The Crowned of Miss Indonesia 2009

Last night Indonesia proudly crowned its Miss Indonesia 2009, Karenina Sunny Halim, a 22 years old teacher represented DKI Jakarta with a stunning beauty and intelligent. Different with other contestants who appeared nervous and giving very light answers, Karenina responded all questions with fluent English and right self confidence. It is obvious that she is a kind of woman who knows herself, what she wants and how to get it. She made other finalists not even close to her intelligent and personality.

I was not fond of beauty contest yet try to wake up last night just to see if I have something to write about it. I couldn’t finish the party after all and thinking that I can grab something around the internet in the morning. My curiosity is not contented because there’s not much information about the event. Many blogs are still silent. Maybe this is not an important event or something worth of attention.

What I can’t get from media is the Lady has an  American mother, working a Primary School Teacher and finished 6 diplomas (from economics, teaching to Music and Art) through homeschooling. She triumphed over the other beautiful and noteworthy finalists whom educated in best Indonesian Universities or earned degree abroad.

That’s what I want to talk about.

As a mother raising small kids, I am among those who think Homeschooling is the best way to educate our children. This is the way that we, as parents, involve in our children life, maximize their potentials and develop their uniqueness. Fortunately, Indonesia is at the top list of countries that recognizes and supports homeschooling equal to the regular or public school. It gives parents, who decide to homeschooled their children, assurance to move in that direction.

I come to this conclusion after experiencing great frustration raising our children in a multicultural environment. As a young and first time mother, I don’t have any model how to rear a child in that situation. There’s no specific example that I can look up to. My children, of course, are different with their peers who were raised in a unicultural family and also different with how my parents raised me. They think, talk, learn, and behave differently. I found no manual that fit to these children milestones exactly.

My frustration gradually turns to curiosity. I start to consume any kind of books and materials. Children Development, Education in Multicultural Family, Early Education, Psychological Development, are among the topics that I used to read. Then I learned about homeschooling. Soon I become an excited mother and full of self confidence.

Our children are not fully homeschooled today, they still go to regular school to learn their social structure, but I myself found a new path. Education begins at home, and the parents are the primary teachers for their children. As parents we don’t need to sink in the social pressure and force our children to learn something they don’t like or not even useful for their future. At the end, a successful child is those who know their life’s purpose, know their given potentials, rooted in their faith, be useful in the community and of course, happy with their life. Likewise, the successful parents are those who know how to bring the best and goodness in their children.

Tags: Character Builder, Child, Education, Entertainment