I am not a qualified teacher, but am homeschooling my children.

Rebekka - posted on 06/16/2009

thanks so much for your kind words of encouragement Christy and Rebecca!



Rebecca I do try and intergrate the housework with learning, but find it can only go so far in terms of teaching and learning. It helps with most of the cognative aspects, but I am needing to get into a much stricter routine with myself to cope with the load! I also want to spend more time on the basics of neatness, letter structure, spelling and that sort of thing, and at the moment can't find where to fit it in! My children also plan to start some sporting and music activities by the end of July... so I will be taxi on some afternoons as well.



I am grateful to have such positive feedback from you both and will most definately take up the offer of advice and help as I get "stuck"



One of the things I am having a struggle with now is weaning my baby from the breast. I managed to get the others off by one or two years, but my baby is very persistant and wilfull! She is two year old now and only drinks in the early morning hours when she wakes up. I am too exhausted that time of the morning to refuse her and deal with the crying or nagging etc..

Rebekka - posted on 06/16/2009

Quoting Christy:


You mentioned you are using some curriculum from the United States, I was curious where you got it from?

I have many resources I've found online and suggestions for teaching different subject areas. What are you specifically looking for help with? Subject area?


Christy

Hi Christy.

I get our material from a pioneer homeschooling family in our country who have visited the Sates and secured rights with some curriculum providers to supply the demand here. They are: Konos unit stdies, Math u see by Steve Demme, LATLL and others like Poetry memorisation and a lesser known Phonics course. Before we recieved our books I did a lot of online research and used the resources there to set up lessons and worksheets. It was really a LOT of work though (for 3 different grades) and I found myself getting to bed in the wee hours of the mornings every day for about 3 months! This has quite worn me down and although the children enjoyed it, it left me unresponsive and "dumb" during the daylight hours for about 3 months! 

 We also just read a lot. The older two read books of their own choice, and we are currently reading Terri Irwins book 'Steve and Me' as a read aloud. We do mostly nursery rhyms and kiddy songs with our two year old. She is just nuts about wild animals, and so many of her little picture books and toys revolve around this topic.  

At the moment my greatest challenge is getting a proper routine implimented! I have had enough of the unschooling, and we have to find a way of fitting in all the cleaning and gardening and schooling.... we have a big house and garden and WAY too many toys for the children! I am also a horder type person, and my husband is always starting a new project that never seems to get done. He works hard though and comes home late, so all the renovating is done in the evenings and weekends.

I find It works for me to do all the cleaning in about two days or so and keep the laundry and kitchen up to date every day along with bathrooms and vacuming and keeping the seedlings wet... our "classroom" time seems more often to be on the couch, diningroom and kitchen tables and sometimes the kids even work in bed in the mornings if it is cold!! They help a lot in the house and watch their little sister for me. I let them play outside as much as possible.

Somehow though, no matter how much house work I do, the house is never really "done". Laundry is the biggest battle, with 7 to 10 sets of clothes a day not counting linen and unexpected messes or illness... 

I am amazed at how much some homeschooling mums are able to do in a day!

Rebecca - posted on 06/15/2009

I whole heartidly believe in the benifits of homeschooling when done appropriatly. In your situation it seems the only choice is homeschooling regardless! I also commend you for taking your childrens education and care into your own hands.



Children learn best through play and real life experiances! Base your curriculum off thier interests and ability. You can teach every single subject in a real life manner. Get them involved in your housework and intergrate your curriculum so that there is more than one subject being taught at a time, it is how we (we as humans) learn best.



Baking and cooking teaches tonnes about science, math and real life skills. All your children, including the tot, can be involved in those activities and it is an activity the majority of children enjoy. When sorting your laundry get your youngest to help you out the little one will enjoy helping sort the colors.



Find out what your childrens passions are and work your curriculum around that, almost every subject can be tailored to include their passions, when you make education personal they will take an interest in it and do 10x better than sitting and doing rote and sheet worrk that is essentially meaningless to them.



A child has only learned when they can apply the knowledge to real life not when they can parrot bacck what they have read in a text. Sadly many do not realise this no matter what country you are in.



My son is in a preschool that keeps low class numbers (he currently has 10 classmates and three teacchers!) that respects a childs natural curiosity and want to learn. They recognize that children will naturally challenge themselves in all areas of education if it is based on their interests, needs and abilities. The same concepts and open classes that heis in now in preschool will follow him through until grade 9 (or age 15) when he moves out f preschool and into his school. I am fortunate enough to have a school system that teaches that way ( we are in Canada BTW, although our school systems vary not only be province but by district, and the teacher herself makes a world of differance to how the curriculum is presented).



Feel free to ask me any questions I could bounce some ideas around with you on lesson plans. It is always nice to have more than yourself to generate ideas from :)

Christy - posted on 05/22/2009

Rebekka,



Good for you to have so much passion for your children's education. I am a teacher in the United States and have taught children from the ages of 8 to 11. I am a certified teacher and have an additional certification in Reading and Literacy for children 5-18 years.



