21 April 2012
Education outcomes: how do homeschoolers compare with conventional schoolers?
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Examinations; Research.
Last year, Sandra Martin-Chang of Concordia University and her colleagues recruited Canadian participants from both the homeschool and public school populations to study their academic achievement. It’s not a big sample but the research does offer an interesting look at how students educated at home compare with those from conventional schools. I have reproduced an extract from Parenting Science that summarises the researchers’ findings.
Is education achievement all that matters in homeschooling then?
Obviously not. But for education to equip a child academically for future pursuits, it must be seen in demonstrable results. If anything, studies such as Sandra Martin-Chang’s assure homeschoolers that parents need not fret that an education an home is somehow inferior to conventional schooling.
Here’s what the researchers noted in their participants and how both groups compare academically.
27 March 2012
An unschooling adventure
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Family.
Selina and Edward Lim are parents to 4 lovely kids. This family of unschoolers from Penang is testimony to the extraordinary adventure that awaits all who choose to raise and educate their own children outside the public school system. The Lims are founders and pastors of Gateway City Church in Penang. Here’s a short video that the family produced to demonstrate skills/lessons they have learnt and share their joy of unschooling. This is what Selina has to say about the video:
“Early this month I organized a ladies’ special night for my church and friends. My daughters, Ashlynn (13), Nathalynn (12) and Chrisalynn (8) took the opportunity to learn digital media for the first time from our media personnel in church. They spent 4 days (about 25-30 hours in total) doing everything from preparing for interview to running it, setting up equipments and using them, laboring on the whole editing process, choosing music for background, meticulously worked on the art & craft and the whole works of shooting and all. Our house turned into a studio. There are 3 parts to the presentation. Each child did one part each. The week was filled with excitement of learning, doing, redoing, perfecting the piece and lots of praying too. End result was very fulfilling for each of them. My message to the ladies was based on Isaiah 43:4 – being precious, honored and loved.”
12 October 2011
What’s your homeschooling model?
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Curriculum.
IN MY LAST POST, I SUGGESTED THAT PICKING THE RIGHT CURRICULUM should come after the following considerations: worldview, circumstance, and learning goal. Clear these important issues, and you’re in a better place to think about approaches to homeschooling your child and the kind of tools you will require.
Homeschooling is such an organic lifestyle involving parenting and a way of life, you should assess and review your situation and education needs regularly.
As a quick aside, let me explain that when I use the term “homeschool” I refer to parents educating their own children at home. Some parents prefer ’home education’ to ’homeschool’ because the suffix ’school’ has the sound of – *shudder* – fingernails scratching the chalkboard. Anyway, for better or worse, we’ll stick with homeschool.
Sure, there will be occasions when learning takes place outside the home – through co-op learning, extra-curricular activities, short-term tuition and courses, the use of community resources, etc. But where parents are their children’s primary educator, that’s homeschooling or home education.
In this second part of 5 Steps to Choosing the Right Homeschool Curriculum,
I’ll be looking at Methodology.
STEP 4
METHODOLOGY: As alternative education, homeschooling is an approach that ranges from radical to conservative, with a number of colourful shades in between. What this means is, your choice of curricula is going to be decided by the method of education that takes place in your home.
As the diagram shows, homeschooling models fall into three main classifications. There are no neat boundaries though. Notice how these 3 circles overlap – as they should – because the principles of learning and education at home transcend methodology, and you can find this in most homeschools.
An unschooler is a homeschooler who subscribes to natural learning – largely unstructured, and always child-led. It’s not curriculum-dictated, but interest-driven. It was John Holt who first coined the word unschooling to mean learning as a natural process. If you are unschooling, you will have no use for packaged curricula, choosing instead to use whatever teaching aid and learning material that matches your child’s readiness and interests.
On the far right of the homeschool spectrum is the family that literally replicates school in the home. It’s a traditional school-at-home method that is generally structured by grade and curriculum, and for some, a daily class timetable is strictly adhered to as well. I’m sure this group of homeschoolers believe in natural learning too, except that many parents also feel strongly that guided learning instills much-needed discipline that is so essential to good learning habits.
In the middle of it all is a broad segment of homeschoolers who appreciate the ideals of child-led education but prefer some academic structure as well. They’re eclectic by inclination and therefore are not bogged down by packaged curricula, and use a bit of everything the family deems appropriate. Eclectic homeschoolers do not see curricula as an end in itself, but a tool to provide functional learning.
