All our three children were homeschooled since birth.

Yes, you read that right. From birth. I believe that parents are really the first teachers.

Parents as First Teachers

Who taught your child how to walk? To say his first words? To hold eating utensils and feed himself?

Who taught your child to count? Who taught your child the alphabet?

The parents are usually the ones who teach these things to their kids. Unless the parents did not have time (or did not make time) to do any of these or they are physically away from their kids.

In previous generations, parents are usually the first teachers. But this is no longer the case for some families these days. There are many two-income households now wherein both parents are working outside of the house, the kids are left to the nanny or caregiver, and the kids are sent to school at an early age. That’s one reason more and more playschools and preschools are being opened. They cater to very young children whose parents choose to delegate teaching the basic skills to teachers or to a school.

But these skills are actually skills that parents can teach at home… that is if they are home or if they can or choose to make time to teach these basic skills.

Before I had children, I had a clear picture of how I wanted to be as a mother and how much I wanted to be involved in my children’s lives. I imagined myself being my children’s first teacher. I imagined teaching them basic skills. I imagined that when they are already in school, I would still be involved and I wouldn’t hire a tutor because I want to be there to assist them if they need help with their studies.

Fast forward to giving birth to our eldest child, I got to do all that I imagined I would do with him. I shared my passion for books as early as I can with my child. I bought books for him and read books to him even when he was still a baby. I sang songs to him and taught him nursery songs. I chose to stay home even before I had a child because I wanted to give focus to my children when I already have them.

It was a wonderful feeling and experience being there for my child, his first teacher, and providing for him an environment that is conducive for learning.

I loved that I was there to teach and witness his many firsts!

How We Discovered Homeschooling and Our Main Reasons for Homeschooling

When our eldest child was already a toddler, my husband asked me to investigate homeschooling because it was shared by our community leader, Brother Bo Sanchez.

I was hesitant at first. It was an entirely new concept for me. I had been successful in the traditional school system and I imagined having children who will one day go to a regular school and reap awards and medals just like me when I was a student.

Reluctantly, I investigated the idea and as I read more about it and its benefits, I felt that homeschooling would be the best way to educate our child.

I read A LOT of literature, mostly online, about homeschooling. I read blogs by homeschooling moms. I read through different kinds/philosophies of homeschooling.

Then, my husband and I decided that this is how we will educate our eldest child. We wanted to prioritize teaching values and forming our son’s character over teaching him academics. We want him to have a solid Christian foundation during his early years. We felt that we would be the best people to teach him these and that our home is the best place for him to learn these foundational things.

Around that time, I had been noticing also that our eldest was progressing rapidly in hitting his developmental milestones. I had been taking notes since he was a newborn and he was usually much ahead, at least many months ahead than what is expected for his age. But by the time he was a toddler, I noticed that he was now ahead, not by months, but by a year at least in hitting developmental milestones.

We consulted a developmental pediatrician and my guess was confirmed that our eldest is gifted.

Our decision to homeschool was further affirmed by this discovery.

We learned that at over two years old, our eldest had the intellect of a 5-year-old child.

The developmental pediatrician advised me to give my child more advanced material so he would not be bored and his boredom would not result in negative behavior.

I followed the doctor’s advice and customized the activities and lessons of my eldest child based on his pace and interests.

He was such a fast-learner who didn’t like repetitions and who loved variety!

It was a big blessing that we discovered homeschooling because our eldest enjoyed an unhurried childhood but at the same time, he received the kind of mental/intellectual challenges that he needed and wanted. He also had someone who had the time and the ability to engage him in conversations. That was me. Because I was home full-time, I was there to answer his countless questions. When I didn’t know the answer, I found the time and means to get the answers that he needed.

He would have been bored in a regular classroom. He would have been frustrated talking to kids his age who were hardly speaking and who didn’t have an idea of the things he liked to talk about.

He started reading at 2 years old.

When he was preschool age, his favorite book was the children’s dictionary.

He had a rich vocabulary and he was fascinated with outer space. He liked reading and talking about the planets of the solar system when he was a toddler.

By 7 years old, his favorite book was the Bible, not the children’s Bible but the adult Bible.

Our homeschool style has been play-based (because he was a toddler but with a very inquisitive mind and he loved to learn), interest-led, child-led, and unschooling for the most part during the early years. We did a lot of art and music activities. My eldest is musically-inclined and gifted so I used music to teach him many things. It was usually the springboard of our many lessons. I branch out to the other aspects after we cover the music portion.

