But still I sent our first born into nursery school at 21mths. It was a lovely Montessorri style school. He loved it! But after a while, his principal approached me & said that I should consider HS-ing him. I was taken aback. Why would a teacher say that? Shouldn't she be pro-school? :) Ah! But she was an astute lady who has become a great friend today.

She'd noticed that he was very quick & learnt things very fast. He was way ahead of his peers in the academics arena. She said that he would be bored in a normal school. But we were expecting #3 & the thought of handling 3 small children & HS seemed impossible. So we did nothing!

But I couldn't get the thought out of my mind. So I decided to pray about it. On 16th May 2002, I told the Lord that if he wanted us to HS our children, He must send a sign! Oh how presumptuous of me! I even told him how I wanted the sign to be - that I must be invited to a homeschool event in Singapore. At that point in time, I knew no one who HSed & definitely had not heard of any HS events in Singapore. So i thought - ha! I found a way to get out of this one! But the Lord, in his grace & mercy answered me according to my little faith!

That very Sunday, 19th May 2002, a friend whom I have not met for the past year appears in the Church nursery & asked if I would like to join her in attending a HS Fair!!! If I had not been sitting down on the floor, I would have fallen over! And so we went & I found out that there was actually a small support group for HS-ers here in Singapore! At that point in time it was mostly made up of expatriates.

But still I wavered. I still had a lot of questions - should I or should I not? Will I be biting off more than I can chew??? And a few selfish questions were thrown in as well - think of all the time I can have if I pack them all off to school!

5th July 2002 - while I was doing my QT, the Lord spoke to me very clearly through Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged for the LORD your GOD will be with you wherever you go." Wow! I was confronted with the issue of obedience right smack in my face. Will I obey or not? God had already spoken. Will I then take God at His word that says He will be with me? Do I have the faith to trust God & just obey?

18th August 2002 - The Lord spoke again. This time through Heb 10:38 "But the righteous shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him" Yikes!

Then I found out I was expecting #4! Woah! It rocked us. I tried to ignore God's call. So #1 continued to attend his pre-school & we even (oh ye of little faith!) put #2 in the same school! We thought that could buy us some time. Also at this point in time, dh though agreeable to HSing, was not really 100% convinced.

As the time approached for us to register our 1st born for primary school, I started to pray & think about HS more & more. Deep down, I knew I could do it, not because I am some supermum :) But it was a simple belief that if God has called me to do this, He will equip me. "His grace is sufficient for me. 2 Cor 12:9

Then I came upon an article (I can't remember from which website) that said that HS-ing will not succeed if dad just went along with it. Dad had to be convinced that it is the way to take. Many HS-ers fail coz HSing was a path taken by mum with just a verbal endorsement from dad. That was not enough, the article said. Dad had to be the decision maker. Wow! I spoke with dh that very night. I said something to the effect of, "You have to decide. It doesn't matter what you decide. I will go with it. I believe & see the value of HS-ing but I also see the "convenience" of public schooling. So either way, I am fine." There! The ball was no longer in my court. What a relief! Now I understood why God put our husbands above us to protect & to guide us! :)

After much prayer, dh decided we will go for it. On 8th April 2004, we submitted our application for exemption from public schooling to MOE (Ministry of Education). On 28th April, 2004, we got our Certificate of Exemption! All MOE asked for was the name of the church we attended!

And so we embarked on our HS journey. In between all that excitement, we found out that #5 was on the way! :) What a ride! Oh! In case you were still wondering, we HS coz God told us to :) And we wanted to remember 1 Sam 15:22 "To obey is better than sacrifice."