By now it should be evident how your curriculum choice follows your homeschooling model. Pat Montgomery of Clonlara used to say that a child’s education is about the child and not the trappings of institutional schools. If you hold on to that thought, you will avoid the kiasu search for the World’s Best Homeschooling Curriculum (as if there were one) and the anxiety attacks of Not Learning Enough (as if one could cover ALL subjects equally).
Next: we conclude with a look at Curriculum.
30 March 2010
Passing the test
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Examinations.
On 22 March, we began our series on college-bound homeschoolers with observations by a homeschooling mom Swee Bin on her son’s experience with public exams. In this post her 17-year old son Jian Eu shares how he made the transition to formal education at a tuition centre in preparation for IGCSE O Level exams.
AFTER BEING HOMESCHOOLED FOR FIVE AND A HALF YEARS I left home and enrolled in a centre to do my IGCSE. I went to two centres, the first one through the latter half of 2008 and the second one throughout 2009.
I am seventeen this year. I took my exams last November at age sixteen. I did quite well too.
The two centres I went to were very different. The first centre was much more relaxed and much smaller, only about 15 students most of whom were homeschoolers. The second centre I went to had more than 130 students, only two of whom were homeschoolers, and was run much more like a school. This is the centre that I will be writing about.
Being a homeschooler in such an environment made me different. I came from a different background and I was unused to being in a school. There was quite a lot of pressure. Not only was there the pressure of the exams, but some of the moms of other school kids were constantly comparing and sizing me up! One of the moms gossiped about the only two homeschoolers at the school, my friend and I: “They may have done well in their mid-year exams but success in life is only 30% academic and 70% social.”
There is a popular conception that homeschoolers are social misfits. I may have been different from my classmates but we got along fine. One of my classmates told me, “Eh, I thought homeschoolers are supposed to be like weird.” On a side note, I have learned from my experience that weird people, people who don’t quite fit in, can be found among both homeschoolers and schoolers.
Going to school was a very different experience for me. My homeschool had been very relaxed. We didn’t follow any curriculum and we were left to pursue whatever we were interested in. Now I had to study according to a timetable, from a pre-set syllabus!
Getting used to the school hours was hell; I never quite got used to it. Every day I would try to escape home early. School hours were ridiculous, eight hours per day. The worst part was that half of the time we didn’t have any classes on!
I was one of the top students in class but I never got along very well with the teachers. I think homeschooling had given me a confidence to speak out if I felt something was wrong. As a result, over the year, I have had a one-on-one discussion of my behaviour with one of my teachers three times.
Homeschooling had given me the backbone to discuss my differences with teachers and not shrink away. I may not have been chummy with the teachers but I respect them. They are good teachers. The quality of their teaching is good.
Looking back, I think my IGCSE experience was the baptism of fire for my homeschool. All the rhetoric about me having time to develop was tested. The test was not just a test in academics but in character. My exam results came out in January this year. I passed. Not just with C’s and B’s but with 4 A*’s and one A.
Photo: Jian Eu (pictured with sister Jian Lin) is happy that he can have his, uhm, chocolate ice-cream and eat it too!
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If you want to know how other homeschoolers moved on from home to formal education, read their stories here:
Jianwen – According to his ability
Rachel – They said
Ethan – First days of spring
Balakrishna – Passion for physics
Yao-ban – Youngest PhD grad
Ping Lian – Autistic savant artist exhibits in NY
12 March 2010
According to his ability
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschool Profile.
What do you do when you’re told that your son doesn’t belong in a regular school? That’s what one public school told parents LT Loo and Shirley about their special needs son Jianwen. Fortunately, the Loos (who also have two grown-up daughters) heard about homeschooling, and in 2001 took the road less travelled that eventually led Jianwen to a private college. I posed 10 questions to Shirley and subsequently edited her responses alongside Jianwen’s input as they shared about schooling without being in school.
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HF: Tell us about Jianwen.
Shirley: Jianwen our youngest boy is a ADHD/special needs child. We have 2 grown-up daughters but Jianwen was the only one who was homeschooled.
HF: So it was Jianwen’s special needs that led the family to consider homeschooling?
