Another advantage for homeschooling families is the fact that our children do not have to endure endless hours on the road in his school service, which is becoming a common scenario nowadays. This is especially true for children who are living around Marikina and Rizal area during heavy rainfall.

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And when I say curriculum, that would be ABCs with Ace and Christi. My son graduated last March from his Preschool with Ace and Christi with honors and we just got done with our first month on this current curriculum. This particular curriculum is designed to be preparatory for the child to shift to Level 1/Grade 1.

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Jed’s moving up day early this month marks a milestone not just in his life but ours as a family as well. The awards definitely got us elated, especially so that we have never expected that he’ll receive any. The next program that our son is to take this coming school year is ABCs with Ace and Christi.

ABCs with Ace and Christi is School of Tomorrow’s learning to read program. It is a multisensory, phonetics program. Just like the former program our son graduated from (Preschool with Ace in Christi). This particular program is designed to prepare the student for the individualized instruction of School of Tomorrow’s program, which was formerly known as Accelerated Christian Education (ACE). ABCs with Ace and Christi is used after a child is diagnosed as “ready to read” using the Reading Readiness Test.

I am confident that my son is going to breeze through this program. The former program he was enrolled in was so good that he now knows how to read! Jed even now knows how to spell correctly, up to six letter words! I am one proud Mama Teacher, that’s true. It can easily surpass the feeling of sending out birth announcements of sorts. I am one privileged parent and I am thoroughly loving home schooling to bits.

I guess the purpose why we’ll get him enrolled in the ABCs with Ace and Christi program despite him knowing how to read already is for mastery and for him to practice his writing skills more. And it would be a little too early if he’d jump to Grade 1 right away anyway. He’d get to that later this year.

10 Reasons We Homeschool by Camille Kendall

Every homeschool mom has been tempted to throw in the towel at some point. Here are 10 reasons to keep going.

Reason 1: If you stop homeschooling and enroll your children at the school down the road, you will have to have them all up, dressed, fed, and outside waiting for the bus by 6:45 every weekday morning with their books and school supplies in tow. Personally, with seven school-age children living under one roof, I don’t think that is humanly possible.

Reason 2: If you stop homeschooling, you will have to graciously endure comments such as, “I knew that homeschooling thing was a totally hare-brained idea. It’s good to see you finally came to your senses and decided to do the rational thing.” Of course, such comments will come repeatedly and enthusiastically from those unsympathetic relatives who have offered so little help and encouragement all along.

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I cannot remember anymore where exactly the hubby and I came to an understanding that we will homeschool our son. What I am definitely sure about is his influence on me after he came home from one of those administrators trainings that he attended in School of Tomorrow in Paranaque.

The hubby and I originally prayed about being able to start a preschool in the church where he pastors (www.sbcmakati.org). But for some reasons (including the fact that the church building’s locations isn’t a conducive one) this plan has not flourished yet. God has His perfect time. And because we are so sold out to the School of Tomorrow’s curriculum, we chose not to give our son second best. Hence, we chose homeschooling via SOT’s curriculum.

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One of the things that you gain from being in a support group is these little insights fellow homeschoolers share.  Here is one of them that I have read from a more recent thread. An excerpt from “A Survivor’s Guide to Homeschooling” by Luanne Shackelford and Susan White.

” My oldest is sixteen. The time I have had with him I will never have again in the same way. Time goes by very rapidly. In ten more years, if the Lord tarries, I will be only forty-six & my youngest almost fifteen. I will have plenty of time to do other things if the Lord gives me the time, and if He doesn’t, I didn’t need it anyway! My time is something I can give my children now in a way that I won’t be able to give them later. It is time that I can be with them & teach them godly values. I can use situation in our everyday life to illustrate Biblical truth.

I WILL NEVER HAVE THIS TIME AGAIN.

MANY THINGS CAN WAIT BUT KIDS GROW UP.”

Our family chose School of Tomorrow’s (Accelerated Christian Education) Preschool with Ace and Christ curriculum when we started homeschooling our 4 year old son June of 2009.  Here’s to give our readers a preview what this curriculum offers and its benefits that led us to choose the program.

Accelerated Christian Education’s learning-to-read program is called Preschool with Ace and Christi. This is a multisensory, phonetic program, designed to prepare a child for the individualized instruction of the A.C.E. program. This learning-to-read program should be attempted only after a child has been diagnosed “ready to read” using the Ace and Christi Reading Readiness Test. Within a period of 12 to 15 weeks, he will become acquainted with phonics through animals, songs, and stories. These features will help him learn and associate letter sounds, alphabet sequence, and word relationships. Additional activities have also been designed to help the student in his physical and character development.

Preschool with Ace and Christi utilizes a number of outstanding reading tools, such as a specially developed alphabet sequence, songs for each of the sounds, poems, displays, and physical activities. Additionally, character development activities and Bible stories are built in. The program is designed to be used in conjunction with Word Building PACEs 1001-1012, Math PACEs 1001-1003, Animal Science PACEs 1001-1012, and Bible Reading PACEs 1001-1012.

Special Features

• Reading Readiness Test
• Specially developed alphabet sequence
• Songs for each of the sounds
• Poems, displays, and physical activities
• Post Test
• Review Manual

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In approximately a month from now, I’m going to seriously figure out how to juggle in a set homeschool schedule with my little guy, Jed. Right from when he was an infant, we were already set on homeschooling him. My husband and I  have peace with it despite the odds. Odds are usually spelled relatives who actually think that homeschooling a child is withholding him from a handful of things. While our primary purpose f is the exact opposite of withholding him anything – we want to actually give our son the best education there is available while his parents, still being his primary influencer, which we believe,  is very important.

While homeschooling may be our preference, it is not an absolute. There are families that homeschooling will not be the best option. Unless the parents are wholeheartedly into it, the family will not be able to maximize the benefits of homeschooling.  There really are a lot of dynamics when it comes to this matter.

Even as we are set on homeschooling our son, we were also open to the possibility of getting him enrolled in a regular school after preschool. We had peace with it, I guess it helps a lot that my husband and I have one heart regarding this matter.

This coming June my husband and I are going to have our son assessed. We are pretty sent on using the School of Tomorrow’s (SOT) curriculum. It used to be known as Accelerated Christian Education or ACE. From the assessment that he will undergo, we will know if our son will be enrolled in Preschool with Ace and Christi or ABCs of Ace.

Preschool with Ace and Christi is a program for children who have been tested NOT ready to read, while ABCs of ACE is for children tested READY to read. And more than just the child’s knowledge of the letter sounds, there are a whole lot of other things to consider to pass the assessment for reading readiness. A child’s fine motor skills, for instance. My son has been reading simple three and four letter words from age 2. That gives me confidence that he is reading ready. He has to score 80% to pass the assessment. But the idea is not to be pressured to have the child pass, because if his other skills would mean he has to go through the first level, then that would give him a better grasp of the skills he has yet to learn to get to the next level. 

Needless to say, I am both thrilled and nervous. This is going to be a major milestone for our family. I am thrilled to have this blog journal our journey towards homeschooling with the hope that this will encourage other homeschooling families as well in the future.