29 June 2009

Ice-skating homeschoolers in Malaysia

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschool Profile .

Homeschool Profile: The Phillips Family

The Phillips girls Laura (10) and Kristiana (8) are passionate about ice-skating and believe it or not, they picked it up here in tropical Malaysia!  (Watch them on YouTube) Their mom R’deen tells us about their homeschooling journey and how ice-skating became a part of their schedule.

How long have you been homeschooling?
We’ve homeschooling since 2004!

What got you into homeschooling?
I have a lot of friends who homeschool their kids, and since we travel a lot, it’s a method that makes the most sense. Also with me being Filipina and my husband American, we thought this would be a good way to make sure they get Philippine and American History/Culture as part of their education.

Tell us a little about your homeschool.
Our girls are using Sonlight which is a wonderful program and works well for our family. I would say that the actual “schooling” time we spend when we sit and read and discuss is about 2 hours a day (I’m using Core 3+4 with both girls right now). But I wouldn’t limit their learning to these 2 hours alone. If something comes up we take the time to answer their questions, or we may even do craftwork that may or may not be related to what they are currently studying.

What do you enjoy about homeschooling?
Top of the list would be the flexibility it offers!  Another thing is,  I get to invest enough time in training my girls not just in academics but also in discipling them, building into them godly character. I also get to customize our lessons and discussions to what the girls are interested in at the moment or what we are dealing with as a family,

Are there challenges you face homeschooling your daughters?
I need to be really disciplined in the use of my time. If I feel lazy, then we don’t get much schooling done. I’m glad the principal, Mr. Phillips (that’s my husband!), is usually around to make sure discipline is maintained.

Tell us about Ice Skating. How did your girls get into it?
Three things: 1. Watching the movie ‘Ice Princess’ 2. Watching girls in beautiful costumes doing fancy things on ice, and 3. Laura got inline skates for Christmas 4 years ago and wanted to learn to how to use them! We thought ice skating would transfer to inline skating, but they enjoyed ice skating so much we ended up giving the inline skates away! And we thought ice skating would be a perfect PE activity! My girls sure keep fit and healthy.

How long have they been ice skating?
The girls first started skating early 2006 and they learned it at skating classes offered at Sunway Pyramid Ice.

How has ice skating been good for you all?
Aside from the good physical exercise they get from skating, they also learn some very important life skills such as, working together in a team, patience while working on a new skill, handling frustrations when the training gets tough and demanding, good sportsmanship, etc.

They have made a lot of good friends through ice skating. We see them not just at the rink but they also visit, have  meals, or have play dates.

Laura enjoys team productions because it’s fun for her to be working with friends.  She also enjoys the challenge of learning new jumps or other elements. Kristi enjoys going fast and she enjoys doing programs and skating to music. She also loves choreographing her own dance.

Is there anything about ice skating that they don’t like?
Laura doesn’t like falling and getting wet and cold. Kristi didn’t  like getting dizzy, when she was first learning to spin. I don’t enjoy the demanding schedule: early morning and late night practices. We’re thinking of cutting back on our skating hours and commitment.

That sounds like a lot of time on the rink.
When we’re not preparing for any competition, we skate twice a week for about 3 to 4 hours. But during competition season, we skate twice as often sometimes even as much as 6 times a week!

What other special challenges do you face ice skating?
It depends on how much time and money you want to invest into skating (or whatever sport or hobby for that matter), but if you don’t watch it in can run your life! At the last competition (Skate Nationals back in March) we were at the rink almost every day! And one of our coaches said we should decorate a corner of the rink and put up pictures on the wall since it was our second home!

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About the Philips: R’deen is married to Timothy and they are currently residing in Subang Jaya, Selangor. R’deen enjoys all kinds of craft and creative things, especially scrapbooking, sewing (mostly her girls’ costumes), and more recently, bejeweling. She also enjoys planning and hosting parties!

Apart from ice skating Laura loves to read. She also enjoys writing books and making up games to play with her friends. She has a pet hamster named Amanda Lin.

Kristiana recently caught the reading bug, and likes writing poetry. Her pet hamster is named Squeaky.

Both Laura and Kristiana are participating in Skate Malaysia 2009 and you can check out their events on the website. Details are also on Homefrontier’s NOTICES.

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