When parents become teachers

Is Homeschooling for you?

Every parent aspires to give their children the best education possible, and unfortunately, best often equals expensive.  A recent survey of private high schools in Metro Manila showed tuition fees can go as high as P1.3 million a year to a low of P100,000.

But what if you have more than one child?  Even with just two, the cost of education can be quite a burden to carry.  Must you make the difficult choice of sending them to another school that ranks lower in your estimation but can fit your budget?

Pocket-friendly education

Enter homeschooling as a pocket-friendly option.  More and more parents are choosing to take on the role of teachers to their children, and striving to create engaging learning environments in their homes.

There are now several homeschool partners and providers around the country.  One of them, Homeschool Global, offers two learnings tracks: Touch which has high face-to-face engagement includes a P35,000 assessment per family and P5,000 for every additional student; and Tech where engagement is mostly online and will cost you only P18,000 per student.

Considering the significant savings, homeschooling can be very attractive to parents struggling to meet tuition fees and other school-related costs.

Learning goals

Note though that Edric Mendoza, president of Homeschool Global, will be the first to warn you away from choosing to homeschool to save money. 

“It can be a reason, because there are many practical ways to save money through homeschooling, but it must not be the primary reason.”  Instead, Mendoza advises families to “choose to homeschool if it fits your learning goals. That’s the key. Homeschooling allows customized learning, “real-world” socialization, and greater influence from parents to shape their children’s identity and value set in the formative years.”

Peej Isiderio, academic advisor for families who gets enrichment services from Homeschool Global, also pointed out that “tuition might be lower compared to conventional schools but given the flexibility in homeschooling, the family gets to travel more, invest in specialized classes and more books, so it is also quite an investment.”

Parent Maan Oreta, who has been homeschooling her daughter Ana Margarita since Nursery years, cited many advantages but none of them were about the tuition savings.  “I longed for something more than rote system for my children. I wanted them to have a passion for learning that is life giving to them. I wanted to develop in them an internal compass to find answers, to grow their minds, and not because they needed to be good test takers, but because they were motivated and independent learners.”

Pioneering homeschool

Mendoza describes himself as an edu-preneur or education entrepreneur and wears many hats in the homeschooling industry including founder of the Homeschool Association of the Philippine Islands (with 10 member organizations covering some 10,000 homeschoolers) and executive committee member for Global Home Education Exchange, focused on promoting global exchange of home education leaders.

A graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, he was skeptical at first about homeschooling.  “My wife and her siblings were homeschooled for a portion of their elementary years. So when we married and had our first child, we decided to ‘experiment’ with homeschooling.”

He had his eldest son go to a Montessori pre-school and homeschooled on the side. “As he ended his pre-school season, we asked him what he wanted to pursue in first grade, and he immediately said “homeschool!’ I still remained skeptical until I started seeing the difference in my son versus what I recalled from my school experience.”

Those differences include his son’s love for learning plus the time they could spend as a family. “Even if there were moments of grunt work doing the exercises on his workbook, I saw a genuine love for learning. He would read constantly, and would have his eyes wide open when we shared information or watched movies or went on tours. And then there was the ability to travel and bond whenever we wanted, influence him up close and ensure that our values were shared and consistent as a family.”

As he observed these key differences, he became convinced there was something special about homeschooling, and so Mendoza decided to jump in completely. He left a 10-year corporate stint to become an “edu-preneur” focused on the homeschooling space.

Spreading the advocacy

Mendoza took over a homeschool organization called TMA Homeschool which his wife’s parents and a few other Christian businessmen started in 1999. He also stayed in the United States and learned from homeschool pioneers there. 

When he was appointed as the Philippine representative for Homeschool Legal Defense of America, the largest homeschool organization in the world, his advocacy took firmer shape.  He came home and established the Homeschool Association of the Philippines Inc. As the homeschooler needs grew, he launched a distribution company to bring in materials from US publishers, and a company that offered various classes from music to arts to sports for kids.

Last year, TMA Homeschool merged with VCIS Homeschool and Homeschool Global was born. “The re-naming was designed to support the initiative to expand beyond the Philippines to support the families we serve covering over 3,100 students who are currently across 30 countries. And VCIS had a technology platform which we saw as a powerful addition in serving homeschoolers’ needs around the world,” Mendoza said.

Since then, Homeschool Global has set-up five “learning hubs” and are on track to launch five more in the next few months. “These hubs are where families can go for learning enrichment in their homeschooling journey - and as an intentional market extension, these hubs are where any family can avail of learning enrichment -tutorials, classes, and educational materials.”

When is it right for you?

With all these investments and developments in the homeschooling world, you would think Mendoza would recommend it to everyone but there are also some situations where the child may be better off learning in traditional schools.

One of them is when both parents are working and neither has the time to teach their children. But note “there are families where both parents work but are able to find time to teach their children, some with the help of tutors or online teachers,” he clarified.

He also discourages parents that force their child to homeschool or surprises them with the decision especially if they have been in a conventional school for three or more years. “Our advice has continued to be to get their ‘buy-in’ before deciding to homeschool. This makes the experience much more fruitful and tolerable for the teaching parent”

Oreta agrees. “Homeschooling is not for everyone. It is very challenging because you are both parent and teacher all the time. There is no putting off parenting to be the teacher and conversely. You have to totally decide and be convinced that this is what you have been called to do because it is going to require your whole life while you are in the thick of it.”

When she started, Oreta recalled her biggest concern was if she was qualified to teach. “With this challenge and doubt, the best deterrent is always commitment and information. I will not have all the answers that my children need but we work together to find them. I am committed to helping my children grow to be strong thinkers, and I am committed to growing my own knowledge to teach/parent them better as well.”

Is there an ideal age?

According to Mendoza, homeschooling – that is parent-led, home-based education – can start at birth.  But following a conventional school system like the Philippine Department of Education, it is ideal to start at Kindergarten or five years old.

“The older the child is, the harder to shift methodology as both the parent and the child would have developed habits, relationships, and an environment around their learning system,” said Mendoza. “But, as our experience shows, it is never too late. Parents have and can find a way to help adapt.”

Now 13 years old now and in 8th grade, Oreta’s daughter Ana Margarita shared she enjoyed homeschooling when she started.  “I remember I had more time to be creative and develop skills such as painting and drawing; the work was relatively easy and I was really able to understand a lot better than I think I would have without my mom to guide me; and I loved that I was studying in the comfort of my home every day.”

But she also confessed that homeschooling can get lonely. “At around the sixth grade, I hardly had any friends because I was always at home and saw little other than family. I have good friends now, who I met at theatre class. If you plan on homeschooling, I recommend joining a weekly class or group.”

Measuring success

In conventional schools, grades are the primary metrics for success.  How about when you homeschool?

“Grades are designed as indicators of learning. At least, that’s what they are supposed to be for. So for homeschoolers, it is grades as well, but beyond this, the emphasis is learning,” explained Mendoza.

“And the learning goes beyond just the academic subjects required under the formal schooling frame. The learning is designed for life, to achieve the learning goals. So where this is achieved, homeschooling parents are confident that their children will apply what they have learned in their life and consequently achieve success. This is the ultimate benchmark for success,” he said.