It is the beginning of the school year for most private and public schools here in the Philippines. School kids are embarking on a new journey {gladly, I hope} and I wish for all of them to make the most out of this academic year. May they have the insatiable thirst for learning; create healthier relationships with people at home, in school and in the community they revolve in; be far from sickness so they can enjoy a great balance between academics and extracurricular activities; have lots of time for play and for exploration. Most of all, I hope that parents and teachers will allow these young people to stop and smell the flowers from time to time, go stargazing at night, eat meals together away from the television or any gadget {with or without wifi}, gravitate towards books and move away from social media; go walking with family and friends to explore new things and places as often as they can, and find the real meaning of love {the one that doesn’t come with a price tag}.
May they be taught that learning is not about going through books in haste and memorizing loads of information all at once, and that it is about taking bite-size information, processing this well and learning the practical application of this knowledge in real life. If they ever get to Stochastic geometry and realize that they will have no practical use for this later in life, may they still appreciate the opportunity to exercise their brains, as we all need to do that to prevent cognitive decline.
Opening speech for SY 2016-2017 ends here ~ Principal of the Two-Desk Home School
The Freeschool Project
Whether our kids are attending traditional or progressive schools, or are homeschooling like we are, we as parents are always on the lookout for age-appropriate learning materials and activities to supplement our kids’ learning. The web is a wonderful place to find free printable lessons, curricula guides and lessons for all subjects in all levels, but the load of information could get overwhelming sometimes. Some free printables also get squashed in a page full of advertisements. We are lucky there are other homeschoolers who offer free lesson guides online to support other homeschooling families like us.As part of Cure for Monday’s project for the year, we will be sharing free printable lessons and study guides in the hope of reaching those who direly need them. A couple of moms emailed me asking if it is possible to homeschool with a VERY tight budget. I told them that the web is a good place to start if enrolling at a homeschool provider or buying books is impossible for now. We have been independently homeschooling for years and have informally created our own curricula, and I know that the internet is a rich source of information when it comes to creating lessons. It is challenging, but not impossible.
This time we want to help in our own little way. However, since I’m mostly a one-woman army here at Cure for Mondays, the curricula, guides, projects, lessons and activities that I will be able to share here will be ones that we have created for our own homeschooling program; thus, they will be for 8th grade and Kindergarten this year. We will try to build it from there.
The Department of Education has the complete K to 12 Curriculum Guides online. It is a comprehensive guide and it will really be helpful for those who are exploring homeschooling independently, but want to adhere to the curricula offered by DepEd.
Again, everything is challenging, but not impossible. And, sharing is quite a fine, fun thing to do!
You can find the printables at the lessons+artwork+projects tab on the upper left corner of our page.
Join Us!
We would be very grateful if you could share with us and our other readers lessons, lesson plans, study guides or learning materials on any level {K to 100-year-old learners}. Please submit only ones that you have personally created, and we will make sure that you will be credited for your contribution.The project is young and so are we! E-mail us at cure4mondays@gmail.com for your contributions.
