So I went to the Homeschool Conference yesterday. It was so inspiring. The speakers were very inspiring, the support was inspiring, the number of people who arrived and attended were inspiring. I felt so inspired yesterday I think I was glowing.
But seriously, I was very happy with the outcome of the Conference. Debra Bell was there, by the way, isn’t that amazing?! I was like, whoa! This woman could speak in a foreign tongue and I would still be inspired. I only hope to have even a fraction of the success she’s head with homeschooling. Love her talk. Bo Sanchez, founder of Catholic Filipino Academy, was also one of the speakers. He moved me to tears because he understood what every homeschooling family goes through. It was really a validation of everything we’ve experienced over the years. He’s a very inspiring speaker as well.
After the conference, it made me think on where we are right now as homeschoolers. It made me reevaluate our purpose in making this choice. From the moment we left the conference until we got home and got ready for bed, my thoughts have been on our homeschooling. I will not write them all here because I think the computer will overheat but in summary, these, currently, are the reasons why I want my boys to remain homeschoolers:
For Nikki:
1. To display self-confidence and be willing to take risks. Nikki has always been a cautious child. And I mean cautious to a fault. He’d not want to talk to sales people at the malls because he thinks they would not understand him, or they would talk to him in Tagalog and he’ll not understand them, or he would make a mistake and they would laugh at him. Yeah, paranoid.
2. To value the quality of work and have good work habits. Nikki is not a lazy child but it’s not in him to voluntarily clean or fix stuff or do chores. I want him to be able to do his part and be responsible as a son, a brother and a boy.
3. To show courtesy or consideration. Nikki is not impolite. It’s just that his cautious and shy behavior makes it seem as though he’s aloof and cold. He does forget to say “please” and “thank you” but he does not do it with malice. He’s just very capricious.
4. To build career awareness. It’s never too early to think of the future. We’re not counting chickens, just trying to visualize where Nikki will be and what he’ll be doing 10 years from now. I think it’s never too early to dabble in things that interest you so you’d know which one you’re willing to do day in and day out can call it work.
For Ethan:
1. To have a sense of schedule and routine. Ethan is very flighty and it might be because of his ASD. I mind it only when it affects his learning. It’s not easy to coax him sometimes and good thing I have a lot of patience. We have good days and we have bad days. I accept that and I know that will always be a part of our homeschooling. I just want us to have some structure so that we could have a routine that would be helpful for Ethan and that would keep me sane some days.
2. To be able to converse. Ethan still has a hard time conversing with us. He usually talk to us because he wants to say something but when we try to make him talk to us like in a conversation, he loses focus and just says what he wants to say regardless of the topic or person talking to. We hope that, when he’s ready, he’ll be able to talk to us like in a conversation.
3. To build study skills. As an ASD child, Ethan has a lot of catching up to do in terms of lessons and academics. We’re enrolling him in a school this year and so we hope that he would be more open to the lessons and activities. Otherwise, I’m screwed.
For Enzo:
1. To develop a love of learning at his early age. ’Nuf said.
For now, this will be my focus. I know other homeschooling families have bigger – much bigger – goals than this, but the good thing about homeschooling is that not every recipe is the same. You have to find the one that works for you and if it does, good for you. If it doesn’t, you can always try again. Another good thing about homeschooling? There are no failures.
