My apologies for not updating my blog recently. Bento making has ceased (for now) though I missed those days and hope some day I can go back to preparing bentos again!
But for this season, we have embarked on another amazing journey - homeschool.
Some background information, I have 3 boys aged 9, 6 and 2. My eldest was in mainstream school for his primary 1 in 2017 but we decided to pull him out and started homeschooling all the boys officially in 2018.
If you are new to homeschooling, this may sound weird, uncomprehenable and out of the world to you. Trust me, you aren't alone because that was me a few years back when I stumbled onto homeschooling. However, when I researched further, it becomes a very natural, beautiful, feasible and sensible thing for us to do.
In this post, I will share our family's reasons for homeschooling. (Realize I need to document this down, will facilitate application for exemption of compulsory education for R2 too!)
#1 More for God
I believe no matter how the world becomes, if we rely on God, we can choose the kind of lives we want to live. It is my hope that in our home, simplicity will be our form of happiness and our joy is derived from serving God and others.
With homeschooling, we can have more time to study God's Word. I want my boys to know that the world does not revolve around them and that achieving academic excellence isn’t the most important thing in life. I want them to have time to feel for the people around us, to care for others or to cook someone a meal.
Most importantly, I want my boys to love and fear God and develop a personal and close relationship with God so that they are aware of the real purpose in life and will not be lost in this world.
The gift of purpose in this life is the best gift that we can give our children and the answer can only be found in our Saviour. We are investing our time for all these.
#2 Building their characters
Being my boys’ main educator, I spent nearly all my waking moments with them. There’s no better place than home to inculcate values. Character education happens anywhere and everywhere, not just a half an hour weekly lesson. In all the things we do and the conversations we have, character traits are cultivated and simply taught.
When my boys have a temper tantrum, when they display bad attitude in doing something simple such as putting away their toys, it is the perfect opportunity to train them in righteousness.
Good fruit doesn’t just grow, it requires hours of pruning, weeding, watering, it requires our observation, tender care, sweat and effort before we receive the joy of harvest.
#3 Building relationships
The #1 question people ask when they know that we are homeschooling is “What about socializing?”
Well, we really do not need to attend school to build relationships. We believe that everything starts from home and if you do not know how to take care of your family, then don’t think about taking care of your friends.
It is deeply important to us that our boys are best friends with each other, it is in our prayers that the brothers will love and respect one another and that their relationship will strengthen as the days go by.
It is our hope that whenever any of them meet with any problems, home will be their first place to seek refuge and they will seek Biblical advice from each other or from us (parents) rather than confiding in friends. Building relationships require time and we only have that much time for each kid.
Will they be socially awkward with low EQ? Then I would just like to ask if attending school guarantee high EQ or good social skills for them?
#4 More flexibility
The boys have more rest and play time. We go learning journeys as and when we like. We stay home during school holidays and explore the museums when school reopens. There are more choices and more time for us. We decide what we want and not at the mercy of school work.
When we embark on this journey, we do not know and cannot see where we are heading.
In our prayers, we only pray that God leads us where we are going. We made this decision not because we found a fantastic curriculum or are confident that we can teach all subjects well but because we are convinced that the outcome of our homeschooling journey lies in the hands of our God and we only need to rely on Him and do the best we can.
He will demonstrate His powers through our weaknesses. God is always good.
