Read and Read Some More

In an effort to seek out good reading material for my kids I went to Sonlight and took inventory of their readers. I have heard ongoing good reports on the quality of the readers they recommend and supply.

Fortunately I could get many of them locally at Loot.co.za.

I will just share with you the two 'official' readers we are looking at for this term:

1. Sarah, Plain and Tall

with a very thorough and detailed reading/study guide (free in pdf) Both my girls will be able to work through this guide at their specific level.



2. The Courage of Sarah Noble

PDF comprehension printables in chapter by chapter form  exercises are found here.

While both girls are avid readers I am trying to ensure they read books across a wide spectrum of genres. Historical fiction CAN be fun.....however they have learnt to dread that term and I am going to show them that it is, in fact, true!

Goodnight Mr Tom

Honey is currently reading Goodnight Mr Tom.

I decided to do some research on it and found some wonderful educational packs online. They vary from Grade 7 level up to Grade 12 so can be used for a wide variety of ages.

You can download the Word file here for the Senior Primary worksheet, guided reading documents as well as a free copy of the book via Amazon.

New Opportunity

Honey is home. Today is her first official day.

I have given much thought to how to play out this last term and due to her nature I have decided to spend most of it 'unschooling' her.

Her idea of homeschool is School At Home. She wants us to emulate school traditions and processes at home. We have had a few discussions about how it is going to be NOTHING like that and I do think she has some anxiety about how this new life will play out.

She is extremely academic and has thrived at school. Leaving for her was not a quick, knee-jerk response. It was a journey which I will ask her to share with you at some stage. Needless to say she has to learn to trust the process and trust me. Trust that I will get her where she needs to go (and further) and this may take some time.

Today we make collages and beginning a 'visioning' exercise. In these boards
they place anything that resonates with them around homeschool. A little window
for me into their dreams, fears and expectations.

We have agreed there will be no threats from either of us for this term (I wanna go back to school / I will send you back to school!) and that we will spend time re-looking at what learning and education really means to us. We will turn things upside down and back to front - like going to the beach or mountains all morning and come back and do school at 3pm.



Paradigms need to be shifted. Not just for her but for all of us. We also need to settle into the routine of being 3. It is a large adjustment for me to move from schooling one child to two and it does not escape me that next year it will probably be three!

And then there were TWO!

Yesterday was my eldest daughters last day of formal schooling. Yes, it has finally come to pass.

I had no intention of ever schooling my other kids when I took Lulu out in May. I had specific reasons for taking her out that did not apply to my other two kids however as time has gone by my thoughts have changed drastically about home education.

I am now in a place (and have been for about 2 months) where I really would like ALL my kids at home. The thought of taking them through their entire school career no longer daunts me. While I have fears and insecurities, like any parent, I am confident that I can provide a home  education of a very high standard.

I have had to WAIT for the right timing. I did not want to take Honey (Grade 6) out of school until she was ready. Initially the thought of homeschool was abhorrent to her; she could think of nothing worse. Slowly but surely little things have changed - I do believe it has been a journey for her - and she is so ready to try this adventure.

It seems just crazy to people as there are only 7 weeks of school left - why not wait until next year to take her out? I asked myself that question and all I came up with was WHY WAIT? There seemed no good reason to wait at all. So I didn't. :-)

Again, I have to say the school have been amazing. They support us fully; have provided me with the full terms worksheets/curriculum for use. This may be useful if she decides to return to Grade 7 in the new year - at least I have all the material and can catch her up. (worst case scenario!)

I have high hopes that my lad will join us next year, but that will be a post all on its' own!

Taking the Good with the Bad

It has been a mixed blessing kind of homeschool day.

This morning was rather horrendous as we tackled two Conquesta papers (English and Maths). The English was a breeze but while we have tackled multiplication, area and perimeter the Conquesta paper focused on division and fractions.

No matter how I tried to explain to Lulu that ultimately we would cover EVERYTHING in maths and that the sequence differs from school/country/curriculum she was just distraught and felt dumb. Anyway, disaster was averted after tea and toast; we persevered and she completed the test to the best of her ability. I glanced at it before handing it in and she did brilliantly - not sure why our kids underestimate themselves?