Shirley: Jianwen first went to a Chinese school for two-and-a-half years. During the second half of the third year we transferred him to a Kebangsaan school where he spent less than 2 weeks in class out of the 5 months he was enrolled there. All through those years we were told that Jianwen was not suitable for a regular school, so we began to look elsewhere. We then signed him up with a private school for the last 2 years of his primary education. I must say that the teachers, staff and management at the school were very supportive, but sadly, the children and their parents were not. A couple of children bullied Jianwen, which gave him nightmares and made him aggressive as well. As luck would have it, we met David and Sook Ching in 2001 and were introduced to homeschooling. So Jianwen began homeschooling during his secondary years, 6 years in all.
HF: Jianwen, you spent time in a government school and then a private school. Can you tell us how you felt about those years in a school compared to your homeschooling experience?
Jianwen: School was kind of hectic and stressful. I had to wake up early to go to school and I felt I was the odd one out especially during group activities. But I preferred the private school because it not only focused on academics but also on the students’ latent or hidden talents. I developed my talent in poetry writing during my time in the private school. The multiple intelligences approach that was used in that school helped improve my critical thinking skills and pique my intellectual inquisitiveness. The hands-on approach to learning was also good for me.
On the other hand, homeschooling allowed me to be flexible and pursue what interests me. I could travel during normal school days. We’ve been around the country, as well as Bali, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing, US, learning about different ways of life which I enjoy. Also I did not feel I was a stranger when I was among homeschoolers. I could also attend functions that I would not normally have been able to otherwise. I have also learned many skills like typing, cooking, and baking.
Shirley: Before we began homeschooling, there was a lot of stress managing time. There was also difficulty in managing behavior when others were around Jianwen. But we had a more relaxed time homeschooling since we were able to pursue what was more relevant to life instead of the paper chase.
HF: It must have been a relief for you and Jianwen. Were you worried about educating a child with special needs by yourself? What did your husband say about taking a big step like that?
Shirley: My husband was very supportive, morally and financially. He loves to drive and travel, and it has enabled us to travel and learn. But teaching and guiding him at home wasn’t new to me because I had been helping him with his studies all those years when he was in school. Being a child with special needs, I had to teach differently and specifically according to his ability. We used many different approaches. I would say it was a lot of trial and error as I had no one to model after. However, I did have initial concern for his social life.
Jianwen: But I was involved in lots of activities. I participated in the swimming events in the Paralympic Games. I learned Aikido, joined The Mutiara Voice Club in Penang, which is a self-advocacy club for people with disabilities, volunteered at the Toy Library to help pack and unpack toys, and played with other children in the community centre. When Bethany Home in Teluk Intan organised a 3-day 2-night camp at Gua Tempurung, I went along.
HF: Seems to me he’s got a normal social life then! What values did you encourage in Jianwen and how has he been helped by them?
Shirley: We have always taught our children to give their best in whatever they do. It is not the marks that count but the effort they put in. They should always try to beat their best. For Jianwen, being exposed to the world around him and coupled with his love for reading, it helped him to tackle the questions in his SPM exams with minimum preparation.
HF: Was that his first public exam?
Shirley: No, he attained 3Bs & 2Cs in the UPSR, but we didn’t tell our friends and family back then. But now he’s gone on to college!
HF: It’s remarkable how far you have come since you homeschooled.
Jianwen: Some people say that homeschooling does not conform to the norms of education but my experience proves that I can achieve the required results to enable me to enroll in a college. And, I have won medals in the Paralympic Games, sat on the organising committee of the 3rd National Self-Advocacy Conference. I have also been invited to read my poems at opening ceremonies and conferences.
HF: That’s wonderful, Jianwen. And Shirley, wasn’t it especially challenging just to prepare Jianwen for college? Was there a specific curriculum?
Shirley: The biggest challenge actually was to get him to realize that education was for his sake! We were mainly unschooling for more than a year, so did not follow any specific curriculum although we did use Singapore schoolbooks as a guide. Since Jianwen was of secondary age, we had to have a goal and we tried to do things and stuff that matched the O Levels. But we were in no hurry, and we didn’t push him. We used a portfolio style based on topics/themes incorporating language, maths, science, and history, wherever possible. More importantly, we worked on self-help skills like cooking and household chores.
HF: Homeschool has worked out well for you hasn’t it?
Shirley: Yes, especially for special needs children. They will definitely benefit from homeschooling since it can be tailored to their needs and ability.
HF: Jianwen, having been homeschooled, would you encourage others to do the same?
Jianwen: Yes, a child’s talent will not be revealed and developed otherwise as mainstream schools tend to focus on academic aspects and have a rigid expectation of children.
