Home Education

I started to know homeschool about 4 or 5 years ago. I followed and learnt a lot from Mama Fiza, who was promoting homeschooling in Malaysia. As a working mother, I do not have a luxury to do homeschooling 100% for my 4 kids.

I don't know about other mummies, but as a young working mum, my job was my priority. Living 25km away from office forced me and Mr.Hubby to leave the house as early as 7am and we only reached home at 7pm or more. Weekends are the only time that we could really spend "Quality" time with the kids. And our definition of "Quality" time is to take the kids to shopping mall for grocery shopping and eating at fast food restaurant. These happened for many years before I encountered the concept of homeschooling the kids. I started to realize how wrong it was my way of educating the kids - they spent most of their time at home in front of TV, watching ASTRO. They even hardly played toys because of lack of creativity to do so. I didn't realize that creativity is something that has to be taught and inspired. I hate to say that I was a bad mum before I attended Mama Fiza's homeschool chat session. Just 1 session, I began to see where did I go wrong and I was determined to make it right.
 
4 years later...

I was still no where in homeschooling. It's easier said than done.
It was fun to do homeschool when your kids are young - just teach them basic stuffs - ABC, 123, basic maths and science, art and craft, creative play, so on and so on. But once they are in standard 3, you know homeschooling is not about fun anymore. This is a serious matter.

So, the concept of homeschool no longer interest me and I began to develop a new concept of "home education". The concept is a bit different than homeschool as my kids are all going to normal school. At the same time, their time at home is not about watching ASTRO. I'm still a working mum, but my priority has changed. I found a job that allowed me to work from home, so I have more time to spend with the kids than on the road and traffic jam.

My home education means a holistic approach in personal development. On top of school subjects, my kids will have their mum and dad to teach, coach and mentor them about other stuffs that they probably do not learn in school or they probably learnt but get it emphasized at home.

My kids only spend 6 hrs at normal school. At home, they will continue with my home education. Daily activities include learning / reciting al-Quran, solat jemaah, finishing homework if any, and complete worksheet on various subject. Weekly activity includes reading, martial art, art & craft, cleaning the house, cooking, and creative play. Sometimes they sell some of the things they made at school in an attempt to develop entrepreneurship. It sounds simple, but it has to be done conciously and with effort from me, as their mum.

Again, I'm not a big dreamer. I am ok if my kids do not score 100% in their exam, but they can do house chores suitable with their age, and able to develop other life skills. I'm still learning, still struggling to divide my time among my 4 kids that are learning at different stage and level. This is a journey of our home education.