A COLLECTION OF TROPHIES

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Extra-curricular Activities on 13 Jan 2016.

Ed: 14-year old homeschooler Fara Ling’s speech at a recent public speaking competition won the audience and panel of judges for her maturity. Here’s what Fara said:

A COLLECTION OF TROPHIES by Fara Ling

We live in a society where winning competitions and ace-ing eleven subjects are a big deal. We live in a society where job positions and earnings count for a lot. We live in a performance-oriented society, where failures are typically thought of in terms of our abilities and achievements: in terms of the exams we take, the grades we get, the money we make, the career we end up with. But we do not often think about failure in matters of integrity, or moral courage, or responsibility. 

We think we have failed when we get a Pass for a music or ballet exam, but compromising integrity is not treated as a failure. We set standards for ourselves, then, because we are infallibly human, we fail those standards. We make excuses: “we tried, didn’t we? No-one’s perfect, everyone makes mistakes. Besides, there are always second chances!” We persuade ourselves to excuse our shortcomings, later we dismiss them. And once we’re lax with ourselves, we’re lax in our dealings with others. Promises lose their gravity. Thoughtless but weighty mistakes are brushed aside. If academic excellence is so important to us, what more matters of integrity?

Another failure we lack to recognize is the failure to speak up for what is right. We fail when we allow our fears to prevent us from standing up for someone who is being bullied, because so often we don’t realise that these experiences aren’t just relevant to our schooling years. If we don’t sum up our courage and speak out against what we know to be wrong now, what makes us think we can campaign “illegally” against unfair elections and siphoned funds in the future? Will we have the courage to condemn what is wrong, when we know we could end up like Karpal Singh and Kevin Morais?

The third kind of failure: neglecting our duties as citizens of Malaysia. We talk about the responsibility to attain a good, stable career which covers the family’s economic needs, yet we ignore, the burden we carry as citizens of a country. Because Malaysia is our home, we have the responsibility to be involved in its governance. By keeping informed about what’s happening around the country. By voting; participating in general elections. And if you wonder why the government can afford to tamper with lights and ballot boxes, it is partially due to the fact that people a few generations back did not do enough to address arising problems. Regarding the TPPA, are we even aware of it? What are we doing about it?

Our performance-oriented society stresses aptitude, expertise, and resume, and it downplays matters of conscience and duty. There is so much emphasis on what we can do, and so little on who we are. We work ourselves dead sometimes for projects and concerts because we’re so afraid to fail.

So why don’t or can’t we worry about honesty and courage and responsibility? It’s time to turn our scrutiny to the failures that truly demand our attention – the failures in our character, because character is what makes us who we are, not accomplishments. And I choose be a person of integrity, strength, and conscience, even if I were to fail at everything else; rather than just being a collection of trophies.

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About Fara Ling Shu Sean: Fara loves ballet, guitar, singing, reading, and of course, writing. She’s involved in a million and one things and loving every moment of it!

How you learn

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Learning on 4 Aug 2015.

A key concern among parents is whether their child will ‘learn’ away from conventional schooling. The truth is we are all learning, formally or informally. My first responsibility as a parent is to be a learner; my own attitude towards life-long learning will be a greater influence than all the rhetoric about learning put together.  Then comes my responsibility to facilitate learning.

This chart is a fascinating look at how learning takes place. I can’t vouch for the science or veracity of the percentages illustrated here (although I vaguely remember studies that have now morphed into charts like this one).

Anyway, what the chart points out is the importance of engaging all of one’s senses for learning to become meaningful. It’s an instructive guide as well as an encouragement to parents who want to be better teachers.

I picked this chart from the link here. You might want to check it out for what it says about 5 learning misconceptions. Good read! You’ll be surprised as I was about some of the ‘misconceptions’ we have bought into!

How a rocky homeschooling journey ended well

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: College/University; Homeschooler Profile on 23 Mar 2015.

Few people know Evangeline Han, but this young ex-homeschooler has quite a few achievements to her name for a person so young. Currently studying at Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU) majoring in English and minoring in TESOL, this voracious reader was also one of the most active Wikipedia editors filing up to 10,000 edits beginning in 2009 when she was at the ripe old age of 15 years. She admits to a “love-hate” relationship with homeschooling, and it is a testimony that does remind families, especially parents, that homeschooling is a journey that requires serious attention to a roadmap. Read Evangeline’s tale for yourself.

Navigating homeschooling’s ups and downs

By Evangeline Han

Homeschooling was a journey filled with ups and mostly downs. I only appreciated being homeschooled after I finished my first semester in Oklahoma Baptist University. Now, I’m at OBU, and I can confidently say that if I weren’t homeschooled, I would be struggling in college classes. Nevertheless, my homeschooling journey was very rocky, and this is a little glimpse into it.

