Heart of Homeschooling: Faith, Hope, and Love

This February,  I have featured several homeschooling mamas as they share their "heart of homeschooling." This is the last in the series and I have Tina Rodriguez, mother of three and writer extraordinaire.

To read the whole series, click here. I hope this glimpse of our hearts inspires you to at least look into the beauty of homeschooling.

A little over two years ago, I wrote about how my husband and I were introduced to the concept of homeschooling — through an American speaker at a pro-life conference we were able to attend.

The seeds that were planted during that time have grown considerably, and we don’t regret heeding the call to nurture those seeds — the seeds of faith, hope and love.

Faith

My husband and I grew up as nominal Catholics at best, until we became members of a Catholic charismatic community for young people. By God’s grace, we were able to deepen our faith through the many activities we had and came to know Christ on a personal level.

Still, I sometimes wonder how my life would have turned out if my faith had been deepened and strengthened at a much younger age. I led a dark, “double life” for quite some time, especially as a teen/young adult — but that’s for another post! ;)

Now that I have kids of my own, it is my desire, and my husband’s, too, that they grow up knowing the riches and beauty of our Catholic faith — and of having a personal relationship with Jesus.

I know this is possible even if we weren’t homeschooling but I believe that it is made more possible by teaching our children at home. Furthermore, I believe that homeschooling is the way our family can grow in faith.

Hope

In this day and age, when almost everything we see on the news is chaos, despair, crime and tragedy, it can be easy to lose hope. It can be easy to just give up. It can be easy to think, “There’s no bright future for us.”

I don’t believe this though. And I don’t want my children to grow up thinking and believing it either. By educating them at home — the best way we know how — we want to instill in them that attitude of hopefulness.

We want them to always seek the good in everything and everyone; to believe that God has a bright beautiful future in store for them; to move forward in all aspects of their lives, with the hope that they can achieve their life dreams and goals.

I believe that, at least for now, homeschooling is the best way to give our children true, lasting hope.

Love

As parents, I believe we are all called to love our children — and to teach them to love God and others. I also believe that we need to teach our kids that the ultimate goal in life is not to “do well,” but to “love well.” I believe that homeschooling is one of the best ways we can teach them this.

I’d like to quote from an article by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J., titled, “The Teaching of the Catholic Church on Home Schooling — Parents For Eternal Life” (emphasis mine):

Parents’ responsibility to educate their children is primary. This means, it is their first responsibility. It is primordial; it is inalienable; it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute.

It is critically important to understand what the Church means when she says that parents have the primary right and duty to teach their children.

After all, there is a primacy in what the children are being taught. 

• They can be taught how to walk and how to talk. 
• They can be taught how to read and write. 
• They can be taught arithmetic, and spelling and history and geography. 

All of these things they can be taught and should be taught. But what they mainly need is to know why God made them; why they are on earth at all; why they are in this world; that they are here in this life in order to prepare and train themselves for the world to come. In a word, children are to be taught that their short stay here in time is only a preparation for the world that will never end. They are to be trained for heaven.

And what better way to train them for heaven than to train them to love? Above all, we want our kids to love and seek God with all their hearts, which is why we named our homeschool “The Kingdom-Seekers Academy,” from Matthew 6:33.

The Heart of Homeschooling

This, then, is the heart of our homeschooling: faith, hope and love. 

“So faith, hope, love remain, these three;but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Tina Rodriguez is a Catholic wife and home educating mom by vocation, and a writer and editor by profession. She works at home three days a week and considers homeschooling as one of her advocacies and passions. She shares about “the riches of faith, family and life in general” on her blog, Truly Rich Mom.

Read the rest of the series:

• Alex of Between Now and Later - The Now
• Racquel of Guevara Homeschool Academy - Looking Into Our Hearts
• Chris of The Mommy Journey - Heart Formation
• Blessie of The Nanay Notebook - A Pure, Clean Heart
• Mariel of The Learning Basket - The Way to My Children's Hearts

Heart of Homeschooling: The "Now"

This February, I'm featuring several homeschooling mamas as they share their "heart of homeschooling." Today, I have Alex Hao, mother of four, and "unschooling" her brood for about eight years.

