Am I Out of My Mind Or What?

The concept of homeschool has been brewing and percolating in my mind for close to two years now. It seemed like a good idea then and it still seems like a good idea now. Sometime ago, my sister was reading a book called "The Call to Brilliance" by Resa Steindel Brown, this was at a time when the concept of homeschool was new to me. One of the precepts of the book is that "all children are born brilliant, it is up to us to help them find their brilliance". Reading the book has been instrumental in convincing me of the merits of homeschooling. I thought to myself then, "if only I could be so brave as to do the actual thing".

Well don't get me wrong, this is something I truly believe will change the course of my children's lives, the way they think and how they will interact and cope with life outside the four walls of home but I know from the onset that this is no easy task. I see and sense my children's thirst for knowledge. How they like to ask all these questions of how, what, where and why. How they like to imagine the what ifs. I ask myself, how do I as a parent keep that thirst for knowledge intact, no matter how old they get? My fear then was if I could do this and be dedicated to doing it long-term, knowing that I will have to dedicate a large chunk of my time to educating my children? Will I have enough patience? Will I have enough resources or the money to buy the resources?

Once you decide to homeschool, finding the right curricula can be an overwhelming task. I used to think that all I had to do was enroll the child in a homeschool provider of choice and follow the set curricula. But it is not as easy as one, two, three, especially if there is a particular agenda or concept you have in mind. Last school year, I had been eyeing enrolling my kids in the Catholic Filipino Academy. This has particularly drawn my attention because I was looking for a homeschool provider that was Catholic biased, as I wanted my children to be reared as Catholics. They were attending at the time a traditional but "Montessori" called school that was ecumenical and therefore did not teach religion. Another plus factor was that the CFA homeschool was DepEd accredited, so if homeschool did not work for us after the first year, then if would be easy to put the children back in regular school. Check out Bo Sanchez's "10 Powerful Principles On How You Can Teach Your Own Children At Home" - these are his 10 Core Principles of Homeschool, it is very good and was instrumental also in my decision to homeschool.

This school year, I attended the orientation of CFA but have ultimately decided not to enroll my children in their program, not because I did not like the program, it was good program and the people were great and very helpful but after lots of research, I felt it was just not for me, I wanted a program that would allow my kids to progress as fast or as slow as they wanted, and not follow the DepEd school year. Of course, that is just me, who am I to say that my children will learn faster than the prescribed school years curricula. I just want to be given the flexibility to be as eclectic as possible. There is also Calvert I am looking into. I had them send me their catalog which was so nice and glossy and had really great looking material plus online support, but at the moment cost is a big issue and therefore I am still shying away from it.

At the moment, I am still educating myself and figuring out which modules to follow, there are so many educational materials out there that it could literally drive you nuts trying to figure out which ones to use. There are also so many websites and blogs espousing this and that. Ultimately it boils down to what you think will be best for your child's learning style.

This year is our trial year - mine and my two boys. I ask myself, "am I out of my mind or what?", but no matter what anyone will say, I feel deeply at this point that this is what is best. Whatever we do choose, I'm sure this learning experience, if not for anything else, will bring us closer and will give me insight into my children's world, one that I used to have limited time for.