with their cousins tonight and have lots of fun. You can sit here and do nothing.”
“I will do my work,” was his quick conclusion. And he did. Whew.
So, just to be clear, my kids are very normal.
On a spiritual level, the comment my playgroup friends made about my kids being EASY to teach humbled me. After all, Who am I? Who am I to have the circumstances that I do, the resources available to me, the husband, and the children that bring me so much joy? Yes, I think my kids are special, not because they are genetically superior but because they are God’s gifts to me. I don’t deserve them or any of his blessings. It is grace. God’s grace. If anyone should look upon my children and affirm their abilities or talents, the credit does not go to me, Edric, our kids, or even to homeschooling. Everything is by God’s grace alone.
The homeschooling experience doesn’t always come in a pretty package. Open this and your parenting will be successful! Open this and you will have brilliant children! If anyone feeds you advertisement like that about homeschooling, turn around and run away! It’s not true. Days like this are a very healthy reminder that homeschooling is an invitation to experience God’s grace more than it is an antidote to family and children issues.
The longer I homeschool, the more cognisant I am that it is not a cure-all solution. When it is esteemed as such, well that’s what you call idolatry. Much of the worrying and fretting, the panicking and impatience enters into my homeschooling when I want to manage all the outcomes and dictate the pace of my children’s learning or their maturity. On some days, God allows this to happen, but most of the time he shows me that I control nothing but my own responses and reactions to what he is doing in my life and the lives of my kids. This doesn’t mean that I don’t have goals, prepare lessons, or have a schedule for my kids. I believe in doing my part. But the results are always a testament, not to my ability to teach or train my children or the magic of the homeschooling experience, but to the grace of God.
Grace comes with contentment — contentment in my weaknesses. It was wonderfully coincidental that the first lesson the boys and I had together this morning was on the character of CONTENTMENT. I’m using a book by Ruth Younts called, Get Wisdom. She defines contentment as being satisfied because God is working everything together for my good and for his glory. The verse she gave as a reference was Philippians 4:11, I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
This is exactly what I needed to deal with this morning’s slow start and my grumpy, sickly, not-all-there children. Contentment is accepting my children’s progress, the challenges, their not-so-shining moments, the waiting and hoping in the meantime, their uniqueness and limitations (as well as my own), and being able to truthfully say, “Lord, I thank you for causing all things to work together for the good of my children and myself that you might get the glory.” Only then comes the beautiful satisfaction in his grace. Only then does it look EASY.
Amazingly, we finished homeschooling by 11:30 am today with my children smiling at the end. How that happened is a wonder. But like I said, that’s grace!
Homeschooling gives the kids plenty of time to pursue their interests. Edan, my second son, enjoys art. So he often asks if we can do art together. Elijah also likes painting so he joins in, too. Today, we didn’t do any book work. We just did painting and some projects for social studies. Titus and Tiana had their own easel where they made a big mess with paint. I am pretty laid back so mess looks like fun to me (as long as it is cleaned up afterwards).
Well, art is messy but it has many benefits. It teaches my kids to pay attention to detail. They learn proportion, balance, depth of field, perspective. Their fine motor and problem solving skills are developed as well. And one of the more important benefits is character growth. Persevering until the end, humility when corrected and while learning, appreciating the talents of others, and challenging oneself to keep improving are all part of the art experience.
I also like how art allows my kids to slow down and relax. It is amazing how painting for extended periods of time makes them calm down. Children need that. They don’t need to be harried everyday, stressing out over academics. When Edric and I were traveling in Europe, we noticed how celebrated the arts are — performing and visual arts. In Asia, hardly anyone wants their children to grow up to be artists. We tend to perceive it as a sure-fire route to starvation and poverty. So we encourage them to pursue business or finance. But what a beautiful world has come from the great artists of the past. And I would like my children to be able to appreciate this world, too. So we make room for painting, drawing, creating, building, inventing, and free play in our day as much as possible. I have noticed that when my kids are given plenty of time to pursue their interests, they are more motivated to study and learn.
