Natural Parenting and the Working Mom

Welcome to the September Carnival of Natural Parenting: We're all home schoolers
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared how their children learn at home as a natural part of their day. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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At 33 months, Naima has been in school for almost 1 year. She started just before she turned two and regularly attends morning classes. Happily, with the help of my yayas, Naima's learning doesn't end when she comes home from school.
In the Philippines, we have "yayas" or nannys to take care of our children. Whether you are a working mother or not, among the major concerns of a Pinay pregnant mom is being able to find a good yaya for her unborn child. In fact, this has resulted in several local books including I Love You Yaya and The Yaya Manual, all geared towards helping moms find the perfect yaya addition to their household.

In my case, both of my daughter Naima's yayas came from Southern Philippines and were recruited by mom. I was lucky enough to find yayas who were easy to train especially since I am a full time work out of home mom. I've heard of stories about yayas watching noontime shows all day long, with their wards watching the same show with them. However, my yayas don't watch TV during the day and instead takes time to teach Naima all sorts of things.
Being in congested Metro Manila, where space is precious, we opted to live in a high-rise condominium building. Common entertainment for condominium dwelling kids would be TV, playstation or nearby malls. Because of my yayas, Naima was able to get entertainment from educational activities.

For instance, we were fortunate to have a balcony in our condominium unit. So during weekend markets, I buy small herbs that Naima transfers to bigger pots in the balcony. Our mini herb garden now includes spring onions, ginger, java mint, basil and is still growing. Every afternoon, Naima is tasked to water the plants (with yaya's supervision, of course) and she gets to see how Yaya "harvests" the herbs to be used in our food.

Aside from gardening, the yayas have also involved Naima in meal preparation.

Whenever we have fresh fruits, Naima helps prepare fruit shakes for the family. She also helps bake cookies and various snacks which she brings to school.

Aside from gardening and kitchen duties, Naima also helps me in my business. I'm a mompreneur and usually spend some time after office packing orders made during the day.

Naima likewise packs shipments along with me. I also bring her along when I go to events e.g. breastfeeding lectures, LLLI meetings, where she gets to meet kids of other like-minded moms.

Since my husband is a photographer with flexible schedule, he is also able to spend quality time with Naima.

Some afternoons are spent swimming, with Stan teaching Naima how to hold her breath underwater and generally not be afraid of the water.

Other afternoons are spent with Naima learning how to assist Stan in his home studio (especially when they are photographing items for my business). My budding little photographer is practicing and enhancing her skills under the watchful eyes of her dad.

You might ask how "natural parenting" can fit in the life of a working mom. Admittedly, as a working mom, one of the top worries was how I can "parent" Naima, especially since I am away from home at least 9 hours a day. Given my circumstance as a working mom, I'd like to believe that natural parenting need not be limited to parents facilitating the learning but would also include the learning experiences of my daughter with her caregivers or yaya and our extended family (aunts, uncles, grandparents). Through the help of her yayas and my husband, I am happy to say that Naima's days at home are filled with various learning activities - ranging from housework (gardening/baking), business and creative professional.

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:
(This list will be updated September 14 with all the carnival links.)

• A is for Apple {But right now it's more fun to pick apples!} — Kat at Loving {Almost} Every Moment has a four-year-old who wisely knows she must forgo the worksheets for now and do things with her mother if she's going to learn.


• Baby Talks — Amy at Anktangle talks, talks, talks all day long to her preverbal baby, about simple things and complexities. (@anktangle)


• Baby University: Little Man, My Teacher — The ArtsyMama shares how her relaxed and patient "teaching" at home resulted in a confident little one when she returned to work.


• Creating a Sensory Garden — A sensory garden has given Marita at Stuff With Thing and her girls practice in math, science, budgeting, fine motor skills, and more. (@leechbabe)


• Despite the Big Yellow Bus — Seonaid at The Practical Dilettante has surprised many friends by sending her kids off to mainstream schooling — but their learning doesn't stop there. (@seonaid_lee)


• Down on the Farm — Megan at Purple Dancing Dhalias describes the multitude of skills her children learn by homeschooling on a farm.


• Early Childhood Education — First Do No Harm — Laura at Laura's Blog provides an incredible list of tips to facilitate learning at home.


