Teaching Handwriting

Teaching our children to write legibly is important even though the world is increasingly dependent on the computer and mobile phones to communicate

So far, we have 5 children who are able to push pen to paper. But I have yet to try any formal handwriting curriculum or programmes. This is not meant as a boast but to simply share that it is possible to teach them to write legibly without any fancy programmes.

Teaching our children to write often starts with them learning how to print out their names. I usually start this after they turn 3, when they have more control over their small motor skills and when they show great interest in doodling.

I used to think that it didn’t matter how they formed their letters and that it could be corrected later on. But I have since changed my mind It is indeed better to learn the correct way to form the letters from the get go. It is like learning the correct strokes for Chinese characters.

Teaching them how to hold their pencils/pens correctly is also important but alas! I have failed! They start out holding it in the correct way and then somewhere along the line when I was not paying attention, they sort of develop their own incorrect grip. The one child who holds her pencil/pen correctly is the one who used to hold her pencil like a calligraphy brush! She actually needed a pencil grip to correct her grip. She is now the only one holding her pencil correctly. I suppose I have to keep an eagle eye to make sure she doesn’t change her grip! But I digress!

Since I don’t follow any formal curriculum, I make up our own rules as we go along. Just to let you know in case you are wondering what scientific studiens I have done in developing our family’s handwriting philosophy

When they first start writing, I don’t insist that their letters be formed perfectly – as in – all the letters must be in the correct size and be on the line. I just let them write. Then once they are confident in forming their letters without any help, I would gently point out to them how each letter should sit on a 3-lined writing paper.

I either buy the 3-lined notebooks from Popular or I draw my own on a plain jotter book. I will then “dot out” the letters for the child to trace over. I know some moms use yellow pencil to write out the letters or words for the child to trace over it in black. But I find yellow very tiring for my eyes And since already 4 out of 7 chilren wear spectacles, I prefer to reduce any possible eye strain.

And that’s it. They learn how to write out their letters – capital and small letters. Oh and I just make them write about 5 times per letter.

What about cursive letters? I teach them when they are about 6 or 7, depending on their interest and their ability to write their mauscript letters well. I can’t for the life of me remember when I was taught cursive writing in school and horror of horrors, I found out that they no longer teach cursive writing in our schools! What a pity I say.

To teach cursive writing, I get a little lazier or more hardworking – depending on which way you want to look at it I guess. I go to Handwriting For Kids which provides free handwiting (cursive and manuscript) worksheets that you can print out. They have loads of other worksheets as well. There’re also worksheets from Donna Young, THE go to site for worksheets/planners of any kind!

I also use Writing Wizard which allows you to type in whatever you want your child to copy or write. I use this to type out our memory verse for the week and ask the child to copy it out for practice. Once they get the hang of linking the letters, I  stop using the worsheets.

Then it’s just practice all the way.

Hope this helps those of you who do not wish to spend a lot of money to teach your child how to write beautifully. But er…while I use the same method to teach all my children, some just write better than others!

Teaching Our Children to Read

As our 5th child is slowly but surely taking off reading independently, I thought it would be nice to share with you how I have taught the children to read.

I have always started them off by teaching them the names of the letters of the alphabet. If you follow the phonics experts, they say never to do that Instead the sounds of the alphabet should be taught first. But I only teach them the sounds the letters make after they have mastered the names. Just as I would teach them the sounds animals make. There is no confusion.

Blending is more of a challenge though. Some children catch it effortlessly but others need a lot more practice. But I don’t push it. No pressure. It is better to have a child who wants to read and is eager to pick it up than a reluctant child.

And once they get blending they are usually off and running They start reading anything and everything. Cereal boxes, newspaper headlines, shop signs, lyrics of worship songs in church, etc…

Sounds easy enough right? It usually is if you catch their teachable moments. As I have written in my post on Potty Training, some things are worth waiting for instead of pushing it through.

Our experience

By virtue of being the first born and having lots more mommy time plus an inclination and interest to learn, our first born learnt to read at 21 months with no formal curriculum.

By the time he went to pre-school (before I learnt of homeschooling) he was reading independently. Our second born was reading simple words when she entered the same pre-school. Again with no curriculum. Both of them seemed to be natural readers. Their school used the Zoophonics programme.

