Firstly, I must say we are not “kiasu” (Singaporean for “afraid to lose”) parents. Although we are starting our children early, it is not for the purpose of making them competitive in school.
Our lives must be purpose-driven from day one. As Christians, our purpose is not self-serving. We strive to be blessings to others, and we can only do so if we are equipped with the skills to solve others’ problems. We must not be slothful.
King Solomon had some choice words for the lazy:
“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.
How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.” (Proverbs 6)
We must sharpen our skills whenever we can.
Our Schedule
Our schedule is designed around our work-from-home days so that we can supervise our children when needed.
I divide the boys’ work into two primary activities: undirected and directed.
Undirected Activities:
These are tasks my mother-in-law can easily supervise. They are crucial since we are often at work and unable to direct the children’s learning. Undirected activities include:
- Reading for comprehension
- Memory exercises
- Writing unaided
- Simple assessment-book type work that requires practice
- Science activities involving observation, journaling (the precursor of data collection), and simple experiments
Directed Activities:
Whenever time permits, we tutor our children in directed learning to align them with Singapore’s Ministry of Education’s curriculum. This includes:
Even before they get into Primary school, we want them to be very comfortable with numbers. This includes simple arithmetic, handling of money, telling the time, amongst others.
I am rather particular about the use of the English language, so I’m pretty certain that they will have no difficulties. As for Chinese – wow, that deserves a whole blog post of its own!
And although Science formally enters their curriculum 3 years later, I feel there is no reason to wait. Science is fun, it is very big part of life and imparts very strong observation and analytical skill.
Personally, I am a big fan of science since I was a child. Ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer would be: scientist! However, circumstances in life happen – and yes, that’s for another blog post!
So here’s the fun part – I’m going to be developing my own learning material, based on the MOE curriculum. It can be used undirected, supervised by grandparents, with clear learning objectives. I will be sharing these in the future on this site!
Queuereus - Journaling our learning 
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