A successful case of home schooling

A successful case of home schooling     15/9/2013             

        One of my sisters / S3 and her husband have 3 children and the 3 children have their lessons at home.  When they were in Malaysia, the children were not sent to school at all.   S3 was a full-time homemaker.

When their eldest daughter was about  ten years old, second daughter 7 years plus and the youngest  was about 5, they migrated to Australia.   When they were in Australia, they went to school for a few weeks and decided to withdraw. 

They all thought home schooling was so much better in terms of time and choices.   They did not like the idea of dividing the time to do so many things in bits in a day.  For example, the children did not like studying so many subjects in a day in so many time slots. 

 Home schooling in Malaysia , they only studied  English,  Mathematics and Science.  They used the Singapore syllabus for these subjects.   They watched documentaries for knowledge of geography, history and the like as well as  a lot of selected movies together.   They read widely for knowledge and pleasure.   They borrowed books from the library.

After that the children were encouraged to  discuss / talk about what they thought of the film.    Besides time for studying, the children also had time for playing and having fun as well as mixing around with the neighbourly children.   They were also trained to do homework and cooking.   The older 2 only went out for music lessons.   They all played a musical instrument.

Home schooling is well-supported by the Australian government.   They study the lessons at home at their own pace and of course follow the timetable of examinations.  Yes, the Education Department has also assigned tutors to coach them through telecommunication.   So they have to go for examinations fixed by the Education Department.   The eldest daughter has finished Year Twelve lessons at 17.

  
Now the eldest daughter is studying the Psychology course full-time in a national university nearby their house in Geelong, about 100 km from Melbourne.    My sister, S3, is  taking the distant learning of the Psychology course.  She will most probably complete the course next year, 2014.    They also go for community service as required by their course.

        
The second and the youngest one are still having their lessons at home.   The youngest one is a 13-14 teenage boy now.   He has the skills of making cakes and biscuits like a professional baker.   Besides studying, games,  reading, he has plenty of time for other activities like playing the musical instruments, go visiting and baking.   This year he took a 3-hour train alone to his home-schooling friend’s town and then they came to fetch him.  He spent a few days there.   What an exciting experience for a teenager!

        
They have gained so much in home schooling as the 3 children are well-disciplined and have other living skills which many school-going children lack nowadays.    They have saved a lot of time for travelling and being herded to do this and that for other more challenging activities.   They also learn the second language, French, Spanish or Germany from private tuition.  
           
They have plenty of time for extensive reading.  They borrow books from the library.  Each time, they can borrow so many books as 3 for each and there are always so many books available for them to choose.  Children in Malaysia or everywhere in Asia go mad-rat race to excel in examinations designed for the strong ones and thus 80% - 90% ended up disappointed and frustrated.  

         
Home schooling is not an easy task.  It requires a lot of discipline, commitment, endurance and skills to make it successful.   You got to withstand all kinds of negative opinions /odds in the beginning.    Ya, it took S3 and her husband a lot of courage and risk as well being one of  the pioneers/ for going against the conventional practice of 
public/institutional schooling at first.    She has been as convinced as her belief in the benefits of breast-feeding.   She breast-fed all her 3 children for 2 - 3 years long before modern mothers’awareness.   

Will home school become the trend one day?