SAHM Chew,


There is a Compulsory Education Branch in MOE. Look up the contact in Singapore Government Directory and and you can contact any of the officers there.

I didn’t put my kids for homeschooling in primary school but I’ve friends who have applied and they tell me that the MOE inspectors will come to your home to inspect and interview you on how you will be homeschooling your child before they approve.

Hi, I’ve attended this workshop myself in Australia with a certified instructor.


I love Betty Edwards approach to learning. I had a-ha moments about perception and seeing things for what they are and then translating into paper. It’s a bit hard to describe what the process is like but I would say I spent 8 hours drawing for 5 days and at the end of the 5 days, I was able to draw my own portrait.

That said, this way of learning to draw for amateurs and the level of detail in the process may be "painful" for those who want to be able to draw in a hurry.

It really depends on how young your kids are and how open they are to doing the exercises given.

There’s a lot of attention to detail and some parts can be highly technical. I’m not sure how the instructors would tailor & customise their approach for kids to make it more accessible to kids.

Although my kids are not dyslexic, when my DS1 struggled with reading at K2 many years ago, I went to attend an intensive course at Dyslexic Association of Singapore and discovered that the creative teaching methods (which is basically combining multi-sensorial emphasising especially kinaesthetic and visual methods) to help kids learn and I had an "ah-ha" moment that many of these methods work work for "normal" kids who are slower too!!


My DS who in spite of being in a montessori environment and was trained in phonics, was just taking very long to learn and could not remember what he learnt. When I applied what I had learnt, he made progress and eventually read some months later.

What I also learnt is that kids who are "slower" or have some of kind learning difficulty, often you need to deal with the working memory which is the short term memory.

Kinesthetic and visual methods work better because it goes into the right brain and build muscle memory. It does take a teacher/parent who is willing take the extra mile to come up with more visual and "game-like" strategies because the rich sensory experiences will create a better retention.

For times-table, which my DD2 struggled with, I tried Wheel Math for U which is a fun, visual way to learn math. For some kids, singing helps better too. There are lots of iPad apps for times-table songs.

My DD hated reading since she was a toddler and throughout primary school. Even when she was very young, and I tried to read to her, she would turn away after 5mins. I probably should have noticed how short her attention was. Only later that I discovered that she was ADHD.


Since she didn’t like reading, I was really frustrated how to help her to improve her language and comprehension. She speaks eloquently but naturally her spelling ability and vocabulary was limited. Later, I stumbled upon Audio CDs and because my DS3 enjoyed them very much and we played the CDs for the kids to fall asleep to, that DD found the joy of "reading" through listening. Then I also realized that DD is truly a kinesthetic-auditory type of learner. She is not a visual type of person and words drive her up the wall. I bought many audio cds, so my kids have a large collection of roald dahl, classics, etc. After listening to the exciting way the story is read, my kids were enticed to read the actual books themselves, including DD who hated to read.

But a miracle happened recently. Just a couple of months ago, as DD entered Sec 1, and a friend of mine passed a whole stack of Mr Midnight books. DD happened to pick up one of them and found she really enjoyed the mystery genre. Eversince then, she has been reading voraciously. Her vocabulary has noticeably improved and I see her experimenting with new words in her spoken written and language. Since then I’ve helped her select more mystery books and she enjoys local writers’ work. I think there are kids who haven’t found the kind of books they enjoy and when they do, they choose to enter into that world and discover the wonderful world of reading.

It can be an uphill task and sometimes you wonder when the turnaround will come. Do take heart. Sometimes it happens when you least expect it.

janet_lee88:

i really salute mummies who have 3 or more kids...how do you manage?


of course, with the first child, he/she get the best and will be the guinea pig.
i like how some of you mention about the child swallowing a coin and passing it out :rotflmao:

You are a wonderful mum too!! :snuggles: From your generous and open sharing, we know how much you put into your 2 kids. Actually women are really amazing people. Sometimes when you think you really can't take it, then somehow you can draw on internal strength to carry on despite lack of sleep, lack of $, lack of energy, lack of appreciation, etc...

I remember hubby never changed diapers for our first 3 kids....now he's in his 40's, mellowed so much - now can change diaper for No 4, can stay alone at home with him for hours, so nurturing and playful with No 4. It's really touching to watch.

I find that having kids at a later age is really different. As parents, we have more maturity (hopefully) and experience to deal with the stuff that comes along. These days, high fevers hardly faze us.... when DS4 wails and screams, we simply pick him up and know how to calm him down. We don't sweat over small stuff as when we were younger. It's really a different experience being an older parent.

Hi ftwmum, hopefully all the sharing so far helps you to come to terms with this sudden news. Your baby is already growing inside you and knows you’re his/her mama.


I gave birth to my 4th kid 2 years ago when I was in my 40’s. My number 3 came along in my late 30’s. My first two kids were in my early 30s. There is 11 years gap between my 1st child and 4th child. We only planned for one child and we had 3 bonus children. We were always surprised every time the next kid came long. I’m very clear I don’t want Number 5!!!

Anyway, I also feel it was difficult to have Number 2 because my first 2 kids were only 18 months apart. Always feeling tired. The initial years admittedly will be difficult. I’m not the maternal type. I’m a tiger mum who needs lots of sleep. I never breast-fed more than 1 nth, would become a monster with little sleep. After Number 1, I simply never had another child sleep in the same room with me anymore. Cannot take it. Sometimes, I just leave my kid to sleep with my husband so I’ll have sanity with enough sleep. Cannot stand breast-feeding. Felt so horrible when people talk about the wonders of breast-feeding. My kids still grow up very strong and healthy - hardly fall sick.

