Aside from the classes and his long awaited Boracay trip that we missed, there were also a couple of birthday party invitations that we have to turn down last week. As long as he’s doing better now, we are actually all good. This homeschooler is thrilled to catch up with his PACEs this coming week. Looks like our next vacay will be for our 10th anniversary celebration in Hongkong this coming December.

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.”

It was timely that the day we got him this devotional for kids, the topic was about Greatest Racer of all Time.  He loves cars almost as much as he loves food! (This eating machine has got to take it easy on his food intake. Else he’d probably have to take the best diet pills when he reached his teenage years). Obviously, something he needs to learn to discipline himself of.

Each devotional page has a designated date and Bible verse for each day. It will take, at the most, two minutes for a child to read. A few more minutes whenever we discuss. SuperDevos 365 Devotions for Energized Kids by Grace D. Chong is distributed by OMF Literature, Inc.

I haven’t been blogging as often now because our homeschooling hours have extended. When our son was in Grade/Level 1, we would spend an average of 4 hours a day. Lately, we have been extending to 5 or more hours. This homeschooler started off by having a goal of 10 pages per PACE. With 7 subjects, he is to do a total of 70 pages per day. When I thought we were extending more than we should. I asked my son if he could adjust it down a notch or two. We tried 5 pages per PACE. Giving us a total of 35 pages, which should not be so bad. So far, we are averaging around 6 to 7 pages per PACE.

Although, he is slowly mastering Mathematics, it is still one of the subjects that he spends longer time in.  He is now adding and subtracting two digit numbers in a breeze. The two other subjects that he needs assistance on are Filipino and Araling Panlipunan. English being our son’s primary language, it is not exactly easy for him to read Tagalog words. Hence, comprehension when it comes to his lessons in Tagalog/Filipino is weaker. But he is doing a whole lot better now.  The subjects that he hardly need help on are: English, Social Studies, Science and Word Building.

I took the above picture during one of our lazy afternoons. I was then cloaked in one of those stuff similar to the spa cover at BeyondNice.com – destressing. Then I thought I’d capture the moment. Guess what he was reading? The Smurfs Movie Novelization, ‘Where the Smurf are We?’ we bought from National Bookstore last week. No, it isn’t the comic book type. It’s a real, 174-page novel! He started off reading these kind of books some months back when he asked me to buy the Kung Fu Panda 2 book for him. He read this before he watched the movie. Looks like he’s gonna finish his Smurfs novel before the movie comes out in theatres this coming August. He’s now on Chapter 8. This little guy definitely is a bunch better than his Teacher Mama. While I, for the most part, will only be interested in reading a book after I’ve enjoyed the movie, my son is actually taking the better road. Makes me think I’ve done my job in nurturing in our son, the love of reading.

First for us to have scheduled is our homeschooling guy’s post-test for Level 1. He cannot just jump into Level 2 without getting tested first. We will go visit the homeschooling arm of School of Tomorrow in Sucat, Paranaque and when he passes the exam, we will order the Level 2 Paces after.

Time flies too fast! It seems just like yesterday when my son was still an infant and will refuse to sleep if he’s not placed in prone position on my chest. Now I cannot only barely carry his almost 70 lb. frame but he’s also inquiring already about how to remove pimples. One of the favorite things that he reads is the Human Body collection in his library. He blurted this out when he was reading one of the issues.

It really is bittersweet. I miss my baby. But I am also happy that he is growing up as he is. God is gracious and we’re praying that our son will choose to glorify His creator all throughout his life.

As soon as we have finished the last of the PACES of our son’s Level 1 curriculum, we got our bags packed and psyched ourselves to a wonderful family time in Davao and Surigao. It was my first time to meet my husband’s relatives who are based in the province. Since our son’s birthday was but a few days away, my husband and I thought it would be nice for Jed to have a little party with his cousins.

Everyone was game despite the short notice. Auntie Nene (the hubby’s aunt) took care of the cake. The hubby bought balloons and ingredients for the food to be served. Auntie Tonette cooked her winner spaghetti recipe. Sheryl (the hubby’s sister) hosted the party. Jeff told me that I should have brought my JBL speaker and surge protectors for better music ambiance. But everything still worked out. The kids are happy!

