Homeschooling

Yesterday, I listened to a radio interview of two homeschooling parents who are among the pioneers of homeschooling in Malaysia. They started homeschooling their two sons 15 years ago and both boys are now in college/university. They provided clarification on basic questions about homeschooling and shared their experience and knowledge. Here is the podcast if you'd like to have a lsiten.

I'm also awed by this story. How does one have so many children and successfully raise and homeschool all of them? And study for an engineering degree too?! I guess if you love your family, you will find a way. Both husband and wife need to work together to make it work. And it would help if family and friends are supportive of your decision to homeschool without making uninformed judgments and comments. One of my fears if we decide to homeschool C is that I may lack the courage to face negative comments by certain parties who do not understand this system of education.

The homeschooling concept is more common in the US so it's accepted more easily. Although it is growing in Malaysia, Asian parents and grandparents are not convinced and could even be mortified that the children are not getting a 'proper' education if homeschooled. They have no confidence that the parents have enough knowledge or skills to teach, believing that qualified teachers at schools can do a better job with a structured curriculum. Many also think that being homeschooled means you lack socialisation and are not in touch with the real world.

If you click on the link, there's the tv news clip about it that helps you see how things work for this family of seven children. I've also copied and pasted the text here.

AURORA - When you're in a family with seven kids, you need to be quick at the dinner table. You need to be patient with your siblings. But, you don't always need more than one letter for everyone's name.

"Jayde, Jeven, Jhia, Jarec, Jake, Jenna, and Jordan," said Janelle Henderson, mother of seven. "And, my siblings and I are all Js. So, everyone in my entire family starts with J."

Everyone, except dad.

"My name is Wayde Henderson, Junior. I have a "J" in my name," Wayde Henderson said.

The Henderson family likes to do things a little differently than most. Not only does Janelle Henderson have to keep up with the whereabouts of all seven kids, she homeschooled all of them.

"I've been homeschooling for 21 years now," Janelle said. "There was a time where I worked all night and came home and homeschooled my kids in the day."
Janelle tries to play the role of mom and teacher while drilling her kids on math equations and spelling tests. She says the homeschooling happened by accident. While shopping at a school supply store, she heard the store owner talking about it, which piqued her interest.

That's when she decided, homeschooling could work for her family.

"I just took it very seriously that I really have to make sure they're getting everything they need to know," Janelle said.

So far, it appears to be working. All of the older kids have gone on to college at the age of 16.

"What people say is impossible really isn't," Janelle said.

Jarec and Jake currently take classes at the Community College of Aurora.

"I've been excited for college since I was probably three or four," Jarec, 18 said.
The three oldest siblings went on to 4-year colleges to get bachelor's degrees and more.

"I don't think there was ever a time where I didn't know I was going to college," Jhia, the third oldest of the seven, said. "Growing up in this house, it was always expected that you were going to finish school and go to college."

Janelle believes strongly in sending her kids to community college first. She says not only is it saving her "hundreds of thousands of dollars," allowing her to kids to have a full education, she says it's a natural transition from homeschooling.

"I just think that community college gives you the opportunity to graduate into adult life," Janelle said. "Without community college, it would've been a different path."

All of her children have high expectations. They are seeking careers such architecture or engineering after receiving their college degrees.

"I want them to have a story to tell," Janelle said.
When you're in a family with seven kids who are involved in sports and other extra-curricular activities, mom says, you better have an organized schedule.

"While we're doing this, Jhia's at school. Jeven's at school. Jayde's at work," Janelle said. "I actually have on the computer, like a detailed a schedule of where everybody is."

Jake says he is still amazed that it can all work.

"To me, it seems stressful for my parents," Jake said.

So, each kid helps with a different chore everyday to help. They prepare half the meals. They take each other to and from basketball practice. All this while dad works three jobs including counseling folks at the Denver Rescue Mission.

"That's my way of supporting the family by doing whatever is needed and what it takes," Wayde said.

And, even though the family does not have a lot of money, Janelle says her kids belong in school instead of working to help the finances.
"I don't think it's my kids' job to support the family," Janelle said. "I think if we decided to have seven kids, it's our job to support the family."

In the meantime, Janelle also works on getting her master's degree in mechanical engineering from Metro State University of Denver.

"You only live once. I don't want to be like 60 saying, I never did anything," Janelle said.

When you're in a family with seven kids, you expect the house to be loud. That is not the case at the Hendersons.

"It's actually not very loud at our house at all," Jake said. "We were raised not to be loud and obnoxious."
Janelle says if all seven kids were boisterous, it would feel like the house would explode.

