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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! If you enjoy this e-zine, please pay it forward and send it to a friend. Little Footprints l Heritage Program lHighschool Program l Projects Issue #29 - May 2009
How Big Is Your World?As homeschoolers we spend a lot of time in our homes. This is a good thing as it helps us focus on the most important things like parenting, schooling, training, building relationships and allows mom to spend time being a homemaker, organizing and cooking good meals for her family. There is a small concern though that this home based living can also cause inclusiveness which can narrow a family’s focus too much. This month’s ezine we will explore some ways that a home based family can make certain their focus is balanced. AdviceAs homeschoolers we should not aspire to raise our children in a bubble, but should be focusing ourselves on their future usefulness (as Charlotte Mason would say). This simply means that we should be raising them to be aware of what God wants them to do with the talents and skills He has planted in them. Their talents and skills were given to them by a generous God who wants then to use those giftings to further His Kingdom here on earth…but often this gets missed and the focus becomes about how skills and talents will be used to seek fame and fortune. It has been said that you can’t fix a problem if you don’t know that it exists. It is a wise parent who ensures that they do not burden a child with more information that what they need at their age, but by gently sharing God’s heart for the poor, widows and unsaved at the right stage, you will begin planting seeds of empathy in them which will grow and yield fruit at the right time. Reading times are one way to cater for this. Selecting read alouds about people who have done great things for God is a wonderful way to expose your children to the needs in this world. Some of our favorites have been George Mueller, Mother Teresa, Eric Liddell, Brother Andrew, Brother Yun and others. Another way that the homeschooling family can reach out to the unfortunate are through working together in a soup kitchen, helping at an orphanage, visiting children in hospital or donating items to mission shops or anti animal cruelty organizations. Our conversation and the conversation of our children should never be allowed to become so inwardly focused that all their talk is about the latest toys, videos, games, music, fashion, iPods, computers and other worldly attention grabbers. Free printablesThis month we have created a notebooking page for your children on Youth Day which is celebrated on the 16th of June each year. You can download it on our homeschool worksheets page. Website recommendationA simple way to widen your children’s focus is by reading the news. The problem is that most newspapers are not suitable sources of information for children. This problem is solved with this nugget - Learn The News is an email newspaper that is sent out every Tuesday. You simply print out the pages and read it over the week with your children. On Wednesday an accompanying worksheet comes to your inbox which you can choose to do with your children. Footprints NewsEach month we welcome more and more families into the Footprints community. These are families who want to learn more about South African history, get in touch with our wonderful natural resources or embrace a more literature based education. Our product range is expanding each year as we seek to stay up to date with what homeschoolers need. If you haven’t taken a year or two to study South Africa, then be sure to consider one of our programs – you won’t be sorry! Little Footprints Advertise with usWe have decided to open certain sections of our website for advertising space. If you have a product that will enhance ours or one that will help homeschoolers in South Africa we will consider your item for inclusion. Our advertising rates are competitive and we receive up to 500 visits per day as well as having an ezine readership of more than 700 homeschooling families each month – and it’s growing all the time! Be sure to contact us to find out more! Visit Our SponsorsTouch Masters is a mathematics manipulative learning tool for learners aged 3 -12 years of age. It helps develop number sense and place value related concepts. Touch Masters allows for operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division within number ranges from 0 – 1000. A detailed manual also accompanies the manipulatives with online remedial support service to maximaze the potencial of the tool and offer parents support in developing a sound foundation in the subject area of mathematics. Please go to www.touchmasters.co.za for more information or contact ccprinsloo@gmail.com That's all for this month, we wish you every blessing Wendy & Shirley www.south-african-homeschool-curriculum.com Footprints On Our Land - South African Homeschool Curriculum
"The way you help heal the world is you start with your own family." ~ Mother Teresa Copyright © 2011,www.south-african-homeschool-curriculum.com All rights reserved.  |