By the time it was our third child’s turn to learn to read, we had pulled the children out of school and were on our homeschool adventure. This time round, I thought I should have a formal curriculum. So I did my research and settled upon using Christ Centered Curriculum (CCC). I used it exclusively for both our third and fourth child.

It is, however, a very intensive programme and I found that I could not keep up with it. I ended up using mostly the flashcards and phonics charts only. But I made sure we went through the drills daily. Once they mastered the sounds and could blend, I stopped the programme. We went straight to simple readers. And that was it

With our 5th child, I went through the drills with her as well when she was 3. Once she was quite familiar with them, I introduced Explode the Code books (available locally from The Home Library) to her and she loves it. In just 4 months, she could blend! And now she is the one sitting next to me at the breakfast table reading off newspaper headlines

I had also purchased Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons but it just didn’t work for me. I didn’t even try it on the kids. I just found all the instructions very confusing. I much prefer the straightforward methods of ETC and CCC.

Teaching our children to read has been one major highlight in our homeschool adventure. It is extremely gratifying to be the one seeing the light go on in their heads as they figure out that they can read. A whole new world is opened up for them and I get to be part of that experience. How cool is that?

Once they can read, they use BOB books and the Oxford Reading Tree readers to practice and then slowly progress to more difficult books. We were blessed with these books and have found them very suitable for our emerging readers. Just watch out for toddlers who keep wanting to colour the black and white BOB books!

One last note : As they learn to read, it is equally important for them to comprehend what they are reading. Otherwise, it is a meangingless exercise.

How We Use SOW

I guess this post should have been posted long ago. There have been so many people writing and asking me about SOW or Student of The Word and how we use it in our homeschooling. I have hesitated in writing since I don’t want to duplicate what is already written on the SOW website.

An overview of the curriculum can be found under Attributes of SOW. Do read that.

I did write about it briefly in Doing Devotionals with the Children and Homeschool Planning. But I guess a more detailed post is required

It is, in a nutshell, a 6 year course of study which you repeat, making it a complete 12-year programme (excluding Maths), taking you through the Bible twice.

Why would one want to repeat a 6-year course all over again, you may ask? Simple. What you take away when you are 7 years old is different when you are 13. Be it for Bible, History or Science. Also the research one does with mom when one is 7 is different when one does it independently when one is 13.

SOW tries to tie in the other subjects (History, Science, Creative Writing, etc) with the Bible reading for each week. Sometimes it coincides perfectly Eg. Genesis with Creation for Science. Sometimes it doesn’t but it really doesn’t matter.

In our 1st two years, I used it as it is. Following their scope and sequence and the books they recommend, except for Phonics since we had been using successfully the phonics programme from Christ-Centered Curriculum. But our family grew! And it became very hard on me to pre-prepare the lessons required.

One thing you must take note about the SOW curriculum is that it doesn’t have any answer key or a Teacher’s Manual. With the Bible portion this is helpful as it then non-denominational. However, with the other subjects, it can get quite challenging especially if you are not strong in that subject. It means you have to do a lot more work to find the answers.

Also while it starts out with reading one chapter a week, the momentum picks up quite rapidly in the later years where, for example, you have to cover the Book of Proverbs in one week!

So what I did was to adapt it to our family and our needs. This is what I did :

• do just the Bible portion (Outline, Topic, Character, Commentary).
• slow down the pace by reading no more than 4 – 5 chapters a week. This means I came up with my own Bible schedule instead.
• use just the Creative Writing and Literature portion only (we even dropped this when preparing for Baby #7’s arrival).

Bible

I love, love, love the Bible portion of SOW. Even if I didn’t use the rest of the curriculum, I would still pay for this portion. It is the best bible curriculum we have used thus far.

