This is what we have submitted. Obviously, it isn't the best but I did put in a considerable amount of time and effort. And this is just a proposal so we'll adjust and be flexible as we go along.
Reason(s) for Opting to Home-school Child
1. Personalized Curriculum
Homeschooling enables us to educate Sophie according our own philosophy and approach, i.e. education is holistic, authentic, seamless and learner-directed in a natural and conducive environment. It allows us to design a curriculum based on Sophie’s interests and her learning style, and execute it at a motivating pace for her. She will not be bounded to a specific academic level, she can also accelerate in subjects she is gifted in or spend more time in areas she finds challenging. Lessons can be conducted in a more effective and efficient manner since interdisciplinary learning is possible. As an ex-MOE Education Officer, I can ensure that the essential components of the primary school curriculum are covered while she explores other areas of knowledge or fields of study.
2. Family Values and Virtues
Homeschooling gives us back the ownership and responsibility for our children’s overall development. We can dedicate effort and time in supervising and caring for Sophie and be directly involved in her cognitive, psychological, emotional and physical development. We are able to catch the appropriate moments in our daily interactions to most effectively instill family values and teach virtues. And through our conscious effort, consistent parenting style and positive modeling, we can work towards our vision of nurturing and empowering our children to becoming well-informed, competent and virtuous adults, who are also productive and contributing members of the society.
3. Optimized Environment for Learning
The home environment is the most natural place to meet education demands and goals. It serves as a mini-society with adults and children of mixed age groups and authentic daily activities. In Singapore, we have space constrain since most of us live in flats or apartments. However, we have carefully designed our home to be a conducive place for our children to learn and develop independence. Homeschooling, by nature, happens mainly in the home environment although it should not be restricted geographically. Sophie learns best when she can be fully immersed in authentic settings and hands-on experiences. She also loves nature and enjoys interacting with others under natural circumstances. Thus, homeschooling allows us to include field trips and learning journeys in a flexible and extensive manner.
4. Personality and Food allergy
As parents, we understand Sophie’s strengths, weaknesses, needs and learning styles best. She is a competitive yet emotionally insecure perfectionist with some sensory processing issues. As a trained counselor, I can help her learn to manage her emotions and provide her with a good sensory diet. Sophie needs more time to develop her fine and gross motor skills, improve on her concentration and develop self-regulatory skills. This is probably due to the fact that she was born in December and thus younger than her peers in general. She will most definitely benefit from a smaller class size with minimal distraction.
We suspected that Sophie has got some allergies when both of us are tested positive for allergies such as wheat, dairy and dust mites. Based on the recent allergy tests that she has done, Sophie has no environmental allergies, however she has got many food allergies (mainly dairy, gluten, grains and eggs). Such food intakes will affect her health, behavior and mood negatively. Through elimination, we have seen a significant improvement in her overall wellbeing over the past few weeks. It is very difficult to restrict her diet in a school environment and she is not ready to decide among the limited food options in the canteen.
Reason(s) Supporting the Application for Exemption from CE
1. Home Infrastructure & Resources
We have already set up a conducive home environment with appropriate infrastructure and a resource library to cater to our children’s current education needs. Regardless of the outcome of our application, we will continue to provide them with a comfortable and inviting place for knowledge acquisition We already have an activity routine set up for the children at home and Sophie’s schedule will be extended and designed to facilitate her daily learning and tracking of her learning goals. Proper documentation (e.g. journaling, assessments and reports) of Sophie’s learning, work and progress will be done. In anticipation that she will be using the Internet and doing computer work more often, we will invest in a tablet computer for her. We will download selected apps and videos for her to use for self study purposes and she will use the tablet for educational subscriptions such as Go-Easel and online learning.
2. Parents's Qualifications, Commitment & Dedication
Sophie’s stay-at-home mother, who is an ex-MOE Education Officer as well as a trained Counsellor, will primarily teach her. Her father will cover topics on finance, music and sports since those are his forte and area of expertise. We have a domestic helper, thus we can devote our time to learning without compromising on our daily domestic operations or conditions. We are passionate about education and we are willing to invest our time, effort and financial resources on providing the most effective, efficient and enjoyable learning experience for our children. We believe in building a positive relationship with our children and through modeling, we can nurture and educate our children to be outstanding adults.
3. Good Support Network
We are involved in a support network of fellow homeschoolers, as well as enthusiastic parents of school going children, thus we can leverage on one another’ experience, expertise and resources. We also intend to run activities and organize field trips together to promote socialization and peer learning. In fact, we have already been doing that for a couple of years, at preschool level. We have run workshops (i.e. Mooncake Making and Art classes) and organized field trips (i.e. Central Fire Station and Science Centre Visit) for all the children in our families. Currently, we are working on plans to engage local tour agents to run some heritage tours and learning journeys next year in conjunction with the festive seasons. Family friends, who are current education officers, will help us benchmark Sophie and make sure we keep up with trends and education initiatives of MOE and schools.
