Last Saturday (March 10), the Homeschool Association of the Philippine Islands (HAPI) held a media launch during the Expo Kid event at Rockwell. Many parents and children attended the event, and several key media groups were there as well.

The program began with Catholic Filipino Academy’s Ensemble playing Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. Edric Mendoza, chairman of HAPI, came on stage for a while and gave a talk on homeschooling and why the HAPI homeschoolers choose to homeschool their children. He illustrated homeschool as a Do-It-Yourself Education and listed 5 tools for homeschooling success: Learning Content, Learning Context, Enrichment Activities, Support Group, and Standard.

Successful homeschoolers such as Paul Tan-Chi (Cum laude graduate and former captain of UAAP Ateneo), Louise Mabulo (Top 5 of Junior MasterChef), and Darrell Tan (10 year old boy with a genius I.Q.), came forward and gave their testimonies.

After the talk, some of the members of the HAPI core group, composed of Edric Mendoza (Chairman), Gerry Argosino (President), Irma Chua (Vice-President), Bambi Lazaro, Rita Yokingco, and Ane Palaruan, answered the questions of the media. When the press conference was over, the HAPI core invited the media over to the HAPI booth where several of the homeschool kids’ school projects, arts and crafts, science experiments, portfolios, etc., were displayed. The homeschool kids had also brought cookies, cupcakes, bars, and other baked goodies that they had baked themselves to the booth for anyone to taste.

The press launch program closed with a lot more performances from kids of all ages. They also featured Homegrown, TMA’s band of homeschool students who sing, as well as play the guitar and the violin.

HAPI’s booth stayed open till the end of the day. Homeschool kids roamed around the exhibit hall carrying trays of baked goodies, inviting moms and dads to visit the HAPI booth. Homeschooling parents answered the inquiries coming from the booth visitors, and encouraged them to sign up for e-mail updates, and even register for the upcoming Philippine Conference 2012 on May 19.