For most of my high school years, I had a love-hate relationship with homeschooling. The negative part about being homeschooled with American curriculum was that it made me different from my peers. The positives were that I had to be independent, responsible, and able to think critically. However, in my teenage years, I thought that this negative outweighed the positives.

It was true that I was able to communicate better with people from all age groups. I regularly attended a church youth group, and for a long time, the church my dad pastors mainly consisted of older folks. However, all this didn’t mean that I had friends.

In fact, I barely had any friends, and I never felt like I was able to fit in with my peers. Whenever I attended youth group meetings, my peers would be talking about public-school related topics I was ignorant about. Their school experiences were way different from mine. Not only that, only seeing them once a week didn’t help matters. I was never able to form any true, close, lasting friendships outside of my family, and this made me hate homeschooling a lot when I was a teenager.

When I think back on my homeschooling journey, I remember days and days filled with my personal lack of motivation and boredom. Although school is a hazy past for me now, there is one milestone that sticks out in my memory.

When I was about 17 years old, my parents realized that if we continue using Sonlight Curriculum, we wouldn’t be able to get a transcript that is recognized by local universities and colleges. At that time, studying in the United States was not an option because of the costs.

So, it was decided that I would stop using Sonlight curriculum, the only homeschooling curriculum that I actually enjoyed using, and use the Alpha Omega curriculum. They made a deal with a learning centre, whereby I studied at home and took my LifePac exams at the centre.

I saw this change as detrimental for two reasons. Firstly, I cringed whenever I saw the bill we had to pay for me to take my LifePac exams at the learning centre. The fees were always increasing, and I knew how tight finances were for my parents. I didn’t feel that the exorbitant cost was worth it, as I was only going to the centre to take my exams, and all the teacher had to do was grade them. Secondly, I was suddenly placed on an accelerated schedule. Because we had to change curriculums, this set me back, and despite the accelerated schedule my mom put me on, the change still resulted in me graduating a year later than my peers.

To be honest, there were many times I didn’t think this change was worth the struggle. Any student who has been a year or more behind in school will understand my feelings. When those my age were already in college taking Foundation programs, I was still in high school. Then there was also the uncertainty about whether I was able to go to college or not. My parents hope that by getting an “official” transcript, I would have better chances when applying into universities and colleges.

I took the SAT on June 1, 2013 and officially graduated high school on June 30, 2014. By then, we had found out that the SAT was no longer officially recognized as an entrance exam by local universities and colleges. On one hand, the part of me that had always been reluctant to go to a local university or college rejoiced. On the other hand though, I despaired of ever being able to go to any college. After all, I had always been told that college was the only way to getting a good job. However, by a miracle, God opened doors, and I was able to consider studying in the United States as an option.

In the month that followed, I scoured the Internet everyday for universities and colleges. I finally applied to four colleges and was accepted by all four, which was another miracle considering that it was already late, and the Fall 2013 semester starts in August. I chose Oklahoma Baptist University, and after a month filled with a flurry of hurried preparations, arrived in the United States.

Looking back, I know that I would never repeat my homeschooling experience, not even if I was paid to do so. When I was a homeschooler, I was very sheltered and friendless. There were times when I didn’t feel Asian because my American education made me think differently from others my age in church and even my cousins. I craved friendships and a sense of belonging, and I never found them when I was a homeschooler.

Nevertheless, I would be doing my homeschooling journey an injustice if I don’t recognize the role it has played in my academic success here at OBU. Since I was already used to American education, it was easier for me to assimilate into the environment here. Although the first time I ever sat in a school class was my first day of school here at OBU, I didn’t feel the pains of adjustment that my international friends, who went to either public or private schools back in their home countries, felt.

Being homeschooled also taught me to work hard to get what I want. It has instilled in me an inherent sense of responsibility and initiative that comes along with the added independence of living so far away from home. Now, I prioritize my studies in a way I have never done before. The ability to think critically that I cultivated as a homeschooler has also greatly aided me. I finished Freshman Year with a 4.0 GPA and a place in the President’s Honor Roll. Now I’m in my Sophomore Year, and more comfortable with studying than I’ve ever been before.

Homeschooling is not for the fainthearted. It takes immense courage to pursue a journey that many are skeptical about. It takes even more perseverance to finish the journey. Throughout my homeschooling years, there was not one homeschooling family (homeschooling as in actually doing school at home) in Melaka who were our companions in the journey. We were pretty much by ourselves, and the constant questioning from well-meaning family friends did nothing to allay our worries.

Many times, I wondered if we were doing things the right way, and I’m sure my parents wondered the same thing too. However, now, I’m in a university in the United States, and one of my sisters is doing an online degree program with an American college. Two of my other sisters are still being homeschooled. I’d say we’re doing pretty well for people who didn’t really know what they were doing.