• Education Starts At Home — Luschka at Diary of a First Child was happy to realize that learning at home isn't limited to older children. (@lvano)


• Every Day Is A School Day — Summer at Finding Summer lists the ways her family learns in this poem of a post. (@summerminor)


• hands on — the grumbles at grumbles and grunts read her little one Sherlock Holmes in utero. She'll continue to make learning fun now that he's on this side of the womb. (@thegrumbles)


• Have a Happy Heart — Erica at ChildOrganics has days of poop on the couch and oatmeal down the pants when sending her children to school seems like the perfect solution — until she regains her perspective. (@childorganics)


• Home Sweet Home Schooling — Check out CurlyMonkey's Blog for a photo montage of how her kids are learning anatomy, architecture, and more — all at home. (@curlymonkey_)


• Homeschooling — My Needs? — Do you homeschool for the kids, or do you do it for you? Read some thoughts from Home Grown Families. (@momtosprouts)


• Homeschooling: A Way of Life — Kimberly at Homeschooling in Nova Scotia has children who meet learning with enthusiasm and are becoming self-sufficient at a young age. (@UsborneBooksCB)


• How We Homeschooled — Deb at Living Montessori Now details in retrospect how her two lifelong learners spent their homeschooling years. (@DebChitwood)


• Learning at Home With a Preschooler and Toddler — Need some inspiration? Michelle at The Parent Vortex shares her tips and resources for lifelong learning. (@TheParentVortex)


• Learning at Home: Are We All Homeschoolers? — Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings incorporates homeschool ideas even though she plans to send her kids to school. (@sunfrog)


• Learning From Life — Mamapoekie at Authentic Parenting doesn't even have to think about how her daughter learns. She just does it. (@mamapoekie)

• Learning Through Play — What better way to learn at home than through play? Dionna at Code Name: Mama lists the many ways children learn through play, whether they know it or not. (@CodeNameMama)


• Learning With Savoury Pikelets — Deb at Science@Home breaks down how cooking facilitates learning. (@ScienceMum)


• Lessons Learned by Bowling (Yes, Bowling) — What life lessons can you learn from bowling? Ask Jessica from This is Worthwhile. (@tisworthwhile)


• Life is learning, learning is life. — Kristin, guest posting at Janet Fraser — Where birth and feminism intersect, defends the truth that children are hardwired to learn. (@JoyousLearning)


• life learning... — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children found that structured schooling is about teaching, whereas unschooling is about learning, and her family resonated with the latter.


• Live to Learn Together — RealMommy at True Confessions of a Real Mommy knows that children learn in all different styles, so only one-on-one attention can do the trick.


• Natural Parenting and the Working Mom — Jenny from Chronicles of a Nursing Mom shares how natural parenting in the Philippines — and learning at home — includes "yayas" (nannies). (@crazydigger)


• Not Back to School: How We Learn at Home — Denise at This Holistic Life has learned to describe what unschooling is, rather than what it isn't.


• Our Learning Curve — Andrea of Ella-Bean & Co. has a special bookshelf set up where her daughter can explore the world on her own terms.


• School at Our House — Where is learning happening at Kellie at Our Mindful Life's house? It is pouring all over the floor. It is digging down deep in the earth. It is everywhere!


• Schooling Three Little Piggies — Despite the mess and the chaos, Melissa at White Noise lets her children into the kitchen.


• SuperMom versus The Comic Books of Doom! — Mommy Soup at Cream of Mommy Soup realized that if "getting the kids to read" was the goal, it didn't matter what the kids read. (@mommysoup)


• The joy of learning at home — Heather at Life, Gluten Free has a daughter who sees magic in the stars and understands the honeybees. (@lifeglutenfree)


• those who can't teach — Do you need a superiority complex to homeschool? Stefanie at Very, Very Fine wonders.


• Too lazy to unschool? — If unschoolers aren't lazy, Lauren at Hobo Mama wonders if she's too lazy to live her dream of free-form education. (@Hobo_Mama)


• Unschooling the School of Me — Rachael at The Variegated Life considers what she's teaching her son about work as a work-at-home mother — and the extreme work ethic she doesn't want him to emulate. (@RachaelNevins)


• What We Do All Day — Alison at BluebirdMama discovered that it's easier than she thought it would be to quantify how her child learns all day. (@childbearing)


• Who taught that kid ‘exoskeleton’? — Nervous about how you will facilitate learning at home? Don't be - they will absorb things on their own! Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma shares her story. (@kitchenwitch)