Early years, we struggled financially naturally since expenses are higher in the pre-school years.

Now that my older 2 are in their teens and Number 4 is in in toddler stage - what are my thoughts? I see my 2 older ones showing such amazing care for Number 4. They make better parents than I do!! haha! They carry DS4, play with him, feed him, bathe with him, babysit him, etc. DS4 loves his siblings so much and they love him back.

Yep, i’m quite a "bo-chap" mum by most standards when it comes to basic nurturing. Why am I sharing this with you… well I hope you will cut yourself some slack when it comes to caring for your 2nd one… maybe you won’t be as rigorous as it was with Number 1. It’s ok… maybe you’ll forget some of the stuff…it’s ok… maybe you’ll need more sleep…it’s ok…give yourself permission to care for yourself even as you feel you’re struggling to care for a little one… all over again…

Now that DS4 is 2+, he is sooo adorable…so different from the rest…giving us alot of joy and helping his older siblings to learn about responsibility and having fun…it’s really precious…that helps me to forget that when DS4 is taking PSLE, i’ll be old enough to be considered a grandma…yikes!!

Hope you’ll find some cheer and comfort from our sharing.

janet_lee88:

bean bear,

I emailed the co-ordinator who handles MT exemptions.
she told me daughter's case has been submitted to MOE...now it's up to them to consider :xedfingers: it will take about 3-4 months. so in the meantime I would have stress myself coaching her for 口试 and 作文 as preparation for SA1.

I suspect they get swarmed with requests especially for kids who apply at P6 level. I personally knew friends who applied during P6 year and it would be very fast.

In my case, it took about 2 mths when DD was in P5. Sometimes, MOE will have to communicate with the school special education officer or MT teacher to verify your application.

Sorry to say this Janet, if you \"help\" your child too much, then if your DD actually does well for MT, it may backfire your efforts to get exemption. To support your request for exemption, MOE will look for evidence that your DD is doing badly!!

janet_lee88:

it doesn't sound logical for a child to have to take MT again after 2-3 years.

for a language assessment to be given a validity period, that also sounds ridiculous. while I do understand there are many cases submitted to MOE seeking MT exemption, these are genuine cases and reports submitted are prepared by medical professionals. why put an expiry date on the reports?

Exactly!! Anyway, my DD who got the MT exemption letter from MOE stated very clearly that it's a permanent exemption. Whew!!

However, I do know of a friend whose child is in IB programme in SJI International, was previously exempted and not done Chinese for years, is now taking Chinese again as it is compulsory to take a 2nd language for the IB programme.

janet_lee88:

we just filled up the form for MT exemption, attached the language report, birth cert and the results based on the past 2 years. it was really tedious to get the language assessment done at a cost which we could afford.


from waiting 3 hours at cck polyclinic to get a referral to nuh and then the wait to see the child specialist and be referred to a speech therapist...6 months...oh yes, daughter had to see the psychologist as well. IF only we knew she has a language impairment way way earlier, she would not have to suffer since she entered kindy till now.

the ball is now in MOE's court. :xedfingers: and wait for the reply.

Just came across this thread. By the way Janet, the psychologist report for MT exemption lasts for 3 years. Had a friend who got early exemption for her son since P1, then had to apply for another psychologist assessment for P6 exemption. This happened 2 years ago.It was really unbelievable when I heard that. So do check if you get the exemption forever.

Hi bb_mom, it’s really tough and emotionally exhausting for you.


The OT used to tell me about getting DD to do "heavy" work like pushing heavy carton boxes across the room, do high intensity workouts, etc. This was supposed to help to release some of the pent-up "extra" energy they have inside so that they can be calm to do the mental work. We actually had quite a lot of fun doing that with DD. We also had bouncing ball activities that the OT had suggested for DD to do in between task. For eg after a 15 min work, she would do 2 mins of ball bouncing exercise then get back to work.

Over time, DD learnt to extend her attention. It’s a long process. Some days you see improvement, then some days, DD just cannot focus. There are ups and downs. But we learnt to look for signs of progress.

These days, I keep complimenting DD for her calmness, her neat desk (she used to be extremely untidy and even had fungus-growing bread in her bag), her getting her homework done, etc.

Of course, there’s improvement to be made but we look for ways to celebrate. With ADHD kids, I also find having a clear rewards and incentive system works well alongside the discipline system for undesirable behaviour. They need small rewards for good behaviour and you need to keep reinforcing the good behaviour consistently for one week and when they can do that after a week, they can be stretched to take a bigger step and keep rewarding them for that.

For eg, DD hates to read. She finds it boring and needs to move around and do stuff all the time. Finally this year, I started a reading with incentives scheme. 30 mins of reading every nite, sit down at the table to read continuously. When she has done it for 5 days, she gets a small reward (worth about $5 - eg milk shake at coffee bean). 2nd week - still 30 mins reading, but reward now gets bigger ($10 worth) and she is also challenged to read more complex stuff. We are now in our 4th week of this reading scheme. DD can be seen reading for even 1 hour without us telling her to do it. She is looking forward very much to her very big reward (worth about $20).

The similar kind of rewards scheme can be applied for behaviour too. It sounds a bit like dog-training. Well human beings need training too, right? especially when you’re dealing with kids whose behaviour drive you up the wall!!