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.
If you would like to subscribe, sign up at Reaching Higher.

End of year encouragement

The beginning of December hails in the end of the SouthAfrican school year. For many it will be a time of going away to seefamily andfriends around the country. Many moms with school children startpanickingbecause they now have to be with their children 24/7.

Whatabout those of us who have been with them all24/7/365? We are now looking forward to having the time to enjoypicnics ingreen spaces, trips to the beach or mountains, but still be togetherand enjoyour children.

Ifwe have planned well enough we already know what we aredoing with our children in terms of curriculum for next year and thisthenmeans we have long days at our disposal to enjoy life and take a deepbreath untilwe pick up the school books in January.

Some finish their year victoriously and others feel likethey didn’t do enough. But the trick here is not to look atthe last week orfew, but to look at your year as a total. This is why it’sgood to do portfoliosat the end of the year with your children. It gives you an overview ofyouryear and all the things you did. It helps you to focus less on thethings youmissed and more on the achievements of your year.

 Otherloose work like handwriting sheets and sportcertificates for example, can be added to the folders, we use aflip-file or anarch lever file with plastic sleeves. On Wendy’s site you canfind many freeprintable record keeping charts as well as an endof year report to use toplace your children’s learning areas into a portfolio.

Inthe Young home we go through the files with Dad on thelast day of term. We have a celebratory dinner and give each child acarefullychosen book to further their personal libraries. It is a time to whichwe alllook forward. Some support groups have a prize-giving or day of honourwhere parents can publicly reward their children for their schoolwork by presenting a certificate and speak a blessing over them.

Thisyear, I (Shirley) was using two Sonlight curricula with my twochildren of school going age. Since they come with detailed dailyschedules, Idid not pay much attention to record keeping and I have seldom botheredmuchwith any kind of assessment for them as I had a good idea of theirprogress.

However,when my step-daughter went to livewith her mom in September this year, she started school and I was askedto faxher 'marks' or some kind of assessment to theschool - I think so that theycould send her mom a report at the end of the term and have somethingon recordfor her.

Anyway,I sat down and wrote a report of whatshe had studied this year and then I decided to do one for my otherdaughtertoo, just for our purposes. This is something I have always wanted todo, butnever got around to do.

Click here to see the outline of my Homeschool Assessment

Teaching Toddlers Under 3

Thisis the latest in a bunch of enquirieswe havereceived about what to do with toddlers under 3.

Question:
My daughter is 14 months but I would like to start her on ahomeschoolingprogram when she turns 2 which will be inAugust 2007.  I know it isa long way away but I am doing research on the differentavailableprograms and yours has been highlighted to me. Could you perhaps letme know how this can be adjusted for her age as your brochure statesthat yourprogram is only from 3 yrs but can be adjusted for older oryoungerchildren.  Also let me know the costs involvedas well as any otherinformation that you think is important for me to know at thisstage.

Answer:

Myfirst word to you is: RELAX. At 14 months your childshould still be free to play and do whatever she wants, without thestress offormal learning activities. Consider these quotes by educationalexperts:

“Amother’s first duty to her children is to securefor them a quiet and growing time, a full six years of passivereceptive life,the waking part of it for the most part spent out in the freshair.”(Charlotte Mason)

 “The idea that parentsshould hurry reading,spelling, writing, or math ahead of children’s normaldevelopment is notsupported by a single replicable research study in the world or by anyclinicalexperience in history. All history, research and common sense points intheopposite direction! We repeat: Any who push the three R’searly deny thereadiness the Creator built in – reasonably mature vision,hearing, taste,touch, smell, reason, brain growth, coordination – as clearlydocumented in ourbooks Better Late Than Early and School Can Wait.”
(Raymond and Dorothy Moore, The Successful HomeschoolFamilyHandbook)

Isuggest you read the article called LivingAlongside onthe Articles page on our Footprints site.

I knowthe pressure that we moms all feel to give our children a headstart and to be able to prove that we are able to teach them and thatthey arelearning, but having 4 kiddies of my own, I have now learnt that theyalllearn, each in their own time, and there is no need to put pressure onthem.But I also used to suffer from what I now affectionately call 'firstchild syndrome' until I readabout the damage that starting too soon can do.  I have learntthat aslong as you create a warm, loving environment, they learn everythingthey needto naturally, in their own time, without much effort from the parents! 

At 2years I really don't believethat a child needs formal learning. Perhaps a regular routine yes, likemeals anda nap at regular times, story time etc...but not a structuredprogramme. Iwould rather encourage you just to spend as much time withyour child aspossible to meet her emotional needs, which are more important forhealthydevelopment than 'academic' type of activities. I don't believe intrying toproduce super babies - I think it is unnatural to stimulate childrenbeforethey are emotionally and developmentally ready for formal learningactivities.

As you go about your day, just talk to your child, about whatever isrelevantor sing to her too. Classical music is also good forbrain development inyoung kiddies, but I also expose my kids to other good quality musicthat Ienjoy - various genres from pop to worship music to gentle opera!Whatever youenjoy!

Make sure she gets lots of outdoor activity, walking, running, playingball,visiting play parks etc. to develop grossmotor skills...and of course read her lots ofstories. I have reviewed a whole lot ofworthwhile ones in my preschool manual, ABCFun & 1-2-3,but you could just begin at the library for now! She'll appreciate ABCFun morewhen she is older (aged 3-6).

I knowmoms of 2 year olds that spend hours teaching theirchildren rhymes, colours, shapes, counting etc ...but it is more toboost theirown egos than for the benefit of their child. Kids of that age don'tneed toknow that stuff yet in my opinion. Rather let them play and learn byexploringtheir world in their own time - they only get to be kids once...andonce theystart formal learning at school age, they can never get the freedom ofthoseearly years back again!

Children are naturally curious about the world around them. Weneed totrust in their ability to learn everything they need to in their owntime…andnot fall into the trap of comparing. Each child develops at his ownrate andeach has his own strengths.

Sinceyou asked the cost, ABCFun isR250 including postage in SouthAfrica, butas I said, youcan wait a bit before you start something like that. Rather play withballs andtoys and other fun stuff!! 

RegardsShirley

P.S. ABC Fun & 1-2-3can also be purchased online in ebook format for only $22, that's lessthan adollar per week! Clickhereto learn more about it!

Ifdon’t live in or near South Africa, the ebook formatwill be more economical – you could get it printed at yourlocal print shop tooif you like.

Freebies on the Web

In allthree of our Footprints programs we have suggestedbible memory verses, some are used as copy work others just formemorization. Asite that we have enjoyed is NotebookingPages.com. Debbie has literally hundreds of free pages for you to use where yourchildrencan write out their narrations and Bible memory verses.

At Shirley's preschool activities site, there are free illustrated Bible memoryverse printables designed for non-readers!

Family Building

We havealways encouraged parents to seek God’s will fortheir own family and try to rise up above the noise of what you“should” do andbe in this 21^st century. A book that holds manywonderful ideas tobuild a family culture is Celebrationsof Faith by Randyand Lisa Wilson. This family shares their family traditions with you intheareas of giving our children a biblical perspective with ways toincorporatecelebrations of God’s faithfulness to your family.

Theyalso show you ways to bring out the purpose of yourfamily as a whole and each individual that makes it up. And lastly theycoverthe Gift ofProtection where they discuss issues aroundfamily foundations, a blessing ceremony and journal and the familycovenant.This book is available from Kalahari.net,and we do appreciate your support bybuying through our this affiliate link.

---

"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.