2019

We’re still homeschooling! The older two are doing IGCSE’s via an online provider. It’s been surprisingly good and they’re enjoying the challenge. The workload, the assignment formats and the who concept of deadlines took a bit of adjusting to, but on the whole we are all pleased.

The 12 year old continues to drive me barmy. He’s so impulsive. I am continually amazed by how little white hair I have.

The 21 month old is 21 types of busy. Everything from dried pasta to gate matches fascinate him. Keeping him safe is yet another endeavour which should’ve turned all my hair white, yet has not.

I must have good genes 😂

2018

How did three years just slip by?

I’ll tell you how. Two of the three children are teenagers. The three children have become four. We moved house, lost dearly cherished family and pets. We gave up on some dreams and are building new ones.

One thing remains constant, I trust the kids to learn when they want to.

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The Malaysian Homeschool Tribe Facebook group has grown incredibly. We’ve now got a couple of sub groups to cater to newbies and families with little ones. Look them up if you are beginning your journey.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/MHTribeNewbies/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MHTribe6andYounger/

Home Sweet Home

The more time we’ve invested in our home, the more there is to do and see. Now we’ve been here 5 years, our trees and plants are really mature and we are beginning to see an even larger variety of birds and butterflies around us.

And now, we’ve realised we have honey bees forming a hive on the roof; between the creeper and the balcony. Some would be horrified but we are delighted. Even though I am allergic to bees and will need to carry some kind of drug around to ensure I don’t asphyxiate the next time I am stung, I couldn’t be happier.

At first I was worried they’d be an aggressive species but after consulting knowledgeable people (via Facebook of course!) we are fairly certain they are Apis Cerana or Asian Honey Bees.

Our chickens have begun to lay too! Behold, the first egg.

All around us Nature is fighting this uphill battle. Ancient forests are burning, bees are dying by the millions yet here is our little slice of paradise, all is well. These little joys are what keep us here.

Now to go and buy that life saving drug for just in case 🙂

Homeschooling 3 to 5 year olds – Things you can do monthly

For those choosing to homeschool with little ones, good on you. Kindergarten fees are getting steeper by the day and it isn’t always value for money. Here are some ideas to help you get started plus an overview of what we got up to when the kids were little.

Petrosains

We went to Petrosains a lot. The Family Membership (2 adults + 3 children) now costs RM106 . One of our favourite perks is general admission to more than 300 participating science centres and museums worldwide (please refer to ASTC). (Membership card must be presented on site.) We went to the Singapore Science centre for free a number of times on this.

They now also have cafes inside so you can stay on instead of having to rush out for lunch. My kids are the hangry type and you are not allowed to bring food in so our visits were rarely longer then 3 hours.

Lots of HSers must go because check this out!
http://www.petrosains.com.my/programmes/creative-teaching-workshop/

Lake Garden

Lake Garden was another favourite. The playground was so much fun when they were little. Please bring your own water and remember that the toilets are far away so if you need to go, don’t wait! It took us ages to explore the whole thing and because it is often improved, we keep finding new stuff to enjoy. There is a nice section in the middle when you can use your scooters and other wheeled implements.
http://www.klbotanicalgarden.gov.my/guide.php

Zoo Negara

We also went to Zoo Negara a lot too. It was a lot cheaper, rates have gone up but you can register for membership and receive 10% off future visits. The membership is per family basis, so if you are going with friends remind them to get their own membership cards.

I find zoos in general depressing and sad. Living so close, I have heard my share of horror stories. However, this should not stop you for taking your children. Maybe while walking about, you might be inspired by a brilliant plan on how to improve of help zoos.

Other Fun places and things to do include FRIM (website broken), Pusat Sains Negara (under renovation), Bukit Kiara Skate Park, Islamic Arts Museum, Butterfly Park and the KLCC park. The important thing is to do a little research, make a few calls and see how to best maximise your time.

Your neighbourhood playground is also perfect. And if you think it is crap, improve it. Grow a garden, get some friends to help improve the facilities of write to your council and ask them for help. We also make it a point pick up some rubbish where ever we go. We never manage to clean the entire place, maybe just a few square meters, but it still counts!

Pascal’s triangle

We use Maria Miller’s Math Mammoth for mathematics. We bought it online and downloaded it. I print off the work books as and when required.

If you look at the Homeschool Buyers Co-op, the sometimes run group buys for this syllabus and you can get a nice discount. They run great discounts on load of other homeschool stuff too.

Today we are looking at Pascal’s Triangle which is a fascinating mathematical triangular array of binomial coefficient.

