http://www.kidsahoy.net/ KidsAhoy.net: Your one-stop online portal for the Filipino Global child! en-us 2012-01-30T00:00:00+01:00 E-book Review: The Schoolhouse Planner (for homeschoolers and more) http://www.kidsahoy.net/content.asp?ContentId=1227 Having homeschooled for about six years now, I find that it is very important to have some kind of plan for your days. If I don't have a plan that I write down, it usually does not happen for us. Since homeschooling is still in its toddlerhood here in the Philippines, we don't have that many resources. So I have been using the internet for much of my research. However, I at first, felt sad that I just could not buy the great books that I see on Amazon and Ebay. But this year, I came across something really great and which I have been devouring much of: The E-book. Ebooks are books that come in PDF format that you can immediately download from the source after paying. Wow! Imagine my happiness now that I can purchase the good homeschool books online and not have to wait for my shipment to come in the mail. One of these is The Schoolhouse Planner by The Old Schoolhouse magazine. You can check out the details of this planner here: http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2499 I find this planner very useful because it is geared specifically for the homeschool mother. But it's not only a planner that can be used for the homeschool, it's also a planner for home management. It has over 200 pages of forms and charts that you can use. Plus, you need not print the whole book, you can only choose those forms that you need and arrange according to how you want to use it. It is very flexible with accompanying recipes, suggestions, and the like. The price is $39.00, a bit expensive for us, but when you see that you can use this planner for years and years, you wouldn't mind the initial price, or at least I won't. There are some pages, though, that are applicable to the USA only, but then the pages that we can use are much more. Check it out.]]> Michelle Padrelanan Michelle Padrelanan 2009-02-19T20:04:20+01:00 The Old Schoolhouse Digital Magazine Fall Promo http://www.kidsahoy.net/content.asp?ContentId=1107

I just love The Old Schoolhouse Digital Magazine! I have reviewed The Old Schoolhouse Digital Magazine in the past but let me just point out again the things that are so good about it. First off, it's digital, once you order, you immediately receive an email directing you to its link and it's there for you to download immediately to your computer. No more waiting in the mail for your copy to arrive. The Old Schoolhouse Digital Magazine has all it bells and whistles that make it such a pleasure to read. From the cover, all the featured titles are easily accessible just by clicking on it. And this time, once you see an ad you're interested in, you can just click on its link again and you're immediately taken to the website. Literally, everything is available at your fingertips. You can either choose to view it page by page, or just view the pages as thumbnails and go to the page you'd like to read. The best thing I find about The Old Schoolhouse Digital Magazine is that you can share it with anybody. You can open the magazine to the article you want to share, and send that article to a friend. But mind you, you are not just sharing one article, you're actually sharing the whole digital magazine. So your friends can also have the pleasure of experiencing The Old Schoolhouse Digital Magazine

Now I've only written about its features as a digital magazine. I have yet to mention its content. The Old Schoolhouse is a homeschool magazine published and authored by homeschoolers. This means that these people know what they are talking about! It will keep us abreast of what's out there, the products available for us to educate our children. Not only that there are articles regarding the very real concerns of families such as homeschooling special needs children, multiple children, homeschooling and entrepreneurship, and the different philosophies in education. The Old Schoolhouse Digital Magazine also offers encouragement from fellow homeschoolers, and fellowship with other families across the nations since they also provide email addresses of some of the families that they feature.

A one-year Digital subscription brings The Old Schoolhouse Magazine to your inbox four times a year. Not only that, you will receive loads and loads of product freebies for you to try and enjoy in your homeschool. The price, at US$ 16.95, is not bad at all, considering a local magazine subscription cost much more than that here in the Philippines. You can pay via credit card.

Currently, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is holding its Fall Promo, to view it please click on the link below:

http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/US_Promotion.php

Mind you, the above link is for the US Promo, please scroll down to the bottom of that page and choose the link for International Subscribers.

I have my own subscription and I am slowly reading and absorbing the articles. I am learning so much, it's really well worth the price!

]]> Michelle Padrelanan by Michelle Padrelanan 2008-11-15T19:20:41+01:00 Homework or Homeschool? http://www.kidsahoy.net/content.asp?ContentId=1106 When our eldest was 5 years old, we sent her to school, believing that this is what has to be done. It's always been done this way, why should we do it any other way? She went to school for 3 hours everyday and went home with homework that I had to help her with. During that year, I was still working full time. At first, it was easy to help with her homework. However, as time went by, I noticed that if I didn't help her with homework, she would fail or get low grades in her quizzes. This got me thinking: I'm sending my child to school, but she's not learning much there that I have to teach her at home. Shouldn't she be doing the learning in school and my teaching just a supplementary? As it is, it was the other way around. My child was learning more when I tutored her at home. So she went to school for 3 hours and studied 2 hours more at home. I didn't like this. I figured, what am I sending her to school for when I can teach her better at home? It's funny because at that time, she had a teacher who did not have a good diction in English. My child was saying "ES-nake" instead of "Snake", "es-stop" instead of "stop". I pointed this out to the school but they also didn't know how this teacher can improve her diction. It was at about this time when I attended a talk about Homeschooling. I met several families there that homeschooled their children. I was amazed at how the children conducted themselves during the seminar. It was not just the parents who were talking in front, they also allowed two kids, about 9 or 10 years old, to talk about their experience. The amazing thing is that, these kids wrote down what they were going to share. What the children were saying was very interesting but what struck me more were their confidence and poise as they stood in front of us adults. We were about 40 who attended. And I started thinking that I would like for my children to be this way also. So I started on my research about homeschool.

More to come...

I have been homeschooling my eldest child since she was seven years old. Now she is thirteen and her next two siblings have joined us. It's been a challenging, difficult but wonderful journey for us. So many people have been inquiring about homeschooling so I thought of writing about our experiences when I get the chance. To my surprise, people have been telling me that they do get encouraged when they read my posts. Writing was a passion when I was younger, but after having four children, I did not take much time to write anymore. But when my nephew introduced me to Multiply, I found a venue for my writing again. Aside from that, I am also a homeschool product reviewer for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. www.michpadrelanan.multiply.com

]]> Michelle Padrelanan by Michelle Padrelanan 2008-11-15T19:18:03+01:00