The one thing I am trying desparately to teach her is that getting stuff wrong DOES NOT equal failure. She is still so afraid to try answer things unless she is sure it will be the correct answer. School does this; of this I am convinced.

Slowly she is beginning to understand that through trial and error we grow and learn.

On the flipside we had some giggles today while studying Subject and Predictate - Mr Morton had us entertained! Even my Grade 6 daughter (who studied this early this year) thoroughly enjoy it and now says she understands the concept better than ever. Such a catchy tune I find myself humming ol' Mr Morton while folding the laundry!

Playing Around with English

 English is one of my favourite subjects to teach Lulu - there are so many options.  Spending time on grammar, parts of speech and the like is essential but thankfully so many other activities can keep it fresh and current; actually this can be said of all subjects if you take the time to brainstorm new ideas.


Some of the things we like to do include:

• writing blog posts
• book reviews 
• word searches
• writing letters
• summarising articles of interest 
• writing stories
• crossword puzzles
• reading a variety of books
• listening to stories or documentaries
• narration
• comprehension
• discussion

Comprehension exercise

I get such a kick out of some of her writing. This book review made me chuckle - see her response to  "What do you like least about the book?"  (I can see I was rather ambitious giving my poor kid unlined paper to write her answers!)

Every day continues to be an adventure - today she only did rote math, piano and art - the rest takes a backseat as she prepares mentally for her first tap Eisteddford this evening. The nerves are frayed and emotions sitting close to the surface.

Teaching Afrikaans

I have found it a bit of a challenge - this whole Afrikaans thing. In fact I have not addressed it all since Lulu came home 2 months ago.

I grew up in a dual-medium home; I went to an Afrikaans primary school for 4 years and I have always just understood the language. I do not speak it very often anymore but am completely competent in the language in terms of teaching it to a primary school level.

It is almost laughable to me that I have managed to raise three complete and utter 'rooinekkies' - they are clueless! My Grade 6 (formally educated) child can change a sentence from present tense to future or past tense but cannot tell you what the sentence actually means. Crazy.

Anyyyyyway, the point of my little rant is that I am scouring the net for afrikaans television programs from the 70's, 80's and 90's. It is generally well accepted that children learn best by engaging in a language regularly and what better way than to get them hooked on some fun programming.

They may well baulk at watching Liewe Heksie, Orkney Snork Nie, Nommer Asseblief and Trompie as it will be completely foreign but I am hoping that it will begin to instill in them a love for this quirky, descriptive language.

CHECKING IN

Our term is going well but we both miss Anne Frank. ;-)

Here is some of the work Lulu did around her life last term.

She loved learning about each person in the story

Understanding the key players in the story

We learnt about mind-maps - love her colourful rendition!

This term we have found that bouncing between the life of Mandela and doing Story of the World messed with the flow so we are finishing Book 1 SOTW this term and will do Mandela next term instead.

We are cruising through Math-U-See (MUS) Gamma and will probably finish up with this by the middle of the fourth term if not earlier. I am not pushing too hard as this curriculum is at Gr 4 level so she is well able to take her time and do plenty of consolidation. We will only begin our Gr 5 curriculum in the new year.

Life of Fred math continues to be our 'fun filler' when the drills of MUS get too much - Fred provides great humour and also shows her (us!) how maths is useful in EVERYDAY life.

With winter beginning to show itself we are enjoying knuckling down and working hard in our comfortable workspace - the kettle and toaster well at hand. Days like today I do wish I had all my sprogs home with me but for right now the other two are right where they need to be.

Story of the World

I am really loving this series.

Susan Bauer has written these books in such an engaging style - it certainly takes skill to keep the minds of both a child and an adult stimulated simultaneously.

Today I am busy printing out the lapbook exercises for the next 2 weeks as well as setting up visual timelines. These will definitely help ground the evolution of time and the visual display will be up for all my kids to begin to understand the evolution of our world and how we came to the present age.

An example of an 'in progress'  timeline (not mine)

Read here how one family used Story of the World.

Go here for a myriad of free resources (which we are using) for both Volume 1 and 2 of SOTW

Term 3

The new term is upon us.

Once again Lulu and I are gearing up - me eldest has decided she is not ready for homeschooling and would prefer to finish her primary schooling years in formal education....and we relook things for high school. I think she has showed great wisdom in her decision even though I would have been happy to school her at home.

