Here is another thing I love about the curriculum that we’re using — no shortcuts. Even the student’s way of writing, for instance, should be done the right way from the very beginning.

Here are instructions I (Teacher Mama) am told to give my student:
1. Sit back on your chair. Lean your body slightly forward and keep your head up. Be sure the lower part of your back touches the back of the chair.
2. Do not let the front of your body touch the front of the desk.
3. Keep your feet flat on the floor and slightly apart, so that they will hold the weight of your legs.
4. Your eyes should be about 12 inches from the paper on which you are writing.
5. Place your arms lightly on your office desk with your elbows slightly off the edge.
6. Rest your writing hand lightly on the outer edges of your third and fourth fingers.
7. Hold the pencil between your thumb, the tip of your first finger and the side of yoru second finger. Your first finger should be on the top of your pencil about an inch from its point. Your second finger should touch the pencil near its base.
8. If you are right-handed, point the top of the pencil toward your right shoulder. If youa re left-handed, point the top of the pencil toward your left shoulder.
9. Hold the top of the paper and push it along with the hand you do not use for writing.
10. If you are right-handed, place the paper in front of you so that the lower left corner points at the center points at the center of your body. Tilt the paper ot the left so your right arm is crossways to the lines on which you are writing. If you are left-handed, place the paper in front of you so that the lower right corner points at the center of your body. Tilt the paper to the right so that your left arm is crossways to the lines on which you are writing.

Given these instructions, when followed to the letter, will allow the student to be efficient in doing his school work. Instructions are given for a purpose, which are mostly practical.

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While some schools wait until the second week of January to resume classes, our homeschooling routine after the holidays started on January 3. It was the first day of our Level 3 class. One of the first lessons Jed had was the introduction of Cursive Handwriting. I was almost sure that it was going to be a challenge since this homeschooler has gotten used to handwriting in manuscript and is already pretty comfortable with it.

Just to give you an idea how well our 6 year old son is doing on his manuscript writing, above is a sample.  The School of Tomorrow’s curriculum has such well-designed program that my son’s progression to this kind of good handwriting was not pushed at all. As with most of his subject’s approach to every lesson, mastery plays the important role to retention and the child’s improvement on every given lesson.  We seriously could not have chosen a better homeschooling curriculum for our son.

I was pretty impressed at how my son fared on his first few pages of learning cursive handwriting.  Photo above was the first page he finished.

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One of the things that my husband and I prayed to be able to instill in our child in his early years is to devote a regular time each day to read God’s word. It helps a great deal that our son loves reading so much. Learning to read at four and progressed to reading with comprehension when he was five allows for him to enjoy hours upon hours of reading as opposed to what kids nowadays are easily exposed to – gadgets.

What basically got this homeschooler to take interest in doing devotions at six years old is his love for reading. He loves going to bookstores, second hand ones or otherwise to pick a book every time we visit the mall. I can leave him reading his book for hours a day and he’s fine.

Don’t get me wrong. This little guy loves gadgets as well. Alone with any gadget, computer or television, he will, for sure, submerge in these zombifying tech stuff if left to himself. We do allow him these gadgets. But with an hour limitation. Oh! Did I mention that we sometimes forget time? And when we do, we pay dearly for it. He just gets out of sorts!

My son attends Sunday School. But it is hardly enough. God has summoned parents in Deuteronomy 11:19, “You shall teach them (the Scriptures) to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise.” Read this article »

Our six year old little guy is now halfway through Level 2. We predicted last June that he was to finish Level 2 by September at the rate he was then going.  But because there are more complex topics that he started learning in Math, we just let him work at his own pace. There is no rushing, anyway. He is only six years old. We value his learning more than how fast he will be able to pace through the curriculum.

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Practice makes perfect. This is what we have been told for as long as we can remember and for good reason. It works. Take our homeschooler’s penmanship, for instance. It was not so long time ago that his handwriting was kinda of sorts. Look at how he has improved since.

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As a work from home mother, I cannot emphasize enough how parent friendly School of Tomorrow’s homeschooling program is. When my son stepped into Level 1 last month, I thought I was on for a rougher ride. You see, SOT’s Preschool with Ace and Christi and ABCs with Ace and Christi were probably the easiest but most effective programs there is. Not that I have a way to compare it with others. But just sizing up on how my son got through it, learning not just to read in no time but having time while we were at it as well, I cannot be more convinced otherwise.

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Alpabetong Filipino is an optional subject for Level 1 students who are on the School of Tomorrow system. My husband and I decided to have our son take that subject for him to be able to adjust to learning the Filipino language. His primary language is English and although he can, for the most part, understand Tagalog conversations. He still cannot talk in straight Tagalog. He does not just stammer when he tries to talk in Tagalog. He cannot read words written in Filipino.

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Our family loves the well designed program of the curriculum that we are using from School of Tomorrow. We are currently on our First Year of Grade School and I love the independence it teaches our son. He religiously writes down his own goals for each day and makes every effort to finish as planned.

Jed finished 5 PACES on our first week. One for each subject. As for Word Building, he finished the subject in Preschool. He does not have a Literature subject yet. So both are left blank

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We are blessed to have inherited a library of books way before my son was born. We gave a lot away. But we kept several collection for our library. A portion of which are Children’s and Science Library which our son started to love reading when he was 4 years old. Now that he has started to become a wide reader, he all the more loves things that pertains to Science. This week his focus was on plants and how they grow.

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We really are doing this! I have a confession to make. I’m kinda sorta a little jittery even as we head on over to this milestone. We practically breezed through Preschool, sure. But Grade School is another story all together. But with the confidence that I now have with School of Tomorrow’s curriculum and with my experience as my son’s supervisor since 2009, I know I am more excited than jittery.

My five year old son and I will officially start with Level 1 this coming week. The PACEs just came in yesterday.  There will be a few things that we are going to incorporate to our routine other than the pledges that we do before we start with class.  Like the Goal setting that my student/child has to do before we get started.

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