Why? For one, it goes through the entire Bible in detail. This is how it is laid out. Each week, one reads a scheduled portion of the Bible (Eg Genesis Ch 1 – 4). Then you would be required to do the following to study the bible in detail :

a) OUTLINE (Mondays)

Each week’s reading asks that you give an OUTLINE of the reading in 4 main points. You summarise the chapters read into just 4 main points. Now you understand why you will miss out much if you rush through the assigned chapters.

b) TOPIC (Tuesdays)

A TOPIC of the week based on the week’s reading is given. You are to provide the definition of the topic chosen (eg. jealousy, temptation, etc) and write 4 main points about it. You are to also provide a Scripture Verse that refers to the topic.

c) CHARACTER (Wednesdays)

One CHARACTER from the week’s reading is chosen and you are to decide if this character is godly or not and to explain the basis of your decision. You would also have to list out the facts pertaining to the character. A Scripture Verse that relates to the character is chosen.

d) SETTING (Thursdays)

There is also a SETTING worksheet that you can do but which I skip since I am not great with Geography and am not focusing on that for the moment. It outlines the location that the week’s reading is set in.

e) COMMENTARY (Fridays)

This gives an overview of the entire week’s lesson. You summarise what you have learnt about God, Man, satan and the main lesson gleaned from the study. Students are required to give a Scripture Verse that summarises the lesson learnt.

And that’s it for the Bible portion. It teaches you how to study the Bible and to think it through. If you do this diligently, week-after-week, you will definitely learn a lot about the Bible and God. For the parts that you are unsure about or are totally lost, you are then encouraged you to seek out commentaries that shed light on it. Better still if your child can do the research for himself.

Isn’t great? You, the teacher learn alongside your child and the result is that both are gleaning from God’s Word, which we know never returns to Him

“void, But it shall accomplish what He pleases” Is 55:11

Prayer Letters

This has been a much raved about part of SOW. It teaches one how to pray according to :

• P – petition
• R – repentance
• A – ask
• Y – yield
• S – supplication

However, I found that our children began to pray in a rote-like manner So I have stopped that and have just asked that they pray just before their bedtime. But others have had better success with it. So it all depends on your child/ren.

SOW also mentions doing both morning and evening devotions. If it makes you feel any better, we don’t. But I do a short devotional with the children after lunch before we end the day’s school. When SOW focuses on the Old Testament, we do our devotionals based on the books of the New Testament. Then we swop over.

Creative Writing

The topics SOW gives are very thought provoking. Examples include Compare the OT & NT Temple of God, to write a Biography of A Christian Martyr, to Explain How we should pray, etc…

Again, there are no answer keys to this portion as with the rest of SOW. There are questions for you to lead your child as he writes but no right or wrong answer. How detailed you want the child to write and research is up to you.

Literature

Although SOW gives a recommended reading list, you are free to use whatever books/poems you have on hand. This way, you don’t have to spend a bomb acquiring too many books. Under Literature, the child is taught how to do a Book Review, analyse a poem and/or biography.

Housekeeping details

You have to order Year 1 of SOW regardless of the age of your child. You should start with it because it lays the foundation for you and the child. Year 1 does not mean Grade 1

The Year 1 package (Teacher and Resource Editions) comes with a CD and a pre-printed set of worksheets. This allows you the option of printing out as many copies as you wish off your computer or to photocopy as many copies as you wish, whichever is more cost efficient for your family.

In order to keep things organised for me, I created a SOW Booklet for each child. This way, papers are no longer flying around or getting lost. Previously each child would hand me his/her piece of worksheet to grade and then it would invariably get lost instead of getting filed! Grrr….

Teaching the Younger Ones

Although the curriculum states that it can be used from Kindergarten level (6 years old), I strongly suggest that you wait till your child is older. Unless you are very sure of his maturity, reading and comprehension ability.

Otherwise, you’ll be doing a lot of summarising and many things will go over his head. That can be rather off-putting for mom (heavy burden on mom to keep simplifying and summarising) and child (too heavy going).

From Kindergarten to Grade 6, the child is allowed to draw rather than write in his worksheets. In the beginning that’s how we start off. As the child gets used to the format of the lessons, I start making them copy out what I write on the whiteboard.

After 6 months of doing this consistently, my 6 and 7 year olds are catching on and are even eager to share with me what they have learnt during the Commentary session. And once when I was not able to teach, my oldest child (10.5) was able to actually lead them in a lesson all by himself! I was most definitely pleasantly surprised.

Few words of caution

Do not expect to know how to use SOW immediately. It is unlike most curriculum out in the market. Do hang around the SOW Boards as well as the SOW Yahoo Group for a better feel of the curriculum.