Best of all, my husband was able to share God’s plan of salvation to his nephews and nieces. We do not know for sure who among them sincerely prayed to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But that’s a seed planted right there in each of their hearts.  My hope is in God’s promise that His word will not return void. (Isaiah 55:11)

This homeschooling family is officially on blogging hiatus for now. We’ll try to update from time to time. Especially so that our little homeschooler is turning 6 on the 11th! We’ll probably celebrate in advance in Davao. Then we’ll have a small “party” with our church family on the Sunday following his birthday. Time flies fast. It wasn’t too long ago when my husband and I welcomed this 6.6 lbs baby boy on my 37th week of pregnancy. It was the best mothers gift I have received to date.

We’ll be back to regular programming by the first week of June. We’ll schedule Jed’s Level 1 Post Test and head on to Level 2 thereafter. We sure are rocking this business of homeschooling!

Take Katy Perry (formerly Katy Hudson), for instance. Who would have thought that a daughter of Christian pastors, who launched a Christian album in 2001, will top the charts with sexually charged music, naked on her cover album, a decade after? I mean sure, my son can tell me now that he’s not getting into drugs, let alone use discount backwoods cigars or do anything forbidden. But when he grows up and chooses for himself the path to take, it’s all gonna be up to him which, in my opinion, will keep us on our knees, as his parents, praying.

As for Katy Perry and her music, I don’t exactly have the luxury of time to investigate things about her or even judge her for her shift of music preference. While I do not approve of it, I’m keeping the same thoughts as the author of BeliefNet has on the celebrated artist. I cleared out my playlist too. In as much as I love her “Firework” song, it does not take a genius to figure out where her other songs revolve around. From the girl-meets-girl flirtation (“I Kissed a Girl”), having sex on the beach (“California Gurls”) and hooking up (“Teenage Dream”).

I personally think that “Firework” is a good song. It has an encouraging message – to the tune of “everyone has value and let the world see that”-kind-of-thing. Katy Perry’s influence on today’s generation is undoubtedly vast. But as a family, we will not choose songs, music, album, in general just because it is what’s popular. In fact, we will, if we have to, review the message of the songs and decide from there.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

While I cannot emphasize enough how our family loves the benefits we get from homeschooling (especially so that it so fits our son’s personality – again, we have mentioned time and again that homeschooling is not for everyone), I am told by well meaning people that I am altogether wasting my license in teaching by not using it professionally. Because you really don’t need a professional license to homeschool your child.

When I decided to take teaching degrees four years back, I was not exactly thinking of stashing it away. In fact, my hope was to look for greener pastures in the land of milk and honey like some friends and loved ones have done. But God clearly has better things in mind for us, our family and our ministry.  He showed us ways on supplementing our income by monetizing websites and earning through internet marketing. He used our blogging mentor, NeilMaranan.com, a classmate from one of the teaching degrees I took, to usher us through it. Now we are paying it forward as we freely conduct tutorials on blogging to people we know. Some of them have actually started earning themselves.

It works best for us as I always consider being my son’s Supervisor during our homeschool class as teaching no less. The fulfillment we get from seeing right before my eyes how he is developing through every PACE is indescribable. The opportunities that God sends our way when we obey Him are just countless! It totally made all the challenges along the way well worth it.

I believe having a homeschooling support group will be beneficial. Left to just me and my son, all we have is our curriculum. But with a support group, we will be able to have ideas from fellow homeschooling parents. While I love the times that we incorporate some of our lessons during our baking time, making something like that of sherrys berrys .com’s sweets, I know there are more things we could do that will tap my son’s creativity.

My next assignment is to grab a list of homeschooling support group all over Manila and maybe visit one that is close to our place.

Grateful. That is how my family and I feel for having finally hired a reliable helper. This has allowed for us to focus more on homeschooling during our class. Since 2009, when we started homeschooling, I would swing from my son’s homeschool nook to the kitchen and back again. Being the only person to take care of our meal, lunch has to be prepared in between classes.

Our assistant’s job is to help me manage the household. My son hardly needs nannying. He knows how to feed, bathe and clothe himself for quite a while now. I considered to have one of those bullet security cameras installed. Learning about notorious helpers abusing their employer’s children are rampant and I was not going to take my chances. But since my son is old enough to let us know if he’s being mistreated in any way whenever we are not around, I think we can have that plan on hold.

It is indeed a blessing to have a dependable househelp. The house is no longer in disarray like it used to be, I can work on my online jobs with less stress and most especially give my full attention to our homeschooler during our class.