Is Homeschooling for You?
Homeschooling may sound a bit new age to you, but do you know that back in the day, children were really homeschooled? Yes, prior to the compulsory education outside of the home, children received their education from their family or community. Then even with the widespread implementation of outside the home education, some of the elite families still enlisted professional teachers to give structured lessons to their children in the comforts of their palaces. Think Queen Elizabeth II and other heirs to the throne. I think her batch was the last to be privately educated in their monarchy as her own children were already sent to schools outside of their castles.
Back to homeschool
Inasmuch as the compulsory education system has brought education to a wider population in general, and allowed parents to engage in work other than child rearing and schooling during the day, there were disadvantages observed by some sectors that motivated a few parents to go back to homeschooling.
Starting in the 1960s, a number of parents and other child formators began to be concerned with the secularization of public education. Others were worried that formal schooling before ages 8-12 may even damage the young kids academically, socially, mentally and physiologically, giving rise to juvenile delinquency and other behavioral problems.
Interesting books on this subject matter were Better Late Than Early, Homegrown Kids, Teach Your Own, and many more.
Unschooling, anyone?
I first heard of the term unschooling from popular lay minister Bo Sanchez, when I asked him about the college plans of his homeschooled first born Bene. The term was coined by John Holt, a homeschool proponent. Unschooling does not mean that the child is not being educated, but means that the child is not being “schooled” in a rigid school-type manner. Instead, the parents do not authoritatively direct the child’s education but interact with the child’s own interests leaving him free to explore and learn as the interests lead. This interest-led education, according to Holt, allows the child to learn through experience and encourages the parents to live their lives with their children.
Wow! My hats off to you.
I’d like to think I’m a devoted mother. But if I try to put myself in the shoes of the homeschooling parents I personally know, I can’t help but bow and say, “Wow! Ang galing nyo! Ang lakas ng powers at pasensya nyo!” I remember my tutoring days with my three sons Martin, Enrique and Anton. They were fun but challenging and could also be stressful, that’s why we also had to design a structure to avoid the usual irritations. I designed my tutoring to last only until their second grade. The training was to make them independent with homework and studying come grade 3, and it was for a reason. When son 1 entered third grade, I was helping out son 2 who started having serious homework and quizzes in Prep. When son 2 entered third grade, son 3 was my tutee. That way, I always just had one tutee at a time. I just love their three year gaps. 
However, I know that deep in my heart, had any of them shown signs of too much school stress leading to “I hate school!” or if their personality was such that they could be “swallowed” or ignored in a big class with rigid traditional school methods, I would have probably considered homeschooling. Fortunately, all three of them thrived in their competitive traditional schools. But I was actively “there” checking homework, listening to their stories fresh out of school, on the lookout for possible early burnout, implementing house rules, always making room for play time especially in their early years, and making sure that the biggest influence in their formative years were still Marvin and me.
Edric and Joy Mendoza
The Mendozas are among those I take my hats off to homeschooling not one, not two, not three, not four, but five children! Their ages range from 14 to 3. I always joke Edric and Joy about the positive side of their being prolific. I say, “That’s good, have some more children, because you are both good-looking, this way you help improve the Beauty Index in the Philippines!”
When Edric tried to be humble about the good-looking issue, saying that it’s only Joy who’s good-looking, I reminded him of this – Spot.ph 2012 Cutest Anchor!
Back to homeschooling, Joy is a product of homeschooling herself. She was homeschooled in her elementary years, then went to an international school for high school, then Ateneo for college. That’s where she and Edric met. (See The Love Story of Edric and Joy Mendoza to learn more about these love birds.)
Homeschooling is not just something they do for their own children but they are actually advocates of this school system. They own Homeschool Global, formerly TMA Homeschool.
I like the way Edric said it during our FQ-wentuhan (to be published tomorrow at noon via FQ Mom FB page), “Homeschooling is not so much bringing the school into the home but creating a learning experience that allows you to make the world your classroom (if I may add, without leaving your home everyday ). The home just becomes a base.”
Joy reinforced their decision to homeschool, “We want to raise our children in a certain way like pass on our values, and we figured that it would be hard to do that with a lot of competing influences outside. We want to customize their education and maximize their learning experience.”
In the few times that I discussed homeschooling with Edric, he always mentioned that saving on your children’s school tuition and other fees is not the primary motivation to homeschool your children. It’s primarily the reasons that they cited above. Nonetheless, we cannot disregard the cost savings of homeschooling:
Parents, check out how your children are doing in their respective schools. Are they learning well? Are their learning styles matched with their schools’ teaching styles? Are they generally happy? Are there enough challenges appropriate to their maturity levels? Or is the stress level too much? Whatever you choose, please make sure that they still get the values education from you, their parents.
More discussions
It was a fun afternoon with Edric and Joy when we discussed this topic that is so close to their hearts. We also talked about other matters on parenting of their five children, their own childhood money memories, and FQ-ripot tips. And of course, don’t miss the fun in the fast talk segment where I asked them to name what they found to be their spouse’s most endearing and annoying qualities, and many more! 
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
- I invite you to join my FQ-wentuhan with handsome and loving couple Edric and Joy Mendoza tomorrow at noon on FQ Mom FB Page.
- Congratulations to CADs (Company of the Ateneo Dancers) for ranking 7th out of 37 finalists from all over the world in the recently concluded World of Dance competition held at the Pasadena Convention Center. Thanks to all those who supported and prayed for the team. Here’s their piece, which is their dance interpretation of the critically acclaimed movie Whiplash. Clink the link to watch the video. https://www.facebook.com/martin.fausto.129/videos/10155578167741514/
- Want to know your FQ Score. Take it today. Click link to take the test.
Rose Fres Fausto is a speaker and author of bestselling books Raising Pinoy Boys and The Retelling of The Richest Man in Babylon (English and Filipino versions). Click this link to read samples – Books of FQ Mom Rose Fres Fausto. She is a Behavioral Economist, Certified Gallup Strengths Coach and the grand prize winner of the first Sinag Financial Literacy Digital Journalism Awards. Follow her on Facebook and You Tube as FQ Mom, and Twitter & Instagram as theFQMom.
ATTRIBUTIONS: Images from Clipart Panda, DCIS Foundation, Mormon Bloke, My Free Photoshop World, Quotezone, www.teachwithjoy.com, The Jata Group, Values India, Weird Scholarships and www.isbearn.com put together to help deliver the message.
Information of homeschooling from Wikipedia.