To read the rest of the series, click here. Make sure to check back once in a while during the whole month for more. I hope this glimpse of our hearts inspires you to at least look into the beauty of homeschooling.

If you have an activity now or a way of doing things and you can see, feel, realize that it is:

• Effective
• Fun
• Allows you to be with your children, think quality and quantity time 
• Unhurried and respectful 
• Cultivates responsibility and kindness
• Real
• Creative
• Exciting
• Safe
• Affordable

Would you not do it and carry on?

These are the qualities of homeschooling that validates the decision my husband and I made for our family about eight years ago. Our eldest child was eight and in Grade 2 back then, our second was five and our youngest then was about two years old.

How do we go about with our homeschooling? We discuss our week every Sunday. We have a bit of structure of things that we do every day. This is especially important for my 2 younger children (ages 4 and 9). A little play time in the garden after cleaning up the breakfast table. And then we go upstairs. My 4 year old either plays with puzzles or his Lego bricks. This is an activity he chooses. My girls sit down and do their academics, usually it's Math. So far it’s my 9 year old who has a lot of questions about her Math work. The two older ones, ages 12 and 15 can answer and check their own work. They have a concept of what a test demands because most homeschool packages have tests in them. They do the tests and I encourage them to try it out. They value their score. I just listen.

We do not give gifts to encourage excellence or reward high scores. As my husband says, your high score is the reward itself. It’s very much like learning how to bake a cake.I think it’s absurd to tell my children, I will not buy them whatever or extend privileges if they are able to bake a cake perfectly. The cake itself is the reward for the work done. And we can all enjoy the cake as a family.

There are some areas of discipline and/ or skill that I simply cannot do, more so teach my children, like:

• play the violin, piano or flute, etc. 
• dance: ballet, jazz, hiphop, disco, zumba, etc. 
• and sing in tune: karaoke, pop, opera, rap etc.

For these things we have to look for a qualified teacher. 

I was clear from the start that I was not going to bring school home. At one point we did try a bit and I abandoned it. I do not want to grade my children’s works, it seems to go against the grain of my heart muscles. So I settled that my children will have the label out of school youth. My eldest have accepted this without any stigma attached to it. In a literal sense, they are indeed out of school youths. 

I also think it is important that my children meet other children their age and make friends that they can keep. For this, I found a group called Buds Girls Club. My eldest daughter started joining this when she was about 5 years old. They meet up twice every month on Saturday mornings and work on some project or activity. Some of the girls, like my eldest daughter, have moved up to Blossoms Teens Club.

When some friend or acquaintances ask me, “What’s going to happen to your children?” My honest answer is, I do not know. I cannot even tell exactly what will happen tomorrow how much more what will happen 5, 10 or 20 years from now. I can plan and work on it but I cannot tell the future. I choose to be excited with possibilities that can come our way as individuals and as a family, rather than be afraid of what might happen in the distant future. I know and accept that I am not a fortune teller and I am more than a teacher, I am a parent. And what I have is NOW. Just, now. I might as well make the most of it.

Alex Hao teaches childbirth classes and pre-natal yoga in her tranquil space called The POD in Davao City. Read more about their "unschooling" adventures at Between Now and Later.

Read the rest of the series:

• Racquel of Guevara Homeschool Academy - Looking Into Our Hearts
• Chris of The Mommy Journey - Heart Formation
• Blessie of The Nanay Notebook - A Pure, Clean Heart
• Mariel of The Learning Basket - The Way to My Children's Hearts

Heart of Homeschooling: Looking Into Our Hearts

This February, I'm featuring several homeschooling mamas as they share their "heart of homeschooling." Today, I have Racquel Guevara, mother of a teen and a tween, and homeschooling for more than six years!

To read the rest of the series, click here. Make sure to check back once in a while during the whole month for more. I hope this glimpse of our hearts inspires you to at least look into the beauty of homeschooling.

I think I've written about the reasons why we've chosen to homeschool too many times. Maybe, it's my way of being in constant pursuit for a better way to raise up, parent, and educate our children. Of coping with the challenges of this unheard of lifestyle. Of convincing myself time and again that we did make the right decision. Whether those reasons are personal ones, or some articles I agree with or that have inspired me, you may read some of them (or all!) here.