This term holds all kinds of opportunities as I am now captain of this ship. Last term I took Lulu out of school mid-term and we kind of floundered around a bit finding a rhythm and seeing how best to play out the homeschool gig.

This term I have a very clear idea of how life is going to look.

Last term we studied the life of Anne Frank and it proved to be a wonderful experience; this term we will be looking at the remarkable life of our very own Nelson Mandela. Such a pertinent subject right now as the media spotlight falls on him daily; if only the world would let him pass in peace! There has been much discussion at home around who he was in the life of South Africans so it feels perfectly natural to take that into our classroom.

We will also be starting the fabulous Story of the World series - this book as been on my shelf for YEARS and I am so excited to have the opportunity to actually meander through it with Lulu.

This morning Lulu spent time refreshing her memory around bonds (addition/subtraction) using XtraMath.

From there she spent time painting a ceramic pot for a plant that is fast outgrowing its current home - while she did this I began reading the kids version of The Long Walk to Freedom.

Break time for her meant making herself a snack and playing with the dogs while I went out for a quick 5k run.

Last order of business today will be lesson 1 from our new Math-U-See Gamma Curriculum and then some narration from our book this morning.

Happy week to you all!

Media Coverage

"Movie stars Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, married in 1997, home school their two children alongwith Will’s nephew. Why? “For flexibility,” Pinkett Smith told anEssence reporter, “so they can stay with us when we travel, and also because the school system in this country—public and private—is designed for the industrial age. We’re in a technological age. We don’t want our kids to memorize. We want them to learn.” While home schooling may have particular appeal to celebrities, over the last decade families of all kinds have embraced the practice for widely varying reasons: no longer is home schooling exclusive to Christian fundamentalism and the countercultural Left. 

In short, home education is now being done by so many different kinds of people for so many different reasons that it no longer makes much sense to speak of it as a political movement or even a set of movements. Make no mistake: the veteran political movement is still going strong, as legislatures that attempt to increase regulations quickly discover. For a growing number of Americans, however, home schooling is just one option among many to consider, for a few months or for the entirety of a child’s schooling.

While large numbers of home-schooled kids transition to traditional schools in their teen years, home schooling for older children is a high-growth market, and there has been an explosion in innovative programs for them. Home schoolers have challenged and are increasingly overturning laws barring them from participation in high school sports and other extracurricular activities offered by public schools."


For the full article click here.

Schoolroom Mini-Makeover

I am in the process of re-working some small parts of our schoolroom. As a newbie homeschooler I am still figuring out what works for us and what doesnt.

In its former life it was my studio - a place where I used to paint, art-journal, create and generally get messy and try new things.

I am fortunate enough to still have a space like that (just not an entire room!)  it is now in a corner in our family/play room. We built this house 7 years ago and it has served our changing needs exceptionally well and now is no exception.

The first thing I did was take ownership of a carpet that a friend of mine was throwing out - I had it re-edged and it fits perfectly into the space. While I am not a fan of carpets (my entire house is wooden flooring) I can see and feel how much warmer the space has become as winter creeps in on us.

Of course, my THREE dogs love the new carpeted space and we have them for company most mornings.

2 out of 3 getting frisky!

I also spotted a real find at my local haberdashery store today - this material is just beautiful. The colours restful and the pattern engaging but not overbearing. It is a thick, heavy calico type fabric.

I will be enlisting the help of a very "Martha Stewart friend" who will be making two large roman blinds for the room. Will post a full look-see when all is done!


Do you have a special room where you school your kids?

Exam Season

Overheard in the school car park over the last few days:

'how long did Jack study for geography'

'i am so stressed, these exams just kill me and the kids'

'these kids have to learn that if they cant handle exam pressure they wont handle life as an adult'

'these exams are key; if Annie doesnt score well here her self esteem will be shattered'

'this week her anxiety has been at an all time high, the rescue remedy is almost finished!'

(all spoken by parents with kids Gr 5 and 6!)

I have a daughter in Grade 6 in a private school. A very small, friendly and laid back school but STILL she is battling to get to sleep at night and says her hand shakes so badly at the beginning of each exam that she cant write properly. She loves to learn and absorbs knowledge and new concepts with fervour. She is bright and capable and still, EXAMS frighten her to death.

