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Thursday, September 16, 2010

I am not a Qualified Teacher, can I still Homeschool my Children?

This is a concern that parents, going into homeschool, have. It is also a question that I have been asked many times - "Are you qualified to teach?"

As parents, I believe, we are naturally born teachers. We teach our children how to eat, talk, walk and how to be pleasant, disciplined little people (or we should be anyhow).


The author of our curriculum, Ivana Ries, has said that it is much better if you do not have the strict routine that a teacher has become accustomed to. This is the beauty of homeschool, no one knows your children like you do and the way they learn best. Learning is not about getting an "A" or "B" on a report card, due to work crammed in the night before, never to be recalled again (sound familiar?) but rather an enrichment of our children's minds and in finding their natural interests and talents, furthering their knowledge for their futures.

We do not have a school bell that goes off at 07h45, line up at the door after a mad rush to get ready. Instead, we eat breakfast together as a family, do our morning hygiene routine, take our books outside and read under the trees, now that it is warmer of course. The other day we were reading in our bird watching book, part of our Zoology course and the Weaver birds were at work building their nest just above us - this is something my children will never forget, learning is alive and real for them. On fact, I often find them outside with the binoculars, watching the birds. I know when they write their assessment next week, without "learning" for it, there will be no problem recalling information.

When it gets a little warmer, we go inside for our disciplined subjects, English, Afrikaans and Mathematics. This is a quieter time, my oldest daughter does more self study and gets on with her work, while my time is spent with my youngest, teaching her the basics and giving a helping hand while she is still learning to read. So, learning happens naturally, you do not have to be qualified to teach enquiring minds that are curious about the world around them.

Our days are more peaceful now and best of all -

NO HOMEWORK IN THE AFTERNOON!!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Curriculum Choice??

After making the choice to homeschool, you are left with the daunting decision of what curriculum to follow.

There is an overwhelming choice of curriculum on the internet, which does not make this an easy choice. You want what is best for your children (which is why you have decided to homeschool) and a good curriculum is key.

I spent the good part of 6 months doing research before making the decision on which curriculum would be a good match for my children.

Some of the challenges I faced were the following:

* American and UK curriculum were fantastic but when it came to history and geography it seemed pointless.
* Some South African curriculum were very bland - my children would have been bored out of their minds doing packs of photostatted pages.
* Others are based on practical work, making objects rather than writing. While this has its place in learning, it should not be the only way.
* Then there are literature based curriculum, which are book based learning - this would send me running to the hills, never mind the fact that I would have to force my children to get excited about school every morning!

Finally, we settled on a curriculum that has "living books". When we took our children to view the curriculum, we could not get them away from the tables when the books were displayed - this was a very good indication to us of what type of curriculum to follow. We have a good balance of practical projects and literature too. Many of the core subjects are tailored for any type of learner you might have. All the lesson prep is done for you too! There is nothing left to say but -

Now we Love 2 Learn!