But what really is the HEART of our homeschooling? Is it really all about academics and education? Despite it going against the norm and surprising us with difficulties we aren't prepared for, why are we still doing it?


It is God's command.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

These two Bible verses are Heart #1. It doesn't specifically say that we should teach Math, Science, History, and all the other academic subjects but what the first verse says is "to talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

How else are we to do this faithfully unless we are with our daughters from sunrise to sundown? Sounds exaggerated for today's modern times, right? But Mike and I believe that it is our duty and full responsibility, no one else, to teach our children, to train them, to guide them every step of the way. Personally being with them from the time they were born until they're all set and ready to spread their wings and being present in the different moments in their lives is what I personally think to be the best way to follow this command.

More than the academics, what these Bible verses really say is character-building is the heart of our homeschooling. I will never forget two instances when we received an affirmation on this when we were a very new homeschooling family. Both of them happened inside the church when we attended an anticipated Sunday mass. Both were out-of-the-blue. In both instances, we were told by two ladies, total strangers, that our children were kind, behaved, and that Mike and I were raising our daughters very well. Wow! That really caught us by surprise!

We have become closer. We have become stronger.

Six years of this lifestyle and we've become ONE. We eat together. We huddle and pray together as a family at church every Holy Communion time (I've never seen anyone else do this, actually). We laugh together. We sing together in the car. We look forward to and enjoy each other's company in our family vacations. We've cried. We've seen one at his/her weakest moment and we were there to give him/her comfort at the time he/she needed it most. We've said hurtful words, hugged each other, said "I love you's" and "I'm sorry.' We've been there for each other in big accomplishments and small victories.

This is Heart #2 of our homeschooling. We believe in the family as a unit. We believe in the value of the family as a plan of God. We believe in the family as a ministry.

Homeschooling is not something we decided on to be different from the rest. We feel that it was and is a calling which need a response, an action, and a commitment. It is a personal choice and a decision.

As I close this blog, I am reminded again by the note given to me by an office mate of mine many years ago. Back in Feb. 11, 1997, to be exact. Mike and I got married in December 1997.

It was during his quiet prayer time when he felt he received a message from God, which he said was FOR ME. He wrote it down on a piece of paper and I've kept it in my Bible since. His note said:

My daughter, do not look elsewhere. Do not look at anybody else. I have given you Mike and have set him aside for you. When I choose I do not make mistakes. I know my reasons and I do choose for a purpose. Seek for that purpose and pursue it - together. Seek it in prayer; seek it together in prayer. 

I have plans for Mike and you and I want you to carry it. But, this same plan will not be the same plan if you end up with somebody else. 

I look back at this note every now and then, and every time, I hear a little voice telling me that "the plan", "the purpose" is to homeschool our children. I could be wrong. It could be something else. But each time I read this, I get a different feeling in my heart that I myself can only understand.

Racquel Guevara is a SAHHM (yes, that's double H, which stands for Stay-At-Home-Homeschool-Mom), with two daughters, Arielle and Kayla. Arielle's 14 and is in 2nd year high school, and Kayla's 11 and is in 6th Grade. She and her husband, Mike, gave up their corporate life in Manila a few months after Arielle was born, and moved to Batangas City, Racquel's home province. A couple of years later, they found themselves attracted to homeschooling as an option for their children's education and as a family lifestyle. They have been on this "road less traveled" for over 6 years now, and hope to commit to continue doing it year after year through prayer and God's grace. Racquel blogs about our homeschooling life at Guevara Homeschool  Academy. 

Read the rest of the series:

• Alex of Between Now and Later - The NOW
• Chris of The Mommy Journey - Heart Formation
• Blessie of The Nanay Notebook - A Pure, Clean Heart
• Mariel of The Learning Basket - The Way to My Children's Hearts

Heart of Homeschooling: Heart Formation

This February, I'm featuring several homeschooling mamas as they share their "heart of homeschooling." Today, I have Christine Amador, mother of two children. 

To read the rest of the series, click here. Make sure to check back once in a while during the whole month for more. I hope this glimpse of our hearts inspires you to at least look into the beauty of homeschooling.

