Health And Family

On Educating for Life: Homeschool or Progressive School -- Which Is Better?

Tina Santiago-Rodriguez - The Philippine Star

August 28, 2014 | 2:37pm

In my last article, I shared a bit about our family's homeschooling journey. I also invited my readers to attend the 2014 Homeschooling Conference (will I see you there? Hope so!).

Given that I'm a homeschooling parent then, you might think that my answer to the question posed in this article's heading is, "Homeschool, of course!"

Well, actually, it's not. My answer is, "It depends."

Even if I advocate homeschooling and encourage all the parents I know to at least explore home education as an option for their families, I don't think it is suitable for everyone, at every stage of life.

Every person and every family is different. Every school year is different, too -- so some homeschoolers may have one child being homeschooled, while another child is enrolled in a brick-and-mortar school. Others may have homeschooled their children throughout the elementary years, and then enrolled their children in brick-and-mortar high schools.

Like I said, every family is different.

For our family, we take things a year at a time. Like everything else that has to do with our children, we lift their education up in prayer. We ask God to guide us as to which path is the best for them for this particular year and for this particular season of our family life.

Exploring brick-and-mortar schools

Before our eldest turned 6 years old, my husband and I decided to explore the possibility of enrolling him in a brick-and-mortar school. So the OC (read: obsessive compulsive) mom in me set out to research on the "best" kind of schools in our area (we were living in Cainta at the time).

During the course of my research, I found two types of schools that appealed to me -- Montessori and progressive. Eventually, I chose to stick to one type of school, i.e. progressive, and set out to find a good progressive school, preferably a Catholic one.

The search for a Catholic progressive school

My search was not so successful though. The only Catholic progressive schools I found were both located in Quezon City -- Cradle of Joy and Progressive Little Saints -- both of which were too far from our place.

Other progressive schools that we visited -- like The Learning Tree Child Growth Center, which is also in Quezon City -- were non-sectarian (and there's nothing wrong with that because they still focus on values education, just sayin').

Eventually though, I found a progressive school near our apartment that, although still not a Catholic one, had the closest set-up to homeschooling (at least in my opinion). This was Brainworks School. We even had our son take an assessment test there, which he passed.

Well, to make a long story short, we ended up not enrolling my son there, or in any other brick-and-mortar school, for that matter. (If you want to know why, click here.) We are still homeschooling him and his sister, and will continue to use "the world as our classroom," at least for this school year.

Actually, had I known earlier about Child’s Space (a Catholic progressive school conveniently located near the Santolan LRT station, just on the borderline of Pasig and Marikina) back then, maybe things would have turned out differently. But then again, God always has His way of showing us the path on which He wants us to walk.

So which is better? You decide.

What is the point of this article then? It’s not to start a debate on what kind of schooling is best for your child -- because, in the end, only you will know what’s best for your kid. As parents, it’s actually imperative that we seek what that "best" is.

With this, I again invite those of you who want to explore all means of education for your kids -- join us on September 6 for the Homeschooling Conference!

If, however, you know deep in your heart that homeschooling is not for you and your family, I encourage you to do your research. Check out the different kinds of schools that you think are best for your child’s personality and learning style. Pray for God’s wisdom (and provision, because we all know that a good education doesn’t come cheap!). Ask other parents regarding their kids’ schools, and why they chose those schools for their children.

At the end of the day, it’s all on us parents. Well, not all, as I’d like to think… for as long as we have God on our side, we will have all the help we can get!

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In case you want to explore progressive schools for your child, below is the contact information for each school that my husband and I considered in our search for progressive schools a few years ago:

1. Cradle of Joy

Address: 14, 11^th Jamboree Street, Kamuning, Quezon City

Contact number(s): 921-0602 or 871-4553

Website: http://www.cradleofjoy.net (Under construction)

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cradle-of-Joy-Center-for-Learning/160902575198?sk=info

2. Progressive Little Saints

Address: 51, 10^th Street, Rolling Hills Village, New Manila, Quezon City

Contact number(s):

Website: http://progressivelittlesaints.com/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Progressive-Little-Saints-Learning-Center/145272235534086

3. The Learning Tree Child Growth Center

Address: 238 Ermin Garcia corner La Salle St., Cubao, Quezon City (This is the pre-school address; I didn’t visit the grade school.)