Learning Financial Management at Early Age

We are reviving our Merit Store, and it's even bigger!

Our Merit Store had helped me motivate my homeschoolers in completing their daily goals. Their scores increased and they became more conscious in following rules and instructions. 

When we moved houses and then had made adjustments to our homeschool set-up, the merit store was put aside. But now, we have decided to bring it back  and use it not only as a motivational tool but also to teach our homeschoolers banking system and principles. It's never too early to teach our young children principles on financial management such as saving more, spending less, and keeping good credit score rating. They'll know better how to use (or not to use) credit cards, and be wise in using cash money when they grow up.

I blogged about our Merit Store before but I will be posting more on this once our new Merit Store is open.

Becoming Critical Thinkers Like Socrates and Plato

Image by Google

When I give away the activity sheets to my grade 2 pupils this morning, I was almost tempted to give them the step by step instructions on how to answer their papers. I just didn't want them to fail for not following instructions. But then I thought to myself, they also need to learn to figure things out by themselves. Not everything in life goes with an instruction manual. If I want my student to be successful in life, I should not spoon-fed them with knowledge but train them to become skilled thinkers.
As an educator for more than 20 years now and have taught all ages in all levels including my own children, one of the achievements I really value is seeing my learners become critical thinkers. When I sent my homeschooled son to the university, I was confident that he would excel despite not being familiar with life in a big school. As I expected, he is doing great indeed. 

One of the major discussions we have in my MA in Education classes at present is on how to teach our students to become critical thinkers or skilled thinkers. There go the terms higher-order of thinking and Socratic questioning or the art of asking big questions. They sound like highly technical terms but really, we parents are already applying some them to our children. When we are not ignoring the unending "why-questions" of our toddlers, we are actually encouraging them to use higher-order of thinking. "What is this for?" is a bigger question than "What is this?" When preparing a test for my students and homeschoolers, I usually avoid formulating questions answerable by yes or no or plain true or false. "They have to be moved to a higher-order of thinking." says one of my professors. And alas, it's not a hard task because there are strategies to do that.

If you are a teacher or a homeschool mom, you don't really need to take MA in Education as I did to learn more  about critical thinking strategies. Critical thinking is not a new thing. It's even older than Socrates and Plato. There are excellent online resources available which one I just hopped into and is happily hooked in.

Easy-To-Make Masks

 The girls were a bit bored not having their lessons for many days. The flooding situation in our city has put our normal routine on hold and the girls just wanted to do some fun craft. So Zoe asked her dad if he could help her make a mask. They searched a tutorial online, went out to buy the materials needed, and were happy with the finished projects.

Zoe made the blue mask with whiskers which shows her fondness to her favorite pet. Naomi  made use of her old wand by cutting the star and used it as an accent to her  pink mask.

Our family don't celebrate the Halloween but that doesn't mean the girls can't have a little masquerade this end of October.

Check out the mask tutorial here.

I'm a visual learner. How about you?

As  a teacher, it is important to me that I know the learning style of each of my students. As a homeschooling mom, I know the learning strengths of my children and so are their weaknesses. It makes learning time more productive when you know what your children's learning styles are. 

I, myself, is a visual learner.  I learn best when there is something for me to see. I'm also a bit of a kinesthetic learner but definitely not an auditory learner. My daughter, Zoe, is more of a visual learner. Although she's capable of learning by just listening to my stories, explanations and lectures she understands concepts best when I show her some visual aids.

I have a student in my English class who doodles more on his notebook than copy what's written on the board. I thought at first that he wasn't learning well because I didn't get his attention but it turned out when I did the review of our lesson that he was understanding well and even more more than the others. I understood that then that he's an auditory learner.

If you want to know more about your own learning style, click here for free online learning style test.

Adjustment From Homeschooling To College Life

Since my son left for college, my husband and I never fail to visit his FB account everyday (his blog is no longer updated) to see how he is. We also chat online almost everyday. With all the help of technology, we still miss him very much. I hope he's just a bus ride away but he's not. He's 2 flights away from home.

Last night I chatted with him and I asked him to send me a summary of his adjustment in college. He's been homeschooled until high school so it would be important for us to see how he is coping with life in a big university.

Here's an excerpt of his email which he typed while we were chatting. I'm sure  homeschooling parents are eager to know as much as we do.

                     My adjustment to the new environment here in ______ University has been quite the experience. So far, I’ve adjusted to the transportation, food, and people here. School itself is neither easy nor difficult. It’s manageable enough to get me to be one of the top students in my two different classes.

                     My only problem right now is the time pressure and assignments, homeworks, etc. . I’m afraid I haven’t fully adjusted to that yet. I’ve been getting less sleep and rest, even on the weekends. It’s hard work but otherwise I kind of like it, makes me alert and awake. I go home as early as I can so I can prepare for next day’s classes. Other than classes itself, I try to participate more in my class’ bigger projects like plays, portfolios, etc. . By participating more, my sleeping hours have been much more shortened, but this way, I can get the extra points to stay in the top 5 of my 2 classes. 