And once you received your package, do not give up because it seems too confusing. Keep on reading and keep on asking questions. And do the 1st few lessons yourself. Once you do that, things will start falling into place.

If your child has been using another curriculum before, expect some resistance in the beginning. He will have to get used to a lot more thinking for his answers than he was used to!

As I have mentioned before under Homeschool Planning, I would not recommend using this solely to prepare your child for our Singapore school system unless he is not required to sit for the PSLE exams. You would need to supplement with local textbooks and assessment books to keep up-to-date with the local exam requirements.

I think that is about it. If you have any questions, feel free to post it here and I’ll try my best to answer the. Otherwise, you can check out the SOW Board or the SOW Yahoo Group. They have been really helpful for me.

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My personal musings can be found at Building An Ark in Singapore.

Getting Ready for Baby’s Arrival

Here we go again. As I pass the 36th week of this pregnancy, I am eagerly hoping that the baby won’t be late again! But I am also trying real hard not to hold my breath over it since the last 3 babies came 5 days, 3 days and 6 days past their EDD.

In order to distract myself, I have started to slowly prepare myself and the children for the baby’s arrival. Slowly because I am operating on a very low energy mode here

Starting this week, I will be doing the stuff I wrote about HERE and HERE.

But there are other things I need to do this time round as well.

Homeschooling

This year, we are homeschooling 3 out of the 6 children in the primary level (P1, P3 & P5). So I need to be very diligent in making sure everyone (me included!) finish what I have planned for our homeschoolin the next 3 weeks so that I won’t have a backlog of stuff staring at me after I birth.

We won’t be doing any formal school in March and April. But I am planning to do more read-alouds(History & Science specifically) with them. That is, if I am not dozing off in the middle of the day! I am not being ambitious here. If I can do just one hour of reading a day (probably split up into many instalments!) I would be happy.

Why am I doing this? I have learnt from past experience that too much free and play time gets everyone into trouble!

Home Management

I just started a final round of de-cluttering (very little left- whew!) of the entire house, room-by-room, 2 weeks ago. This serves 2 purposes – it removes all the eyesores (piles of papers on my table, stacks of toys all over the house, etc) and it will help the children when they do their chores.

Meanwhile, baby clothes, linens, cloth diapers, nursing clothes, mama pads, nursing pads all need to be pulled out of their storage vacuum bags to be washed and packed into their designated spots.

Confinement

I have also finalised my menu plan and my grocery list. It is just a simple 2 week menu plan that will be rotated from now until I feel bored or have more energy to think. For the immediate post partum period where we’ll be too busy to think about grocery shopping, I have already frozen food for Week 1 and will be freezing Week 2’s meal this week.

I am not freezing cooked food as I think most cooked Chinese food don’t freeze well. Instead I have just frozen the portion required for each meal and packed them into freezer boxes with their marinades. I will then pull the relevant boxes out to thaw and cook on the actual day itself. And since I do not follow any traditional confinement food taboos, this makes life easier on me

Pregnancy

As I approach the tail end of the pregnancy, these are the things I have done to prepare for labour and delivery.

Drinking my Pregnancy Tea

SinceI hit the 3rd trimester, I have been diligently drinking my Red Raspberry and Nettle tea.

Taking my vitamin supplements

I have also increased my intake of Vitamin C and started taking garlic and acidophilus to boost my immune system and to prevent an onset of Group B Strep especially since I am not going to be tested.

Taking it slow

Yes, despite all the things I need and want to get done before baby’s grand entrance, I am forcing myself to take it slow. Kinda contradictory huh?

What I have done is to spread out all the stuff that need to be done slowly over the course of the next 3 to 4 weeks. The important things that must be accomplished before the baby arrives have been scheduled for the next 2 weeks. The rest can be left undone if the baby should decide to come earlier.

Birth Plan

I have also submitted my birth plan* to my doctor so that we are in agreement about how I want the labour and delivery to go.

 

I generally have an extra burst of energy towards the end of each pregnancy (like now ) that allows me to finish up tying all the loose ends but surprisingly, this time round, my energy level is really low and I have to literally force myself to get these basic things done

I hope this post gives other moms-to-be some ideas on how they would like to prepare themselves for the labour and delivery. And if you feel like scrubbing the walls or ironing everything in sight, good for you!