When his younger brothers were born, I discovered they were musically-inclined as well. I followed the same teaching methods. You can read many of our activities in my older blog Mommy Bares All where I documented our homeschooling journey a lot during our early years of homeschooling. (Click on the name of my blog above — Mommy Bares All — to go there and just type homeschool or homeschooling in the search bar. You will find numerous posts about the topic.)

By 5 years old, he learned to play the piano on his own. At around this time, he became interested in the music of the masters. I had to learn classical music and the lives of musicians with him so he could have someone to talk to about his new interest.

Although our community leader owned or was in the business of being a homeschool provider, we chose to be independent homeschoolers because my eldest child needed flexibility. I also didn’t want him to be pressured to finish lessons that he was not in the mood to do. We did lessons when he was cooperative. When he didn’t want to have lessons and I could not motivate him, I did not force him. He thrived in these approaches. He learned when he was ready. And yet, he was not behind in most subjects because he learns fast and he likes to dig deep when he becomes interested in something. So, for example, when I bought him a new book, he could read that book in one sitting until he’s finished. We could finish the entire English curriculum designed for 1 year in just a couple of months if he is in the mood.

Thus, when I gave birth to two more children, I used the same approaches.

I found these approaches to be very child-friendly. I wanted my children to find learning fun. I didn’t want them to be pressured to learn. I want them to love learning. I want them to make learning to be a way of life.

Because of our homeschool approaches, that’s what happened. Now, all my kids love to learn and they all love books. They are all advanced in reading level compared to their peers. And these things happened not because I pushed them but because they simply love to learn.

By the way, our second child was also assessed to be gifted like his older brother. The youngest has yet to be assessed by our developmental pediatrician but he is also showing some signs of giftedness.

Since my eldest is about to finish Grade 6 soon, I felt that we need to get accreditation already from the Department of Education for the past years that we homeschooled.

We have actually finished Grade 6 English around 2 years ago. But we were unschooling in many other subjects except for Math and English wherein we try to follow a curriculum. We used Singapore Math and Evan-Moor for English mainly. Then, I supplement from other sources that I found on the internet. My two main criteria for including anything in our lessons are relevance and my child’s interests.

Our PEPT Adventure

I learned that my eldest child will have to take the PEPT (Philippine Educational Placement Test) from Kinder up to Grade 4 because he didn’t enroll in any school or homeschool provider ever since and because he’s already 10 years old. That means several hours of sitting down and taking an exam. I think that it is quite long, not just for children, but even for adults.

I remember taking 2-3 hour exams in college and these exams were draining.

That’s when I decided that my second child will also take the PEPT with his older brother. So that he will not have to take a very long exam also in the future. Since my second child is only 7 years old, he was allowed to take Kinder and Grade 1 exams only.

If your child or children needs to take the PEPT also, check with the DepEd up to what level they would be allowed to take the exam. This is based on their ages and birthdays. Kids need to be overaged for the level they will take. They do not allow advance placement or acceleration.

PEPT Application

I first tried to call the DepEd office near our home. But when I called, the staff who answered had no idea about homeschoolers and PEPT. I was transferred to another person. Eventually, someone understood what I needed from them. Sadly, they didn’t have forms that will be used for the application. I was advised to go to the main branch.

I called the main branch and verified the requirements based on what was indicated on their website.

The staff who answered my inquiry was more knowledgeable compared to the ones who answered my inquiries at the nearby branch.

Since we were independent homeschoolers from the very beginning, we only needed to submit 2 ID pictures, 2 photocopies of their birth certificate, and a filled up application form. We paid P200 for the exam fee. You can read more about the requirements and find their contact details here.

It took us months before we finally got to go to the Pasig branch. Finally, in October of 2018, we got to submit our requirements and filed our application.

There were no long lines when we applied for the test. Our travel time to and from the DepEd main office/branch was much longer.

I just had a bit of a challenge when talking to the staff who was receiving the applications. At first, he didn’t understand why my sons need to take the PEPT and why we didn’t have a school permit as part of our requirements. Independent homeschoolers are considered out-of-school youth by the DepEd staff.

When he finally accepted our application, he showed me the notes on the wall with the coverage of the exam. He said I could take a photo of that to help my kids prepare for the PEPT. The PEPT will cover 5 subjects — English, Math, Science, Filipino and Araling Panlipunan or HeKaSi (Heograpiya, Kasaysayan at Sibika).

After that, he gave me a sheet with the details of my sons’ examination schedule.

