January not only marks the beginning of a new calendar year for us here in Singapore, but also the beginning of a new school year.

Yesterday, Bubbles began her first day of Kindergarten.  Here in Singapore, our preschools offer a 3-4 year program:  2 years ago, Bubbles started with Pre-Nursery, a 1-1/2 hour daily playgroup that she absolutely loved.  In fact, I would never have sent her to school so young if she had not begged for 6 months before to go to school.  I don't know where she got this idea of going to school, as her brother and sister have been homeschooled as long as she can remember, but when our church kindergarten decided to offer a pre-nursery program, it seemed to fit the bill for us, and she jumped right in and never looked back.  2006, Bubbles was in Nursery, which began her years with a daily 3-hour program, and this year marks her first of 2 years of Kindergarten, commonly referred to as K1 here.

Today was the first day of homeschooling for Dancing Queen and Roboboy.  I got an idea from Creative Homeschooling's blog to get my kids more involved in organizing their own work by giving them a self-directed homeschooling checklist for each week.  This seems like a possible solution for the frequent struggles I have with getting dear Roboboy to get on with his work and get it done.  So today, after our morning devotions, I sat them down and explained our new system.  Basically, I let them know what I think is a reasonable goal for them to complete for each subject, and they are responsible to divide it up over the number of days they have for that subject in the week.  They can choose which subjects to work on, and how much to do, so long as they meet their overall goal for the week. 

Right now, they seem a bit ambivalent.  They're not sure if it's going to be easier for them or harder, probably because they have to be a little more responsible for organizing how they will complete the week's work, instead of me telling them what to do each day.  I think it will take a bit of adjusting for them, but in the end, it will be a good move forward to learning how to take responsibility for themselves.

This year also marks a major transition for us, in that, I decided last year to change our curriculum after 4 years with the same curriculum.  We made some gradual changes through the year, as we used up the last of our consumable curriculum, and didn't order any more, but today marks the first day we're not using it for any of our subjects at all.

I can truly affirm now that I am an eclectic  homeschooler.  As I've examined where we are and where we are going in our homeschooling journey, and chosen our curriculum, it is a mix and match of what I hope will better suit the children's needs.

We begin our day with devotions, using children's devotionals that I wrote myself for Scripture Union Singapore.  It will take the children on an overview of the entire Bible over the course of 3 years.  There are 2 titles, one designed for upper primaries that suits Dancing Queen, and the other for lower primaries that fits Roboboy to a T.  We also work on memory work and copy work.

Then we have a quick math timed test, to sharpen their memory on basic math skills.

After that, we move to self-directed subjects: math, English, science and history.  I'm using a combination of local curriculum (math and science) with other various materials and notebooking for these subjects.  The children will take turns spending individual time with me as and when they need my input on their lessons, with the other child doing writing, notebooking, or other book work. 

We will also begin picture studies and music studies this year, which I have done irregularly and infrequently until now.  Lindafay over at Higher Up and Further In provided some great information about how she does picture studies in a post on her blog.  Thanks, Linda!

Add to that quiet reading, weekly instrument lessons and daily practice, weekly swimming lessons, almost daily romps at the playground (weather permitting) and their study of Chinese language, and we've got plenty to keep us busy.

One thing I hope to be more focused on this year is on building up the kids' life skills.  Dancing Queen is interested in fashion design, and, even though I'm not much of a seamstress at all, I guess we're going to be learning together.  Roboboy enjoys helping in the kitchen, so I want to build on that and help him learn to do some basic cooking for himself.  He also still struggles with handling money, and making change, so I want to work more on that with him as well.  They are responsible for keeping their rooms clean, but even though I have someone to help with domestic chores, I want to prepare my children for life and teach them more about doing laundry, ironing, and other household tasks too.  Already, they are both great at marketing.

So, we're off!  Roboboy is beginning Primary 4, and Dancing Queen is in Primary 6.  It's official!

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