Reaching Higher Homeschool Ezine, Issue #019

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Issue #19 - July 2008

Projects

Traditionally, school children create theme books about the various people groups of southern Africa, but as homeschooling moms and teachers, we have realized that for younger children, even with help and supervision, this can be quite an overwhelming task.

As homeschooling moms we often do not want to import the traditional school projects styles into our homes as these do not always work and then mom ends up doing the project instead of it being the child’s best effort.

Doing projects are great fun when they are linked to your children’s subject matter and not just done for the sake of having “something” to show others. Lapbooks offer a parent a chance to get their children colouring, cutting, folding and narrating all at the same time as you create an easy to store and display folder related to their studies.

Poster projects can also work for homes where there is place to display them. The few that our children have done have been laminated and are later stored in a cardboard tube once they have out lived their display time.

Ongoing research projects, photos and journaling can be done on the computer and saved to disc. We have a few of these saved into each child’s folder and they can add to them as they have the time and inspiration.

The key with projects is to not feel like you need to do them just because school children do them. Part of the reason this happens in schools is because teachers have to rely so much more on parents these days to “fill in the gap” due to lack of time, large class numbers or insufficient curriculum.

Advice

Studying South African history in some homeschools is low on the priority scale when a parent plans out their children’s course of study. This is perplexing to us at Footprints and particularly when we hear from our Footprints Families about how much fun they are having with our literature based curriculums.

We know that history is not everyone’s cup of tea, but Footprints is not only about history. Footprints encompasses all subjects excluding Maths and Afrikaans. When families study their own country they are in the unique position to create easy learning lifestyles as what their children are reading about in books, they can see, feel and experience first hand. Read more>>>

We also know that some folk only want the South African history section of Footprints and as it is a complete unit study, we are unable to split up our program to suit them. BUT here is the good news! Footprints On Our Land is now developing a series of project folders, commonly known in American homeschools as lapbooks, where you can choose an era in history or South African people group and do a fun easy in depth unit on a subject of your choice.

This means that even if you have a complete international curriculum which lacks South African history, you can take a week off and do the project, or simply fit it into your schooling times.

The first of these project folders is ready for you to purchase, download and enjoy with your children.

Go To San Project File

Free Printables

This month we have added a South African Trivia Quiz for your children to brush up on their South African general knowledge. You can download the worksheets from our free printable page

Websites

Not sure what a project folder/lapbook is? Take a look at this short video at YouTube

Footprints News

Curriculum Convention season is just around the corner! The first one is on the 16th August in Berario Johannesburg. Footprints and Sonlight Curriculum will be there. Shirley will be at the Footprints table and Wendy at the Sonlight one. Please be sure to diarise this date so that you can come and meet us and look at our products.

More info on this particular expo can be found at: Hope Forum

Following this is the Cape Town Expo on the 13 September and East London on the 11th October. Be sure to visit our Homeschool Events page to stay up to date with homeschool happenings around the country. If you would like us to advertise any outing or homeschool event please contact us with the details.

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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