On Saturday, 2 May 2015, our oldest child took the first ever SAT of the family. We have no idea what to expect. Just like we had no idea what to expect when he took his Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) in 2010. In fact, we had no idea what to expect when I was pregnant and then went into labour and delivery with him some 17 and a half years ago.
The first born child is always the guinea pig
The first born. The one who receives a double portion of the patriarch’s blessings in the Bible. The guinea pig 😀
With him, I learnt how to birth, breastfeed, wean, sleep train and potty train. With him I learnt how it is almost always better to just wait than to rush things through. Potty training is definitely one area where I believe in waiting!
Our homeschooling guinea pig
And so in homeschooling, he was and still is our guinea pig! When we answered God’s instruction to formally homeschool our children 11 years ago in 2004, we had no idea what the journey would look like. We had no grand plans except to homeschool until God said to stop. It was hard adjusting with 4 small children in the house, 6 and under, and heavily pregnant with our 5th.
Related Post : Why do we homeschool?
So after much research, we started David with the Bob Jones University Press (BJUP) curriculum, but realised 2 years into it that it was not a practical choice for our family.
Switching curriculum
Since one of the pre-requisites for homeschooling set by our Ministry of Education (MOE) is that the homeschooled child needs to sit for the nationwide PSLE the year he turns 12, I had an epiphany of sorts at that point in time. Lol! Obviously he would not be able to clear PSLE on BJU’s curriculum since its scope and sequence was not aligned to MOE’s. This meant that somewhere along the way, I would have to switch him to the local curriculum to at least clear the higher than normal benchmark set for homeschoolers even if we continued to homeschool him through secondary school! Eeks! And, as we were trusting God with our family size and spacing, I would probably have to do that switch and make sure he is on par with the local stuff while pregnant and/or nursing a baby!
STOP!!!
That did not make sense for us. It would just increase my stress levels. So we stopped BJUP for David and switched him to the local curriculum with Student of the Word (SOW) as our bible curriculum.
Guinea pig with PSLE
Then came PSLE to which we had no idea what was expected and how he would fare. Many people were watching to see the results of our homeschooling “experiment”.By the grace of God, he did well and cleared the benchmark. And for that, the first born guinea pig was in the limelight!
Related post : In the papers again!
I was so relieved that he cleared PSLE, that I mixed-and-matched different curricula to do a very free and easy year the following year, which I totally regretted because it was basically a waste of a whole year for us. By the time I woke up and realised this, I had to quickly switch him to Abeka DVD curriculum in order that he could rush through and complete Grades 9 to 12 before his NS Enlistment! The poor boy went from free and easy year to a sit down and face the computer for a few hours daily in order to make the deadline.
Guinea pig with Abeka
Abeka provides an accredited High School Diploma programme. This means he gets awarded an American High School Diploma at the end of Grade 12, if he has completed all that is required. He can then use that diploma with SAT to apply for our local universities and polytechnics. So he does not need O or A Levels. And that is why he was sitting for the SAT on Saturday.
What happens next?
Will he be accepted? Only the Lord knows, isn’t it? Will a child with A Levels get into university or polytechnic? There is no guarantee. It is just a more accepted, normal way of entry into these institutions.What if he does not get accepted into any institution? Ah! The “What if…?” questions. Are we shortchanging him by not letting him follow the crowd? Whenever I break out in cold sweat asking myself the same questions, I ask myself a more pertinent question, “Does God shortchange anyone who obeys Him?”
NO. God does not.
God’s plans must be done God’s way
BUT God’s plans are not our plans. And many times, He turns what is foolish into victories for His people. Remember how Jericho was conquered? Who on earth sets out to conquer a highly fortified city by walking around it and then blowing on trumpets? Until today, it is NOT on any military strategist’s rule book 😛
I don’t know what will happen, but I know God knows. Universities may not even be in God’s plans for him or any of the children. At this point in time, He has not spoken for or against it. But I know that even if we make mistakes along the way, He will still make a beautiful picture out of it. Because that’s the kind of God we serve. It is scary, it is nerve-wrecking but I remember Proverbs 3:5-6
Image from Etsy shop, FaithandPaper.
Maybe this is why the first born gets double portion of the blessings. He needs it as compensation for being the guinea pig of the family! Lol! And in case you are wondering, both Henson and I are first borns too 😉