Bluehill School

Our challenge is to use today’s tools to nurture the natural curiosity of children; to encourage learning, making, and building through collaboration; and to set their imaginative hearts and minds on fire so that they can lead lives filled with wonder.
📷 Austin Mann

Share a book you enjoyed with a child today.

One of the goals we set for our preschoolers each year is to instill in them a love for storybooks, storytime and regular read-alouds.
So many benefits including developing good listening and thinking skills that will make them lifelong learners.

Happy to say that we have achieved that goal so far since we started. Even for those children who are used to having lots of screentime and have short attention span

Sometimes the best thing a parent can do is nothing at all, Russell Shaw wrote in 2024. https://theatln.tc/Qmgj2pix

“I’ve spent the past 30 years working in schools, and I’ve watched thousands of parents engage with educators and with their children. Too often, I watch parents overfunctioning—depriving their kids of the confidence that comes from struggling and persevering, and exhausting themselves in the process,” Shaw writes. The problem seems to be growing more acute as parents worry that their children will be less well off than they are.

The urge to prevent our children’s suffering has led to pop-culture mythology around pushy parenting styles, including the “Helicopter Parent,” who flies in to rescue a child in crisis, and the “Snowplow Parent,” who flattens any obstacle in their child’s way.

But “a young person who grows accustomed to having a parent intervene on his behalf begins to believe that he’s not capable of acting on his own, feeding both anxiety and dependence,” Shaw continues. “If children never have the opportunity to stand on their own, we risk setting them up for a collapse later on.”

Shaw instead makes the case for a “Lighthouse Parent”: “Like a lighthouse that helps sailors avoid crashing into rocks, Lighthouse Parents provide firm boundaries and emotional support while allowing their children the freedom to navigate their own challenges. They demonstrate that they trust their kids to handle difficult situations independently. The key is learning when to step back and let them find their own way.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/Qmgj2pix

📸: Peter Marlow / Magnum

Took a picture of the tennis court today. Boundaries give clear visuals on what is IN or OUT. What can stop the game and what can make it continue. Its part of the rules. Are your boundaries at home this clear to your children? Do they know what the family has set as IN or OUT? When rules are unclear and inconsistent, a child actually does not feel safe. Inappropriate behavior follows because there is no clarity on the family values and rules. Sometimes we get angry at them for the behavior without asking first, Was what he was supposed to do clear from the start?

Parents always ask teachers “Bakit sa school sumusunod siya tapos sa bahay hindi?” Its because in school the rules are clear and consequences are consistent. The lines in our tennis court get refreshed every so often so boundaries are clear. Check if you need to refresh yours at home. Our April theme is all about . Drop a comment if you want us to help you out with yours.

Can a stack of comic books beat a formal classroom education?

In a deeply nostalgic piece, a writer shares their journey of growing up in Northern Samar, speaking Waray, and mastering Tagalog not from textbooks—but from the worn-out pages of Filipino komiks.

Renting titles for ten centavos at a local stall gave them a vocabulary so advanced that when they moved to Manila, a skeptical schoolteacher actually accused them of cheating on a writing assignment. They just couldn't believe a non-native speaker could write Tagalog so beautifully.

Decades later, that same kid graduated with a Master’s degree in Malikhaing Pagsulat from UP Diliman. It’s a beautiful testament to how pop culture shapes our identity, language, and imagination, proving that the best classrooms don't always have four walls.

👉 Read the full story through the link in the comments!

Grateful for what we achieved this school year.
We strive to make the teaching-learning experience beneficial for the children.
There’s always room for improvement.