Our Philosophy
We believe that no single philosophy or approach in education is superior so we ascribe to an eclectic method of homeschooling. However, we find that the Charlotte Mason method and the Montessori method are a close match to our own philosophy and approach to homeschooling and education in general. However, we are also fully aware of the NE and PSLE requirements, so we will still use MOE syllabus and cover the core curriculum while Sophie explores other learning opportunities.
We believe that education should be holistic, authentic, seamless, and learner-directed. Education involves the acquisition of knowledge, skills and cultivation of good habits of character at a pace suitable for the individual, in terms of motivation, ability and developmental appropriateness. Also, a child’s physical, social and emotional development should be emphasized as of equal importance to the cognitive development. The home environment is the most conducive and natural place to meet such education demands and goals. It serves as a mini-society with adults and children of mixed age groups and authentic daily activities. As parents, we hold the key to nurturing and supporting our children’s natural development into an integrated and contributing member of the society. We understand our children’s strengths, weaknesses, learning styles and needs best and through consistent parenting style and modeling, we can facilitate learning in a meaningful, effective and flexible manner.
According to the Montessori method, children go through 4 key developmental planes. There are specific needs to be satisfied and sensitivities to acquire a particular human trait on each plane. They also have natural tendencies that drive behavior and education should respond and facilitate their expression. The home environment is again emphasized to be a key component in education. It has to be designed and equipped with appropriate materials to suit the child’s developmental stage and allows freedom to act in accordance with natural behavioural tendencies.
Key Developmental Planes | Natural Human Tendencies |
Absorptive Period (0-6 years old) · development of self as an individual being · sensitive period for order, language, movement, refinement of the senses, weaning, numbers, and manners and courtesies | · Activity · Orientation · Order · Exploration · Communication · Work (also described as "purposeful activity") · Manipulation (of the environment) · Exactness · Repetition · Abstraction · Self-Perfection
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Intellectual or Conceptual (6-12 years old) · development of the social being · sensitive period for justice and moral judgment, social relationship, money and economic value, the abstract use of imagination, use of tools and machines, a sense of time and history, a sense of human culture and membership in the family of Man, and a sense of how the world works (science) |
Humanistic (12-18 years old) · birth of adult and finding one’s sense of self |
Specialization (18-24 years old) · consolidating the mature personality and becoming a specialized explorer |
Our Vision
To nurture and empower our children to becoming well-informed, competent and virtuous adults, who are productive and contributing members of the society.
Our Approach
Without a conducive home environment, Sophie’s learning and overall education might be compromised. Thus, we will set up the infrastructure and build up a resource library to cater to our education needs. We believe that learning should be integrated in our daily lives, thus she will not have official start or end of a typical homeschool day. Instead, we have a routine and timetable for her daily activities in a holistic manner. The schedule also facilitates our daily operations and enables us to stay on track with our learning goals. In short, we will cover the core curriculum in the early part of the day and then explore other subjects or topics at her pace.
Proper documentation (e.g. journaling, assessments and reports) of Sophie’s learning, work and progress will be done. As a Stay-At-Home Mum, I will be her primary caregiver and educator while her father will be involved in specific interests or topics and sports. We will both be modeling and conducting family discussions of the virtues to be inculcated. Typically, Sophie will learn through a balance mixture of direct instruction, self-directed or guided exploration, hands-on experimentation and real experience like field trips. She will be encouraged to be participative, productive, expressive and creative in her daily learning experience.
About Sophie
Sophie is by nature a competitive yet emotionally insecure perfectionist. In general, she learns best on her own and at her own pace, with minimal direct instruction. She is highly sociable and capable of interacting with others of all ages or cultural background. She can be very sensitive and empathic towards others. However, she takes everything and everyone too literally and seriously, resulting in high levels of frustrations and emotional strain at times. She needs a lot of help in regulating her emotions and controlling her physiological or behavioural manifestations before mastering self-management. She also needs a lot of support in character building to build her resilience and perseverance and flexibility. Sophie shows some signs of sensory processing issues so she requires a good sensory diet (i.e. sensory box activities) to help her cope with daily operations better. She is especially poor in concentration, thus she can really benefit from less distraction and a smaller class size when she is learning.
In terms of academics, Sophie has above average intelligence and her strengths are in the languages, predominantly English. She shows great interest and potential in natural science and visual arts as well. However, she is relatively weaker in Mathematics, thus she requires more help and effort in this area. Sophie will definitely perform well academically in a customized learning environment, pace and content, with appropriate peripheral support from us.
Sophie has many food allergies so we have to restrict her diet. It is near impossible to get affordable wheat-free, gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free (main allergens) meals unless we prepare the food for her. And it is not easy to find out if ready prepared food contains these allergens. Sophie also requires a lot of physical exercise to help develop her gross motor skills and coordination. Thus, we include some physical activities every morning. Based on Sophie’s physical, psychological and emotional needs, she will definitely benefit from homeschooling.