In the past, you can walk-in for the PEPT. But there are now more students taking this exam so my kids’ exam had to be scheduled. We waited for months for their PEPT schedule.

That gave us time to review and prepare for the PEPT.

I didn’t give them written exams or quizzes in our homeschool.

Life was their exam or their test. They are expected to apply what they learn be it in Christian living, home economics, language, math, science, music, social studies or physical education. They are tested daily based on how they live out the values that my husband and I teach them, how they speak and act, how they interact with the people around them, etc. What they learn in sports, they apply when they go out to run, bike and swim and when they join competitions in karate, chess and running. What my eldest learns about music is applied in the daily and Sunday Masses where he serves as pianist and in his public performances. My second child also sings in the Mass as part of the KIDS Choir in our parish. That’s where he also applies what he learns in music every Sunday.

The PEPT was their first taste of a formal and written long exam.

I was quite worried for them.

PEPT Challenges, Review and Preparation

My kids are highly kinesthetic learners. They find it challenging to sit for long periods of time. They do not like writing for long periods as well. They prefer to talk. My eldest can get easily distracted because he notices a lot of things. His senses are heightened and he notices what most neurotypical people do not notice.

Aside from that, although my kids are bilingual, conversant in Filipino and English, I have not taught them Filipino grammar. It was enough for me that they can have regular conversations with most people in both Filipino and English. I also did not use Filipino as the medium of instruction in teaching them about our country. I grew up learning Social Studies in English. It was easier for me to teach the subject in English. I felt that they can still be patriotic even though we used English as the medium of instruction for this subject. I grew up the same way. They know a lot about our Philippine history and culture but they know these things in English.

My husband and I bought some Filipino books to teach our kids the basics. We also used the site Samutsamot. It had plenty of Filipino worksheets. For the other subjects, we used several sources. We used K5learning.com, DepEd Tambayan PH, and a couple of reviewers that my husband bought. We could not find a reviewer for the early grades but we found a reviewer for Grade 6. There are more reviewers available for high school, though.

My second child was pressured during our review and preparation for the PEPT because he could not read Filipino yet when we started our review and preparation. He was already reading but he was reading only in English. His older brother knows how to read in Filipino already. My eldest taught himself how to read in Filipino when he was 3 years old. My eldest is good at decoding things on his own.

Our extra challenge with our second child was compounded by his condition. He’s still experiencing letter and number reversals until now even though I taught him Montessori-style in the early years. He has not yet been officially diagnosed but it seems that he is dyslexic. He needs extra effort to read. I noticed this when I was teaching him to read in English. But we were able to surpass that hurdle and he’s even an advanced reader in English. We just need to work extra hard in learning Filipino.

Sadly, the pressure of the exam date approaching soon also affected both my husband and me in our approach to teaching our second child. It broke my heart when my son started crying while we were trying to teach him to read Filipino. I felt like crying too.

That’s when I decided to call the DepEd office again to ask if they give consideration to children with special needs.

I was told that they do. Unfortunately, the application form did not have that provision where parents are asked if the child has special needs. Since the staff who received our application did not ask me, I forgot to tell him also. It was our first time applying for the PEPT.

I told the DepEd staff who answered my telephone inquiry about this concern. I asked if they could do something for my children. I was told that they could no longer ask for additional examiners for my children on the date that they were scheduled. But they can schedule them at a different date. I was given one date that was earlier than the original schedule. Then, I was given the option to wait for one more month for a special schedule for them. My husband and I decided to just push through with the original schedule. First, we felt that the children still needed the extra days to review. Second, we have waited too long already and we heard that the results can sometimes be delayed more than 2-3 weeks. Moreover, I wasn’t sure if my kids, especially my eldest would pass all of the subjects that will be given in Filipino. I was thinking, what if he needs to retake an exam? It might be too late for the next school year.

I was also instructed by one of the DepEd staff who answered me during one of those calls that I made that I should tell the examiner before the exam starts that my kids have special needs and that I should explain their condition. There was no guarantee or action taken BEFORE the actual exam even though I called them several times during the weeks leading to the exam. They said that their examiners were already assigned and that I should have informed them during application time so they could have scheduled someone exclusively for my kids.

Another challenge that we had was that the exam was early in the morning. My kids and I are night owls. We’re not used to waking up early because we have a hard time making our thoughts stop at night. There are too many things going on in our minds at night. Thus, we had to slowly adjust to waking up early in the one month or so that we needed to prepare for the exam.