"I'm not going to have a crazy household," Janelle said. "I am simply not going to have it."

The kids say mom rules the roost with a system of tough love and laughter.

"It's like you will do what you have to do," Jarec said.

Interesting videos

 

 

 

 

Scrambled thoughts on education options

Since the change in C's classroom environment and her school's transition to becoming an international school, I've been pondering a little more about the future of her education and the options available.

I would like to believe that the definition of being 'highly educated' does not necessarily have to be limited to having gone through years of 'schooling' and having succeeded in getting a piece of paper from a well-known institution of higher learning. And the definition of being 'successful' in life is not equal to having a high-salaried job or business, status, and tons of material wealth, although these could be part of the equation in this materialistic world.

Having said this, I am not against higher education or 'success' as we need to be practical and realistic that there is a need for a reasonable level of education and material wealth in order to live relatively comfortably and be of value to society. I simply want to view education as something beyond mass schooling for a certain number of years simply for the purpose of getting ahead in this competitive world. What's all the knowledge, money and fame if you don't have good morals, values, meaningful relationships, love, joy and peace, for example? You can be educated in nuclear science or art history in university but it's the School of Life that completes you as an upright, compassionate, decent human being...

I'm not sure if I'm making any sense with all these disjointed thoughts. I'm not very good at expressing my thoughts about this currently as they encompass various issues and everything seems like a big ball of entangled wool! And my vocabulary and writing skills are not superb enough to present a clear, concise and organised post of such 'deep' matters in a blog... Anyway, this is my place to put my thoughts, regardless of whether anyone reads or understands what I'm saying.

C is currently in Year 5. Next year, she will be sitting for the UPSR examination, a public exam that all schoolchildren studying the Malaysian syllabus, be it in government (sekolah kebangsaan), Chinese or Tamil  (sekolah jenis kebangsaan) schools, are required to take, before proceeding to Form 1 (secondary school). Once C completes UPSR, if she remains in her current school, she will be studying the IGCSE syllabus. If she were to leave this current school, we will have several options: public school (sekolah kebangsaan/local syllabus), private school that offers local syllabus, private/international school that offers international syllabus, homeschooling (ideally at home, or at a 'homeschool' centre).

Back in the day during my time in the 20th century, we either went to kebangsaan schools, mission schools, Chinese or Tamil schools to study the Malaysian syllabus from primary to secondary. Any 'international' education we got would have to be at tertiary level if our family could afford to send us overseas or if we were good enough to get a loan or scholarship. There were hardly any private schools and international schools were only reserved for foreigners/expatriate children. There were only a handful of private pre-university colleges to help you prepare for entry to universities overseas, as well as only six local universities when it was my time to pursue tertiary education.

Things have changed now in the 21st century. Education is big business. From enrichment classes of all kinds for babies and toddlers to all sorts of pre-school teaching and learning methods, private and international schools and colleges, twinning programmes, online courses, short-term courses, professional courses, vocational schools, local campuses of prestigious foreign schools and universities with boarding facilites....the list goes on. We are spoiled for choice, especially if we have the means to afford these for our children. And even if we don't have the means, we will find ways to provide the best for our kids.

In our parents' generation, as long as we, their children, went to school and finished at least our secondary school education and found a reasonably good job thereafter, they felt they have fulfilled their responsibility. Sending us for what is now termed as enrichment classes such as piano, violin or ballet (the popular activities during my time) was something only the middle class would think of doing. Now, every parent would map out their child's education journey the moment he starts reciting the alphabet. Every kid, rich or poor, is now attending some extra lesson outside of school. Even the schools are offering such lessons for a fee in the name of providing extra-curricular activities. Now you can get taekwondo, voice, art, gymnastics, fencing, piano or even ukelele lessons at school as long as you sign up and pay. During my time, extra-curricular encompassed only athletics practice, badminton, netball, hockey, clubs such as Girl Guides, drama and theater, language and religious societies, etc. No extra charge.

Sigh, life and decisions for children's education seemed much simpler then. Now with so many choices, it's a challenge to decide what you think is best for your child taking into consideration her interests, aptitude, how you view education and life, and what you can afford in terms of time, money and other resources.....

Public? Private? Local? International? Homeschool? Unschool?

It would also be less of a challenge if  this country's education system is not a political circus and of desirable quality... This is one of the main reasons why many parents try to look for better alternatives.

