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Issue #36 - March 2010

Literature-rich Homeschooling Benefits

By now, the first term of the homeschooling year is over and hopefully you have settled in to your homeschooling routine.

Sometimes, it is soon after one has started that you start having doubts and second guesses about your choices and decisions. Particularly, when you hear about other products that other families are enjoying – you start wondering if there isn't something better out there.

There are also various camps within the homeschool community that use certain curricula and they will convince you that CURRICULUM X is the only one that will help your child to reach certain goals because of “this feature” or “that feature” of the programme.

Well, the following is an entertaining article that makes an excellent point and addresses the question – What is the Best Homeschool Curriculum?

Advice

1.Homeschooling is a JOURNEY. It doesn't end the way it begins. As you grow in experience, you grow in confidence and knowledge about homeschooling and your needs and even your goals may change.

2.No decision is cast in stone, especially with respect to your curriculum. You can expect that you might change your curriculum a few times until you find the right fit for your family. Remember the story of the boots!

3.Be aware of, and break any mindsets you may have about what homeschooling is when you start out. Most of us, especially us parents need some 'deschooling' to change the way we see education. Most of us need to renew our minds to rid ourselves of the classroom and text book style of learning that we were raised in for so many years of our education.

This is why this newsletter focuses on an alternative to TEXT book style learning.

Text books are generally written by a panel and usually contain

• basic facts


• point form summaries


• snippets of information like names, dates or other highlights

Living books by contrast, are detailed accounts, written by experts in their field or people who are or were passionately involved in the topic of their writings.

• E.g. A text book account of the life of Nelson Mandela would be very different to his autobiography or a biography of his life


• a text book chapter about horses would be very different to a story about horses like Black Beauty or a book like My Friend Flicka

Which type of book would be more likely to feed the mind and spark an interest in the subject matter?

More than 20 Benefits of Reading with Children

Research has shown that reading to children significantly raises their potential for academic and life-long success.

As you snuggle up to enjoy sharing a story with your children, you may be quite unaware of the host of benefits of reading that your children will enjoy that contributes to this success:

1. Reading encourages family bonding. The first benefit of reading is that your children will feel more loved because of the books you have shared.
For many children "love" is spelled “T-I-M-E” and reading together requires good quantities of time! Reading will also promote communication between parents and children.

• For a child whose love language is time, reading will fill his love tank.


• For a child whose love language is physical touch – cuddling up will express love to her.


• For a child whose love language is words of affirmation – there will be opportunities to discuss and praise her for her perception.


• For a child whose love language is acts of service – you are serving him by reading to him.


• For the child whose love language is gifts – well, buy her a lot of great stories and she’ll feel loved and adored too!

Children that know they are loved have a greater likelihood of succeeding in life.
(Read The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell for more on this topic.)

2. Routine - Regular reading contributes to predictability and routine in the home. If children know that every evening they will share a bedtime story or every morning a Bible story, they become secure in knowing what is expected at different times of the day. As a child, our neighbour’s children used to rush over to our house after school in the afternoon to join us in our daily read aloud of Heidi by Johanna Spyri.

3. Tradition - Another benefit of reading together is the establishment of a much loved family tradition.

4. Common experiences - Reading provides a family with shared experiences and a rich reserve of common knowledge from which to draw. We can use this to remind our children of life lessons and character training we have learned from the stories we have shared.
e.g. Remember how the little girl felt when she was excluded by the other children in A Hundred Dresses? We can also share jokes and humorous comments when we have the same information base from which the humour is drawn.

Click here to read the rest of the article: Benefits of Reading with Children

Tips

If you are convinced of the benefits of a literature-rich education for you and your children, you can now find a good list of recommended books and head off to the library to start searching for them or you can INVEST IN YOUR CHILDREN and start building a home library of excellent literature.

We know that times are tough and many people are trying to homeschool for as little as possible. By definition most homeschool families survive on one income but sadly many people don't value their children or their children's education.

We know a family whose daughter is passionate about ballet. From a young age she has attended classes and been taken to a ballet company for extra training so that she can pursue her passion to a professional level. This girl is now in high school and every Saturday her family drive to Cape Town (over an hour's drive) so that she can dance there too.

They are investing time and money into their daughter/sister. They are making a sacrifice.

This sends a message to her - "You are worth it." ...and you should see this girl: She has both grace and confidence that exceeds that of her school-going peers!

Now, we may not be raising prima ballerinas, but there is a lesson to learn from this family.

What we spend and sacrifice for good quality educational materials sends a message to our children. Be it books for a family library or other goods, it tells the children:

"Education is important to us and it is worth sacrificing other things for good educational materials. YOU and your education are worth it!"

There are also other benefits to investing in a carefully selected literature-based programme

1.Security for new homeschool parents
2. Quality resources provided – no need to sift out the twaddle or 'junk-food' for the mind!
3. Homeschool-friendly – many homeschool programmes are written by homeschoolers and are thus better suited to the homeschooling lifestyle than a school programme
4. Simplifies your life – all the ideas and planning has been done for you. Some even provide all the extra resources you might need.
5. Saves you time and research
6. Allows you to focus on your children
7. After-sales support from homeschool veterans/curriculum providers
8. Support groups with families using the same products

Click here for reviews of Literature-Based Homeschool Curricula

Free Printables

Let your children use this Free Book Review Template to keep a record of all the literature that you share together.

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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