Now that we’ve cleared our first PSLE, what’s next?
“What are your plans after PSLE?” We’ve been asked this question A LOT. Most assume that David will just take his O Levels as a private candidate. Or enter the school system.
We asked him. He said, “No”. He would prefer to continue homeschooling.
No to O or A-Levels after PSLE
Well, we’ve decided at this point (we are always open to the Lord’s leading) that we will not be taking the O and A-Levels route, although at this point in time and for this child, we are aiming for entry into the local University.
EDITED to add:
Before you even decide what you want your child to do post-PSLE, you need to consider where you want your child to end up. What is your end goal for him/her and what is his/her own end goal? It is like that quote on goals: if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time. Even with a GPS you need a destination for it to work.
There are many end goals: entry into our local polytechnics/universities, entry into overseas universities, entry into a trade school, or perhaps start a business?
And the standard operating procedure for entry into our local universities is to take O-Levels followed by A-Levels. The child then uses his A-Levels results to apply for entry into his selected University/ies.
Why?
We will not be taking this route as it is not very friendly to homeschoolers.
O-Levels is mostly doable although laboratory work for the Science subjects gets complicated and challenging. But A-Levels gets even more challenging. From what I can understand from the Ministry of Education’s website, entry into NUS requires A-Levels results WITH a component called Project Work.
Project Work is graded by the teachers in the school and the child is also assessed individually and as a member of his group. It accounts for 10% of the child’s marks. I was told that we can just ignore the Project Work component and “lose” that 10% but that is assuming we have enough points/marks to lose that 10%!
Also, the O and A-Levels textbooks here have no easily available teacher manuals since it is assumed that one would be learning under the guidance of specifically trained teachers for the various subjects. So if we have questions or need clarification we’ll hit a brick wall. Which means …. TUITION, which is very expensive at the secondary school level.
AP or SAT
But if we go the Advanced Placement (AP) or Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT)* way, then I can use the easily available and numerous homeschool textbooks/manuals which are mostly written to and are geared towards the student. These homeschool curriculum often assumes that the parents don’t know a thing about the subject (which just about sums up my grasp on maths and physics!) and provide more information and explanation than the usual public school textbooks.
This is the best tip I have learnt from Liz Binz of The Home Scholar who has many helpful articles and books on her website and blog to help parents successfully homeschool the high school years.
Unfamiliar Ground
Yes, we are treading on unfamiliar waters here as most homeschoolers we know place their children into the school system once they hit the secondary school years.
Are we headed on the right or wrong path?
I have no idea. I only know that God in His mercy will continue to guide and lead us in the way forward. And if we heard Him wrongly, He will be gracious to let us know – sooner than later 🙂 And meanwhile, I am reading as much as possible to educate myself on homeschooling the high school years.
Which Curriculum?
And the curriculum we have chosen?
This is our pick thus far :
- Language Arts (aka English 🙂 ) – Progeny Press for Literature, Rod and Staff for Grammar
- Maths – Life of Fred
- History – Notgrass Exploring World History (thanks Misti for the lead!)
- Science – Apologia Science
- Chinese – we are actually proceeding to do O Level Higher Chinese. Imagine that!
We’ll assess how things are faring around March or so and then decide if there needs to be any other changes/addition or not.
UPDATE on Post
Choosing Our High School/Secondary School Curriculum
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Post PSLE Homeschooling FAQs
Reflections on PSLE
5 Comments on What’s after PSLE?
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Isn’t O level & A level Chinese compulsory? In that case, you might as well aim to do Higher Chinese at O-level instead of standard O-level chinese (can take as many times and just need D7 HCL for university entry).
Ah yes! That’s what I meant! I should be clearer! It was the tutor who recommended taking Higher Chinese.
Yes, that’s right. After all, he did get an A for PSLE Chinese. He would be eligible to do HCL. Daniel’s doing HCL too and he’s lousy at Chinese. Tutor says it’s only a little bit more difficult. And he says it’s way harder to score at A-level CL so better to do HCL o-level. (he should know since he is a current JC teacher).
Er….He may have gotten an A but he isn’t good at Chinese hor? 🙂 Wonder how the rest will do.
haha – people who get A* for Chinese also not good at it, lor. Got loopholes in school system.