We only had that amount of time to adjust our body clocks because their exam date was February 4 and our family attended the anticipated Simbang Gabi in our parish the year before that. Then, of course, you know that the Christmas season is a time when people do not sleep early.

We hardly had lessons during the Advent and Christmas season. We were busy with Advent and Christmas activities. The kids were doing caroling with the children’s choir.

Simulations

So, we worked doubly hard in January. We did simulations. First, we simulated our wake up time. Second, we simulated the length of the exam. Third, we simulated the type of exam. Lastly, there was a day when we simulated going to Pasig from our place on the same day (Monday) and at the same time that we should be leaving our house. Then, we simulated that the kids also took an exam that was that long and with that coverage (5 subjects). We went to the Pasig public library for this simulation.

Let me share more about our simulations.

My husband plotted how we were going to adjust our body clocks. He is a marathoner so he knows how to do this before a marathon. He did the same thing during his training for previous runs. He adjusted our waking times gradually for January until the exam date.

Then, in those weeks leading to the exam date, we also simulated increasing the length of our homeschool activities or the time that the kids are answering worksheets. Again, they are not used to having long lessons. Our norm for many years (before we got our PEPt exam schedule) is short lessons with lots of breaks! hahaha More play and exploration based on interests and less structured learning activities. So, this was a challenge again. We started with 30 minutes, increased it to 45 minutes to 1 hour. Then, as the weeks passed, we increased to 1.5 to 2 hours. Eventually, we increased the time to 3 hours for our eldest child.

We had to remind the kids many times to answer their worksheets quietly. My kids are very talkative. Thus, we told them that there are other students with them in the same room. They have to be quiet so as not to disturb others.

We simulated also the exam type or the questionnaire. In the first few weeks, the exam type or questionnaires were not yet the shading of the letter of the correct answer. The kids were still writing the letters of their choice or writing numbers. But in the last week before their exam date, my husband and I tried to make or find questionnaires for the 5 subjects in the format that they will encounter during the exam, that is by shading circles.

We also let them simulate the kind of food and drinks that they will most likely eat for breakfast. We did this kind of simulation for 1 month. We also simulated using the actual pencils that they will use for their exam. All routines that will be done on the exam day were simulated from the time that they will wake up, including bath time and prayers to be said before the exam.

PEPT Exam Day

Because of our simulations, everything fell into place during the exam day.

We got to the Pasig office early. The boys had ample time to eat and rest before taking the exam.

I got to talk to the examiner and he was gracious enough to read the exam to my dyslexic son and he accommodated my request to let my eldest sit in front for lesser distractions. He also let my eldest have a 5-minute break in the middle of the exam.

I think the examiner was not too strict with the time that day. The kids didn’t feel that much time pressure. Both kids got to finish their tests.

My second child said he didn’t find the exam difficult. My eldest found the last grade level difficult because there were questions that he said we were not able to cover. We focused our review for the eldest on the lower grades because I found out that if he fails in the lower grades, the DepEd staff will no longer check the higher grade levels.

The boys were given stubs with their names and exam number for claiming the results.

They were finished before lunchtime. The younger one finished much earlier than his older brother.

Since it was the eve of the Chinese New Year, we had our double celebration at a Chinese restaurant in a nearby mall after their exam.

PEPT Results

It was posted in their office that the results would be out in 2-3 weeks. Every week since the second week after my children’s exam date, I would call to ask if the results were already out. I did this consistently for 4 weeks. On the fourth week, I was told to call again by the end of that week. By Friday, I was told the exam results were already out but we have to go to their office to get the results. Since we were on number coding that day, we decided to go to their office on Monday the following week.

It took more than a month of waiting before we got the results.

I was nervous for my children because we just had a crash course in Filipino and Araling Panlipunan. We were unschooling in Araling Panlipunan and I was even using English as the medium of instruction.

The long wait was slowly getting to my nerves.

I asked family and friends to pray with us for passing results.

Finally, this morning (after 6 weeks of waiting), we got great news! Our children PASSED the PEPT and they do not need to retake any of the subjects! Praise God!

I was confident that they will pass the lower grade levels. But we were praying and hoping that they will pass all the subjects and grade levels they were allowed to take based on their ages.

