After fielding many similar Homeschool FAQs from people curious about homeschooling I decided to compile a common list of them and answer them here. For more on Homeschooling, go to the SEARCH Box on the right column and type in Homeschool. A list of homeschool posts should come out. If not, please let me know.
1. Is Homeschooling Legal in Singapore?
Yes, it is BUT you’ll have to apply for exemption from the Ministry of Education (MOE). You will have to personally write in MOE to request an exemption form.
I strongly recommend that you join the Singapore Homeschool Yahoo group for more information about homeschooling in Singapore. Once you are a member, you can log on and read the Compulsory Education Information Sheet under Files.
2. Was I a Teacher Before?
Nope. I did do relief teaching while waiting to enter university 🙂 But, no, I do not have any teaching experience or training.
3. Must I Be a Qualified Teacher to Homeschool?
No. But MOE does look at your educational qualifications before they allow you to homeschool. MOE requires one parent to be teaching the child at home and this parent needs to have a University degree. This would be my incentive to aim for a university degree for the children in case they would like to homeschool their children. I have heard that they would not even release the application form for an exemption to you if you do not hold a University degree!
4. Does Your Husband Teach any Subject?
Ah! I wish! 🙂 He’s the Maths whiz and ideally, he is the best person to teach that to the children. However, we tried that and it did not work out. His work schedule is not fixed. And he often has night services or teaching and/or counselling sessions during the nights. So it is just not possible.
But if there are certain Maths questions that I am unable to explain clearly to the children, we tap into his expertise 🙂
5. How Can I Teach My Child When I am Not Good in English/Maths/Chinese?
Well, there are many curricula available that can help you teach the subjects you are weak in. Look for that is appropriate and use it. As Lee Binz of The Home Scholar wrote – always invest in the subject you are weakest in.
And if the subject is really over your head, then send your child for tuition 🙂 As I have mentioned before, there is no shame in doing so. Almost all students in public schools attend tuition for at least one subject, sometimes all four! And they are taught by teachers trained by MOE.
6. Do I Need to Send My Child for Tuition?
See above.
I sent my oldest for Maths and Science tuition at P6 to prepare him for PSLE. Maths because that is my weaker subject (my weakest is Chinese :P). Science because the child would be penalised for not answering questions using certain keywords that are deemed important by the powers that be 🙂 Since I have no idea what the keywords are, it is best that he learns it from an ex-MOE-trained teacher. As for Chinese tuition, all our children start the year they turn 5 years old.
You don’t have to of course. There are a few homeschooling families who have successfully homeschooled without any tuition. But if there is a need, why not?
*Perceptum Maths and Perceptum Science have been my lifesavers! They are two different entities.
7. How Do I Homeschool my 2/3/4 yr old?
In our home, we do not use any formal curriculum until they reach Primary One. Before that, we use a mishmash of materials from Popular Bookstore. Before the start of every school year, I spend a few hours at Popular browsing through their workbooks to see which ones are relevant and helpful. For more on how we homeschool pre-school, you can check out my posts on Teaching our Toddlers and Teaching our Preschoolers.
8. What Do I Do with My Baby/Toddler While I Homeschool My Older Child?
In the beginning, our baby/toddler often will be everywhere or cry when he sees me occupied with school and not him 🙂 After a while, as with all routines, he gets used to it and learns to occupy himself, playing independently (now you see why it is important to Teach Your Children to Play on their Own?) once school starts.
Some moms manage their babies/toddlers by enlisting the help of their older children. This is something I do on and off since my older children do have work of their own to complete as well.
9. How Do I Choose a Curriculum?
There are many ways to homeschool and there are many curricula out in the market. You choose one that you feel appeals to your child and you. Just bear in mind that you will make mistakes along the way. And remember that having many people rave about a certain curriculum is no guarantee that it will work for you or your child.
The Homeschool Yahoo group has a Homeschool Library where very generous homeschoolers have donated their used curriculum so that others get a chance to see the books in person instead of just via the website. Join the group and ask to browse the books.