You mentioned you are using some curriculum from the United States, I was curious where you got it from? All of our states have different standards and there are some differences. I am from Illinois and we have a very diverse population in our state. We have children with limited resources along with very wealthy students. The state standards/goals were written to meet all their needs.



I have many resources I've found online and suggestions for teaching different subject areas. What are you specifically looking for help with? Subject area?



As for your 2 year old, I have a 2 year old too and she is always learning. It is important to keep exposing your little one to the educational setting you have already created. Here in the States my daughter is in a pre-school class and is learning letters, numbers, shapes, colors, days of the week, how to spell her name, cut with scissors, and her vocabulary is increasing so quickly it seems she maturing by the minute.



I wish you all the best. You sound like a mom who truely has her children's best interests in mind. Homeschooling is not very popular with conventional teachers in the States, however in your situation I think it sounds like your ONLY option.



Christy

Rebekka - posted on 05/17/2009

Hi Helen.



HOW to even begin to answer that question! I think it is different for each family that takes this sort of step. Many people ask this, but don't really want to know the answer, it seems to sometimes be a starting point for something they would actually like to tell me about what they think I should be doing. I am not sure if you have been considering home schooling, and what your reasons might be, but I can only really answer for our family and our unique circumstances.



We live in a Country of Extreme diversity, and this goes for everything! The very main reason that even got me started thinking about home schooling, is the very direct impact schooling had on my children (negative impact that is) In a nutshell, school was teaching them to become sexist, racist, unforgiving, timid, afraid and unable to use their minds creatively - or at all sometimes.



I tried different schools, had uncountable meetings with teachers, heads of departments, principals, therapists, psychologists and parent groups... and kept on coming to the same conclusion. "Christian", public and private schools had the same common denominator - "educators" that encouraged unhealthy competetive behaviour, (Dog eat Dog sort of mentality) That ultimately got the children into defense mode the minute they stepped into school. The teachers (and I know there are some really fantastic ones) used the children against each other to acheive results (humiliated them by rediculing them in front of the class with their mistakes), lied to the parents and/or the schools about their qualifications, marked so much of the work wrong that it caused confusion, demerited children for very petty instances and ignored serious bullying and bad language etc (if your parent is friends with the teacher...) and the list goes on and on and on...



The most profound problem for me was the fact that in all the time they were at school, I could only count 5 teachers who seemed to have the emotional and intelectual inteligence to even discuss any given "subject" topic with the children - I know this sounds so bizaare, and very concieted, but I am so so so tired of the "Pollyanna" type attitude about the very real and tragic situation in our country, and this response to your question is really a blatantly truthful and unbiased accout of the past four years of our formal "schooling" experience. ( I must add here, that their experience is by no means unique, and in comparison to most of the parents I discuss this with, our issues have been mild and few. Also, our experience has been limited to public schools and "cheaper, Christian" private schooling.)



Other than the complete obliteration of affordable and reliable educational training for our children, it has became dangerous at the primary schools for them. Sharpened rulers, stabbings, rape in the toilets by other children, drugs, and of course, abuse by the odd teacher has not become "common".... It is almost commonplace now. Another factor is that in our area, all the high schools (at the time of enquiry one year ago) did not have more than 2 teachers (collectively) that gave instruction in their mother tounge. This causes a very serious communication issue between them and the learners.



We decided that we wanted more for our children, and homeschooling is the only alternative. Even after all this, I took a couple of years to actually make the final decision and take the plunge, and this only after I did some serious introspection and tons of research. (In retrospect I berate myself for not doing it sooner)



Travelling to school and back is also an issue. We have no public transport system (no trains or busses) and our road death rate is currently top of the pops in the world! Added to that, there is now also a regular occurance of hijackings and isolated kidnappings from outside the school gates in the mornings and afternoons - so that eliminated the sport (which by the way is no longer part of schooling - a kind dad who has no experience or employment usually sees to the coaching)



Our lives here are in constant danger. We live in Jails ourselves to keep it out. My children cannot even take a walk to the park, and if they do, all they will find there is rusted metal, broken bottles and thorn infested grass. Our municipalities do not look after anything other than their own financial gain, and most communities are now getting together to fix parks, trim trees, mow the lawns and some are even fixing their own roads! (but we still pay rates and taxes, or they will switch off our water and lights).



Having said all that, we are very blessed with children who have no learning difficulties or personal problems and hang ups. Since starting homeschooling, my more timid daughter has become demonstrative, confident and happier! At this stage, I am taking the actual formal schooling very slow, as it is a huge adjustment for all of us. We do make a concerted effort for the children to visit with their friends, and as for life experiences.... well, what can anyone learn from someone your own age whose life experiences are also limited to a four walled classroom; who does not speak your language, steals your food and money and clothes and to whom you may not speak if you could anyway because the teacher will not allow it. The only interaction that is experienced in the classroom is specifically designed and orchestrated and then implimented to achieve only one right answer, and there is no room for origional or lateral thinking. In what way is that a life experience? - certianly it teaches one how to duck and dive through school, and how to handle dictator type instruction, but then where is the space for development and learning?



