I have always been attracted to homeschooling because of the many benefits it can give to one's child. Customizing a lesson according to the personality/needs of the child, setting a strong character foundation in the early years, and integrating life-skills while teaching academics are just some of the many benefits of homeschooling that I see. As a former teacher, I also would like to take charge of my children's education and this is something that you can do in homeschooling. I also know that I could easily slip into the teacher role. I romanticized homeschooling, however because it is actually hard. How else could I teach when parenting a newborn and toddler already sapped much of my energy? I felt that there was no room for homeschooling because of my current situation then. But that was 2 years ago. Now, my toddler is a preschooler and my newborn is a toddler. Thirdy the preschooler is now more interested and inquisitive and he can now play with toddler Bam, so I can actually come up with games and mini-lessons for them. And COVID-19 happened! This quarantine thing forced me to don my teaching cap and homeschool my kids especially Thirdy.
Welcome to Little Villa Homeschool!
I take a look at my approaches and decided that I could never stick to one homeschooling philosophy. I have been integrating many ways that fit our beliefs as well as our lifestyle, so I would say I am an eclectic homeshooler. Let me share the approaches I use in our Little Villa Homeschool.
1. Waldorf
Among the approaches I use, Waldorf is the closest to my heart because technically, this was Thirdy's first school, and I have learned so much from his nurturers as well as fellow mothers during our 2 1/2 block sessions when we were in Iloilo City. Waldorf or Steiner education has been around for sometime and its holistic way of dealing with a child has always mystified me. A child is welcomed even while it is still in the womb, and it is being respectfully ushered out into the world in 3 stages: willing (0-7), feeling (7-14), and thinking (14-21). From 0-7 years old, a child is encouraged to master the use of his body, thus there are lots of play and outdoor activities and academics are not yet introduced. These are the Waldorf practices that I copied from our playgroup.
Balay Binhi in Leganes, Iloilo
Waldorf playgroup in Singapore
NO TV
Thirdy and Bam do not watch TV simply because we do not have one! As parents, we just feel that TV will not contribute much to the stimulation of our children's senses. If any, it hinders the use of their imagination since they will end up copying whatever is being shown. Here's Waldorf's stand on why they do not let their students watch TV: http://www.rosewaywaldorf.co.za/waldorf-schools-discourage-television/
Our kind of TV - shadow puppetry!
OPEN-ENDED TOYS
I limit the kind of toys my children play to simple and natural ones because it allows them to be more creative. A piece of clay for example can be molded into a squid, a bread, a car, and whatever the child fancies. With open-ended toys, a child's imagination is given a free rein - the possibilities are endless. Here's an article that sums up why children need to play with open-ended toys: https://www.bellalunatoys.com/pages/what-are-waldorf-toys
clay, craft sticks, clothespins, and a wooden cow
RHYTHM
Children thrive on routine. We try to stick to a schedule in our daily activities by establishing regular meal times and sleeping times. Here's another article that explains more about the benefits of rhythm: https://waldorfinspiredlearning.com/rhythm-is-always-the-answer/
Daily morning walk
2. Charlotte Mason
I got to learn more about Charlotte Mason when I attended a webinar by one of the homeschooling moms in Iloilo City. Here's her blog: https://findingbeautycreatingbeauty.wordpress.com/ What impressed me about this philosophy is how they carefully choose books that they will use to teach their children. As a lover of Humanities, I also can't help but be attracted to their curriculum where they introduce art, music, and poetry to children as young as 5-years-old.
LIVING BOOKS
There is what we call a twaddle book in the CM method. The opposite of twaddle books are living books which are written in a way that respect the child's intellect and imagination. Think of the classics and fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm. Parents are asked to read-aloud to their children starting at 5-years-old. After every chapter or so, the child is asked to narrate what has just been read. This encourages active listening. After I learned about living books, I stopped reading to Thirdy some of the rather baby-ish and cartoonish picture books that we have and started reading aloud Ginger Pye to him (the only children's book at home that could pass as a living book). We have since finished it and have moved on to other living books.
First living book read!
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Listening to classical music while doing nature study or art is one of the hallmarks of the CM method. I have also adopted this and realized that my knowledge of the great classical maestros' work is zero. Sure, we did MAPEH in High School, but we didn't even listen to these classical pieces. Everytime Thirdy and I study something, I would play a Vivaldi, a Mozart, or a Beethoven. Thirdy's favorite is Canon in D by Pachelbel.
3. Montessori
Thirdy was able to attend a Montessori school after I gave birth to Bam. What I have observed was that the classroom set-up was arranged in a way that allowed children to freely choose the kind of toys that they wanted to play. There were different learning corners. Children of different ages were taught/grouped together with the rationale that older children could help the younger ones, while the little ones could imitate their big brothers and sisters. It's very much applicable in our set-up because Thirdy is 2 years older than Bam. "Follow the child" summarizes the philosophy of Maria Montessori according to a good friend who is a Montessori teacher.
With Tita Naira in IMS
LIFE-SKILLS
I like the thought of involving the child in the daily household chores because as parents, we have to live with them and not just around them. My little ones like to copy what I do like folding the clothes and sweeping the floor. They sometimes get in the way and sometimes even when they want to help, I find it time-consuming. But how else could they learn about life-skills if I just do everything for them?
My little helpers
DRAMATIC PLAY CORNER
I would have to say that dramatic play corner is my favorite learning corner, that's why we do a lot of puppet shows and pretend play in our little homeschool. The toys I made for my children in my cardboard collective are cardboard boxes that will help them imagine and pretend.
The lion and the mouse
4. Child-led/Unschooling
Unschooling means ditching a strict curriculum for a more freestyle and child-led kind of learning. Since I am a stay-home-mom, I have been able to follow my children's interests and maximize the teachable moments.
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD PROJECT
Thirdy has been interested in flags and countries since last year. We have family and friends scattered all over the world, so on weekends we would call someone from a particular country and Thirdy would interview them about their food, culture, language and of course their flag. We keep a scrapbook/journal for this project so he could draw the facts that he learned from this interview.
Cousin Joseph from the UK
Teacher Vien in Japan
Tita Fe from Norway
BUILD! BUILD! BUILD!
Thirdy has been so interested in structures and buildings, so I have been documenting his drawings and block buildings. I want to keep his interest for such to continue, so we borrow books in the library about stories of construction.
One of Thirdy's block buildings
The pictures in these books delight him
I learned about this method when Thirdy attended Leap Kids, one of the childcare centers in our neighborhood. There is one assigned story per week. After every story, the children have activities in line that will help them learn about numeracy, literacy, music, art, etc. I have yet to learn more about this method as I haven't observed how they do it in class, but through my readings, I can say that it is thematic and very much constructivist. I taught High School English before I became a SAHM, so this got me really interested. I am not teaching anymore, so I apply it in our homeschool by letting Thirdy do some activities related to what we have read such as drawing a favorite scene from the story or making stick puppets out of the characters.
List of activities for Hansel and Gretel
There are still so many things that I would like to be able to do by applying these philosophies. For example, doing the nature study under the Charlotte Mason method and teaching a child how to read the Waldorf way. Joining FB communities has helped me take a look at other homeschooling families' journey and the way they teach their children. I hope to learn more. Who knows? I might learn about another method tomorrow.
