giving the best of both worlds? / homeschool and progressive school for inigo

i really wanted to homeschool inigo. i have shared enough reasons here why homeschooling is our choice for his early education. but never did i realize that it is really a big and daunting take especially now that i have another kid to take care of. it really takes commitment and discipline and sadly i wasn't blessed with these.

then there's the nagging issue of socialization. critics of homeschooling opined that parents who homeschool their kids deprive them of their chance to socialize with their peers and the life's lessons that go with regular schooling. honestly i succumbed to this and it was a huge factor why jude and i decided to send inigo to a preschool last school year. fortunately, a regular school worked well for him and we saw the big change in the kiddo's socialization skill.

so when the start of school year 2010-2011 was drawing near it was automatic for us to decide to enroll inigo again to another preschool, a progressive preschool to be exact, because i know, even if i wanted to homeschool inigo full-time and rely on our spur-of-the-moment learning activities, i can't. it's our child's development which is at stake.

finding a preschool is another difficult task for us. (geez... i realized nothing is really easy if it involves our kids... and if money is also taken into consideration, hehe). we wanted to stick with his old preschool in legaspi village, which is also a progressive one. but they increased their tuition for this school year and what's already high and expensive becomes more prohibitve for us. the tuition for 2-3x a week schedule is now at whopping php 50-70k for one school year. they have a right though to collect such big amount from the parents because facilities-wise the school is way above standard. but the tuition is really beyond our budget so we had no choice but to transfer inigo.

finally after many phone calls and inquiries and several visits to different schools we enrolled inigo in kids playlab preschool, which is located 3 blocks away from our current address. it's a progressive school, something i really wanted since i knew that their personalized and student-centered, no-rush-for-the-kid approach doesn't clash with my homeschooling principles. it's also important for me that at my kid's age i don't want him to be labeled and ranked among his classmates because it (whether it's favorable or not) might affect his disposition early in life. inigo by the way is attending 2x a week. in between these days i supplement his learning by discussing to him what has just been taught in their school or  any topic which he's interested to learn. i wanted him to realize that learning  may also be done beyond the four corners of their classroom. we call this moments as 'learning time' and i love it when inigo asks me if he can learn. it's like music to my ears. :)

stolen shot by jude of me (in my so drabby outfit, hehe) and inigo during one of our homeschooling sessions

inigo is now into reading. he can now read some words in his dr. seuss' green eggs and ham and hop and pop books. i thought i can defer reading to him until he's five or six years old but after learning the sounds of the letters he enthused to read. he's very good in numbers. more than rote counting one to 100, i taught him to also identify and write the numbers. the chart had been useful though inigo gets bored with charts so the tv channels, elevators, calendars were more helpful.

but it's science which inigo is very interested and eager to learn. he can name most animals and their youngs. he can discuss the solar system and name the planets according to their location from the sun. he can say something about the eruption of volcanoes and what it spew out.

i really have no idea if inigo knows less or more compared to other kids his age since i already stopped having a benchmark or a standard which he should meet. am just happy that he continuously learn and with enthusiasm.

it's enough for me now.

iñigo 'd schoolboy

yes, you read it right... iñigo is now going to school! but let me clarify first that we're not yet ditching our plan of homeschooling him, for his preschool years at least. it's just that iñigo was bugging us to send him to a regular preschool that we can no longer say no. add to that is his need for another environment where he can mingle and interact with other kids.

so we scouted for a school near our current house, a job which was not easy for us as either the tuition of these schools is too high and/or the schedule of their classes won't fit in with our lifestyle nowadays. we're not morning persons. :D then a colleague of jude referred to us to family partners learning center which is located at the other end of our street. we inquired and iñigo attended its trial class. the tuition is quite steep but since we observed that iñigo liked the school as well as the teacher, and everything that happened that day, i.e. school routine, we decided to give it a shot and enrolled iñigo. his classes start at 8:30 am and ends at 11:30 am. but since we're not morning persons, he joins his class at 9 am. hahaha!

trial class, warming-up stage; he refused first to join with his classmates in the circle time nor take a seat

 

he now pulled a chair and observed intently but still won't get near them... shy pa 'sya :)

 

he now approved to sit with his classmates but was still quite shy. :)

 

ayan na... he's now playing with the other kids. shy no more. hehe.

 

theo attended the trial class, too. our whole family was there to cheer for kuya iñigo. :D

the school uses the progressive method of teaching which is another reason why i enrolled him there. the kids accomplishments and abilites are not measured in grades. as told to me, the teacher will just give the parents during one-on-one consultations a report on what their kids can already accomplish by that time as well as their strengths and weaknesses. more importantly, i like the school because i think it won't interfere way with our learning principles since it doesn't dwell that much on academics. they allot a lot of time for free play. he belongs to the vertical class which is for kids three to five years of age (there's another class for toddlers). but there are also moments that they are sub-grouped during activities; younger kids do one activity while the older kids do another. but what's good about this is iñigo can mingle with his peers and with a little bit older kids as well.

so how's iñigo doing in school?

as his teacher celes said, he's adjusting quite smoothly. his teacher and i we're both surprised that it only took him a day to adjust and that was his first school day (after the trial class). there was even no crying moment which i feared before especially if we had to leave him inside the classroom. it's actually the mommy who is still suffering from separation anxiety as i still lurk outside their room for the entire duration of their class. hehe.

and quite surprisingly, iñigo is well-behaved in school! :D. he follows instructions and rules and doesn't show any signs of resistance. uhm...can we just stay in school all the time? hahaha. am also quite proud that iñigo is usually the first one to finish their worksheets. he's really that interested in schooling.

***

i never thought that jude is a stage-daddy in the making. he's really concerned on what his eldest son would wear on his first day in school. and when i told him that i'll go with iñigo he refused and dressed up as he also wanted to witness the little boy's first school day experience. never mind if we had to bring theo with us. the same thing happened during the united nations day. he and theo (who he carried using a sling) followed us in school to see kuya iñigo participating in the program. :D

more pictures of iñigo in school here, including those taken during their united nations day program.