I am grateful I was homeschooled because it opened the door for me to gain new experiences. If I wasn’t homeschooled, I know that I wouldn’t be in the United States. I wouldn’t have the precious friendships I longed to have in my high school years, and I wouldn’t feel the sense of belonging I craved for when I was in Malaysia. In the end, all I can say about my homeschooling journey is that no matter how rocky and filled with obstacles it was, God worked it out for my good, to give me hope and a future.
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About the writer: 21-year old Evangeline hails from Melaka and she has 3 other sisters . Her parents Pastor Samuel and Evelyn Han serve in a church. Currently at Oklahoma Baptist U, she is also the Uni’s Student Ambassador. You can follow Evangeline’s writings on her blog, Audacious Reader

Gifted Asia 2014 Conference

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Announcement on 9 Oct 2014.

How do you nurture gifted children? How do you recognise their giftedness and support their journey?

This year’s Gifted Asia 2014 Conference features a host of luminaries, including a first-person testimony by teenage music prodigy 14-year old Megan Loh. Sign up early and be inspired.

GIFTED ASIA 2014 CONFERENCE

My Homeschool Journey

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschooler Profile; Wordpress on 8 Oct 2014.

On top of the list of priorities for a homeschooling family is the nurture of values.  15-year old Eliza Tan shares how her own journey as a homeschooled daughter of parents Joseph and Debra Tan enriched her as a person and a Christian teen.

My Homeschooling Journey

By Eliza Tan

MY HOMESCHOOLING JOURNEY STARTED WHEN I WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD. I originally went to kindergarten and attended a private school. When my parents first took me out of school, I admit, I was hesitant about homeschooling at first and kind of resentful at my parents for, I thought, taking me away from my friends.

But if there’s one thing homeschooling has taught me, it’s delayed gratification. I am now 15, and looking back, I realize that I was getting influenced by my school friends, and not in a good way. Although my parents weren’t satisfied with the education system, I would say our homeschooling decision wasn’t that much academic, but it was made mainly to develop my biblical worldview, my values, and my character. It’s not impossible for a public schooler to build strong character, and it isn’t easy to do that in homeschooling either. But in homeschooling, you get more one on one time and you’re able to monitor more aspects of your children’s interaction especially at a young age—of course not bordering on over-protection.

For example, my parents realized that social media is a great influence, and when I was younger, I wasn’t allowed as much freedom as I have today. Now I understand why I had to wait for that freedom, because earlier, I would’ve made a lot of mistakes and be unnecessarily exposed online without my parent’s protection. My parents have taught me how to use media in an edifying way. I definitely appreciate that they don’t give me full freedom all at once before I’m able to handle it, but gradually release it more and more when I’m ready.

Homeschooling has also brought us a lot closer as a family. We get to spend much more time together, do more projects together, and we share our struggles with each other. So often, kids are closer to their friends than their own family and siblings. It’s often saddening to see kids and teenagers seek advice from people just as lost as them and shun the people who love them most. I’m not saying that I’ve not been guilty of that, but spending more time in conversation with my parents has made me open up a lot and also ask and take their advice more easily. I’m very close to my sister, too. We’ve actually done two movies together, and we’re working on another one now. I can see that my parent’s teaching and the time they’ve invested into building a strong parent-child relationship has protected me from certain downfalls in regard to compromising on my values and giving in to the influence of unnecessary peer pressure.

Currently, I’m attending an online Christian school based in America called The Potter’s School (or TPS). “Potter” refers to the Potter and the clay, not Harry Potter. TPS offers live classes—classes happening in real time. I’ve been in TPS for two years now, and I finished my second year of high school, the American Grade 10, in May. The unique thing about them is that they teach from a strong biblical worldview, and not without professionalism. Their classes, in addition to my parents’ teaching, have revealed to me how God relates to every area of life, and I am very grateful for that.Right now I’m taking a classical high school course with TPS that follows the classical method of education, and I’ve found that very beneficial. Being classical, my assignments are full of reading tons of primary sources and my classes have greatly stretched my thinking. My Starting Points worldview class helped me in understanding more about Christian doctrine and theology, deepening my faith, and having a fuller comprehension of God. Classes like my logic and literature class have also expanded my thinking and further developed my literary and writing skills.

TPS has very strict due dates and schedules, too, so no slacking and allowance for late assignment submissions except in the case of an emergency. They also make sure the parents stay informed and involved because they believe that parents have the primary responsibility for their children’s education. TPS is one of the methods you can use for a curriculum. There are a lot of other curriculums out there; you can even mix and match. Over time, my parents have adjusted the curriculums I take to suit my needs and my learning style. I love the fact that TPS classes are live because I like the interaction with my teacher and classmates. And from here, I’ll just take it on to my next point.