* I’ll be posting my Birth Plan in the next few days. Keep a lookout for it!

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For my personal musings, visit Building An Ark in Singapore

Homeschool Planning

Just in case you didn’t know, we school all year round and we usually start our school in August and finish in July. I decided to follow this format in view of the fact that we are often blessed with a pregnancy and baby every one-and-a-half years So if we follow the normal Singapore system, I’d be very stressed to finish all that is required.

Once the school year has ended in July, I’d take 2 to 3 weeks off to plan for the next school year. This plan is obviously not set in stone. I would review it in December and tweak the necessary kinks.

So here we are in December and since I was on the roll from the last post about planners I thought I should share how I plan our homeschool.

A word about curriculum used and subjects covered in our homeschool :

From aged 6 onwards all children will use Student of the Word for our Bible study and English. Then, once they reach primary school level (aged 7 and above), we follow the Ministry of Education’s syllabus for Maths, Science and Chinese.

Why?

Simple answer – in order to homescchool and be exempted from the Compulsory Education Law, we need to send our children to sit for the PSLE exams when they reach 12 years old.

I personally feel that in order to prepare them adequately, I need them to know the local syllabus well before venturing out to learn the “extras”. Besides, in this season of my life, I do not have the luxury of time to let them learn another syllabus and then cramp the local requirements on the child in the last 2 years before PSLE.

Full Year Planning

I do a full year of planning for the kindergarten and primary school levels only. And I have found that the best place to get all the required MOE textbooks and assessment books is from Popular Bookstore. I must say that the main branch at Bras Basah has the best and most comprehensive books. The rest tend to carry dribs and drabs of certain publishers books only. Makes for very frustrated shopping since I can’t finish it in one session.

And in order to save even more time (and temptation!) I’d usually have my own booklist in hand first and then go shopping. After many years of trial and error and from talking to more experienced mothers, I usually zoom in on a few quality publishers.

After I have all the books in hand, I would then divide up the lessons into the number of weeks we are schooling for that particular year. We school for 4 weeks and take 1 week off throughout the year. We also take 2 weeks off for Christmas and Chinese New Year. Public Holidays and birthdays are also no-school days.

An easy example is this - if there are 100 lessons in Science to be covered in 50 weeks, then I need to cover 2 Science lessons per week. But if there are 200 lessons of Maths to be covered in 50 weeks, then I need to cover 4 lessons of Maths per week.

I do this for each subject for each child. I key all these into Donna Young’s typeable calendar. Looks much neater than when I used to write it out!

This full year planner is only for my eyes. The children have no idea what they are going to cover at this point in time.

Weekly Lesson Planner

Once the full year planning for each child is completed, I will transfer it week-by-week into each child’s personal planner file. I would transfer 4 weeks’ worth of lesson plans each time. Then I would transfer another 4 weeks’ worth during our one week break.

I used to do up 6 months’ worth of lesson plan each time. Not only would it stress me, it also didn’t allow me to make any modifications if the child should skip school due to illness or some other unforseen occurence. This way afforded me much more flexibility.

I also combine all the children’s weekly lessons into my own DIY Planner. This way, I know what they are supposed to do without me taking out my master planner file OR ask them what they are supposed to do. Also it keeps me accountable. I will make notations on my DIY Planner to indicate if I have graded their work and/or if they have done their required corrections. Being accountable is very important to me coz I tend to slack off as the days go by

Each child then has his/her own planner pages to tick off when they have completed their assignments. This teaches them to take responsibility for their own work and lifts some burden off me. However, I need to be very diligent in checking that they really did do what they ticked off!

Half-yearly Review

Come December I would re-look over the full year planner and see if we are on target and check to see what needs to be tweaked or thrashed. Some assessment books look good but may not agree with the child’s capabilities. Then it means I’ve got to spend more time at Popular Bookstore or surf the net for more appropriate books.

And that’s how we plan our homeschool for the kindergarten and primary level children. For the nursery level (3 & 4 yr olds), I am even more relaxed I don’t do full year planning at all. I just gather a few books that I like while browsing around at the bookshops or online and then we do a few pages a day.