Their exam results were impressive. They both got perfect scores in many subjects at various grade levels. My second child got perfect scores in all subjects for all levels except in Math and Kinder English where he got 90. My eldest had mostly perfect scores and above 90 scores in most grade levels. He had low scores as expected in Filipino and Araling Panlipunan in Grade 3 & 4. His English in Grade 4 was lower than expected. Probably because we were not doing English grammar lessons anymore for almost 2 years since he finished it 2 years ago. We focused our review on the subjects where we unschooled more in the past years like Science, Filipino and Araling Panlipunan. Nevertheless, I was so grateful to God for His mercy and graciousness to my eldest son. He still passed and he will not have to retake any exam!

Our preparation and review were tiring because it covered several levels especially for our eldest. I didn’t want us to go through that ordeal again should he need to retake any subject or worse any grade level. I wanted to just enjoy the rest of the summer with less stress and pressure like before.

Therefore, getting passing scores was really a huge favor and answered prayer for our family. It would not have happened if God did not help our children and my husband and me in preparing our kids for this exam.

I could not help but be teary-eyed after getting the results. God has blessed our efforts. The many years of persevering in homeschooling paid off!

Insights

It’s possible to have a relaxed, play-based, child-led and interest-led homeschooling in the early years by being independent homeschoolers.

It’s possible to be independent and still get accreditation for the years that your child was homeschooled.

If you want to experience flexibility and really give your child an education that is customized to his pace and interests, it would be best to be an independent homeschooler. This way, you and your child are not tied to the timelines and requirements of the homeschool provider.

You do not need a homeschool provider even if you are just homeschooling for the first time. We didn’t have one when we started. We followed God’s lead. Then, I armed myself by reading a lot about homeschooling.

It’s better to take the PEPT yearly although it’s not advised by DepEd. It would be less stressful for both the child and the parent who is supervising the review. The child will have better chances of passing also if the coverage is just one year. The lessons are still fresh so the review need not be long. The child will not also be subjected to a long exam because the coverage is shorter. Therefore, less possibility of having a negative experience with exams.

Parents can be their children’s teachers even in the higher grade levels. When we started homeschooling, I was only confident to teach my child up to Kinder or Grade 1. But as we homeschooled, I gained more confidence. When the neuropsychologist recommended that my eldest should be homeschooled at least until Grade 6, I was already confident to make that choice. I’m still not confident to homeschool until high school but we still have around 2 years before making our final decision.

When God calls, He enables. If you feel that this is something that God is calling you to do, do not be afraid. Trust in His leading. He will equip you.

Even when I prioritized teaching catechism to my children over academics, my children were still able to pass the PEPT. The Holy Bible was the main book in our homeschool. When we are too busy, we make sure that we are able to read the Bible at least.

I’m glad and grateful that we followed God’s lead. We reaped so many benefits because of homeschooling our children. We also experienced God’s faithfulness and provision in many amazing ways including this latest adventure of ours of taking the PEPT and passing it. Truly, we just need to obey and God will take care of the results.

Nothing is impossible with God, indeed! I believe that it was Him who moved the heart of the examiner assigned to our children during their exam date. It was Him who enabled our children to think of the right answers and pass their exams. It was God who sustained them, especially our eldest to finish his exam. It was God who inspired, led, guided and sustained me and my husband through the years. We give back the glory to Him!

I hope that by sharing about our homeschool adventure and our latest milestone here on my blog, I have inspired other parents to take this road less traveled. May our testimony, our story, give you courage and move you to trust in the Lord’s perfect plans.

Let me end with this Bible verse:

“Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33

If you are new to homeschooling or even still on the fence about it and you’d like to learn more about the ins and outs of homeschooling, I invite you to join the Homeschooling Parents Support Group PH Facebook group.

P.S. #1 My work experience has helped a lot in homeschooling my children. I am experienced in adult education, specifically corporate training. I am experienced in identifying competency requirements to produce specific results, assessing people to determine if they are competent, planning and designing interventions to address competency-gaps and training people to peak performance and to help them achieve goals. What I do in the corporate world, I apply to homeschool my kids. I believe that God prepared me to be a homeschool mom through my work background. I wrote a blog post about this topic here. But I also believe that parents who do not have the same expertise and experience that I have can also homeschool their kids successfully as long as they are committed to making this work in their family. When God calls, He enables.

P.S. #2 If you need help in planning for the curriculum or your homeschool lessons, I can help you, especially if you are just starting, new to homeschooling or are lost. Curriculum design is one of my areas of expertise. I have designed training programs both for local and glocal companies. I have made countless training and development plans for leaders of both local and global companies. You can hire me to coach and counsel you and help you come up with a customized plan, program or curriculum for your child. Check out my coaching and counseling packages here. You may email me at teregmps@gmail.com if you want me to help you through my coaching services.