One of the most frequently asked questions to homeschoolers is “how do you have friends?” I think there is a misunderstanding in the applied assumption here: being homeschooled doesn’t mean we stay in the house all the time, and just because we don’t see our friends everyday doesn’t mean we’re isolated from society. There are a few extremes. There’s over ‘protection:’ no exposure and no training in this area, and there’s the other extreme of having too many activities. I think the misunderstanding also lies in the definition of socialization. Many people don’t realize it, but their definition most often is spending time with people around your own age. Often in school, children follow the crowd—it’s hard to have their own opinion and stand up for their faith because of the pressure to fit in. In real socialization, children should, instead, be able to interact with people of all ages. This causes them to grow and prepares them for the adult world, where not everyone is the same age. With homeschooling and homeschooling communities, the great advantage is that children get to mix with people of other ages, and not just stick to their own age group.

Especially in the early years when we were more vulnerable, my parents protected us by carefully selecting the right types of friends and groups for us, and by helping us to develop the right mindset through teaching us how to stand alone and to avoid bad company. My parents have also taught us to want friends not so that we can be popular, fit in, or to fulfil our own self-interests, but to focus on serving others and putting their interests first in relationships.

1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Bad company corrupts good morals.” That doesn’t necessarily mean segregation, but certainly calls for wisdom. Hebrews5:14says, “…solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”My parents have really guided me in this area of discernment by discussing things with us around the dinner table, during family devotions, and often in the car. We’d talk about current issues, the Bible, books, problems, and so on all from a Christian perspective because the Bible is relevant in the world today.

For instance, movies are a great, great influence. Most of the time, mainstream movies don’t have biblical morals and messages. My parents used to review movies before showing them to us, if they decided it was appropriate enough. After the movie, we’d have discussions on what we thought about it—what we think is the worldview and the message of the movie. The discussions shaped and sharpened my thinking, and Itruly appreciated that. Nowadays, I usually research on a movie before we decide whether to watch it or buy the DVD. And this filtering goes with all other things too, like books, music, and so on. I didn’t agree with a lot of my parents’ views in the past, I thought they were being too strict sometimes, but now I seriously see the repercussions of viewing an inappropriate movie, for example. It’s not that we don’t watch every movie we don’t agree with—sometimes it really is that bad that we don’t watch it at all—but sometimes we decide it’s okay to view it if we process and filter the movie’s message and worldview. I think conversation in the household is vital to building strong relationships. My parents have encouraged me to open up by providing a safe environment to ask questions and discuss any issue at all.

Personally, my interests are in biblical worldview and media, namely photography and film. I’m very excited to see how I can blend the two together in areas such as Christian films and documentaries, and taking photos with a message. My homeschooling experience has inspired me to have the right motivation and focus for my interests. My parents have also coached me in the process of discovering my purpose and calling, not just in career, but being secure in my identity in Christ and understanding how God created me, knowing my strengths, and learning how I can make an impact. Homeschoolers may very well end up in the same careers as non-homeschoolers, but we have more time and opportunities to develop a life message, a purpose, and a calling.

Homeschooling isn’t a magic pill; it’s not an end in itself, but a helpful means to an end—our ultimate end of glorifying God through our lives – in our thoughts, words, deeds, attitudes, and relationships. It’s not a guarantee that with homeschooling, your family will definitely grow closer, your kids will definitely know how to converse with people of any age, and your kids will be super smart with superior education—of course not. But in homeschooling, you have a greater chance to influence your child’s life by the choices you make and the steps you take. But of course, in order to take the rest of the steps, you have to take the first.

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Eliza Tan is 15 and has been homeschooled for seven years. She has just completed her second year of high school (Grade 10) with The Potter’s School, an online Christian school. Her ambition is to attend a Christian college in the US. Eliza enjoys photography, videography, and researching issues related to apologetics. Eliza is the eldest daughter of Joseph and Debra Tan. Joseph is the Principal Consultant of Good Monday Consulting and a certified Character First trainer. He also heads Answers Academy, in association with Answers in Genesis. 

Other Homeschooler Profiles you might be interested in are found here:

Joshua Kam
Clarissa
Petrina
Brian
Cherish
Ethan
Rachel
Jian Eu
Jianwen
Balakrishna
Samantha Soon
From homeschool to O Levels
Yao-ban

How we homeschooled our kids Pt 6

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschool; Homeschooler Profile on 1 Oct 2014.

THERE’S NO EASY WAY TO DESCRIBE HOW A HOMESCHOOLING CHILD LEARNS, OR HOW HIS PARENTS TEACH. More than methods and techniques – and certainly more than a set curriculum – it is a mindset, driven by an inner conviction that children are natural learners, that they will learn if you let them. Continuing Part 6 of our homeschooling story, our oldest son Ethan offers a backward glance at a journey that ended when he graduated (and got married) last December, 2013.