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For my personal musings, visit Building An Ark in Singapore.

My DIY Planner

As the year draws to a close, it was time for me to set up another Planner for the New Year.

I have tried many types of planners (Yearbook for the HomeKeeper, A Record of the Learning Lifestyle, Make Your Own Brain In A Binder, The Schoolhouse Planner, etc…) and they are really good (from simple and basic to more detailed). BUT they never seem to suit my needs fully. So I gave up and started to design my own.

First I had to decide what exactly I needed and will use. And after going through all those planners, I certainly knew what I needed, what I liked but never used and what was totally not useful to me. Then I got onto Microsoft Word and started designing.

It’s really easy – and fun might I add. Use the free clip art function to design your very own covers and sectional headers. Or print off pictures from your own photo album to personalise it even more!  Use coloured paper to make it fancier.

I then laminate the front and back covers (makes it waterproof and smudgeproof!) and bind it all together. Voila! A Planner that no one else has! We own both a laminator and binding machine (basic models bought when Popular bookstore had its storewide 20% sale). But if you don’t own either, you can always visit photocopying shops that’ll do it for you for a small fee.

This is how my Planner is organised. But bear in mind I have only 6 sections or headers versus the multitudes the pre-printed planners usually have : 

• Monthly Calendars
• Homeschooling
• Homemaking
• Personal
• Blog Stuff and
• Health Records

Monthly Calendars :

There are loads that can be printed and downloaded from the net free. I downloaded and customised mine from Free Monthly Calendar or Planner Printable Online. The function of this section was for me to record important events for the year. This is different from the wall calendar that records our usual appointments.

Homeschooling :
a) Lesson Planners : This is where I have my weekly lesson plans printed and filed so I have a record of what they have done and if I have been faithfully grading their work! Their yearly plans are in a Homeschool File of its own.

b) Homeschool Info : Websites, books, curriculum and other interesting nuggets pertaining to homeschooling are recorded here.

Homemaking :

Menu Plans and Chore Lists are in this section.

Personal :

Actually this is like a miscellanous section. Lol! Things like my goals, books read, wishlist can be found here. And for 2009, my Birth Plan* and Things-To-Do-List-Before-Baby-Gets-here list also goes in here too!

Blog Stuff :

This would be where I write down the topics that I would like to cover in my personal blog as well as here on Building Up Moms.

Health Records :

Ah! I am most remiss in this section tho’ I really try hard to keep on top of it! I started this to remember the bouts of illnesses (serious ones) that the children get hit by. Like the recent rotavirus infection the toddler got.

This is also where I am supposed to record major health expenses – eye treatment, orthodontist, chiropractor, etc…But I have yet to be consistent So the records are obviously not up-to-date.

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And that’s it. No need to have unused and wasted pages that other families need but we don’t. No need to figure out how to modify pre-printed pages to suit our requirements either.

Just in case you think I am brilliant I test drove the Planner for 6 months before settling on this current format. I tried various combinations : colours/fonts/forms/covers/etc…till I am finally happy with it now.

I strongly recommend having a Planner to get organised. But if you don’t have the energy nor interest in creating a Planner of your own, try checking out the Planners I mentioned or google for more options. 

And if you are looking for a Chore Planner (which would go under the Homemaking section) to help you keep on top of the number of stuff you need to do (don’t we all?), you may want to look at Motivated Moms Planner with Scheduled Bible Reading thrown in! Click here to view more details.

Have A Blessed New Year!

* I’ll post my Birth Plan in a few weeks’ time for those who might be interested.

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For my personal musings, visit Building An Ark in Singapore.

Homeschooling Helps from TOS

 There are two things going on at The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. First of all, you may be interested in their new eBook, What About Socialization? Dispelling the Myths.

Veteran homeschoolers and a homeschool graduate share their experience and responses to the tough questions, including:

• What is socialization anyway?
• Is our home a viable answer?
• How do I shelter and protect while providing opportunities?
• How do I find good opportunities for my children to interact with others?
• How do I evaluate whether they are receiving enough or too much socialization?
• What are some ideas that will help me provide opportunities for my children?

