Choosing to home-school

Teaching three children at home

Why home-school?
At first, my wife and I chose what we thought was a good school for them based on information from friends. However, in the course of schooling, we noted a few disturbing issues; one was the pumping and the homework the children used to carry home. Our eldest girl Stephanie had no time to relax. She used to go to sleep at midnight.

At some stage, she was really tired. She was always the last one to wake up in the morning because she went to sleep very late. In their nursery school years, our children were very confident. When Stephanie went to primary school, her confidence started waning. She started drawing back and hating school. In search of solutions, we started asking around and sharing our experience with other parents.

That is how we found Vine Home schooling academy where we were briefed on the home schooling system and the required school materials.

Whereas Uganda has one of the best education systems, there are things that are lacking, which a parent could perhaps fill in. Home schooling is good because when you get involved with a child, you get to learn their strengths and weaknesses.

What challenges do you face?
Some of the text books and school materials must be imported from South Africa, so the curriculum can be costly.

How does the school run?
We employ Muhimbise Pidson, initially trained as a secondary school teacher with special training in the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum used by Shammah Home School.
The curriculum is an American system, but purely Christian-tailored. It emphasises dealing with one child at a time. Children learn by themselves.
The classroom is divided in such a way that each child has their own space referred to as an office. In their offices, the children set their daily goals.

“As a supervisor (teacher), I check whether the goals set are normal and can be achieved. We have answer books on the score table. When a child finishes the set work, they evaluate themselves. We don’t talk in class. The children use flags to communicate their needs and challenges. If you talk, you are punished. We don’t cane students, but we give merits and demerits. Although we discourage spanking, we don’t rule it out,” explains Muhimbise.

ACE is based on continuous assessment. Before you move to another concept, you are tested and if you pass, you move on to a new concept.

“The system trains a child to be honest because they own the work. It is not the teacher’s work. When you fail, the system gives you a chance to correct your mistakes,” adds the teacher.

A bold product of home- schooling

Dorah Mwima
We meet at her beauty salon, D-spot; on Kampala Road. She kicks off her shoes and walks barefoot towards me, apologising profusely for being late. She warms up to the interview immediately, is extremely polite and answers questions conversationally as if she were speaking to an old friend even though we just met. I, on the other hand, cannot keep my eyes off the generously applied glittering pale pink colour that frames her eyes which are made bigger by the bald statement that is her hairstyle. Former Miss Uganda Dorah Mwima shaved off all her hair as part of a cancer campaign.

Previously unknown on the Ugandan scene prior to her win, the ex-beauty queen spent most of her childhood and teenage years in Kenya where her family migrated when she was four years old. Upon settling in Kenya, her missionary parents Benjamin and Imelda Mwima; an electronics engineer and an ex-banker chose to home-school their four children.

“My parents believed in the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) system, an American and Christian-based system of home-schooling. In 1993, my mum had already been taught the ACE curriculum. There was training with the ACE board of the ACE School of Tomorrow, which later closed down,” recalls Mwima.

Limited social circle
For many people, their social circle is made up of people with whom they went to school. That is not the case for Mwima.
“I don’t miss out because I never had that. My social circle was made up of my two brothers and my sister. We used to look forward to Sunday school, church trips and exchange trips with another home school. These happened on a weekly or fortnightly basis,” she explains.

She does admit to having some difficulties when she first encountered people with different personalities. Mwima stepped inside a conventional classroom for the first time less than two years ago when she enrolled for her diploma course in interior design at Jewels School of Beauty in Uganda.
“That has been a learning process for me. However, at home school, I had a lot of time to get to know who I am and how I would relate to others,” she explains.

Mum the teacher
Dorah describes her mother, a stay home mum as “a real teacher in class and a mum outside and her father as a co-teacher in terms of discipline and correction.
“We used to get up by 6 am. We had to make our beds before class. We were in class by 8am. We had a real classroom in the house. We were not allowed to turn on the TV before 5pm. We finished school by 3pm or 4pm at the latest; after which we had to clean the house and prepare dinner,” she remembers.

Growing up, she may have felt on occasion that her mother was too available but as an adult, she describes her relationship with her mother as that of ‘best friends’.

Career guidance
When asked how she settled on interior design as her career path, Dorah explains that her parents started noticing her gift of art when she was about nine years old. “I wear makeup. I love dressing up. I love colour. By the time I was nine years old, I was painting. Every time my dad would travel, I would ask for colours.”

In addition to conventional subjects like Mathematics and English, Dorah also studied music, speech and advanced art. She recalls going to another school for extra teaching as well as learning with the aid of audio tapes.

“I was very quick with my pace work and I finished very quickly. When I was sixteen, my parents applied for an advanced certificate. I studied advanced art, Greek and civilisation. After every text or examination, we would send the answer sheets to Zambia,” tells Mwima.Her family stayed in Kenya for 14 years and returned to Uganda in 2008

Siblings
Daniel has finished his Master’s degree in business administration; my sister Damaris also finished her degree in international relations. Last born is a graphic designer. Home schooling gives you the chance to identify what you want to do.

Why we chose this option

Beatrice and Vincent Langariti:
Beatrice Langariti is a mother of five, two of them adopted. Her eldest child is nine and the youngest is four. She has been married to Vincent Langariti for 12 years. She studied Economics at Makerere University; she also holds a Master’s Degree in Counselling at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts Boston. Since graduating in 2008, she has been a stay-home mum till April this year when she joined the corporate world as CEO of Focus Uganda; a Christian ministry working in higher institutions of learning with an aim to nurture students to make a positive contribution in society.

Why home schooling
I’m a curious person. I kept asking myself how I wanted to raise my children. In the US, I was babysitting for a family that was home schooling. I also interviewed other families during my research on public education versus home schooling. “It helped me to see the advantages and disadvantages of both. Home-schooling allows you to get to know your child better. The education can be tailored on the strengths, interests and weaknesses of the child. I liked the flexibility of it because learning was all the time and anywhere and not necessarily about books and class.

How I started
I started off by experimenting. I didn’t want to subject the children to something that was just my ambition. I went through a year of trial. Home schooling is hard work but I have done it for five years. I find that it addresses my children’s needs.

How the school runs
We employ three full time teachers; two female and one male and school runs five days a week. The teachers get a one week break after 10 weeks. We do a weekly evaluation and one at term end.

In December, the school is closed for three weeks.
Our house is a two bedroom flat. We use the foyer, the lounge and one of the bedrooms for classes. The teachers have access to a phone with airtime. I call for updates during the day. If there is a crisis, they call me or my husband, who works at World Vision on Nakasero Road, close to our Buganda Road home.

Our home school is affiliated to a school in the US. We send them our test reports and audio recordings of the children. I also want the children to sit Ugandan exams.

Shared responsibility
Home schooling can be tough for single parents. I lean on my husband. We take turns in looking after the school and the children.

We have learnt to take it easy and take each day as it comes. We are probably going to home school till university. We will keep revisiting at each stage to make sure (home-schooling) is still working. One day I would like them to go to a regular school and experience that too.