Brenda3700:

I wanted my daughter to be independent, with critical and free thinking. It looks like home school has worked well for her. Her way of thinking is not contaminated by the exam-oriented education and she is not afraid of learning something new. In academics she was ahead of her peers by three to five years.

beanbear:

2ppaamm:

[quote=\"beanbear\"]Can anyone advise if a parent needs to seek exemption if a child is homeschooled from secondary level onwards? If a child attends primary school regularly then at secondary school, opts for homeschool, must we tell MOE?


What options are available in terms of syllabus for Secondary level? If I want my child to still have option to attend Singapore polytechnics or university, must we still work towards sitting for the \"O\" Levels & \"A\" Levels exams here?

Beanbear,
I homeschooled my daughter when she was in secondary school. She was already in a sec school. When we decided to homeschool, we just informed the school and took her out. Quite unlike Primary school when you have to fill out quite a few form and inform the school of the syllabus.

To get into Poly, you must finish GCE O levels, iGCSE or GCSE, or use IB. To get into Singapore university, you can choose from 'A' levels, IB, US Diploma. For universities, different faculties will have different criteria. And yes, you can homeschool your child and get him/her prepared for any university course, including medicine, law and engineering, the more 'heavy' courses. You just need to provide the right facilities at home.

Hope this helps.

kiasumom1:

was wondering if any full time stay at home parents can sign up for teaching courses to teach their own kids?

Yckuan:

If we want tho homeschool at sec one, do we have to apply for ce

beanbear:

2ppaamm:

[quote=\"beanbear\"]Can anyone advise if a parent needs to seek exemption if a child is homeschooled from secondary level onwards? If a child attends primary school regularly then at secondary school, opts for homeschool, must we tell MOE?

What options are available in terms of syllabus for Secondary level? If I want my child to still have option to attend Singapore polytechnics or university, must we still work towards sitting for the \"O\" Levels & \"A\" Levels exams here?

Beanbear,
I homeschooled my daughter when she was in secondary school. She was already in a sec school. When we decided to homeschool, we just informed the school and took her out. Quite unlike Primary school when you have to fill out quite a few form and inform the school of the syllabus.

To get into Poly, you must finish GCE O levels, iGCSE or GCSE, or use IB. To get into Singapore university, you can choose from 'A' levels, IB, US Diploma. For universities, different faculties will have different criteria. And yes, you can homeschool your child and get him/her prepared for any university course, including medicine, law and engineering, the more 'heavy' courses. You just need to provide the right facilities at home.

Hope this helps.

rosemaryherb:

not easy to get such approval. basically there must be very valid medical (can be psychological) grounds to get approval.

ammonite:

T:

Hi all,

I need advice. My child is currently in P1. He was in special needs school when he was in K1 and K2. Now, he is not coping well in Primary 1. What are the steps that I need to take to withdraw him from mainstream school and homeschool him myself.
Thanks for advice.

It has been a while for me so I will not attempt to give u advice on the latest restrictions, but generally if you can make a good case on why and how your child will be better off at home academically, MOE is not unreasonable. This can be based on medical and academic grounds. The fact that he has special needs will be good grounds, so make sure you have all the paperwork ready. Letters from school, doctors, teachers are also helpful.

The above is the why mainstream school is not right for him now. You also have to show how you can do a better job than the current arrangement.

The application form will ask for your qualifications, number of hours you can devote to your child's learning, what and how you intend to teach him/her. Be sure to also address how you intend to cover national education (racial harmony etc).

To summarize, you should contact MOE hoemschooling unit and someone will contact you to understand your current situation, see if all solutions have been explored, run through the obligations and restrictions so that you can understand what you re getting yourself into.
You can also check into our local homeschooling community, they are usually very helpful. (Google for both above).

If you decide to continue, MOE will send you the application form. After you send it in, someone will come to your house and interview both you and your child. Some people find it intrusive, but I personally think it is a very good safeguard for children welfare because once a child is out of the system, he/she can effectively be hidden away. You can also use this meeting to show the officer how prepared you are for homeschooling - books, learning manipulative etc. I set up a display table of some of the materials I have so that the officer can see that I do understand my child's learning needs. After the interview, the officer will write his/her recommendations, and also get a report from the school. All these will go in with your application which is subject to the approval of higher ups. The timeline for this is flexible.

For non urgent cases, processing is usually done at the end of the year. But there are sometimes exception, so it depends on how you make your case.

All the best!

T:

Hi all,

I need advice. My child is currently in P1. He was in special needs school when he was in K1 and K2. Now, he is not coping well in Primary 1. What are the steps that I need to take to withdraw him from mainstream school and homeschool him myself.
Thanks for advice.

mixthepancake:

Hello everyone, we're sort of out of focus now...too many questions still running in our heads. Here are a few ones I hope you don't mind giving advise with your experience.


I saw a few people here homeschool and still have full-time jobs. Do you mind me asking how many hours a day you spend teaching your child?

Most of our friends who homeschool are SAHMs and they all live either in US or AU. We don't know anyone doing it here in SG. My wife and I are both working and looking into homeschooling our eldest son for P1. Would it be possible for us to still homeschool our son? It will be like some sort of night-school because of course we can only do it after work...

I'm looking at the MOE website regarding applying to the CEU for the exemption but how do I actually apply? Is there a form or a page that I go to? I can't find it. How long would it take to get the results of the application?

With regards to the curriculum, I saw one site http://www.abeka.com come up on a few homeschooling sites. How do I present that curriculum to MOE? Do I have to purchase the kits before showing MOE?

Thank you very much