Books

Homeschooling in the Philippines: our early childhood curriculum plan

30 June 2020 2 Comments

This post is part of my series on homeschooling. Click here to read more.

Kids grow up so fast, and before you know it, they’re school-ready. Our child is still a toddler, but I wanted to plan our independent homeschooling curriculum in advance so I don’t scramble at the eleventh hour.

I’m glad I started early, because there are a TON of programs out there. My husband and I want a secular curriculum; luckily someone already made a list of truly secular programs. From there, I picked the ones I like best after reading and watching reviews from other homeschooling parents.

It’s possible that our child won’t like a program or two, and that’s okay; this curriculum isn’t set in stone. The beauty of independent homeschooling is that if a certain material isn’t working for your child, you can modify it or use another, unlike traditional school where you basically have no other choice.

This plan is only for the early years, up to ages 7-8. Hopefully this would be helpful to other first-time indie homeschooling families in their curriculum shopping. Most of these programs, while US-based, are available as digital downloads, so shipping is not a problem.

Preschool

Blossom & Root Early Years Playing Preschool by Busy Toddler

Blossom & Root Early Years
Playing Preschool by Busy Toddler

I’m a fan of Finland’s early childhood education, which focuses on creative play and promotes a late start to formal schooling. Personally, we don’t plan to give formal instruction until after our child turns 5. Right now we simply do a lot of read-alouds and let our child play, play, play. It’s a lot of work to think up of new and creative activities to do every single day, though, so we plan to get the abovementioned play-based programs.

Kindergarten to Grade 2 (K-2)

We will take an eclectic approach of half formal, half unschooling:

Formal – English, Mathematics, and Science

I want our child to have a thorough grounding on these core domains. I believe that a strong foundation in these three is invaluable for everyday life and for learning all other subject areas. The programs I chose are all highly recommended by other secular homeschooling families, as they have proven to be very solid, interesting, and effective.

Unschooling – Everything else

All other subject areas, plus anything else our child wants to learn, will be through child-led, interest-inspired learning.

English

Logic of English Foundations

Logic of English Foundations

Logic of English (LoE) Foundations is a comprehensive, all-in-one program that uses the Orton-Gillingham approach to teach literacy. It covers phonics, reading, spelling, handwriting, vocabulary, composition, and grammar.

Mathematics

Essential Math by Singapore Math Primary Mathematics by Marshall Cavendish Education and Singapore Math

Essential Math by Singapore Math
Primary Mathematics (US Edition) by Marshall Cavendish Education and Singapore Math

Singapore Math (SM) is a rigorous program that uses the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA) approach to teach arithmetic. It can be suitable for all types of learners. There are many SM textbooks available, but I gravitate towards Primary Mathematics as it was the original program used in Singapore for 25 years, during which period they consistently topped the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

Science

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-8 and Older Beginning Science Learners by Bernard J Nebel, PhD

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-8 and Older Beginning Science Learners by Bernard J Nebel, PhD

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (BFSU) is a systematic and integrated approach to teaching the fundamentals of science to children. Its walls of text may seem daunting at first glance, but the book is actually an instruction manual for the teacher and not a textbook. The material itself is taught in a hands-on, experiential manner that stimulates critical thinking through observation and Socratic questioning.

Social Studies / Araling Panlipunan

We liked to travel before COVID-19, and we planned to do some worldschooling so our child can experience the Philippines and the world organically and in person. Obviously we are shelving this plan until a safe cure or vaccine is developed. In the meantime, we still plan to DIY this subject area, as it can be boring to just read a recitation of facts from a textbook.

Fine Arts, Health, and Physical Education

If our child shows a keen interest in sports or the arts, our plan pre-COVID-19 was to sign our child up for classes of our child’s own choice. Again, this plan is shelved indefinitely for lessons and activities (Charlotte Mason-inspired picture or music study, exercise, etc) we can do in the safety of our home.

Filipino

Undecided

There are many Filipino programs by local educational publishers, but it’s difficult to research about them online because there are almost no in-depth reviews available.

My husband and I are consciously raising our child to be multilingual, so we’re not worried that our child will be poor in Filipino, unlike so many kids these days who are English-only. I plan to borrow used Filipino textbooks from relatives and friends with older kids so I can review and compare them myself. If you have any recommendations for good Filipino programs, let me know in the comments section.

Update: I don’t know if it’s completely secular, but Wikahon by Adarna House looks promising. Will go with this program if I can’t find a better one.

Homeschooling in the Philippines: where to buy local K-12 textbooks online

18 June 2020 1 Comment

This post is part of my series on homeschooling. Click here to read more.

For first-time independent homeschooling families, choosing learning materials may seem like a daunting task. Some use foreign textbooks from the US and other countries. Others create their own curricula using mostly free resources online, while unschoolers often don’t follow any curricula at all.

If you prefer a more ready-made approach that adheres to the Department of Education’s K to 12 Basic Education Program, you can simply buy textbooks from local educational publishers. Most of these publishers cater only to institutional clients with large wholesale orders (i.e., schools), but a few sell to individual retail consumers. And in this time of COVID-19, it is best to order online. Only retail-friendly local publishers with online stores are listed here.

We haven’t personally purchased from any of these publishers, but they are well-known entities whose textbooks are used in schools nationwide.

Update August 2020: AKLATAN, the first all-Filipino online book fair, is happening on Shopee later this month (16-18 August 2020). Over 40 local companies, including several educational publishers, will be offering their books on discount. Click here to read the official announcement from the Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP).

