National Examinations
Homeschooling has been a wonderful trip with my eldest, Ihsan, but this year, and the two years before, we have woken up to the fact that he has to take the national exams- PSLE (the Primary School Leaving Examinations). You can imagine me fumbling over what he needed catching up with, fresh out of school and with baby in tow. I have since calmed down and learned to have faith in my son and the work that I have put in over the years.
While most of us are rebels against these calibrated tests (others might differ and actually make this a focus of their homeschool), they are not as bad as some make them out to be. (Read: I have accepted the fact that my son might need that paper for entering higher institutions and that employers still mostly look at paper qualifications)
Test-taking is also a useful skill to have. Children learn to mentally and intellectually prepare themselves for it and learn to manage their time carrying out the task. I had my kids asking me questions (which is permissible within a certain boundary) and stopping for snack in the middle of an exam paper at home during the early days.
Tantrums had been thrown and even physical aversion displayed to exam papers. My children had since redirected their energy to trying to score better than before and performing better than their siblings, through no influence from me. The fact that we only have them twice a year (they don't take tests) also add a novelty status to examinations. (Don't ask me why but kids can act against your 'normal' thinking)
We have not been closely following the national syllabus and I have been blessed that Ihsan loves learning so much that we did not have that much catching up as I thought we needed. During the first phase of waking up to the fact that PSLE was not a decade away, I familiarised myself with the local syllabus through the syllabus available at the Ministry of Education (MOE). www.moe.edu.sg
The ministry does a real fine job with our syllabus and their vision for how our students should be taught and I must applaud them for their efforts. Those of you in other countries should check out your own ministry sites or if they are not available, you can try checking out from neighbourhood schools or teacher friends.
An indirect way of knowing what your child should be learning is of course through text and revision books, guides and exam papers. These can help you better understand some of the wide-ranging and seemingly endless stream of areas that need to be covered in formal syllabi. For Singapore at least, I find that school texts and workbooks are not a good indicator of the standard that children face in school. The standards tend to be higher and there are specific types of questions asked that only surface in revision papers, tests and exams. This is especially true for our infamous Math papers.
It is of course ideal to plan your lessons with state or national standards in mind and achieve targets set out for each grade. This is of course not always possible for all of us, and this is where having school books and papers on hand is a great help especially if you have multiple homeschoolers. To me it is possible to not follow traditional schooling methods to ensure your child does not get left out when the time comes for him to take state or national examinations.
It is however crucial that you have these requirements at the back of your minds and to regularly check back on them to ensure that you do not get too far off the course. Make a list and tick them off. Generally, I think a good curriculum, state, national or otherwise, would provide you with the best content and approach that your children need and this will translate to your child doing well in national exams because if he enjoys his learning experience, chances are he will learn more and be well-grounded in his understanding. You just need to let him practice, practice, practice (with enthusiasm of course!) when the time gets nearer so he does not get held back by technicalities like not knowing how to shade an OAS.
While most of us are rebels against these calibrated tests (others might differ and actually make this a focus of their homeschool), they are not as bad as some make them out to be. (Read: I have accepted the fact that my son might need that paper for entering higher institutions and that employers still mostly look at paper qualifications)
Test-taking is also a useful skill to have. Children learn to mentally and intellectually prepare themselves for it and learn to manage their time carrying out the task. I had my kids asking me questions (which is permissible within a certain boundary) and stopping for snack in the middle of an exam paper at home during the early days.
Tantrums had been thrown and even physical aversion displayed to exam papers. My children had since redirected their energy to trying to score better than before and performing better than their siblings, through no influence from me. The fact that we only have them twice a year (they don't take tests) also add a novelty status to examinations. (Don't ask me why but kids can act against your 'normal' thinking)
We have not been closely following the national syllabus and I have been blessed that Ihsan loves learning so much that we did not have that much catching up as I thought we needed. During the first phase of waking up to the fact that PSLE was not a decade away, I familiarised myself with the local syllabus through the syllabus available at the Ministry of Education (MOE). www.moe.edu.sg
The ministry does a real fine job with our syllabus and their vision for how our students should be taught and I must applaud them for their efforts. Those of you in other countries should check out your own ministry sites or if they are not available, you can try checking out from neighbourhood schools or teacher friends.
An indirect way of knowing what your child should be learning is of course through text and revision books, guides and exam papers. These can help you better understand some of the wide-ranging and seemingly endless stream of areas that need to be covered in formal syllabi. For Singapore at least, I find that school texts and workbooks are not a good indicator of the standard that children face in school. The standards tend to be higher and there are specific types of questions asked that only surface in revision papers, tests and exams. This is especially true for our infamous Math papers.
It is of course ideal to plan your lessons with state or national standards in mind and achieve targets set out for each grade. This is of course not always possible for all of us, and this is where having school books and papers on hand is a great help especially if you have multiple homeschoolers. To me it is possible to not follow traditional schooling methods to ensure your child does not get left out when the time comes for him to take state or national examinations.
It is however crucial that you have these requirements at the back of your minds and to regularly check back on them to ensure that you do not get too far off the course. Make a list and tick them off. Generally, I think a good curriculum, state, national or otherwise, would provide you with the best content and approach that your children need and this will translate to your child doing well in national exams because if he enjoys his learning experience, chances are he will learn more and be well-grounded in his understanding. You just need to let him practice, practice, practice (with enthusiasm of course!) when the time gets nearer so he does not get held back by technicalities like not knowing how to shade an OAS.
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