                     The class itself is great. I already made friends with all of my classmates and I am glad that all of us share the same flame to do well in school. All of us are very competitive when it comes to grades except for a few others whom I am sorry to hear have just dropped out from the university. Honestly, at first I had no idea what International Studies had in store for me, but after getting introduced to the course by some of our teachers, I realized that I like it. It is a course that somewhat makes me feel comfortable as I can relate to the subjects that it offers. I’m sticking to this course until I graduate. 

                     My expenses monthly is approximately ______. That includes my food, transportation, lodging, and the rest is for school supplies. _______

                     So far, my transition here  is challenging but manageable. I am doing better in my class, am adjusted to the new type of transportation, pretty much everything that I need to adjust to, except for time management, that is still a work in progress, but otherwise, I am doing alright. 

                     I really am entirely grateful to God and you guys for all the support you have given me for this new phase in my life. Thanks!

I was the proudest mom after reading this. It's just a joy to see how my little boy have grown up to be a fine young man!

Kids' Sports Program

In our homeschool program, we are required to have at least 4-hour Physical Education every week. My husband and I have to plan out how we comply with that requirement. So far, this is what we have done in our PE program. May you find some ideas or inspiration for your own homeschool program.

Badminton

We're blessed to live near a sports center and also we have a friend who is a professional badminton coach so our homeschoolers had badminton training for 3 months.

Ice Skating

There are times when we take the kids out for ice skating but because it's quite expensive to keep it a regular activity, we just go there on special occasions.

Chess Tournament

When it's too hot to go outside, or when we feel like we have enough of outdoor activities already, we just do some indoor sports like dart or chess.

Traditional Games

Our homeschoolers had a blast when we introduced Filipino traditional games to them. That's when they learned how to use marbles and  rubberbands in games. They also enjoyed takyan, tumba lata, syatung and many others.

Swimming

Swimming is always the easiest kind of sports we can do because we live near a public pool. Kids never get enough of it! Soon, we will be enrolling them to a proper swimming course.

Archery

Our homeschoolers had the chance to learn a bit of archery last month. We're not sure if we'll have another round of that but, for sure, it was one of the most memorable sports they had.

We also table tennis, kick ball, and many other games and sports. I still have to dig my picture files to share them here. But when we run out of ideas, we just take the children out for free play or biking in the park.

Kids Using Facebook Do Worse in School

Image modified from Google image sharing.

Two years ago, my husband and I decided to protect our children from using Facebook. Our 2 main reasons were:
 1. They are under-age to qualify to open an account so having one would mean lying about their age.
2. We, parents, cannot have total control on whom they meet online and what images and foul language they would see and read on the screen.

My girls, 12 and 9, are very sociable and they have friends their age who enjoy being "on line" with other friends. I sometimes feel that I want to give in and let them.... But having read the article how kids who use Facebook do worse in school, I feel justified for being a "kill-joy" mom. Well, my girls never whined about it, though. They are fine and content with their own blogs.

Here's what the article says:

That Facebook is hugely distracting is hardly stop-the-presses kind of news, but parents might be dismayed to learn that the social-media site can hobble learning and make kids less healthy and more depressed.   Read more here.

Entering University Life

He's finally there! We've been looking forward to this time after years of homeschooling. Our son finally made it to the university. He said, "The 5-hour entrance exam was surprisingly easy." Hmmm...that's the confidence of a homeschooler when it comes to big exams like that. He was asked to write 2 essays and was commended for that and was encouraged to join the writers club. Homeschool works!
I've just chatted with my son online. School starts next week. We're all excited for him! I'm flying down to our home city to be with him for 3 days to help him set-up his new life there. Today, we worked together on his start-up budget. Aside from finding a room to rent, we need to buy him new shoes, school uniforms and supplies. We have been homeschooling him for many years so we never get to worry about these things before. Now, this is a new challenge for us, aside from the fact that the family will now be in 2 countries. We talked about his personal spending every month, which I believe will not be problem since he is a low-maintenance person who is always content with whatever there is for him. But this may be a big challenge for him because he needs to learn how to take care of himself. now he needs to know how to budget his monthly allowance. He may need help for that but I'm confident that this is the best time for him to learn to be more independent and I believe we've trained him for this day.

The Benefits of Puzzles

My husband and I came home from our trip to Hong Kong with this box of Jigsaw Puzzle as a gift from our friend to our homeschoolers. It was a timely gift because we have been looking for a new puzzle to work on as a family. But the kids couldn't wait! They worked on those 500 pieces day and night by themselves.
Big brother wanted them to put the last piece together but the girl sneaked early morning and finished the picture.

Here they are, happy as clams, working on that tiny table which is one of my office desks where I work on my laptop on my bed before and after sleep.

Our family love working on puzzles. It's not only fun and challenging but it also enhances cognitive, fine-motor, and social skills among children (adult, too). It helps develop hand-eye coordination of young children.
 Puzzles also improve child's problem-solving and reasoning skills. A child learns to see the relationships of isolated pieces to the big picture. I, myself, learn to be more patient working with puzzles. One thing I also like to see my children develop is the habit of finishing a task. I see it in action in their determination to see the complete picture.

2 of our youngest students

We know that not all children have worked on puzzles we share ours to our students in our community learning center. "I can't imagine these poor children not given the opportunity of working on puzzles." A good friend once told me. "They grow missing the prospect of learning how to solve life's problems."

The problems of puzzles are very near the problems of life.  

- Erno Rubik