On the flipside I have watched my homeschooled child just go from strength to strength - learning and growing and blossoming. Having these two children juxtaposed is just highlighting critical weak areas in our current system of education.

I keep quiet in the car park at school. I cannot enter into these discussions. I cannot be seen to be questioning the status quo but it makes me sad - the system has to change - our youngsters have so much more to offer if we just remove the Fear and Performance from their learning; without fear our kids know no bounds.

Notes from a 9yr old homeschooler

How is homeschooling different to regular school?

How homeschooling is different to real school is that number one I get to take breaks whenever I want number two is that I don't have to do orals and number three is that I get to spend a lot more time with my mom which I like.

Do you do more work, less work or the same as at school?

I think I do more work than I've ever done in my life.It's because my class was kind of slow in their work.

Do you miss your school life?Like your friends,assembly,plays,sports day?

I don't really miss my school life that much.I think I'm only going to miss sports day and assembly.Why  
because I liked seeing the skits in assembly and I enjoy winning sports day for my team.

Don't you get bored when you are all alone every morning?

Sometimes I get lonely and bored while my mom's out but most of the time I'm pretty happy to stay home alone.

What are your Top 3 favourite things about working at home?

My top three are my mom is there most of the time to help me,I get to do work on the laptop and I enjoy having my mom's company.

What is the worst thing?

My worst thing is doing my eye exercises.

Would you like your brother and sister to be home schooled?

I would like both of them here but I'd like Levi to come home when he's a bit older so he's not so boisterous!

Does your mom get irritated with you or is she a nice teacher?

My mom never ever gets irritated with me. I'm not lying.

What your morning routine? Do you do school in your pj's?

Yes sometimes I do school in my pj's and my morning routine is:eye exercises,maths and English and last of all timetables and  extra math on the laptop.

Do you have to do chores AND school work?

Yes i have to do chores AND school work.

Do you get homework?

No I don't get homework even if I don't finish something. I just do it the next day.

Do you do projects?

Yes I do do projects.

Do you write tests?

I don't write tests now but I think I'll do them in the future.

Will you go back to regular school one day?

I hope I won't go back to normal school because I'm enjoying being home schooled so much!

Settling in to a New Normal

We are definitely finding our groove. It is becoming increasingly difficult to send my other kids (particularly my elder daughter) to school each day. We are learning so much at home without even trying; it does seem only natural to have all of us involved in this process together.

Highlights this week:

Lulu's insta-maths (bonds/tables) is greatly improved. While they were good when she came home I didn't like the fact that it took her a few seconds to find the answers. I am weird like that, mental maths must be INSTANT - almost like a reflex. With the help of

xtramath.org  and the awesome tables games on multiplication.com we have perfected mental maths; but we drill every day - and it is a highlight!


Language continues to go well and am fortunate she thrives on the creative process of the English language.  Sentence construction including prepositions, verbs, adjectives, nouns aswell as homophones, synonyms - we covered it all this week. We will be doing consolidation next week in the form of book reviews, blogposts and other creative compositions.

We have covered our Anne Frank material (books, BBC mini series and YouTube) and will be putting together our project over the next few days - my plan is to simply have Lulu write the story as she remembers it unfolding; not to focus on tiny details but more on creative writing.

Next week we will be adding typing skills to our daily routine - this is such a fun and quirky introduction to typing for kids!

bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/flash/stage1.shtml

I watch this video this evening - Seth Godin is someone I find highly inspirational. I would highly recommend watching this if you have ever wondered exactly WHY we do school they way we do?

Be prepared to be challenged in your thinking!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXpbONjV1Jc

Extra Maths Anyone?

I have uncovered some unbelievable resources for anyone who wishes to enhance the child's math prowess.  This site has proven the most user friendly, clean and simply one so far.

I have registered all 3 of my children on

**XTRAMATH

it is a simple process where you sign up with your email address and add each of your children's names and grades. They are then assigned a pin number each. (takes 2 minutes to register)

The kids then login with your email account and their pin.

Their progress is monitored and reports are sent weekly and more detailed reports can be found online if you are concerned about any particular areas.

Lulu used it today. Each lesson (there is an online teacher ) is only a few minutes long with very engaging exercises. You are then forced to logout (some kids will be happy about that!) but have the option to use a '1-click log back in if you are a bit of a workaholic!

