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Issue #34 - December 2009

The Scenic Homeschool Route

We'd like to wish you and your family a blessed festive season.

We hope that it will be a time to build stronger relationships and to “recharge your batteries”.

We will be taking time out from our Footprints business, which means that emails might not be answered on a daily basis, but it will be 'business as usual' again after the New Year.

Advice

We had a great trip to Johannesburg to attend the homeschool expo earlier this month. Not only did it allow us time together, in real life, instead of chatting online, but we enjoyed putting faces to names of other homeschooling acquaintances.

After a day of talking to homeschoolers that visited our stand at the expo, the overall feeling was that many moms were feeling stressed out by their homeschooling curriculum and were looking for "permission" to relax and take “the scenic route”.

By “scenic route” we mean that they can work at their own pace and allow themselves time to add projects, outings or even educational trips to their mix of learning activities. They can deviate from the expected time schedule and adapt the programme to their specific situation.

We often say to parents that a curriculum should be a TOOL that you use, not a MASTER that drives you into SLAVERY to it.

There are so many factors that might affect how families homeschool – here are just a few:
~ the age of the children – teens or toddlers or a spread of ages
~ the number of children
~ the size of your home and whether or not you have domestic help
~ children's ability to help in the home
~ other activities – church involvement, community involvement, business activities etc.
~ special needs of children (or parent!)
~ attitudes and discipline issues
~ experience and confidence of the parent

These and many other factors will affect what you focus on and what you accomplish in your homeschooling. Remember, that pages completed in a book are not the only measure of your achievement...so don't just tick blocks and don't compare with the homeschooling family down the block or across the Net.

Just be diligent...and yes, feel free to hang up a “back soon” sign and take the scenic route!

Recommendations

We have often shared how we both have income generating websites that supplement our family incomes.

Since homeschooling moms generally don't work outside the home, building a website (or two) is an ideal way to earn some extra cash.

Site Build It! The product to which we both attribute our success have a BUY-ONE-GET-ONE-FREE offer at the moment, so you can join up with a partner and each save $100 or you can start one now and a second site any time within 9 months!

The special offer is for a limited time only.

Click on the banner below for more info.

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

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