The Importance of Doing What You Don’t Love

Homeschooling allowed me the freedom to pursue my interests. It taught me that learning was done best when there was passion. Passion, or interest, became the guiding light in my life. And that made me an awful student.

Consider the two wasted years my parents sent my brother and me to Mandarin classes. We spoke English at home, at church, with our friends, and all our learning was in English. Additionally, I used to learn English by reading a lot of mytefl reviews that came in the newsletter. I suspect we went anyway because society expected Chinese to speak Chinese, and homeschoolers are prone to peer pressure too.

I remember our beleaguered Mandarin tutor, a college student making some extra money, who tried to motivate clearly unmotivated students with every trick in the book: affirmation, scolding, little treats and little breaks (my brother and I shattered one of his lamps during one of our little breaks). However, what impressed me the most by far were his earnest attempts to convince us that we needed to learn Mandarin because it would help us do business with China, a growing economic powerhouse. The ten year-old me had no intention of doing business with China.

When I was eleven, there was a ballet school in town that began offering free ballet lessons to boys for the first year – due to a complete lack of male enrollment. It seemed like good fun at the time. My brother and I began our lessons along with three other boys: two homeschoolers and one non-homeschooler, united in the understanding that the best things in life were free. When we strapped on our form-fitting dance pants, ballet shoes, white t-shirts, and pranced about the dance studio for the first time, and all the girls stood by and giggled, blushed, pointed at us, something glowed within our tiny chests.

The ballet instructors greeted our prancing about with joy, and all that positive reinforcement worked. We were hooked. So once a week, our mothers shuttled us to the ballet school. As the weeks became months, it became evident our benevolent ballet instructors were not content to allow us to have much more fun. When my brother and I revealed we weren’t interested in doing the exam, much less continuing ballet the next year, our ballet instructor’s face was one of unsurprised disappointment.

Another soul unfortunate enough to have me as a student was my piano teacher, who drilled into my head the importance of playing three pieces every year to pass a music exam. I didn’t start learning the piano with such curiosity and enthusiasm because I wanted to pass music exams. Why continue learning the piano if that was all there was to it, then? Waning interest made my fingers stiff, cold, and the thin, stern line that was her mouth sometimes parted to announce I was lazy. The lessons became this inexplicable hole in the space-time continuum where time took forever to pass. I’m sure my piano teacher felt the same way. I quit after barely passing the grade five exam. To this day I have an irrational dislike for classical music.

I had imbibed, perhaps too much, the philosophy of pursuing my interests. I didn’t learn anything I didn’t want to learn. What was worthwhile was what I was interested in. Discipline as it was known to my peers – schedules, homework, tuition – didn’t work for me. The time tables we drew up never stuck because, for one, I never knew when I’d wake up in the morning. And because our days were largely unpredictable. I did what schoolwork we had whenever I would. People used to tell my parents, or me if they felt like being honest, that I’d have a hard time in college (at least the nice ones assumed I was going to go to college).

When I think now about what I learned, and how I learned what I learned, I feel amazingly lucky that I learned anything at all. When my brother and I were really young, seems like six or seven, my dad imposed a year-long ban on computer games and television because we hadn’t finished our dinner one night. We were young enough to not know to be outraged. And we were young enough to not know to cheat. So, being homeschoolers, we were stuck at home every day without the privilege of computer games or television.

In a desperate attempt to get through the day, we picked up the books about the house. We read. And read and read. We read so much that by the end of the year, we didn’t feel like we’d been deprived of anything. That was when I began reading, and nothing has been the same since. Over the years, what was important wasn’t just that my parents bought books. It was that they read those books with us. It was that we read widely, voraciously. We could talk about books, the ideas within the books, the characters within the books, and often without meaning to, we were learning.

I remember writing in my journal, putting down my thoughts about the day, for years thinking I could be as great a journalist as Anne Frank, simply because mom and dad had given me the book when I was six and told me I ought to write something every day. I loved writing, recording, thinking, forming sentences, playing with words. I needed no prompting to continue. I blogged furiously, ridiculously so in retrospect, when I was a teenager. I wrote about books, movies, music, politics, theology – it became a digital journal that other people could read. Writing became a way of processing my own thoughts in the presence of others. And so I learned to write.

With the drums, my parents gave me an incredible amount of support to pursue that earsplitting passion. I took lessons. I practiced on pillows, the floor, my knees. My mom diligently drove me to church at least twice a week: once or twice for practice, and once for the lesson. She did that for a couple of years until my parents made the ultimate sacrifice and brought the harbinger of noise – a drum set – to my room. My family loved me. And so did our neighbors. We didn’t get a single complaint.