10. Why Do You Use the Local Curriculum?
I have written about this before in various posts. But I shall answer it here in detail.
Based on the Compulsory Education rule, a homeschool child MUST sit for the PSLE the year he turns 12 and MUST clear the benchmark MOE sets (which is higher than for public-schooled kids). If the child fails to meet the benchmark he has to re-sit the exams. And keep on re-sitting it till he passes or when he reaches 15 years old, whichever comes first. Isn’t that a terrible thing to put a child through? And a terrible waste of time too.
Clear the Benchmark
So we have decided that we must be serious about getting our children to clear the benchmark at their first try. Sure grades are not the end-all and be-all of education but in this case, if they don’t clear the benchmark, a whole year is wasted 🙁 If they can’t despite all the help given (exam nerves, being sick, etc) then, of course, they will have to re-sit the exams or even go into the school system just to get PSLE out of the way. But we would prefer that they clear it the first time and clear it as well as they can. In order to achieve that, we decided to just use the local curriculum from the start and get them used to the local system slowly but early in our homeschool journey.
Now, we did not start out this way. I started out using Bob Jones University Press and then Student of the Word curriculum. But I found it hard to ensure that the children were on par with the local curriculum.
As I have no extra time to cover the gaps, I decided it was counter-productive to use a US curriculum and then scramble like crazy to ensure that the children also know the local curriculum so that they can clear the PSLE benchmark.
That is how we ended up using the local curriculum as the backbone of our homeschooling journey for the primary school years. Of course, we do not stick strictly to the local curriculum only. We do use other curricula to add on to what we are learning.
11. What Does a Typical Homeschool Day Look Like?
See my post on A Typical Day when I had 7 children, aged 2.5 to 13 years old. And What does our daily homeschool day look like when I had already graduated my oldest and am homeschooling 6 children, aged 7 to 16 years old.
12. Do You Homeschool in a Room or at the Dining/Kitchen Table?
When we first started, we had no space for a study – we lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with 4 children 🙂 So we homeschooled in a corner of the house. Then when we moved to our current space, we still had no homeschool room. We would do school at the dining table and wherever the children could find space.
It was neither organised nor productive. A lot of time was spent looking for their books and stationery 🙁 So we did a re-organisation of the house and used one of the rooms strictly as a homeschool room. Now each child has a desk and a small cupboard. All their books go into the cupboard and all their stationery go onto their desk. The free-spirited amongst us must surely be squirming to read that we are replicating school at home 😀 But this is what works for us.
No more mess? I wish! But at least now the mess is contained at their desk and cupboard, not all over the house!
But I still teach Bible and Science at the dining table. I also grade their work at the dining table because it is the biggest table in the house! It allows me to grade one child’s work while the other child works on his/her corrections.
13. How Do You Find Time to Cook and Homeschool?
I do wish we do not have to eat, then my day would have fewer interruptions! But eat we must so Menu Planning is of great help here. Once planned, my brain is freed up to do other planning 🙂
Meals are simple stir fries or soups. Now that I have a daughter that is learning how to cook, she has been a tremendous help. I just have to tell her the dish we are having and she will do the food prep and cook it for me. Cool, eh? 🙂
14. What About Housework?
Housework is done during the daytime. When we were living in a 2 bedroom apartment with 3 children, I had a part timer come in once a week and I would only do picking up and washing up daily. I almost never vacuumed or mopped. Horrors, right? 😀
But now there are more bodies in the house, and we live in a 4 bedroom apartment. Vacuuming needs to be done daily. I used to do it immediately after lunch so that I could shower and then put the younger ones to nap after that in the nice cool air-conditioned room. I would only mop once a week unless some major accident occured 🙂
When we found out that God had blessed us with #7, we invested in the Roomba (for vacuuming) and the Scooba (for mopping). Best investment ever! Now the Roomba does the 3 bedrooms and 1 study room in the morning (David is in-charge of that), gets charged and does another round in the living, dining rooms and the kitchen while we have our dinner. Our Scooba is used 2 times a week.
