Our Homeschool Room

My son loves to create videos. He usually borrows my phone to create bible stories out of Lego or makes ‘spiderman series’ and the like. I had to transfer all these videos from my phone to the computer on a regular basis because it’s making the memory of my SD card full. I don’t want to stop him from creating videos, even if my phone’s memory card always getting full. Who knows, through this ‘hobby’ of his ,her might love to become a movie director or music video director with the use of Cakewalk programs and the likes in the future.  

I just added a new topic in our homeschool and that’s about the ASEAN countries. With the ASEAN Community coming up in 2015, I’m kinda preparing my kids for this through learning a few things about each country. So far, we’ve just started and studied the meaning of the flags of each country and its geographical location. Later, we will deal a bit more of its history and culture. I think it’s a great start to learn more about our neighbors. And what’s exciting is that it’s a topic that’s really so close to ‘home’ and since out of the 10... 

When I was in elementary school, I loved to memorize details from names, places, dates and etc. Most of our tests or quizzes where also based on rote learning so somehow it’s natural that I did well in class. It was only later in my high school years ( thanks to our ‘terror’ class adviser) that I realized that though it’s important to memorize all the facts and details on a memory foam seat cushion but we also need to do a higher level of critical thinking. I kinda struggled with this even until my university years. As a “rote learner”, I can really attest... 

I chatted with my friend, a fellow homeschool mom a few weeks ago, and she share how having uniforms and being on time has helped them a lot in their homeschool. It somehow changed the kids’ mindset that they’re not playing anymore and they need to concentrate more because it’s time for homeschool. I know a lot of homeschooling families have different approaches in homeschool, while some does it with more structure and discipline, others are more spontaneous and free in their approach. There are different reasons for each approach and it works well with the families who are doing... 

My daughter has expressed an interest in learning piano a few months ago. So, we went to one of the music schools in the city to inquire of the fees. There were actually 2 piano teachers availabe at the school, a local teacher and a Russian teacher. When we asked our girl who she prefers, she chose the Russian teacher because she seems like a nice lady. It turns out that the russian teachers seems to have a higher price and it’s a price we couldn’t really afford in the long run. It would have been okay if the rates were high but the teaching hours ( or minutes for that matter ) we long....