The site focuses on BASIC maths skills - bonds etc.

You can also find Xtramath on Facebook

** all reviewed sites will be found under RESOURCES for easy access on return to this site.

Reactions of My Other Kids

Pamie poses an interesting question. How do my other children respond to me homeschooling their sister?

Background: Lulu is in Gr 3 - currently homeschooled for the grand total of 1 week. ;-) Hooligan is in Gr 1 and Honey is in Gr 6 - both currently in regular school.

My IDEAL world looks like this:

All my kids at home with me. Learning together as a unit.

REALITY looks like this:

Hooligan loves school. He is an active, social and busy little boy. Staying at home with his mom and sisters is not something he is keen on doing At All. I also harbour my own fears of teaching a child so young - I feel insecure about instilling the basics of reading, writing and maths. I am willing to re-look this when he reaches intermediate phase if it is something he would like to do.

Honey loves school although she is feeling sidelined right now. She would like to join Lulu and I. I would LOVE this but I do feel that she will ultimately be unhappy. She will miss her friends. She will miss the buzz, excitement and the whole school experience. I tread a fine line with her as it could appear that I favour her younger sister and exclude her. I do have a plan in place to remedy this.

At 1pm today I plan to go and see her ***teacher. I plan to take her out of school for approximately a month next term. We will see how she  {and I} copes and if she feels she is ready to 'give it all up' we will consider bringing her home for Gr 7.

The thought of having all three kids at home with me every day is overwhelming to say the least.

Taking baby-steps is how I am going to get to my destination. The goal is clear, the path undetermined as yet.

*** edited to add: spoke to teacher, fully supports my plan to the extent that she will supply me with all content required to school from home as I see fit. I am extremely fortunate that our school is completely supportive and encourages informal education, in fact, partners with many of us.

Finding our Groove

Our days have naturally begun to evolve.

Despite popular opinion we felt no need to take an 'unschooling' season. We have easily adapted into a pattern of work that suits us.

Our basic schedule looks like this at the moment:

1. Eye exercises (10mins)

2. Mathematics (up to 30mins sometimes longer)

3. English can take many forms : read aloud, self reading, comprehension, copy work, poetry  or grammar / language worksheets.

We have touched on other sciences this week which have included:

History - Reading Modern Day Hero series (Anne Frank) and discussing the Holocaust.

Geography - using our world map to locate all the countries involved in WW2

Science - introduction to electricity, building a circuit, conductors and understanding how traffic lights work. 

We have looked at basic capacity measures while baking as well as estimations.


What have I learnt this week?

Watching her reading about Anne Frank has show me how much she loves to learn about people - their experiences, achievements, challenges and circumstances. With this knowledge I will begin to look at history/geography and science through the eyes of people who lived in the eras we plan to study.

I have also seen the capacity for retaining information is directly proportional to their interest in the subject.

EPIC 2020

To some of you this has seemed like a huge surprise - the fact that I have decided to attempt informal education.

The truth of the matter is that for many months, probably close to a year I have been watching and following many educational blogs, TED TV and other highly controversial education gurus.

Some of it was crazy. Some of it was scary. Some of it was downright stupid but on the whole, most of it was jaw-dropping stuff. In a good way.  

From time to time I will share some of the videos that have helped shape my thinking and led me to believe that I can take a risk; that stepping out of the norm is NOT unwise but possibly the path on which a new norm will follow.

This particular video references Kahn Academy - which we will be using. 

I share these, not to critise current systems of education but to awaken new ideas and possibilities as our kids face a future far different from the one we currently embrace.

I have to tell you that watching this video left me feeling pretty unsettled but as

Martin Van Der Werf, The College of Education Blog says: 

Will higher education collapse in this manner? No, this is far too simplistic. But are there grains of truth and seeds of nightmares in this? I would argue Yes. This video should inspire a mixture of guffaws, inspiration, and feelings of dread in just about anyone who watches it. So, if nothing else, Sams has succeeded in starting a dialogue that any college thinking seriously about its future needs to have.”

Go on, make yourself cofffee and take 10minutes to watch and leave your thoughts!

CHOOSING A CURRICULUM

This was  by far my biggest concern when I began thinking about informal education.