____________________

“Mommy, he hit me!”

“Me first!” 

“I want it now!” 

These are some of the words you would hear my kids shout if you were with us on a regular homeschool day. Both of my kids love being with each other but sometimes, they also end up fighting and getting irritated with one another. We all know that this is a common scenario in homes, but if not addressed properly, the children will grow up with heart issues and eventually character problems later on.

COOPERATION

As each day progresses, I get to know the personality of each of my child. Though they are siblings, they are so different from one another. They enjoy different activities and pursue different interests yet we as one family try to support and build each other in every way possible. My daughter loves the arts while my son is the sporty type. They take turns in supporting each other’s interests by being present in each other’s activities. This way, they learn to cooperate and be supportive of each other.

FORGIVENESS

When one of the kids become angry, we take time off from what we are doing to discuss what happened and why it happened. This allows the child to learn how to deal with disappointments and hurts. They learn to deal with each other’s weakness and failures. They also learn to accept and truly forgive one another.


LOVE 

We often discuss love but putting it into practice is what we intentionally try to do. Knowing the five languages of love and how each child’s love tank is filled is important. This way, we get to express love within the family. Small acts of service throughout the day, expressing one’ s love through cards, letters and other gifts, hugging extensively, words of praise and spending adequate time together


DILIGENCE

Hard work and patience is not something that the kids learn overnight. Laziness and not giving their best seems to creep in whenever we are doing school work. We remind them that God deserves the best and every little thing we do is a reflection of our service to Him. There is no shortcut to diligence.


FAITH

Above all, faith in God is one of the most important lessons the children need to learn. Without knowing Jesus Christ personally, everything else wouldn't matter in the end. Early on, we share the love of Christ to them and we teach them the Word of God so that they will grow up with wisdom and faith will grow in their hearts.


Homeschooling gives me the opportunity to address the issues of the heart. As parents, we are given ample time to discover our kids and shepherd them towards the right path.What the kids will be in the future depends on their heart formation today. For our family, the heart formation of the children is most important to us, and that is the heart of our homeschool.

Believing that God has called her to homeschool her kids, Christine Amador has been homeschooling her 2 kids for the past 3 years. She blogs about her motherhood journey and homeschooling adventures over at The Mommy Journey.

Read the rest of the series:

• Alex of Between Now and Later - The NOW
• Racquel of Guevara Homeschool Academy - Looking Into Our Hearts
• Blessie of The Nanay Notebook - A Pure, Clean Heart
• Mariel of The Learning Basket - The Way to My Children's Hearts

Heart of Homeschooling: A Pure, Clean Heart

This February, I'm featuring several homeschooling mamas as they share their "heart of homeschooling." I have Blessie Adlaon today. She is the mom of three homeschooled children and one baby . You can read her profile at the bottom of the post.

To read the start of the series, click here. Make sure to check back once in a while during the whole month for more. I hope this glimpse of our hearts inspires you to at least look into the beauty of homeschooling.

____________________

When my first child was born, I remember singing to him this Barbra Streisand song, the lyrics of which summed up everything I want to say to all my four kids now: 

If I could, I'd protect you from the sadness in your eyes, 

Give you courage in a world of compromise, 

Yes, I would if I could. 

I would teach you all the things I've never learned, 

And I'd help you cross the bridges that I've burned, 

Yes, I would if I could. 

I would strive to shield your innocence from time, 

But the part of life I gave you isn’t mine; 

I watched you grow so I could let you go…

This is the heart of our homeschooling: protection. We want to watch our kids carefully while they are young so that, like seedlings protected in a greenhouse, they can safely grow strong in their values and principles. When those are strong enough to keep their hearts and minds safe even without us, then we can let them go.

You may ask, “Safe from what?”


Fear of trash

When I was young, I learned a lot of things outside of our home that, looking back now, I wish I had never learned: I learned that “love is meant for beauty queens.” I learned that the majority wins, even if the majority is wrong. I learned that freedom is the supreme good. And the list goes on.

Today, I am able to see those teachings for what they truly are: garbage. The problem is that once garbage enters your brain, it is very, very hard to take it out again. It invades your dreams. It contaminates your values. It dirties up your life.

