If we go back to my first post on homeschooling “What is homeschooling?“, I said that as long as you teach your child at home, you are a homeschooler So you start homeschooling from day 1 of your baby’s life.
When he cries and you pick him up, he learns that mummy will take care of him and his needs. Then he learns that when he is hungry, you will feed him. And he continues to learn that if he calls out “mama”, you appear. Then he learns that when he strings words together, he is understood more clearly and can get what he wants faster!
See what I am trying to show you here? Everyone homeschools their child from birth. But suddenly when the child reaches school going age (in Singapore, it can be as young as 18mths, tho 3yrs is more common) parents relinquish what they have been doing, thinking that they are not good enough to teach their precious child anymore!
We have been conditioned to think that we need to send them off to an expert in teaching children! But who loves and knows your child more? You, who have watched your child grow since he was born? Or this stranger who interacts with your child 2 – 3 hrs a day, together with many other children? I rest my case
But what about formal schooling you may be asking? That begins anytime you want it to begin! Now that’s the beauty of homeschooling! If your child wants to read at 2, go ahead and teach him! If he is totally not interested in anything remotely looking like a book, then leave him be. Your job is to surround him with good books so that if he should decide to pick one up, he’ll more likely be enthralled than put off.
In Singapore, we have to start formal schooling by 7yrs of age. And so we do. But we can choose to either take it slow and easy or fast and challenging, depending on the child’s capability.
Don’t let what other people are doing throw you off. Pray and ask the Lord for wisdom. Our children (and us, for that matter) have a whole lifetime ahead of us to learn and learn. Don’t put them off learning just coz we need to follow some scope and sequence and end up forcing them to catch up.