This is the first post in a new series where we’re documenting our family’s homeschooling journey — the practical side and the faith side. Before we get into curriculum or daily schedules, we wanted to start with the basics: what homeschooling actually is, and why we believe it’s the right path for Kaylee and Kaeden.
So, What Exactly Is Homeschooling?
At its simplest, homeschooling means a child’s primary education happens at home, led by a parent or family member, instead of at a traditional public or private school. There isn’t one single way to do it — homeschooling looks different for almost every family, because that’s kind of the point. You get to shape the “how” around your child, your schedule, and your values, instead of the other way around.
Here in the Philippines, homeschooling is a fully recognized educational option. Programs like Homeschool Global Philippines offer DepEd-accredited (and in some cases US-accredited) curricula for parent-led learning, serving tens of thousands of families who want a flexible, personalized alternative to the traditional classroom. That accreditation matters — it means a homeschooled child can still receive report cards, a learner’s record, and a diploma that’s recognized when it’s time to move on to college.
The Different Ways Families Homeschool
One thing that surprised us early on is how many “styles” of homeschooling exist. A few of the most common:
- Traditional / School-at-Home — the closest to a classroom experience, using structured textbooks, workbooks, and a set daily schedule.
- Charlotte Mason — built around “living books” instead of dry textbooks, nature study, and short, focused lessons.
- Classical — organizes learning into stages (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and leans on great works and deep discussion over memorization.
- Unit Studies — one theme (say, the ocean, or Philippine history) taught across every subject at once — reading, writing, art, and science together.
- Unschooling — child-led and interest-driven, with very little formal structure.
- Eclectic — a mix-and-match of the above, built around what actually works for your kids. This is where most homeschooling families land, including — we suspect — us.
Why Families Choose It
According to Learning A-Z, the most commonly cited benefits of homeschooling include personalized instruction tailored to each child, full control over the daily and yearly schedule, stronger family relationships from the extra time together, the ability to shape curriculum around your family’s culture and values, and more room for real-world, hands-on learning — field trips, travel, and simply exploring instead of sitting at a desk all day. A Kansas State University study cited in the same piece even found that homeschooled kids tend to develop strong social skills and good character, which pushes back on one of the most common myths about homeschooling — that it isolates kids rather than helping them grow.
That last point — real-world, hands-on learning — is a big part of why this fits our family. We already spend our days exploring resorts, islands, and towns across Bohol and beyond. Homeschooling means Kaylee and Kaeden’s classroom can be a boat, a beach, a rice terrace, or our own dining table, depending on the week.
Our Biblical Foundation for Homeschooling
Beyond the academics and the flexibility, the biggest reason we’re choosing this path is a conviction we hold as a family: that raising and teaching our children is first and foremost our responsibility, not a role we hand off entirely to someone else.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 puts it simply: God’s commandments are meant to be “upon your heart,” and parents are told to “teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.” That’s not a verse about a specific curriculum — it’s a picture of teaching woven into ordinary, everyday life, which is exactly what homeschooling allows us to do. Proverbs 22:6 adds to that: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” For us, homeschooling isn’t a rejection of traditional school so much as it’s an intentional yes to being present for that training, in the ordinary moments as much as the lesson-planned ones.
That doesn’t mean every homeschooling family needs to share our faith, or that this series is only for families who do. But since faith is the foundation ours is built on, we wanted to be upfront about it from this very first post.
Why We’re Starting This Journey
Kaylee and Kaeden have grown up exploring resorts and islands right alongside us, and honestly, some of their best learning has already happened outside a classroom — asking questions about the animals they see, the history behind a place we’re visiting, or the food on their plate. Homeschooling feels like the natural next step: less time getting them ready for someone else’s schedule, more time letting their curiosity (and our faith) shape how they learn.
What’s Next in This Series
In the posts ahead, we’ll share how we’re building our homeschool days around both travel and Scripture, the curriculum and resources we’re choosing, and the honest, unfiltered parts of this journey — the wins and the hard days both. If you have questions you’d like us to answer in a future post, reach out through our Let’s Connect page — we’d love to hear from you.
— Kristian & Nichelle