 AND

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is having an amazing sale on subscriptions during their annual Black Friday Sale November 26 – 30. For those 5 days only, they are drastically reducing their one-year subscription price to $7.95! That’s the price you would usually pay for just one issue at a bookstore!

This is their lowest price ever on the magazine and they want all of you to take advantage of this offer and share the info with your friends.

Please don’t miss out. Your one-year subscription will pay for itself time and time again as you receive practical tips and Biblical encouragement to keep going strong in your commitment to homeschooling and to the Lord. Since it’s a quarterly magazine, they even have a monthly subscriber’s only E-Newsletter called Teacher’s Toolbox that will give you seasonal teaching ideas and a free E-Book download! It’s like joining a unit study of the month club! The free E-Books alone are valued at almost $250/year. It’s really perfect for people who are homeschooling on a shoestring or just wanting to add in some little extras to your teaching.

Plus during the Black Friday Sale, they have all kind of bonus gifts when you spend $50, $75, $100, or $150. Some are electronic downloads that you can download immediately, while other are physical products mailed from various vendors directly to your home.

AND, their Win Big contest is going on so if you just happen to be customer 67,000, you will receive a prize package valued at almost $500 which includes a $150 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store! Who couldn’t use that? And you can qualify to win it no matter how much or how little you spend!

Mark your calendars for November 26 – 30th and do a little shopping from your seat, not your feet at the Schoolhouse Store’s Black Friday Sale!

www.TheOldSchoolhouseStore.com

*** Do note that the promotion is valid for US customers only. International customers can still save by subscribing to the digital version of the magazine. Singaporean customers, if you prefer a magazine to hold in your hand you may wish to check out the charges of companies like vPost or comGateway to enjoy the promotional price.

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For my personal musings, visit Building An Ark in Singapore.

Myth #10 : Homeschooling goes on perfectly everyday

Ahhh! Another one of those assumptions that has me laughing hysterically.

On some days I’d be glad to get ANY teaching done! And on the other days? I wish they would all go to school! Yes, even the baby!

Someone told me that she had never ever entertained thoughts of sending her children off to school. Ah!! Wouldn’t that be nice to be able to say that? But I can’t. I wouldn’t be honest if I did.

There have been many, many, many times I have entertained that thought, only to be held back by the reminder of what God has called us to do.

Does it mean we’ll never banish send them off to school? Well, never say never! Who knows what the future brings. I don’t know where and how far this homeschooling journey will take us. Do we send them off in secondary school? Junior College? University? I don’t know. All I know is that until God speaks, we’ll keep on homeschooling.

In case anyone thinks homeschooling is just a total pain in the you-know-where, I must say upfront, it is not. But, like everything else in life, there are the highs and the lows. Some days are just great and it is just so rewarding to watch your children catch a concept, solve complicated problems and learn to read, among the many things they are learning at home. I wouldn’t exchange it for anything! But on those other days, it is a miracle no one gets murdered!

Teaching one’s own children is always a challenge but I can’t deny the fact that it is a wonderful exercise God uses to mould us and them IF we would let Him.

In my case, it is my perfectionist tendencies that often results in clashes with the children. And daily, I wrestle with myself on this. I have certain expectations of the children and unfortunately, some of them are just not realistic. So I have learnt that in order for homeschooling to work the way God wants it to work, I have to lower my unrealistic expectations, chill out and listen to God.

Whenever that happens, homeschooling is pleasant. Everyone is happy. And everyone learns! But the moment I start putting the pressure on – either on them or on myself – I can feel the dynamics changing and tension rising in the home.

With the addition of baby #6 into the family last year, I have had to pare down our homeschooling to the very basics. There are many things I would like to do with them but can’t due to the circumstances. And so I don’t do them.

Do I feel guilty? Yes. But I take it and leave it at the cross. I tell God – “You have led us to walk this path. You have to make it work. All the gaps that are there, Lord, You have to fill it up.” And it has become less stressful. And now with baby #7 coming next year, our school will be even more relaxed!

Bearing in mind that our oldest child will be taking the PSLE the year after and I have many eyes watching, I get somewhat tensed and worried, as theoretically (like all other parents in Singapore), I should be preparing him for it next year but can’t. Again, I can only go back to the Lord and lean on Him.

