When we started homeschooling three years ago, I thought I could skip teaching my son about our National Anthem. Although, we have encountered the national symbols including the national anthem in our Social Studies class in Grade 1, I never really took the time to explain to him what the lyrics mean. Until about last year, when the concept of nationalism came up in one our conversations. I will not dwell on the actual conversation per se but it dawned on me that our homeschooling is not complete without paying homage to our motherland and instilling in our kids minds that we are Filipinos and must be proud to be one.
One day, an idea came to mind that I should start a regular flag ceremony day in our homeschooling schedule.
So I searched the net for an mp3 version of our national anthem, downloaded it and saved it on my desktop. I knew that our “Panatang Makabayan” or National Pledge has been changed years ago, but I have to admit I have no idea how the revised version is like. So again, I searched the net, saved a copy from the net and wrote it on a piece of cardboard so the kids can read along with me as we recite it.
I also got an idea from Coby’s DVBS (Daily Vacation Bible School) two summers about doing a pledge to the Bible. Since we are a Christian homeschooling family, who believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, we needed to commit our homeschooling journey to the Bible, God’s Holy Word.
To complete our flag ceremony and pledge day, we needed a flag. I really didn’t want to buy a mini Philippine flag because I know that the kids will just play with it. So I asked Coby to draw a Philippine flag on his sketchpad and we can just stick it on our wall or behind the front door. Not only did we save money, we also used the resources we have i.e. Coby’s art materials and artistic hand. 🙂
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| Our own Philippine flag |
With all our paraphernalia ready, we started our first flag ceremony two weeks ago. I decided to do it every Monday to start the school week off. But first we discussed what we needed to do every time we hear our national anthem. Wherever we are, we need to stand up straight, put our right hand over our chest (heart) and sing the song proudly. No unnecessary movement whatsoever. Even though Jianne does not know the song, she would hum along with me and was really serious at it.
After singing along with the music, we recited the pledges. I held the cardboard of pledges and asked Jianne to follow Kuya and Mama as we recited the Panatang Makabayan, Pledge to the Bible and Pledge to the Christian Flag.
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| Pledge to the Flag |
I thank God that He has prompted me to include a flag ceremony day in our homeschooling. Now I can say that we are proud to be a Pinoy homeschooling family!