One day several years later, my drum teacher told me I was the first student, in all his years teaching, to have made it this far, to have learned everything he could impart. He wanted to prepare me for the final drum exam. I prepared for it, but not for long, not before I thought I didn’t need an exam to tell me I was a drummer. I pulled out of the final exam, and with that, with a warm, final handshake, my drum lessons came to an end. Now, I wish I had taken that exam. The exam might not have told me I was a drummer, but it might have told me what I was made of. The teenage me didn’t want to find out.

So how did that teenager cope when he got to college? This being a liberal arts college, there were a bunch of classes I had to take whether I cared to or not, classes like Life Science, Wellness for Life, and College Algebra. In that sense, yes, I did have a hard time in college. I struggled every night to do simple algebra homework. I pulled all-nighters to get research done. I got busy with busywork (this is not to say I didn’t enjoy plenty of other classes, especially the English and Political Science ones). I was motivated by a powerful fear of failure, responsibility, knowing my parents had forked over a small fortune to get me through college. In short, college taught me to do what I didn’t love.

Now that I have graduated from college, it all feels like much ado about nothing. I graduated with a 3.9 GPA from Hardin-Simmons University, with degrees in English and Political Science. I was never late to class, and the only time I missed a class was when I was stranded in Washington, D.C., during a Model U.N. conference when Hurricane Sandy struck. I wasn’t merely a goody-two-shoes within the classroom, though. I was also an editor for the school paper, the vice president of the International Student Fellowship, had a student worker job in the university’s Media Relations office, and played percussion with the Cowboy Band.

 My senior year, I dropped by a theology professor’s office to pick up my final paper, and he asked me to sit down and talk for a bit. He wanted to know more about who I was, where I came from, and what I thought it was that had prepared me to do well in college. I said, with little hesitation, without irony, that I felt it was homeschooling that had prepared me the best – it had prepared me to learn on my own, to not trust anyone else with anything as important as my education. He smiled thoughtfully and remarked: yes, it’s usually the homeschoolers. It’s just as well he didn’t press me for more specifics like “what did you do to prepare yourself?” or “but how did you learn that?” because I wouldn’t have known how to answer.

I still don’t.

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25-year old Ethan’s parents are founders of HOMEFRONTIER David and Sook Ching Tan. Ethan graduated with degrees in Political Science and English at Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, Texas, last December 14, and married Katie on the same day.

HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE FAIR 2014 DRAWS A CROWD!

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Extra-curricular Activities; Science on 2 Sep 2014.

BY ALL ACCOUNTS, THE RECENTLY CONCLUDED HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE FAIR WAS A ROARING SUCCESS. The crowd was encouragingly large and supportive. If you follow the conversation on Facebook as well as the photos uploaded, you will get a pretty good picture of what  an enthusiastic bunch of parents and kids can do when given the opportunity.

The fact that most of the participants at the Fair were children under 12 years speaks volumes! These are kids who are educated at home, unschoolers from various backgrounds, whose parents are ordinary Malaysians  (and blessed with extraordinary passion and conviction). Thank you Florence and Martha, for organising this outstanding event. Well done, all of you – organisers and homeschooling parents and kids. 

FLORENCE WONG (Co-organiser)
I have been homeschooling for more than 6 years. Our son Reese loves science, but I noticed there were hardly any science activities among homeschoolers. So 2 years ago, I set up a science co-op. Then I met Martha who felt we should both organise a Homeschool Science Fair, and as they say, the rest is history.

Over 12 projects were exhibited, from forensic science to astronomy. Our children learned many invaluable skills working on their projects for the fair. Besides increasing their interest in science, they learned project management, presentation skills, and how to interact with visitors. Some enterprising homeschoolers made science kits for sale too. Most participating parents felt that it was a worthwhile effort as it encouraged our children to explore science more seriously. I hope to make this fair an annual event besides developing other science related activities for our community of homeschoolers.

AMY DELPH (Participating parent)
My daughter Katelynn participated in the Homeschool Science Fair with her topic on crystals and how they grow. It was a very powerful experience that I feel allows for a more meaningful and integrated approach to learning that stretches a child’s abilities in a fun and exhilarating way.

Besides science and public speaking, there’s writing reports and informative text, you learn how to do research, graphing results and calculating costs and expenditure, how to make eye-catching information displays, and how to attract people to your stall to try the activities and buy your merchandise.

And then the opportunities – requests for more crystal merchandise and crystal making workshops. Katelynn could probably start a business! To be honest, we did very little of anything beyond this project those six weeks leading to the Fair. Looking back at all the skills we were learning (and I’m sure I’ve left out many more) I don’t think we needed to!

