An Email from Yasmin ( minx77@yahoo.com )

Dear Wai Leng,

Thank you for the reply. As you can see, my kids are two years and eight month old. They are very young.  But up until six years old, the learning ability is tremendous.

What I am doing right now is to coach my kids at this tender age, what is usually taught at in kindergarten. Having a nine to six job is no help, because their home schooling starts at 7.00 pm after dinner until bedtime which is at the very latest, 9.00pm. And of course weekends, in the car on the way to Granny's place, or in the supermarket while grocery shopping. With all the time restrictions, they are picking up quite a lot of things.

I am still groping for a syllabus for them. As yet I have not had the privilege to study the Montessori method. The method I am currently using is a hotch  potch kind of method derived from my readings. If I have an extra half an hour when I get home from work and there is still light, I will take my boy for a nature walk. It is all spontaneous and nothing is structured, which I would like to have. What I mean is a planned activity to introduce new stuff.

I am working on my own now, exploring ideas on child development and education through the internet which is my main source. (Maybe you can recommend some sites)

I have my reservation to commit myself to a bigger community thing right now (for example to start a homeschooling syllabus with more people) I know it is beneficial but I am afraid that I cannot commmit the time. If I start this I know I will be obssessed in it.

I tell you what, I am currently undergoing a process to make an important decision. That is to quit my current job and to take up a job which will give flexi hours but unpredictable income as opposed to my steady income right now. It will be a huge difference because our family really depend on my steady income. I feel if I can have flexi time than I can commit myself more
to developing the homeschooling idea (which is very appealing to me) with you.

It's the future of our kids we are talking about here, I know... and something can be done. As for the time being I am more comfortable communicating through e-mail. I am sorry about this, but I know I will have to start doing something about this soon because my kids are growing fast. Let me make my career decision first.

Some background about me.

Interests: Child development, pschology, self improvement, cooking and generally helping people.

Education: Bsc Urban Estate Management

I am a verocious reader in the areas of my interest, I love surfing the net for new ideas. I love teaching and have been doing brief teaching stints. I am in my mid twenties, have a strong urge to do something to the community.

I look forward to working with you for the sake of our young Malaysians but I seek your understanding on my position right now. Financial freedom is not mine yet at this moment and our young family need to survive these tough times. I hope you don't abandon me but keep on with our emails.

Thanks and keep up the good work.


Yasmin

• Home education: You are not alone (shilarazlan, 06/20/2003 )
  My name is Shila from Penang, a mother of a bubbly 2.5 year old boy. When I read the article "Thoughts about Home education" by Yasmin, I know that I am not alone. Like most Malaysian mothers, I am too having a full time, very demanding career. Most of the times, when things get tough, I have thought about quitting and changing to a more family friendly career. Like Yasmin too, steady income is one of the issues that holding me back.

  I am very keen on home education especially after doing some (pre-school)school hunting for my son. No doubt it was only pre-school, but what a tough search it was. I have been searching for about a year now, and I still haven't find any suitable school for my soon to be 3 year old. I have talked briefly with my hubby the idea of home education, but he's not too fancy about it. The major issue is socialization. I know I need to research more on this to convince both my hubby and myself of the benefits of home education. After all, we are all on this boat with the same aim; the best for our children and the future of Malaysia.

  I am seriously putting home education as one of my options. Looking forward to exchange ideas with all especially those in Penang area. Please feel free to share with me for any idea, suggestion, thoughts on this issue. I have joined several support group on the internet for home educators. They are mainly in USA,Europe and New Zealand. I am both surprise and glad to learn that quite a number of Malaysians are into the ideas. It shows that I am not alone. Thanks for your website for being the portal for us parents searching for the best of our children. Keep up the excellent effort. Malaysia future is truly dependent on individuals like all of you who knows your priorities. Children comes first, and there's no better time to educate them to be a wholesome human being than the early formative years.

  There are stil quite some issue need to be addressed like syllabus, socialization, scholarship and acceptance to tertiary education, to name a few. Hope we can learn from each other for our children's sake.

  Shila Razlan Penang