A few weeks before the enrolment, CFA (Catholic Filipino Academy) gave the parents a choice between track A  and track B.  Track A follows the usual homeschooling provision and track B offers an opportuntiy for those who wants to venture into independent homeschooling but still wants the support of CFA with parent coaching and activities.

It was a difficult day for me because I wanted to venture into independent homeschooling and yet I’m not sure if I could function without the full support of my homeschool provider.  I made my own parent surveys, talked to my mentors, and last but not the least, I asked God for discernment.  I realized then that I don’t want the added stress of making my own lesson plans and taking my kids to Deped for evaluation and assessment test when I could ask my provider for support with that.

Since I will be the parent/teacher for my students/kids, I was able to make an assessment of my own teaching style and personality as well.  It’s true that you should follow your child’s learning style but I had been doing that for quite sometime already.  If I could do that with track A, what difference would it be when I shift to track B.

For series of interviews with my co-parents in CFA and my mentors, some pro-track B, while others pro-track A, I was able to make my own analyses of my choice.

I chose Track A.  For a good number of reasons:

1.  Having no house help, I badly need CFA to hand me a prepared lesson plan.  I can’t afford to add another list of to dos in my already cramp schedule. Though I don’t follow their lesson plan to the book, it’s a really great guide on what to teach your child every quarter.
2. Though the promise of independent homeschooling is freedom, it really depends on the personality of the parent/teacher.  One thing I’ve learned in homeschooling is, ‘You don’t have to do everything, and be everything.”  You are your child’s parent because you have something very essential to teach them. If all homeschooling child is unique, so is the parent.
3. I need structure and much needed help.  As stressful as it has been for the past 6 years, quarterly grade submission is a familiar kind of stress that I could manage.  I find the system solid and the 30 minute talk with the parent coach is a welcome break from the teaching routine.  To be able to share the challenges of homeschooling with fellow homeschooling moms is priceless.
4. Eventually my kids will not be homeschooled forever.  My eldest went back to regular schooling last year and soon my younger boys will do too.  No matter how hard we try to unschool our children from the school system that we don’t usually agree with, they will have to come back to it when they go to college, if not in high school.  I homeschooled my eldest and my other boys  to instil good moral values they would keep until they grow old, not to protect them from the world.
5. Track A is a balance between the regular school system and homeschooling.  A little something of the regular school system that the kids can relate to, and a taste of discovering their own world at their own pace.

I then realized that I don’t have to go track B to create freedom in my teaching routine.  By using the guided schedules and lesson plan of CFA and adding some supplementary materials of my own, I can create a hybrid track especially suited to my own teaching style and my kid’s learning styles.

Of course, not all homeschooling moms will agree with me and I respect that.  That is why, I salute the parents/teachers who homeschool independently.  I could not do what they do or maybe I could, I just chose not to.  In my eyes, they are more courageous  than those who chose to have homeschool providers like me.  If homeschooling moms and dads belong to the minority, independent homeschooling moms and dads belong to the minority of the minorities.  Kudos to the braver ones.