Photos: Top, the Loos in a visit to the US. Jianwen is second from right, between his Mom and Dad. Lower, Jianwen as seen on his Facebook page
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RELATED POSTS: Other homeschool families we have profiled:
Start with love
Character is tops in this homeschool
Living, loving, learning, unschooling
The Soons take it free and easy
Ice-skating homeschoolers
19 January 2010
Start with love
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschool Profile.
10-year old Ali is one lucky kid! He’s being taught at home by parents Harith Idris and Intan Shamsuddin who are one of the most dedicated homeschooling couples we’ve met. They’ve hosted and participated in homeschooling dialogues, arranged for cartoonist Dato Lat to visit a homeschoolers’ outdoor camp, and are great resource persons for unschoolers. Thoughtful and always cheerful, work from home (part-time) mom Intan has no qualms sharing with us the joy of educating her only son at home.
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Every homeschooling family has a story. What’s yours?
Ali was diagnosed as autistic at the age of 2. But that didn’t stop this numbskull of a mother (the poor boy!) from shopping for a kindy when ‘the time’ came. We spent the whole day going from one kindy to another and in the end decided to settle for one, enrolled, and paid the fees. As a good mummy would, this one stayed to watch from outside the class. I was horrified at how the teacher quickly instilled fear in the kids to obey her every word and completely ignored a boy who started pinching Ali. Without further ado, I pulled him out of class and insisted on my refund. Came straight home and thought hard (about 10 minutes or so), and ceremoniously announced to my hubby Harith: “I can’t stomach him going to school. We’ll just homeschool Ali”.
Just like that! How did your husband take it? Weren’t there objections from him or other family members?
Of course hubby just smiled and said, “Why not? I’m all for it!” And so began our homeschooling journey.
Objections from family? None at all! Harith and I have always been the ‘black sheep’ of our respective family, so doing something out of the norm was, well, more or less expected of us….and we were not about to let them down. We ARE so blessed 
Did you know what you were getting into when you decided to homeschool?
In the beginning it felt very scary with so many uncertainties. We were in uncharted waters here. One way we got around this was to read as much as we could on homeschooling……. books, internet articles. When I found out there ARE other homeschooling families in Malaysia, it was rather reassuring. As time went by, I knew for certain there’s no turning back. Homeschooling felt right, there’s just no other way, at least for us!
Tell us what’s your homeschool like – the things you do, the way you spend your time. What’s your role, and how does Harith fit into the picture?
This mummy tackles more or less the ‘academic’ stuff and daddy’s the one who takes him out to the playground and field trips. We began by teaching Ali how to read, using the phonics method. Somehow we managed to complete the program in just over a week! After that it was trip after trip to the book stores. And that’s the way it has been – English, (Japanese manga thrown in, plus a healthy treat of comics here and there), Science, and whatever subject, come what may, we just throw ourselves into it. Wonderful!
Arts and crafts also play an important role in Ali’s learning. Water colour is his favourite medium….endless paintings! If it isn’t a specific subject he’s painting, he would be experimenting by mixing colours until this mummy runs out of words to describe his colour mixes.
There’s no curriculum then?
No, we definitely don’t use any curriculum. For instance, with Math, we started with basic counting – not just on paper, but with everyday stuff that’s around us. Grocery shopping is good for math too! When the time came to learn multiplication (don’t ask me how I handled that), he mastered the 1 to 12 times table in a week! He’s now learning algebra, but with long hiatuses every now and then! Oh, and just recently, he has expressed interest in Chemistry. Yikes! We’re talking about a mummy who’s always been terrified of Chemistry, and now I’ll get to learn it all over again. What fun?!
I mean, why confine Math, Vocabulary, Spelling, etc, to the study table only? We’re always learning – while taking a bath or shower, rolling around in bed after reading a story book, etc. Of course, doing Science would mean experiments galore (and ultimately a messy home), but we’re easy with that.
But your son Ali is autistic. Doesn’t it make homeschool more challenging?
Friends and acquaintances were rather perplexed when they learn Ali was being homeschooled. There’s nothing wrong with your son, they would say. Homeschooling must be right then, I replied! Being able to learn at their own pace, surrounded by people who love and do not judge them, in surroundings where they feel safe and secure, help autistic children tremendously. That goes for ‘normal’ ones too!
Because autistic children get easily disturbed in unfamiliar and noisy surroundings, we did our best to avoid going to such places especially during the early years. Ali’s doing a lot better in recent years, primarily because he grew up in calm surroundings. Homeschooling allowed us to shield him and it had a relatively calming effect on him. I doubt this can be achieved in conventional schooling.