AMY WAN-RATOS (Parent, visitor)
I went to the Homeschool Science Fair with my two children and we had a great time! We did the whole works – from reading all the research boards, heated Q & A with the exhibitors, shopping for science merchandise. Lea was most fascinated with the DNA display (she’s a fan of NCIS), while Mayern loved the crystals. Meeting familiar homeschool moms and their children gave us some good contacts to follow up. My children definitely want to be participants and exhibitors next year!

Confessions of an (ex-) homeschooler

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschooler Profile on 14 Aug 2014.

Joshua is an eighteen-year-old history buff, amateur writer, and a massive Regina Spektor fanboy. He’s a Christian -albeit a surly, often skeptical one: suspicious of churches but increasingly in love with Christ. He’ll be studying at Hope College, MI. come the fall. When he’s not writing/procrastinating, he enjoys Doctor Who marathons, good cheese, and Simon and Garfunkel. He can’t drive yet, but desperately wants a license to drive a sleigh dragged by a resurrected woolly mammoth through subarctic Siberia someday.

Here’s his story.

THOUGHTS OF AN (ALMOST) GRADUATED HOMESCHOOLER
By Joshua Kam

Huzzah! I’ve almost graduated. The pre-exam-cramming has been crammed, the awful tests have been sat, and the gor-awful after-exam anticlimax has wadded awkwardly in my gut like a black hole. I stand mere inches from completing Marine Bio – yay – to the last class of the year. It’s strange -half of me kept thinking that I still had so much time, and the other couldn’t believe it’s already gone. I felt vaguely like someone who’s misread a map and almost stepped off El Gran Canyon.

To be frank though, that was pretty much the same feeling Mom and I harbored in our throats when we began. I was seven, more than a little traumatized from kindergarten, and determined to be a chef and a Wycliffe Bible translator and a paleontologist all at once. Needless to say I’d always found it hard to fit in. Not because I was particularly smarter than the folk in class -I was just eccentric, I suppose.

But on that first day in homeschool, I plonked myself down with Mom for three pages of science and a bite of arithmetic. The problems were neatly encased in colorful ostriches; I had a vague sense that we were on an adventure of some kind – but to where and to what end I had no clue.

The answer to that came years later as we slowly ironed out the kinks of learning at home. The lovely thing about homeschool is that everything is porous -real life glides into academic work. Class times seep in and out of everything else we have on our plate. You could be playing checkers when your Mom calls you out to study a mantis, sketch its mandibles clumsily on a notepad.

You might be in the middle of science when annoyingly you’re called out to deal with laundry. Was nothing sacred? Couldn’t we do something in its own box in its own time? Now, glancing back into those years, I’m glad Mom imparted something different to me: you don’t box up real life.

This porosity, of course, also creates challenges of its own. Time management was always an issue for me. I did occasionally zone out of my long division problems when chapters of Tolkien called my name. And I do harbor an awkward habit of humming the LOTR soundtrack when I’m working on science. Ask my brother. But I don’t know where I’d be without learning from the integrative approach Mom took to Life, the Universe, and Everything Else.

I should clarify.

Homeschooling, the idea of doing school at home -occasionally in my PJs- has all but ended for me. But Home Schooling -the practice of bringing what you learn into every other pocket of your lifestyle, of knocking down the walls between intellectual notions and ‘Real Life’; of weaving everything you know into everything you believe: that stays. And I hope it always stays. I can think of a lot of brilliant folks with PhDs and more achievements on their resumes, but I really can’t imagine anyone more equipped to impart this to me than my mother.

I must add -I did actually find friends. No, not always the loudest friends, or the most facetiously confident. I found people with quiet souls and still hands, but with deep, fierce compassions and minds like sharpened blades. This is just my clause/charm to ward off awkward questions of my societal maladjustment. Heh.

The rest – the flurry of college searching, SAT-sitting, online-classes – all of that was tricky. For a while we were wringing our hands over transcripts, and course descriptions. How would we create a resume? And what on earth would I do for those college admission essays?

In the end, I decided to write about being an estuary -a place where the river and the sea meets. Because my entire education and life had been just that kind of negotiation: adjusting from my hometown to KL, adjusting to homeschooling over the years. I wrote about the eclectic mix of things I studied – Russian lit with Chinese poetry, Japanese tankas with the Great American Novels. I also described things I’d done outside of actual school -acting troupes we’d joined/directed, clubs we participated in.

It took two years of premature balding and dandruff before we finally landed on a quiet, welcoming campus that was more than willing to accept homeschoolers. We did have to jump a couple more hoops -partially in describing my courses. But I think that for a lot of colleges/unis (mine was abroad) they want to see what a homeschooler can do outside of his/her study room. Frankly, that’s the sort of thing that homeschoolers seem to excel.