How do I know what to teach my child?

Do I have to buy a full package from one supplier to ensure I get all the stuff?

Can I use bits from different places?

How do I make sure I dont leave out big gaps of importance?

Is one curriculum geared for specific learner types?

Can I use an international curriculum or should I look at a South African based one?

*****************

Bear in mind I only START schooling on Monday so I am by NO MEANS an expert on choosing a curriculum! In fact I still cant answer some of those questions conclusively. All I am doing is simply sharing my experience and decision- making to date. 

The first thing I did was GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE and then GOOGLE some more. Of course you knew that, right?! And I joined the facebook page for Western Cape Homeschoolers.  ;-)

I then met with not one, not two, not three but FOUR seasoned homeschoolers. Not strangers but close friends with whom I have a deep, meaningful honest relationships. People who know me, know Lulu and understand our strengths and weaknesses.

They showed me how they are schooling their kids (ranging in age from 8-18) and how they use resources from everywhere - bits of formal curriculums, books from Readers Warehouse, books off Kindle and of course, endless resources online!

For Lulu, in Grade 3 right now, it boils down to this. Keep on top of Maths and Language. And read. Read. Read. And then read some more. 

For Maths I have a stock of workbooks I bought from Readers Warehouse that are set in line with the National Curriculum - complete with test schedules. I am also using KONOS Math-U-See Curriculum available from Oikus.

For English I have a range of workbooks, again from Readers Warehouse aswell as a comprehensive grammar workbook with set lessons and worksheets up to Grade 4. (borrowed from a friend) In addition to this I have ordered the Grade 4 LLATL resources, also from KONOS.

For Afrikaans I have yet to find suitable resources but I know where to look - for now I am well able to school her myself by creating lesson plans around topical issues as they have been doing in class.

The online offerings I will be using most often right now are :

Ambleside

Khan Academy

IXL Math Online

Currclick

I have narrowed it down to these for now but the offerings online are endless. I also have a large stock of iPad apps that will definitely be employed to bring about some variety and mobile learning - I will share these in another post.

BUT WHY?

Bringing *Lulu home, to school her, is by far the most monumental decision I think I have ever made in the short space of her young life.

She is an unusual child but quite capable of mainstream schooling. She is highly focussed, extremely academic and loves to learn. She is ambitious and structured and there is no reason to take her out of formal education except for the fact that I do believe I can do it better at home and with far less stress on us both.

Right now, the class environment she is in is simply not the most condusive to happy learning. There are various factors that lead me to believe she is bored, unstimulated and frustrated. To bring her home is an obvious OBVIOUS choice.

Of course, even though this has been quick, you must know it has been seriously ruminating in my mind for about 8 months, however its been hidden in my heart for close to 10 years.

I do believe that there are better ways to educate our kids than by doing what we have been doing for hundreds of years. I have seen real changes in education and the way kids learn but not enough to make me stand behind the Institution of Formal Schooling without question.

The most popular question to date (apart from the WHY?) is how do I know that what I am teaching them is the 'right thing' to teach them.

Hello? Who do you think sets the curriculum for your kids education? Why do you think 'that person' is more competent than you are to decide what your kids should learn? 

Just chew on that for a little while.

I did NOT take her out of school :

because she is not coping academically. Fact, she is a good 6 months ahead of her peers.

because she has troubled social relationships. Fact, she is a very popular member of her class.

because I want to school her with my beliefs. Fact, she is in a wonderful Christ-centred school.

because I want to only teach her what she wants to learn. Fact, she will be learning far more than she is currently, across a wider range of subjects.

because I don't want to get up in winter. Fact, I still have the other two in regular school.

What I do NOT know right now:

How long I will homeschool her.

If I will bring her siblings home eventually too.

How the next 6 months will look.

What I DO know right now:

Amazing people have fallen into my life

Incredible resources have fallen into my lap

My family is supportive and excited for us

Friends are supportive of us

I am not one of the 'norm' homeschool types and am prepared to draw outside the lines and possibly rattle some cages in the future.

Feel free to share your thoughts and questions. Or links to resources you think would help me!
I am by no means an expert but sometimes dialogues is good in terms of debunking popular homeschool myths and sharing knowledge.


(*names changed cos it makes me feel better even though there is not such thing as privacy online!)