Anvil Publishing

Anvil Publishing Click here to view their entire catalog. They also publish picture and fiction books for kids and teens.

Vibal Group

Vibal Group Vibal has been quick to adapt to the “new normal” by releasing a new line of textbooks designed for home-based learning called Learn at Home: Academic Books. They also have ~~a Smart Homeschool Kit, and~~ a line of children’s picture books called Chikiting Books. (Update: Vibal seems to have discontinued the former; instead they have the following new lines: Self-Learning Modules, Smart Class, and Smart Wizard).

St Mary’s Publishing

St Mary's Publishing They don’t have their own online store, but they are officially on Lazada and Shopee.

REX Book Store

REX Book Store Only Senior High School textbooks are available on their online store, but I’m listing them here in case they decide to sell their elementary textbooks online. They also have a line of picture books for kids called Hello Animals!

Homeschooling in the Philippines: how we read children’s ebooks online for free

20 February 2020 2 Comments

This post is part of my series on homeschooling. Click here to read more.

BABYBUG (March 2015) by Cricket Media — Screenshot of a spread from an issue of BABYBUG children’s magazine

My husband and I read picture books to our toddler everyday. It’s an enjoyable bonding activity, and many studies have shown the numerous benefits of reading aloud to children.

When our child was around 9 months old, my husband bought around three dozen used board books from Half Price Books and shipped them from the US in a balikbayan box, along with other baby stuff. We also ordered around a dozen board books in Filipino online from Adarna House and Pumplepie Books & Happiness. We thought these were plenty enough, but eventually we found it monotonous to read the same books over and over again. We’ve practically memorized all of her board books, which include classics like Goodnight Moon.

Now, it would be quite expensive to buy a new picture book every day, even if from a local used bookstore like Booksale. Besides, we find their board book selection for preschoolers to be quite meager — most of Booksale’s children’s books are for school-age kids.

I enviously look back at the time when I visited my cousin in the US years ago, and we went to her local public library. She borrowed tons of children’s books — as much as she could fill her large tote bag — for my young nephew, all for free.

Unfortunately, libraries here in the Philippines aren’t as impressive. Luckily, my husband’s US library card is still active. Searching his local library’s catalog online, I found that they have many picture books available as ebooks. They also have digital subscriptions to magazines tailored for toddlers like BABYBUG and Hello. We borrowed some issues on our iPad mini with their app, and we’re loving it so far. I was afraid the text would be too small on an iPad mini, but they’re quite legible.

Hello (March 2020) by Highlights for Children — Screenshot of a spread from an issue of Hello children’s magazine

Obviously, the tactile experience of reading on a tablet isn’t the same as holding an actual board book, but the price of zero can’t be beat. After rereading the same picture books for months, my husband and I can’t help but be excited at the prospect of reading a new story every day.

We are not one of those #ZeroGadget parents. We believe mobile devices are helpful if used wisely. We only read together up to about 45 minutes on the iPad. I will write more about our screen time policies in another post.

If you have close friends and family in the US (or other countries with good public libraries that have extensive digital catalogs), do ask them if they could share their library card with you.

About book blog tours: guest author posts that work for me

16 July 2012 Leave a Comment

This is old, but from kt literary (via bookshelves of doom):

What ARE the options for the, let’s call it as it may be, midlist author who may not get sent on tour by her publisher, and isn’t going to get the exclusive cover reveal or interview on the big entertainment sites? Blog tours are popular because they are free for everyone involved, minus only the cost of a few review copies, and sometimes not even that. But do they work? If you’re an avid reader of a certain blog, does a guest post by an author make you check them out, or do you skip them, to hear more from the bloggers you came to the site to read?

I’m always looking for good books to read, so I follow a couple of book blogs on Google Reader. However, I almost always skip blog tour posts. In the same way that I’ve developed ad blindness to web banners, I’ve developed “book blog tour blindness”. Their contests don’t entice me either, as most prizes are dead-tree versions (I don’t read novels in paper anymore). Even if they do give away free ebooks, most are still US-only.

So how can an author reach a reader like me, for whom blog tours are mostly noise?

Write a guest review, for one thing.

I follow book blogs mainly for book reviews and recommendations. Over time, I’ve had to unsubscribe from several because they had too much non-rec stuff going on. But if the guest post were also a review, then I’m not likely to skip it, especially if it’s a well-written one of a fairly interesting book. The author can then promote his/her own book with a short description at the end in the author info section.

Trust me, I’m more likely to click the link to Amazon or wherever this way. On Goodreads, I’ve discovered a few authors through their insightful reviews of their favorite books. I figure that if I like books they also like, then perhaps I might just like the books they wrote themselves.

Author Maureen Johnson wrote about turning down blog tour requests, saying, “because I’m writing on the same subject (ME! MY BOOK!) the pieces are going to get VERY REPETITIVE AND BORING.” But this way, the reader doesn’t get noise, the host blog gets quality content that brings traffic, and the guest author gets to write about a different subject, presumably about a book s/he likes, on top of promoting his/her own book in a non-spammy-ish way. It’s a win-win-win for everyone.

Hysteria trailer

21 August 2011 Leave a Comment

This is interesting:

(via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books)

If you’re thinking this is an outlandish piece of fiction conjured by some perverted male mind, think again. I read an interesting book concerning the same topic last year: The Technology of Orgasm: “Hysteria,” the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology) by Rachel P Maines (via Promantica). Very well-researched and informative, and quite readable for an academic work. The lengths people went not to acknowledge that hey, women could get horny, too. Truth really is stranger than fiction.