To parents who are just starting to homeschool their kids -the ones forever peppered by relatives asking, “Are your kids socialized?”- I hope I’m not too presumptuous in saying you’re doing the right thing. It takes chutzpah to tell people you teach your children: that you have your own way of seeing the world and want to impart it to your kids.

It takes chutzpah for a kid to explain to grown-ups that s/he really does have friends, and that they go for movies and fieldtrips, and, scandalously, the occasional chaste date, just like regular Malaysians do. It takes chutzpah doing something new, when in your head (and your parents’ heads) you sometimes just don’t know where this is going, if all these were a stepping stone to something better.

Some months my family was just hoarse with “discussing” whether homeschooling was viable for us. Some months we were just so ready to burn our math books the day I graduated. Our little road to Damascus was rarely lit with bolts of heaven’s shine. Or pillars of fire. The inspiration – and the gratitude- came very slowly, and rather prosaically, like brewed tea. But hot dang, I am glad we made the trip.

2014 SCIENCE FAIR

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Announcement on 4 Aug 2014.

How we started homeschooling Pt 5

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschool; Math on 22 Jul 2014.

Part 4 was a peek at how language arts featured in our literacy lessons. In this 5th installment, our son Elliot writes about learning numbers and math. If you have just popped in, you can catch up on our family’s homeschooling journey by checking out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

LEARNING THE 3RS: Elliot discovers numeracy

It is one of those hot, muggy Malaysian nights when Dad asks how we learnt our numbers. I shrug, and say that Mom taught us, of course. This is something painfully obvious, but he persists in asking. But how did we learn numbers? How did ones and twos and threes suddenly become something beyond scratches on a piece of paper? Mom looks at me and I look back at her. Math books? I hazard. Mom mutters something about looking at price tags while shopping. Multiplication tables? I mean, numbers don’t have a significance in our family. Words do. Words are king. I remember what the formative books of my childhood were. Formative number things? Hah.

Maybe numbers are something that just happens to you, like catching a cough or a cold. If you hang around too long with twos and fours they might start multiplying and then you are suddenly burdened with the knowledge that with the addition of a certain symbol, they equal eight. I know that at some point we became aware that numbers could interact with each other and behave in fascinating ways but as to when that point actually happened, who knows?

Some things are not meant to be questioned…
I know that numbers were never alive for me in the study room where I would sit hunched over on my chair, idly doodling on the margins of math books. They weren’t alive cross-legged in my grandparents’ house, where the stillness and quiet of the hour and the gentle creaking of the electric fan would carry my attention far from fractions and decimals.

But we memorized our tables and dutifully repeated them anyway. We did our math-work, from yellowing Lifepac materials and hardcover Saxon math books to Singaporean syllabi. These are just things that are done to children, and questioning these traditions is like asking if one can change the colour of the sky.

The verdant rainforest is something that many can only appreciate through the safety of a thick plastic shield.Small children especially, are kept away for fear of sharp objects and things that crawl into ears and do not crawl out again.Instead children are taken to zoos and museums, where each plant and animal is labelled and classified and sterilised, with ice-cream after. It’s only now, after many years without opening a math book that I’ve begun to see the forest and not the trees. It’s only now that I wish my education in numbers began a little dirtier, and a little wormier. That might have spared me hours of discontent.

Numbers come alive in unlikely places
Numbers came to life in games and books, in the practical experiences we had (like grabbing the measuring tape and checking out the dimensions of all the furniture in the house). Games like Monopoly and Risk and Scrabble all require a fundamental knowledge of addition, subtraction and multiplication, and they taught me to recognize the patterns of basic math. Books like Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth introduced mathematical concepts such as fractions and infinity with charming aplomb.

Numbers were alive to me in the counting down of the hours until Dad came home from work. Or in the hurt that PINKIES was definitely not a word and that the seventy-six points my Aunt made was distinctly unfair, never mind what the dictionary said. I remember choosing, when my brother and I were dividing our chores, to throw the garbage on even numbered dates, knowing that there were a full seven days more of odd numbered dates for him to do work on. It was glorious in its smallness.

So, my numbers were learnt in relation to things that were not numbers. But If you really want to know where I got my numbers, I found them lying around the house. Someone had left them there, I think. How very terribly careless.

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22-year old Elliot Tan’s parents are founders of HOMEFRONTIER David and Sook Ching Tan. Elliot plays the piano in church and occasionally leads worship. When not sleeping too much for his parents’ liking, he reads and does things on the computer and occasionally writes weird things. Surprisingly and in spite of his upbringing, he scored an A for Math in his IGCSE O Levels. He was in university studying Communications for a while, but took a break and is now in the process of what people call ‘finding themselves’. He also teaches English in Frontier Learning Centre and have an affinity for potatoes.