At every term break I will haul out our Delphin, now upgraded to a Rainbow, to vacuum all our mattresses and change the sheets.
Ironing is done once a week, on Fridays. And any major bulk cooking is done on Saturdays. Oh and toilets are washed weekly. David does the daily wiping to keep them smelling nice and he is in charge also of washing the common toilet. I am training the other son to wash the toilet downstairs so that I only have to do the one in our room. Delegate, delegate, delegate, I say!
15. What About Socialisation?
What about it? 😀 Our children are taught the norms of society by my husband and me. We do not depend on an institution to do it for us.
They do mix with other children of various ages in Church and in their ballet, swimming or badminton classes. And of course with other homeschoolers.
Yes, I know I have 7 children so they always have someone to talk to or play with. But remember, we didn’t start out with 7 children 🙂
If you are wondering about isolation, then I suggest that you bring your children out of the house more. Join enrichment activities that they are interested in. Or organise play dates at your home.
16. What About Extra-curricula Activities or CCAs as it is now known as?
This is a bummer because it just costs more as a homeschooler than as a public-schooled child. Homeschoolers are not allowed access to the Edusave money that the government gives out to every school going child. This money will be so helpful for subsidising a bit of our CCA 🙂
So now we have to pay for everything ourselves and on top of that, source for activities for each child that sometimes sends us scurrying all over the island. Dh and I have decided that if possible, the children choose an activity that they can all participate in. Otherwise, it has to be an activity that they really, really like and show potential for 🙂 And no, they do not get to have 3 – 4 activities each.
Swimming for us is non-negotiable. So everyone has to learn it and they are only allowed to stop after attaining the Gold award. At this point in time, we have 2 in ballet, 4 in rollerblading, 2 in badminton and 3 in the homeschool choir. 2 of them just completed their Gold Award so their last lesson was in December 2011. I would like to add in art but at the moment I don’t see how it can be done.
Who brings them? Depending on his schedule, Henson is usually the one who plays chauffeur 🙂 On days that he can’t I do the ferrying and it is usually madness 🙂
17. Do You Follow the School Terms and Holidays?
No. We school all year round. 6 weeks on and 1 week off. Except for our Christmas break where we take 2 weeks off. I chose to do it this way because if we school longer than 6 weeks, school becomes torturous. And we only take 1 week off because any longer than that, many of them forget what they have been taught. Besides, having to regain the momentum of school is tough when the school break is too long. Learnt this in the early years of homeschooling.
Read: Our Homeschool Schedule (6 Weeks On, 1 Week Off)
18. Is it Hard to Homeschool?
Yes, yes and yes! There is no way around it. Homeschooling is hard. It requires commitment and a certain amount of passion that is different from sending one’s child to public schools. Plus we have been so well trained by the school system that going against it and its expectations are tough.
There are many people watching and judging us the way they would never do a public-school child. So develop a thick skin and deal with it 🙂
Many times we have to do our own research and source for what we need while those in the system can just sit back and let the system do the work for them. It can get quite disheartening at times.
I am not saying that those in public schools face no challenges or are having an easy life. Their issues and challenges are different from homeschoolers. And not following the norms of society is always more difficult than following them.
But the rewards are great! 🙂
19. Do You Ever Feel Like Sending Them Back to School?
Yes, yes and yes! 🙂 At the beginning of our homeschooling journey, that thought occured very often. Nowadays, less so.
Why?
I have realised that the issues I face with them that tempt me to send them into the school system will not be resolved by sending them to school. In fact, the same issues may become worse. And as I have told a friend before – the child that you want to pack off to school is probably the child that needs you to homeschool him 😀
Even then, once in a while I still harbour thoughts of putting them in school just so that they know what a good life they have at home, especially when they complain that they have a lot of work to do! Hmpf!
20. How Long Are We Planning to Homeschool?
This question will be answered the way we answer people when they ask us how many children we plan to have. Only the Lord knows. 🙂 He called us to this path and He will call us out when the time comes. So for now, we will press on and homeschool the children as long as possible.