Indeed, I can’t imagine any school that could have offered Ali the kind of attention he’s getting.
More than that, homeschooling has allowed us to be intimately acquainted with Ali. He’s absolutely amazing and humorous. I love to hear him talk and recap whatever he’s read or watched. Some parents are quite baffled how we could spend so much time together without feeling stifled. I’ll say we are baffled how some parents can spend a good chunk of their day away from their children, come home and then tell their kids, ‘‘Sorry darlings, mummy just got back from a meeting and I am exhausted. Go do something to amuse yourself!”
What values have you sought to inculcate in the home as you raise and teach Ali?
As the years pass by, we have come to realize this: homeschooling is spiritual. Whatever it is about religion that is dished out by people ‘in the know’ have always been dry and meaningless. We have to start putting back the missing ingredients in lifeless religious rituals, and that’s what we’re all about.
What would you say to parents who want to homeschool?
I’ll tell them, you must start with the right intention, and continue to purify your intention as you go on the homeschooling journey. Start with LOVE – you can never go wrong with that. Homeschooling will also reveal ugly weaknesses in you. Just acknowledge them, embrace them. You will surely overcome them in time. Then everyone in the family will come out as winners- guaranteed! Cheers to homeschooling!
RELATED POSTS: Other homeschool families we have profiled:
According to his ability
Character is tops in this homeschool
Living, loving, learning, unschooling
The Soons take it free and easy
Ice-skating homeschoolers
25 November 2009
Living, learning, loving, unschooling
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschool Profile.
Visit the home of Edward and Selina Lim and you know you’ve dropped in on an unusual family. Married for 12 years, the couple have 3 daughters (between 11 and 6 years), and a 16-month old son. Both are are also pastors of a church in Penang. Edward has been in full-time ministry for about 15 years while Selina was a state registered nurse before she received her full-time calling into ministry. Edward also runs Contact Sports Enterprise, a sports events management company. He is just as involved in promoting Floorball and coaches both the state and national team. On top of it all, they’re homeschooling. Here’s what Selina has to say about their homeschooling adventure:
So when did you start homeschooling?
Ever since we became parents we’ve homeschooled and it’s a part of our life – we’ve never lived any other way! Our eldest is 11 years, so that makes 11 years of homeschooling in all.
What made you both decide to homeschool? Who thought of it first?
The decision was actually made during our courtship. Even then we discussed how to raise our children, and I remember we said we wanted them to enjoy the learning process and not be caught in an exam-oriented culture and the rigidity of a regular school system. We wanted to nurture them according to their natural bend which we knew conventional schools couldn’t provide.
We knew we would need flexibility for the family anyway, in view of our church ministry. So before we became parents we sought God intently for confirmation, and our desire to beat the school system became a conviction when we were expecting our firstborn.
Tell us about your homeschool – the curriculum you use, the way you spend your time, etc. With your busy schedule, what’s a typical day like?
Throughout the years we tried different approaches but we found ourselves leaning towards unschooling as it suits us best. We may not be 100% unschoolers but we do keep to Charlotte Mason’s motto of living, learning and loving.
Typical day? Different seasons have different days! Generally, our children begin their day with their own quiet time with God. This slot can sometimes take very long as their prayers often turn into occasions for poems, stories and songs. They call it “creative dreaming in progress”. We have some workbooks for languages and Math but do not rely on them completely. We have a pretty good home library so we don’t need to depend on the public library. However, we do make a point to visit the public library as regularly as we can.
A big chunk of the day is spent reading, making dance pieces, writing stories, playing, talking as a family, and learning from our natural surrounding. We enjoy unit studies too. If something in a book, a recent experience or an issue captures our interest, we will pick it up and do a unit study. Depending on our girls’ level of interest, the topic can occupy us for a week or many months.
Most of all, they find every possible opportunity to play – whether it is a household chore, mealtime, babysitting, even their educational project. Play is work. Work is play. If you ask them, they will tell you: “Everyday is a holiday and everyday is a school day.” So, everything we do at home is intertwined. Household chores are done together with a gotong-royong spirit. No charts. We do almost everything together (or at least with one parent). We minister together. The children are part of our ministry – our prayer team, our helpers, and our dance team. They go with us whenever and wherever we go for ministry (except hospital visitations).
I see flexibility, but where does discipline come in? Don’t you need to have a lot of discipline to make unschooling work?
