*Home schooling* A few years ago, I decided to look into home schooling as an option for my kids. The trigger was when my first child started mainstream school, and there were many challenges. At that time, I had looked at private schools, but my husband decided against it. I also looked at the possibility of transferring my child to another public school. I came across HS completely by accident. I saw a book in the library and posted it on my timeline. Little did I know that one of my friends from high school was the founder of the Malaysian home-schooling network facebook group. Other than HS I also tried home tuition, Kumon, Shichida, Maths Monkey, Living Classroom, and every other available option/s that existed in and around our neighbourhood. I read books, looked up websites, talked to other parents, talked to the Headmistress and other teachers, wrote letters, wrote emails, I did everything I could think of to help my child. I was glad to be able to research home schooling. I didnt know back then that it was an option in Malaysia, and was very surprised to learn that HS is well established here and the older generation of home schooled children had actually gone to university. The books said that families which chose to home school are biased, in that the parents are usually highly educated and very committed, not surprising, in my opinion, but many of the books were not based on the local scene. Part of any research would involve meeting the experts, and I was very interested in HS based on what I had read. I really looked forward to meeting the parents, and more importantly, the children. At that time, I was working as a lecturer in Taylors University School of Medicine. Since Taylors welcome HS children, I proposed to the Dean to have a session with invited HS families. It was a short 1 hour session, a talk about basic life support, which lasted a few minutes, followed by a hands on session with a mannequin. It was the first time I gave a talk to both children of varying ages and their parents concurrently, and I noticed everyone paid good attention. It was during the interactive session that I had a chance to really observe what the children were like. The youngest was probably four and the oldest around 16, I think. I was very impressed with the questions they asked at the end of the teaching, which were thinking questions, it showed that they had been actively engaged and had been thinking about what I was teaching. Maybe it would be unfair to compare them to medical students, but anyways, that was the impression I got. I was also very active in the facebook group, reading every post and every comment, asking a lot of questions, making new friends. Again, I was very impressed with the parents, they were extremely proactive, helpful and professional. Once I even posted about vaccinations when I knew some of the parents were, whats the term again, vaccine opposers. We had an interesting debate (in my opinion), everyone stuck to the topic, there were no personal attacks or misunderstandings or people getting emotional (which has happened in other groups when controversial issues are discussed). So, to me, it was very impressive. However, my husband did not support the idea. At present, we use a hybrid approach. I adapt any interesting strategy or idea or activity from the group (and there are plenty of interesting activities, all organised or promoted by the parents), while my children continue with public school. Anyone interested to know more about home schooling in Malaysia can search for the Malaysian home schooling network, read the about description of the group and then contact the admin. All the best!
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 23:31:11 +0000
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