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Wah, must do Gold Award one ah? Under the previous swimming tests programme, our only requirement was that they could swim confidently. And that was just the Bronze Award. Only no.2 did the Silver – he requested. For no.3, he was really hemming & hawing near the end of his journey to Bronze. But happy once he passed that, and the instructor even said that he was too short to be able to do the Silver and Gold in the short-term. Had to wait until he grew taller first as his short height would mean he’d have difficulty with the time limit. Anyway, he was happy to quit at that point.
anyway, if your kids do music, they can always audition to join the Singapore National Youth Orchestra or Singapore Youth Chinese Orchestra once they are 9 or 10 years old. Except for violinists, all other instrumentalists have their fees subsidised as all would be under MOE Tuition Grant. That’s why we don’t need to pay for no.2’s lesson fees with his SSO instructor.
As far as I can remember, I only signed Edusave form for things like Creative Writing Classes and Speech & Drama classes. Pretty much useless, if you ask me. I only signed for Creative Writing Classes cos the school teachers seem to think that they can farm out the writing part of the curriculum just cos a lot of kids sign up for this. So I really don’t want my kids to lose out cos of this. Speech & Drama is compulsory. So you are not really missing out much, as far as the Edusave is concerned.
As for art, see if you can find some La Salle or SOTA kids who wants to earn some pocket money.
Sam – MOE Tuition Grant available to homeschoolers? I doubt so.
Angela – Is it because of the school your boys are in? Or are all schools the same? I hear of people using EduSave for more activities than what you mentioned but of course I could have remembered incorrectly 🙂
I have seen “Homeschool” written under the “School” column of attendance list. As long as they are not under the Violin Section(my boy’s under viola) and have been accepted under the Orchestra, all go under MOE Tuition Grant. I don’t see how that is not possible. Bc it’s quite easy. Criteria is that the teacher has to be under the Orchestra’s approved list. The teacher will submit the claim form at the end of every month to get his Fees. The student/parent doesn’t need to pay anything first. Except if that teacher’s fees exceed the amount charged by that teacher, or it’s the 5th lesson of the month. There are international school students under the orchestra too and they get the grant too.
Probably cos my boys are in a neighbourhood school. Even with Edusave, which is CO-PAYMENT, parents must still fork out some amount, or apply for financial assistance. Neighbourhood schools usually don’t do a lot of fanciful stuff cos of the demographic of their students. Branded schools with more affluent kids probably will have things like windsurfing, fencing, etc.
I don’t know how, but my kids always end up with nothing much in their Edusave account? I think all for rubbish. What windsurfing and fencing?!!! Must be those useless speech and drama lessons and computer lessons, etc. Oh, and co-payment for CCA instructors(!!!).
My daughter just looked up her Edusave account to pay for her trip to Venice and the account just had 60cents in it. Bummer.
I guess would be better next time for the no.4 since he has Baby Bonus so the amount inside quite a lot and we have not even used yet.
I was a homeschool teacher at homeschooling group in jakarta. Do you know how to become homeschool teacher in singapore?
Isnt that an anomaloy? A homeschool teacher? Lol! We moms ARE the homeschool teachers in our “schools”! We teach our children and if necessary, employ a tutor that either comes to the house or operates from a centre. Perhaps we are just using different terms for the same position? Are you in Singapore currently?
Hi. Love ur posts. Do you know if its alright to take out my child halfway through the school year and apply for homeschooling with MoE or would they require it to be neatly starting in the new year? My boy has done his first semester of Primary 1 and we both want out. He spent the last 5 years of schooling in Australia and can’t keep up with the demands of our local schools. In Australia he loved school but now back here he loathes it. I am so sad for him and do not want to force him back once school reopens. Any tips?
From what I have heard, MOE nowadays insist that you have to finish up the school year before child can be taken out. Perhaps tell him to start the count down and make sure that he has something to look forward to at the end of each day?