Today's post-CNY thoughts

And so.... another event i.e. the Chinese New Year can be ticked off the 2013 calendar as yesterday was Chap Goh Mei, the 15th and last day of the festival. Also, February is a shorter month and in a few days' time, we'll be greeting March. Oh how time just passes us by so quickly, and I feel like I'm getting left behind like a rickety old lady hobbling on a cane trying to catch the last bus!

Wasn't it just yesterday I was talking about making new year resolutions? And how far have I moved on those resolutions? Sigh, I still have them scrawled on a scrap of paper which is lying around somewhere in the kitchen and that's as far as the resolutions have gone, from dining table to kitchen counter! Apart from this, life for me has just been one whole big ordinary routine of household chores, driving around for chores and child minding. My kitchen 'experiments' are ongoing while I also try to catch up on reading more books to keep the grey matter active.

As for E, being the sole breadwinner, life is still centred a lot around work and home, helping me do the dishes, vacuum the house once a week, and cutting the grass in the garden when it has become a total eyesore!

For C, her school experience has changed this year. This year, the school has obtained a licence to run an international syllabus, causing the majority of parents to jump on the overseas education bandwagon. We chose to remain with the local syllabus as the school still has to fulfil its commitment to see those of us in the KBSR syllabus through. School fees will also double if we go the international route and that's something we need time to work on. Well, there are also other options to education besides the mass education system that I keep an open mind to...

With most of her classmates having moved to the international syllabus, C's class now has only eight kids. The advantage of such a small class is that the teachers can give close attention to their learning and distraction from chatty and overactive classmates is minimal. C, however, finds it less fun as her social interaction is now reduced to just a few kids. Even though she gets to see her ex-classmates during recess and lunch time, I guess the friendship dynamics have changed since they no longer learn the same subjects or share the same classroom experience. They have formed different cliques and so has C. Meanwhile, C also has a challenge (which has brought her some tears of anger and frustration) dealing with a particular classmate who sits next to her, whom she says likes to 'bug' her and trail her. I guess that classmate is looking for a new 'best friend' while C doesn't want to reciprocate ....

Today, C and all the upper primary kids in her school are going through what they term as 'standards testing' in preparation for their coming Sports Day. I will know later this afternoon if she had qualified to represent Green House in the 4X100m race. As for soccer, the school has yet to start any practice since they are busy preparing for Sports Day.

C says she wants to continue with soccer too and we support that. Whether she learns anything at practice or not, whether she is good at it or not, I'm not too concerned. I see it as a form of physical exercise for her and there are other learning points outside of soccer per se that could be reaped from this 'soccer experience'. After all, we can't expect a child to excel in every activity they pursue. We also don't want to push her into too many activities like some other parents do. I always hold on to the fact that every child is unique. Some kids are academically inclined, some are not. Some can adapt to a packed schedule of extra-curricular activities, some can't. As long as they are learning at their own pace, we needn't get too caught up with padding their resumes with a long list of achievements starting from age five, or for some parents, even younger....

Gong Xi Fa Cai, Xin Nian Kwai Le

ACE wishes one and all a Happy Chinese New Year!!

School was out for an entire week. ACE stuck to the 'standard practice' which most Chinese families also practice during this festival i.e. return to the husband's side of the family for the new year eve reunion dinner as well as celebrate the first day together. Then on the second day, we would return to the wife's side i.e. my side of the family to celebrate the festival. We returned home to KL on the third day as we had to attend a few other gatherings among friends, colleagues and extended family. C even had a birthday party to attend on Valentine's Day.

Thankfully for us, both sides of the family are within 45 minutes' drive away so we didn't have to suffer too much of the 'balik kampung' exodus traffic snarl on the highways. During such times, a normal two-hour drive could stretch up to four or five hours or more. So for some families with 'kampungs' too far away, they might have different arrangements such as visiting either side of the family on alternate years. Travel plans have to be made way ahead, especially if bus, train or airplane tickets need to be purchased and hotels need to be booked.

Like any other celebration, we ate lots of special festive fare and delicacies, many of which carry symbolic meaning. If you're  watching your weight or diet, it's hard to resist all the goodies. The 'spare tyre' that I have is now over-inflated and my slightly-elevated cholesterol level has probably become 'inceasingly' elevated!

Today we suffered the Monday blues as we're back to work and school. After one week of waking up later than our usual 6.00am, I've been plodding through the day in a rather lost and dazed manner, testimony to the idea that too much of a good thing, in this case the holiday and abundant rich food, is simply not good....

Even writing this post is requiring more effort than usual. It feels like my brains are not 'moving'....I guess this is all for now before this post sounds more monotonous than it already is...