February 08, 2009
Reaching Higher is a free, monthly homeschool ezine to encourage and equip homeschoolers, bringing you the best advice, articles, websites and encouragement we can to help you as you raise your young ones and build your family legacy!
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Issue #26 - February 2008
No Guilt
Welcome to the first issue of this newsletter for 2009. We hope that by now you have settled in to the new school routine in your home. Each year there are adjustments to make, but usually homeschooling only gets better, because you are more confident, more experienced and usually a bit more organized too than previously.
Advice
There is only a limited amount of time in a day.
This might seem like an obvious statement…but homeschooling moms are good at feeling guilty because they don’t have limitless time to do all the things they think they should be doing.
If you are spending most of the morning doing school work and most afternoons running errands or taking your children to extra-murals, that means that in the evenings you can either take time to exercise, check emails and forums, spend time with your husband, pursue your own interests, prepare for the next day, attend meetings/classes or ‘whatever’.
On any given day, if you choose one of the above, you can’t do all the rest. Let’s say that again – you can’t do all the rest.
On the bright side, you could choose a different option on different days of the week and for different seasons….BUT YOU CAN’T DO EVERYTHING TODAY!
Sometimes we just have to face it and accept it that there are limitations as to how much we can do in any given season of our lives. Just make sure you make good choices and then there is no need for any guilt!
Articles
For years people have questioned the importance and relevance of history in the school curriculum. Many feel that there should be a greater emphasis on life skills and vocational education, rather than on such a traditional academic subject.
"The way in which the world develops has a relation to the way in which it was in the past. A community without history is like a person without a memory - incoherent." (Bernard Baylyn of Harvard University)
Read more about why we should study the history of South Africa
Free Printables
This month the free printable is a template of a newspaper page for your children to use. We use these as a different way to present narrations or for notebooking about current affairs.
You can download the new printable on our homeschool worksheets page.
Website Recommendation
Do you have children who love geography? Anyone have children who don’t like this subject?
This month’s website is for both! Geography lovers will firm up their knowledge and those who are reluctant to learn geography won't even realise that this is learning!
Geospy is a kid-safe game with National Geographic and will enhance your children’s world geography knowledge.
Footprints News
Remember our South African History Projects?
These are stand-alone lapbooks or the perfect go-along if you are studying Footprints On Our Land – South Africa’s Heritage.
Previously, they were priced in US dollars, but we are pleased to announce that you can now pay in rands.
The last two projects in this series, Gold and Diamonds and The South African War are ‘under construction’ and we hope to publish them in the near future. Watch this space!
Finally, you are invited to contact us by replying to this email. We'd love to hear from you if you have any topics about homeschooling that you'd like us to address in future editions of this newsletter or questions that need answers.
Till next month, we wish you every blessing
Wendy and Shirley
www.south-african-homeschool-curriculum.com
Footprints On Our Land - South African Homeschool Curriculum