But I was a kid then. I did not recognize trash when I saw it. It looked good, so I swallowed it all up.

Oh, how I weep for my young self when I think of all the pain and shame and heartache that she had to go through because – in her unprotected naiveté – she had believed and swallowed so much of the garbage offered by the world. I will not go into detail; you all already know what garbage does – it makes you feel sick and very, very dirty.

And when I think of my children one day receiving the same harm from encountering the same trash, my maternal feelings rise with the ferocity of a wounded bear. “No,” my spirit shouts. “Never.” As long as God lets me, I shall keep my kids protected in the clean shelter of our home until they have learned to discern what is valuable from what is trash, truth from falsehood, good from evil – in other words, until they have learned things that I have not yet fully learned myself.

Fortunately, one does not have to be a champion to train a champion. With God’s grace I believe that I can raise children who are wiser, happier, cleaner than I have ever been: Their dreams will be sweet. Their values will be strong. Their hearts, minds, and lives will be pure.

And I believe it all begins by protecting them from the world’s trash. That is why we are homeschooling.

Blessie Adlaon is the mother of three homeschooled children and one baby. She works at home as a freelance writer and editor. She shares her experiences and tips about working at home and homeschooling in the Philippines at her blog, The Nanay Notebook.

Read the rest of the series:

• Christine Amador of The Mommy Journey - Heart Formation
• Mariel of The Learning Basket - The Way to My Children's Hearts

The Way To My Children's Hearts

This February, I'm featuring several homeschooling mamas as they share their "heart of homeschooling." I'm starting off the series with this blog post. Make sure to check back once in a while during the whole month for more. I  hope this glimpse of our hearts inspires you to at least look into the beauty of homeschooling.

"I don't like that book!" said my daughter about "Owl Moon."

"Really? Why?" I said it calmly, but really my mind was racing, thinking of how I could motivate my 5-year-old to sit with me and enjoy our book.

"Because I don't like poems. That book is full of poems."

"A-ha! But did you know that poems make good songs?" Then I started to sing.

With a gasp, Little T scooted up to me, then said, "I know! I'll get my dulcimer!" (A dulcimer is a string instrument that my children like to pretend to be a guitar.)

Jackpot. We finished the book that way, singing, talking, and playing together.

Going After My Children's Hearts

That little incident is just one of many that reveal the heart of our homeschooling, and essentially mine. Knowing my children and being able to respond to them in such a personal and empowering way is what keeps my homeschool heart beating steadily.

We all know the proverb "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach." You can say that I am after my children's hearts and the way to get there is to know them - their own interests and quirks - and to celebrate who they are.

I See You

We have a favorite Kindermusik song called "I See You." (Click here to listen.) It's all about what all children want: to be seen, to be known, to be celebrated.

I see my daughter. She loves to sing, dance, and pretend. She responds so well when we incorporate those three into our day. Noting her glassy eyes one time as I tried to talk to her about self-control in Kevin Henkes' Lilly's Purple, Plastic Purse, I invited her to "make it a play" and be Lilly. Oh how her eyes lit up!

I see my son. He loves to move, thank you very much! We provide him as much freedom as our hearts can take. Chairs, stairs, windows - I'm sure those of you who have boy toddlers know this! With him, I make the extra effort to be more physical, to be exaggerated in my voice and movement, to be more active in engaging him.

I see my children with my heart and theirs. 

The Heart of Our Homeschooling

More than the educational benefits that people talk about, the heart of the matter, of homeschooling for us, is the opportunity to get to know our children and respond to them as individuals. Making that knowledge work in all aspects of our lives, including their education, is just icing on our already delicious cake.

A poem that becomes a song, a story that becomes a two-character play, a chair that becomes a tree - all these are opportunities for me to go after my children's hearts and minds. I see them.

Read the rest of the series:

• Alex of Between Now and Later - The NOW
• Racquel of Guevara Homeschool Academy - Looking Into Our Hearts
• Chris of The Mommy Journey - Heart Formation
• Blessie of The Nanay Notebook - A Pure, Clean Heart
• Mariel of The Learning Basket - The Way to My Children's Hearts

Make magic!