The Practical Aspects of Homeschooling
While homeschooling has plenty of benefits, there are some important and practical aspects of homeschooling which are often not discussed or shared by the homeschooling community.
1) Significant drop in household income
Since it is compulsory for the main homeschooling parent to resign from her work, your household income will drop 50% (more or less depends on the partner's income).
It can be even more challenging if the sole bread winner doesn't have a monthly (regular) income. Ahem, talking about myself LOL.
2) Change In Lifestyle
Since your household income will drop drastically, you will need to have discipline, self-control and change your spending habits. You will start looking for what is valuable instead of getting what you like. You cannot afford to live for yourself.
You cannot be going overseas every now and then. You cannot be buying a bigger property due to one income's loan eligibility. More so if you suffer a hairline cut if you are not a salaried worker.
You cannot be going into cafes and restaurants regularly, especially when the overall cost of living in SG is extremely high as compared to other nations.
There is a price to pay for homeschooling. Count the cost and pay it.
3) Loss Of Personal Freedom
As your child is stuck to you 24/7, you won't have much personal freedom. Technically, he doesn't go to school.
The main homeschooling parent will spend most of her time with the child.
If you think of having regular, frequent dates with your partner, you can throw that thought away.
4) Homeschooling Costs Much More
Primary and secondary education in SG are heavily subsidised. Not for homeschooling though. You don't get subsidies for anything.
Not for books and materials.
Not for any course or lesson.
Not for MOE subsidised materials including technology, software, etc.
Not for meals (aka canteen in schools).
You pay for everything. And since a homeschooling child cannot be stuck at home without social circles, you pay for activities. You pay for sports where they are free in schools. You pay for science lab experiments where they are free in schools.
You pay for enrichment classes if the main homeschooling parent cannot cover every single topic / subject. I doubt anyone can cover it all, as it gets tougher in upper Primary.
5) MOE Curriculum
Yes. You can use any curriculum you want for your child, as long as it is approved by the Compulsory Education Department.
However, PSLE is a holy, divine, invisible sacred cow in Singapore that cannot be killed. Because of that, you still find yourself having to do MOE curriculum at some point.
It will be helpful if the main homeschooling parent is a trained teacher (Ahem, talking about my wife). Otherwise, you will need to put in extra effort to learn and teach. Alternatively, you can pay more to outsource further, which will increase your cost even more.
6) Teaching Your Own Child
When the teachers teach in a class, nobody argues with them. But when you teach your own child, he won't see you as a teacher. He sees you as his parent.
In other words, he's going to argue with you. He's going to post you questions. He's going to ask all the why's.
While it's 1-to-1 lesson, you will still lose your patience. You will get frustrated. You will have good and bad days. On good days, you get the work going. On bad days, you don't get anything done.
What you plan in the schedule often won't materialise, because you are not dealing with a robot. You are dealing with your child who can get distracted, unmotivated, etc.
In short, you have to handle all spectrums of emotions.
7) Most Homeschoolers Are Not Academically Excellent
Most homeschoolers (during primary and secondary years) are not academically excellent, as compared to those school kids from top schools. They catch up, however, at a later stage during tertiary years.
The reason is very simple. If your focus is having an academically excellent child, you won't be doing homeschooling in the first place. You will be the typical kiasu / kiasi / FMO Singaporean parent / tiger mum who drills your child in every subject, with plenty of tuition and enrichment classes.
We choose homeschooling because we do not want to go that route. Academics is not everything in life. You can be extremely learned but have no wisdom in life. You can study very well and produce great academic results, but still do not know how to live a purposeful life.
These are some practical and important aspects for you to consider before embarking on homeschooling. Having said that, the benefits outweigh the costs. So please, stay v̶a̶c̶c̶i̶n̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ tuned for the benefits, which I will share again as I did in many posts before.
