Where The Heart Is

it is just an hour or so till bedtime but the kids dont want to sleep yet, squeezing out the last few joys of an extra free day from school and work, because of the national transport strike against spiralling oil prices today.

they groan when i remind them of school tomorrow, and i get a sinking feeling too when i think of going back to work tomorrow (although i have the luxury of telling my thesis classes that we will meet next meeting instead, as they still have to submit their thesis proposals tomorrow, which should have been today, if we didnt have a transport strike, so i still get another self-declared free day tomorrow, but to check on students' papers though...).

it has always been like this for us, because home has become not only a haven of rest and relaxation, but also a beehive of activity and interests that arouse our passions.

from the moment we wake up, we craft our day as we see fit. im not a very regimented kind of mom; we follow our feeling, whether its eating or doing anything else... over the years, we seem to have developed a synchronicity to our eating patterns, that we still tend to eat at the same time anyway, and always talking to each other and sharing our thoughts and our feelings and how our day has been.

the little ones go out to play, build houses or buildings from old tables and chairs and toys, climb the roof to reach the blueberries from our tree, drive around the village in their little bikes with the maid or their bigger friends accompanying them, come back for a sandwich or juice, then go out again to explore the world. sometimes they prefer to stay in and watch Disney Channel or Nickelodeon, or draw and paint on their papers and coloring books on the floor, or simple quietly read from their bookshelves, too.

thea and i mainly sit by the pc and laptop, doing our own stuff, surfing, writing, she also drawing electronically or downloading music, or us eating something from the fridge while we watch a movie together, or just reading in bed, in quiet companionship.

and tonight it ends again, as we prepare for another regular day with the usual world out there. sigh.

i am ending it now, though, with a new found possibility i am taking seriously at last-- home schooling. thea has been mentioning it for almost a year already, as she says they all learn more and enjoy more from home than from school anyway, but it is only tonight when i seriously surfed for homeschooling articles, and emailed the government education agency and some homeschooling guides on how to go about it.

thea is right about their seeming to learn more from home, because maybe of our very unstructured setting (we only have two rules-- be honest and kind, and clean up your own mess) at home, and where they are encouraged to follow their interests and speak their minds. the two little ones, especially, ask a lot of thought-provoking questions ("What's God's family name?" "Why do people have to get married?" "Why is a fire truck not called a water truck when it contains a lot of water anyway?") and i try to answer as truthfully as i can, to the best of my knowledge and ability. when i don't know the answer, i tell them so and ask them to check what they find out in Google.

today, paolo exclaimed, "Google doesn't know everything either! I typed in 'heroes of the philippines' and it gave me Batman!" : )

until today, too, i never knew squirrels could fly, according to paolo and bea, that's what they read in Reader's Digest's Amazing Facts. "They glide, ma, not fly," thea corrects. : ) : ) : )

***

well, at least, with my websurfing for homeschooling information today, we have something to look forward to... even if it's only an idea and a possibility right now. it's a nice feeling we can do something about our situation, at least...

and im warming up to the idea, too, especially when coupled with my dream of working from home, earning from home... : )

after all, where the heart is, there most-- if not all-- of life should be, too, shouldn't it? : )