Homeschooling Journey Part 2

As shared in the first post, the purpose of documenting this journey is to encourage and help those who are thinking about homeschooling your children. There were a lot of things we didn't know how to go about doing it. As such, we want to reduce the obstacles (as much as possible) so that this becomes a "simpler" decision for some to make.

Few days back, I spoke to a neighbour and she shared that she had been trying hard to apply to be a parent's volunteer in Northland Primary. However, she was rejected. Her son is only 5 years old. This is the typical life of Singaporean parent, if you want your child to be in a good school.

Apparently, her friend also tried to get her kid into the same school, but didn't manage to. So when this neighbour found out that we have gotten a vacancy in this school (without doing anything except being forced to apply for P1 registration), she kept encouraging me to put my son in the school and not waste this golden opportunity. For many wanted to get in and they couldn't.

Many will say that God has opened the door for us. For it is assumed that what is of God is easy and effortless. I beg to differ, because it is not found in the Scriptures and it is not always true. Let me submit to you that the enemy can open many doors to distract you too.

In the face of temptation, what do you choose?

We should not be moved by what we see. We must move by what we believe. Our purpose and values become the cornerstone of our choices. These are what keep us unchanging, unwavering, unshakeable, steadfast and immovable.

My wife has informed her school. This is one of the toughest moves. We have also been assigned with an infamous guy from the 'you-know-what' department to evaluate and approve our homeschooling process. We found out from the homeschooling community that he's pretty famous in making it tough for people to apply homeschooling. Nonetheless, in the face of challenge, what do you choose?

There is a requirement to prepare a 6 years' worth of curriculum as one of the application processes. This is crazy but it is necessary.

We have gone to IKEA to get some furniture to prepare a room for homeschooling. This, too, will be assessed as part of the requirement.

On top of that, we’ll need to get plugged into a homeschooling community soon, so that we can support one another and live lives together as families.

Please Pray for us as my wife writes out the curriculum before the deadline for submission. #homeschoolingjourney

Confronting Fears

He pulled me to the dragon ride... he actually wanted to go for the small dragon ride, but we went to the wrong queue —— big dragon rollercoaster.

He was silent throughout the fast-moving ride. At the end of the ride, his face turned a little green and he almost cried. 

I carried him up and patted him, “What a brave boy you are! When Papa was 6, I didn’t dare to go for this.”

When he saw his mummy, he said, “Mama, I’m a brave boy. Papa said he didn’t dare to go for this kind of ride when he was 6 years old.”

In the face of fears, we can undo what a child went through emotionally by affirming what he has overcome. #fathering101

Homeschooling Journey Part 1

Homeschooling Journey Part 1

A few years back, the whole idea of homeschooling came into my mind as I left full-time church ministry to focus on fathering my son in his foundation years. I attended a number of homeschooling seminars and joined a couple of homeschooling co-ed groups’ activities. After engaging with the children, teens and young adults who were homeschooled, I was convinced that homeschooling is a powerful way of educating a child in character and important values. These homeschooling children and youths displayed maturity and social skills that are beyond their peers. Some think that homeschooling results in poor social skills. It is, in fact, on the contrary. That is a backward thinking. Many of the homeschooling kids can hold a conversation really well as they are used to interacting with people of different ages.

Fast forward to 2019... my wife, who is also a trained teacher with many years of experience, began to come into agreement with what I think about homeschooling. Now she is convicted about it.

The phrase that has been stuck in my mind is this, “Homeschooling is extended parenting.” It’s a beautiful thing to homeschool, because the child will spend more time with the parents than the school, and be built up in his foundational values and identity, before he is sent out into the world to face the challenges.

This has not been an easy decision. It takes a lot out of our comfort zone to decide on homeschooling. While some have a lot of support at home as well as finances to jump into homeschooling without much thoughts, we don’t fall into that category. My wife will need to quit her teaching job to stay at home.

It is way easier and comfortable to send J to Primary school. It makes life much more convenient for my wife and me. However, living a life with purpose is never about choosing what is comfortable. Faith is about stepping out of the familiar and stable boat into the uncharted waters, where there is uncertainty, discomfort and the unknown, so that we can place our trust in the certainty of God who is also our true Comforter. The journey of homeschooling is not going to be easy, but we have decided to choose what is beneficial for our son instead of our own comfort.

I really appreciate my wife for taking yet another journey of faith with me (we have always been quite different from the mainstream) and for making a huge sacrifice —— she cannot be allowed to go back to teach in MOE school after she resigns.

Applying for homeschooling hasn’t been smooth-sailing. We faced some challenges from ‘you-know-who’. They have been trying to dissuade us from applying for it. In fact, they refused to give us the application form when we requested for it. To move out of mainstream puts you in the minority and that is definitely not advised nor encouraged in our nation. However, we have long decided to pursue the kingdom of God regardlessly, and this includes education. You just cannot compartmentalize Christianity. It is either all or none.

Through the phone interviews, we were told that we MUST register J for Primary One, before the homeschooling application form can be released to us. (Later, we found out from the homeschooling community that this is not true!)

Given that we had no choice, we went ahead to apply for Northland Primary, one of the top two schools in Yishun. We don’t believe in ‘pulling strings’ to get into a school or doing parents’ volunteers, because the motive of the latter is usually not that you want to genuinely serve, but that you just want a vacancy in the school for your child. Anyway, this is just our personal conviction.

Before the result was out, we found out that out of 80 over vacancies for Phase 2C (the last phase for a child to apply into primary school during registration period), there were close to 300 applications for Northland. My wife did a check and discovered that apart from Northland and Nan Chiau (Sengkang), no other school in SG has such high ratio of applicants to vacancies.

Does that mean that this is an open door from God? Well, it is not necessary true. There is another realm at work to open a few doors for you if you don’t remain immovable. What is good can stop you from what is God.

We decided to give this golden opportunity a miss, so that we can continue to pursue what is better for J. Finally, after a couple of phone interviews with the ‘you-know-who’, they released the homeschooling application form to us.

There are still various hurdles to cross before we can begin homeschooling officially. Please pray with us that we will get the approval. In recent two years, the criteria have changed and become tougher than the past.

We only have one life on this side of eternity. Hence, we need to steward it and make the most impact for the kingdom, and it has to start from the family.

I’m sharing and will be sharing this whole journey of homeschooling (and this is only the beginning) so that those who are in similar shoes and situations can be encouraged as well as to go after what God has put in your hearts concerning homeschooling. It is never too late to do it. Jesus!