Today, I will be bringing you our interview with Alba from Mom's Homeroom. Renee and I asked her a few questions that we felt our readers would like to hear about.

Alba is a very down-to-earth mother who has a very secure grip on her love for her children as well as volunteering and teaching her children to feel valued. She is dedicated to her community and teaches her children to be the same way. Read on to see what she feels strongly about and how her homeschooling style is.

Community Involvement - Alba leads by example with her children. Between teaching her children and volunteering she works hard, saying it really is a full time job where she only gets about 6 hours of sleep a day. She is the homeschool leader of her town and has been for the last 7 years. She has started and helped run soccer leagues as well as coordinated a national cultural event at her church. Her children see her volunteering everyday and they see that there is a lot of different opportunities to help within their own community as well as others.

Homeschool Style - Alba became a stay at home mother the day she gave birth to her first child and when her children became school aged she knew in her heart that she wanted to keep them home and teach them. With advice from her sister she set out to helping her children learn with an eclectic, textbook style of homeschooling. She follows her gut in what she feels she needs to teach them, and understands when one child gets a little ahead of their peers or falls a little behind. Her greatest feat was teaching her children English and feels that the library is a wealth of information and resources.

When asked how she knows that her children have progressed to the next grade she explains that her state has three methods of testing your child, she discusses two of the ways. One way, and the way she chooses to test her children, is to have a certified teacher evaluate them. A favorite word is commensurate, to see if the children are learning at their level, not according to peers, but of themselves. Another way of testing is letting the children take a standardized test, to which Alba's teaching is not geared to, meaning she does not teach her children to what would be on the test.

Me, Alba and Renee from Cutie Booty Cakes

Socialization - While a homeschooling mom never stops teaching, unlike the big summer break kids have from public school, socialization is not a problem for Alba's children. Teaching lasts around 3 hours and that allows for great socialization and interaction with their friends. They have dance classes and soccer practices as well as church activities to keep them very active, even throughout the summer months. Alba's goal in life is to make sure her children can fit into any environment, so she know they will always be able to handle themselves.

Nurturing Self Esteem - Alba says a very important book to her is, "The Five Languages of Love", and it helps you realize that every member of a family is valued in a different way. Alba nurtures her children with physical affection, lots of hugs. She feels it is important to "read" your child and get a feel for how they feel valued and nurture that.

That about wraps up our interview with Alba. She is a very smart, savvy woman who is a fountain of information and I am so happy to have had the chance to meet her and talk to her. I learned a lot from her in the short time I was able to spend chatting with her and I hope my readers all find her advice and tips as valuable to them as I have. Thank you Alba for a great interview! Check back soon as I introduce another Mom's Homeroom Mom to you as well as introduce the next episode of the show.

I am working with The Motherhood as a correspondent for Kellogg's and Mom's Homeroom to bring you all of this great information.

Stay tuned to The Dirty Shirt to read more exciting upcoming things in store for Mom's Homeroom.