Unfortunately we cannot afford to send our brood to a Montesori school (which also offers no sport by the way) or Private schools hours away from home, but we have learned in our 6 months of homeschooling that there is more to the rigid communist type approach to training young minds. I am very priviledged to have had the opportunities to go to wonderful schools with accomplished staff, but my children do not have the same opportunities.



We are allowed to homeshool and the laws are very clear on the matter, but home schoolers are very bullied by the authorities. There are many curriculums to choose from, some South African, mostly American and British however. I am using an American curriculum as I found the British ones too similar to South Africa in the manner of question formulating - there is much more trick questioning going on than is nessesary or appropriate and this tends to limit the amount of information and the depth with which one can address any topic. Due to the more advanced yet easy-going style of information sharing and research type learning, the Children have had to be put back one or two years in most of their work to enable them to catch up to the standard they should be on. It is still early days for us, and I am hoping that their levels will even out soon (comparitively to a global standard, since we no longer have a standard) - "Higher Education" here is when you have passed grade 10 to 12 ....



Spiritually, we have grown as a family through this change, and we have more time for each other and the children have a far deeper respect and understanding for each other and us. they have learned to do all the housework excep ironing, and we are about to put up a greenhouse to grow our own vegetables - this will be an invaluable life experence, along with the involvement they will begin to develop later this year with rehabilitation animal shelter and next year a childrens home for abused children. My older children 12, 10 and 7, know more about pregnancy, birth and childcare than some mothers I meet. They are all able to bathe, dress, feed and change the baby. The older two can shop from a list and make payment, cook basic breakfasts and things like frozen veg and saugage, make hamburgers and milkshakes. They understand the importance of excercise and know exactly what good nutrition is. Their life experience so far includes banking, business stucture, marketing, politics, home improvement and other DIY, gardening, animal care, caring for the aged, very basic first aid (again, some times much more than some fully grown "well" educated adults from middle class backgrounds") and in my eldest Daughters case, active unassited childbirth. At the moment they are dealing with the very sensitive issue of homosexuality since we need to deal with the matter in our extended family. This has led to some sex education and setting of new boundries and learning how to relate with tact and discretion. They are very involved in REAL life, on a daily basis with real people of a variety of ages and all walks of life. We are christian people, and as such, reject no one,love everyone and still hold fast to our values, morals and biblical principles - it is sometimes very difficult, given the problems we experience. So we do not sue maintenence workers who take our money and not do the work - we do it ourselves and start saving again.... Our children are watching, participating, interacting and learning to build good stong characters with individual mindsets and well defined personalities that are truly their own.



Our children are mature, well rounded, happy and quick witted little people with already strongly formulated plans for their future carreers and travel plans! Even with all my

wonderful schooling and University education, I distinctly remember that all mine and many of my piers' life choices were taken from the multiple choice style "carreer guidence" we were given. for me the sky was the limit, for my children, the heavens are a starting point.

Helen - posted on 05/16/2009

just out of interest why do you home school. In the uk it is quite rare and the government don't let you unless you are qualified or your child has been expelled. You also get very closely monitored by them and have to stick to the national curriculum. Can you just teach what you like - don't you worry about limiting your childrens life experiences?

Rebekka - posted on 05/15/2009

Hi Christine. I have joined a group. It is a pretty wide group and encompasses a larger than just "local" area, but we get out with other home schoolers as and when the opportunity arises. My mom in law also helps by teaching the children a weekly lesson of Afrikaans as their second language. I am hoping to start teaching them French once our routine is more established... it is taking a lot longer than I anticipated! I am very fortunate that none of my children have any dificulties, and so my job is really just to provide the stimulation and then try to keep up! What I really battle with is getting all the housework and laundry and cooking done, and then also the transition between the different age groups at the same time. I must say the older children are a blessing, and so enjoy taking over and supervising the younger two!

My main concern is that I might give the children too much or too little to do. How do I know what the happy medium is for each of their ages. I am just using their attention span and level of active involvelment as a measure at the moment, but this might become unreliable if they are not in the mood, or perhaps just overworking themselves for credits... I am also not sure how much the two year old should be learning - I just leave her to play (literally under our feet) and she picks up so much. Her speech is impeccable and her vocab is very advanced, but she gets very very frustrated with herself when unable to express herself in words (she mimicks the others when telling stories or singing songs etc) and usually has a tearful tantrum and collapses on the floor from not being able to complete her thoughts into words... should I be keeping her away from most of the discourse? We just can't have her in day care here because of the terrible quality of care.

Christine - posted on 03/06/2009

I am not a qualified teacher but have taught before. Have you joined a homeschool group in your area? That is one of the best resources available. I have been blessed though, my neighbor and good friend is a kindergarten teacher and was the first person to diagnose my son's learning disability. It was on her advice that we began homeschooling. What sort of questions are you asking?