Indeed, our girls delight in the flexibility of time, space, and freedom to explore and experiment within the boundaries of our faith and values. But along the way they have learnt discipline. They are independent and industrious, and know how to take responsibility for their own learning. Every day offers ample learning opportunities. As i see it, learning is really an ongoing process and all I do is ensure our home provides the children with liberty and every opportunity to exercise their creativity, even to make a mess. It has certainly given them real meaning in learning and they view life more holistically. As they’re with us during formal and informal meetings, I notice they have become very adaptable and interact well with people of all ages.
You seem to spend a lot of time together as a family. What else do your girls do?
The girls are very involved in dance (ballet and contemporary) and they perform in community events, concerts, weddings, as well as in church. They have choreographed their own dance pieces ever since they were 6 and 7. They also enjoy rollerblading and skating, playing the guitar, sewing, knitting, arts and craft and cooking (especially creating our own recipes).
As a family, we’re into adventure – outdoor activities, wall climbing, biking. Since Edward runs adventure camps and sports events, the girls get involved as much as they can. Naturally, they are part of the Junior Floorball team too. Then when we went horseback riding in Australia, they came back crazy over horses – would love to pursue horseback-riding, but it is just too expensive for us here. They swim as well. Oh yes, we love to snuggle up for a good show during family movie night followed by Edward’s debriefing.
That’s really an active family you have. Doesn’t unschooling make more demands on you as a parent, then?
It is hard to say, since this is the only life we know. In many ways we think it’s easier, simply because of its practicality. The children are always with us; therefore, we can be as mobile as we need to be, which is an advantage in our vocation. Besides, since we are close to one another, bringing up our children and disciplining them is more effective. It is easier to instill our beliefs and values. We are definitely more aware of our responsibility as well as the seriousness of educating and nurturing our children, as opposed to letting others do the job that is rightfully ours as parents.
What special challenges (if any) do you face as a homeschooling family? In what way do these challenges affect your children’s homeschooling?
The usual challenge is the lack of support from relatives and friends who think we are depriving our children. It doesn’t really affect our convictions as we have come to embrace homeschooling fully as our lifestyle. Unfortunately, as our children grow up, they tend to be at the receiving end instead. The girls do love homeschooling but often find many people’s comments and questions unbearable. Nevertheless, all this negativity has deepened our children’s own convictions.
Sport is another challenge. As homeschoolers, our girls were not allowed to participate in competition in rhythmic gymnastics (run by the State Sports Academy). Although our girls loved the sport very much and excelled in it, they refused to trade homeschooling to advance in the sport as suggested by their head coach. They did it for recreation instead and eventually stopped due to the lack of skilled coaches.
Finally, the challenge of proficiency in Bahasa Malaysia. Unfortunately, this is one language they are not particularly keen in although I love the national language myself. Since English is widely spoken in Penang where we live, I constantly seek opportunities to make Bahasa fun and practical for the children although this is not always easy. Sometimes the children try conversing in the language when ordering food or shopping, but people always respond in English or Hokkien!
What values have you consciously sought to inculcate in the home as you educate the children?
It is our aim to raise our children to love God and serve His purposes. We gear them towards being responsible, resourceful and respectful persons. We want them to love life and live it loud for the Lord Jesus Christ. We encourage them to dream big and pursue their God-given passions.
What a full life your family has! What wonderful memories you’re building, which is really one of the joys that homeschooling brings. Is there anything else that’s memorable – a milestone maybe – in your homeschooling journey that you wish to share in closing?
We’ve got many! Among other things, all our girls were early readers but we would highlight our third daughter Chrisalynn’s development. She began reading simple words at about 18 months, started simple chapter books at 4, and then on to chapter books at 5 without any reading programme. We believe it’s the result of her listening to us read aloud to the older girls. Chrisalynn was always there with us whenever we were reading. And now the girls are into learning Spanish by themselves via the internet and books. They teach each other (and parents learn from them!)
2007 was very memorable as we took our sabbatical that year. It was an extraordinary year, packed with surprises as we took time to rest in God and fed our faith. The children learnt on the go as we travelled to different places locally (Langkawi, Kuala Lumpur, Cameron Highlands, Sabah) and overseas (Australia and Singapore). Their learning experiences were recorded in two volumes of travel logs, all of which have become their cherished keepsakes. These volumes are filled with stories, research, interviews, reports, book list, budget expenses, and pictures. Above all, they experienced faith in action and watched God’s promises come alive in the journey.