Is it easy? Nope. Relinquishing control is always not easy, especially for me. But as dh likes to remind me – when we obey God’s call, we have to walk God’s way. And I remember the words of Jahaziel as King Jehoshaphat was preparing to do battle with Judah’s enemies:

“You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you…” 2 Chronicles 20:17

I should not need to worry. I just need to position myself and God will do everything for me. So even as homeschooling at our home is not perfect, I know that I, and my children, are being perfected day by day into His likeness as we choose to walk His way.

May this encourage you as you homeschool.

Check out the rest of the other myths HERE.

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For my personal musings, come and visit Building An Ark in Singapore.

And if you are looking for more homeschool encouragement, may I recommend the digital version of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine? Click on the banner below for more details.

 

Myth #9 : Our homeschooled children are geniuses

After teaching 5 children, 4 of whom can read independently now and mostly above their level, I have come to the conclusion that children learn whether you teach them or not. One way we have helped them to learn is make available to them various resources for them to explore and find an interest in.

I have also learnt that some children are easier to teach than others and some children learn faster than others. There isn’t really much I can do to hasten it. Just like one can’t force a child to a child talk and walk before he is ready. But what homeschooling does is that it gives the children lots of time at home – to be bored! Well, in our family at least So what this means is that they figure many things out on their own ands also, read more books on their own.

Why?

Coz they are bored! You have heard that necessity is the mother of invention, right? Well, so is boredom! That is why it is critical to provide quality books of various topics, both fiction and non-fiction, around the house. It is also important that these books are easily taken out and read. Yes, it means that our books are in less than pristine condition but books are meant to be read, right? I just need to be more diligent in teaching them to care for their books better.

Homeschooling also allows the child to progress at the rate that challenges them. For example, if they are quick in maths, I can choose to skip a grade and offer more challenging types of problem sums. Similarly, if they are having problems with reading and comprehension, then I slow down. So they may not be placed in the same grade for all subjects the way they are forced to in a public school.

And sometimes, this freedom from following a set syllabus rigidly gives the child more self-confidence as he is always learning at his own pace, not a pace set up by some “experts”.

But I do bear in mind that in Singapore, I need to prepare them for PSLE* and so I do. And for that, they need to be ready by 12, not 8 or 9. They may not be able to get P3 work at P3 but they may suddenly take off and have a growth spurt (in their brains!) the next year. And if they don’t, we’ll just keep on keeping on.

So no, our children are definitely not geniuses. And even if they were, I would not like to to label them so. For what purpose does it serve except to feed their ego.

 

Check out the rest of the other myths HERE.

*PSLE – Primary School Leaving Examinations is taken by all children nationwide between the ages of 12 to 15.

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For my personal musings, visit Building An Ark in Singapore.

The Homeschooling Father

Many times it is us, moms, who are doing the main bulk of homeschooling but without the full and complete support of dad, homeschooling is going to fall flat on its face eventually.

I remember the day when the Lord spoke to me concerning this issue when I was debating whether to homeschool or not. Through an email newsletter, God told me in no uncertain terms that without the full endorsement of the head of the house, one shouldn’t proceed to homeschool.

Fathers are so important in this journey of homeschooling. Do not leave your dh out as you make your curriculum choices and do update him on the progress (or non-progress!) of homeschooling.

This month, in honour of homeschooling fathers, Heart of the Matter features an article on The Homeschooling Father by Michael Farris. Check it out. And may you be blessed as you continue to teach your children.

By Michael Farris
Founder and Chairman, Home School Legal Defense Association

Parents do not need professional training to become excellent homeschool instructors. But they do need divine empowerment if they are going to have the stick-to-it-iveness necessary to keep to the task as their children progress from toddler to adult. Every homeschooling father needs to begin to examine his duty to his wife and children by considering their need for spiritual empowerment. They are going to be mocked by friends, neighbors and relatives. They may be prosecuted by authorities. They are going to face spiritual warfare. They are going to have to do a lot of plain old hard work.

 

To continue the article, please visit Heart of the Matter Online….

 

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Do check out my Blog, Building An Ark in Singapore at www.HomeschoolBlogger.com/MamaLim