Pascal’s triangle

We use Maria Miller’s Math Mammoth for mathematics. We bought it online and downloaded it. I print off the work books as and when required.

If you look at the Homeschool Co-op, the sometimes run group buys for this syllabus and you can get a nice discount.

Today we are looking at Pascal’s Triangle http://ptri1.tripod.com/

Physicality

A dear friend share this article about kids walking or running a mile before starting work each day in a school in the UK http://gu.com/p/4cyk3/sbl

This is something I’ve just instinctually known for a long time. Way before I tried to teach my kids anything academic, they were exposed to tennis, gymnastics, cycling, walking, capoiera, swimming, dance, fencing and general tomfoolery.

If you read Robert Melillo you will understand why.  Though his focus is on kids with disabilities, it just makes sense that if it’s good for kids with issues, it’ll be good for any kid.
Here are some of our dog walking pictures. Yes, even in the haze, we go outside. And climb trees, play with sticks and marvel at the beauty of Nature.

Explaratorium

This is a lovely site with lots of resources. We have one of the books and it is fascinating. Now to find the time to go through the experiments.
http://www.exploratoriumstore.com/

Mystery Science

A friend told me about this yesterday and I was super excited to share. It looks very well put together and is FREE for a year. It is a complete curriculum for 2nd to 5th grade which is roughly equivalent to 7-8 to 10-11 years old. Go check it out!

Note: You have to give them your email address to get an account. Mine will be activated by the 2nd Oct and I cannot wait.

http://mysteryscience.com/

UPDATE

I was sent a link to a couple of lessons and the kids jumped straight in. Oh the fun they had. Look out for the photos.

http://mysteryscience.com/forces/mystery-2/balance-of-forces-engineering/43?r=1285127#slide-id-697

Recording their attempts

Thinking hard

Infinite resources make STRONG bridges

Playing by the rules

5 Things to Know Before You Begin Homeschooling

It is so good to see how our community has grown and expanded. On the whole, the Malaysian home education movement has blossomed beautifully. With so many new families thinking about making the shift, I thought this would be a good time to summarise what I really want to tell new families.

1. It begins with the parents. If you choose to home educate, you are essentially taking responsibility for your child’s everything. It is up to you to provide opportunity to learn motivation, it is up to you to help them make friends, it is up to you to help develop and shape their characters.This may sound scary but it is actually such a wonderful gift. It means you work on yourself too. It is unlikely that a bad tempered, irrational person will raise a calm and rational thinker. Choosing to home educate made me super aware of my biases, which then made me introspect and improve.
2. It is a journey, not a destination. There will be good weeks when everything is easy and the kids get lots of meaningful stuff done. Then there are the bad weeks when someone is just cranky, unmotivated or uncooperative.One of the things I’ve come to realise is that our family has a rhythm and once we learned to recognise and work with it, it has been so much better. It taught me to accept lulls, restful times and idyll.
3. Each family is unique. People often ask me how we how we do it. I am quizzed on our schedule, which syllabus we use, what activities the children do. I sometimes wonder if they think that replicating our situation will be some kind of magic formula. It isn’t. You have to make the decisions and choices that work for your family.Some families literally do school at home, with timetables, schedules, books and exams. Some do no bookwork at all and kids are free to do as they wish. We fall somewhere in the middle; I love math, literature and philosophy so I try to teach this to the kids. But it goes in fits and starts, some weeks, we just try to be nice to each other.
4. It takes courage. This is no easy path. You will be questioned. And criticised. Make friends and be a good friend. I think spousal support is critical. There have been times when I have felt the weight of all the doubt and responsibility on my shoulders and wanted to quit. To take the easy path so I can pass the blame and work onto someone else’s corner. It would be so easy to have swathes of time each day in peace and uninterrupted. Then my husband will say something about how great the kids are doing, and that helps so much.Malaysian Homeschooling Tribe is an FB group. If you wish to join, please PM admin with the following info
   1. Children’s names and ages
   2. Who referred you to the group
   3. Brief description of your HS life
   https://www.facebook.com/groups/775467275907926/?fref=ts
5. It ends with the parents. How well this goes will depend on you. I speak with brutal honesty here; if you are not the best person you could be and you’re not wanting to work towards that, think twice. If your default setting is to moan and nag, whine and complain, resent and grumble your child might be better of in a school room where he will most likely be ignored, which is better than being stuck at home with only one (sub par) person. I cannot stress enough that any parent who embarks on this path needs to approach the journey with love and kindness; for both child and self. Seeking self improvement goes hand in hand with raising better kids.
   

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