Footprints On Our Land – South Africa’s Heritage

Discontinued – November 2023

This programme is replaced by the updated 2024 version, Footprints – The Early Years

Our most-loved South African homeschool curriculum

This best-selling literature-based curriculum is centred around South African historical fiction. It is a this multi-level unit study, best suited for ages 8-14.

It begins in 1488 when the Khoe tribes encountered Bartholomeu Dias after he rounded the Cape, and continues through time, ending in the early 1900’s just after the South African War.

By reading the story books included in this programme, your children will get to know historical characters like Van Riebeeck, Van der Stel, Mzilikazi, Shaka, Rhodes, Kruger and others who played a role in shaping South Africa’s colourful past. Instead of reading facts and dates so typical of history text books, they will discover the facts about our country’s history through the eyes of the characters in the readers. Our nation’s history will come alive through the stories!

More than just history …

Footprints On Our Land – South Africa’s Heritage is NOT just a history curriculum, however. Being a unit study, the lesson plans are built around the children’s literature which is included and in this way other subjects are also covered namely:

  • Geography
  • Biology / Nature Study
  • Science
  • Language Arts
  • Grammar
  •  Cooking
  • Art & Art Appreciation
  • Crafts
  • Technology
  • Bible Study and more!

Absolutely love Footprints, it’s made me fall in love with literature again and I have seen such a change in my children.
I am so thankful for their appreciation of books. 

~May Coomer

What do you get with Footprints On Our Land – South Africa’s Heritage?

  • Curriculum Guide
  • 23 historical fiction story books
  • 2 poetry books
  • 2 short story books
  • Wall map of South Africa
  • Picture discs
  • 2 biographies

We have carefully chosen more than 25 books in this literature based curriculum, that will ignite your children’s thought environment and enrich them in knowledge and character. As many of the books are out of print, we supply specially reprinted copies to you in a package form, so that you need not hunt in second hand bookshops or wait endlessly for inter-library loans.

A comprehensive Curriculum Guide, four non-fiction books, a unique South African timeline book and a large laminated map of the outline of South Africa are also included to give you a well-rounded programme. A picture disc representing each story is supplied that can be placed on the map, giving your children a visual reminder of each story and its geographical setting.

The essential books are supplied in the Footprints package, but there is one out-of-print book which you need to buy in ebook format. We also provide also an extensive list of books that you can add to your daily reading. These books are generally still in print or available at libraries. In the Curriculum Guide there are also suggestions of related books for older and younger students.

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The Curriculum Guide

At the beginning of each lesson in this literature based curriculum there is:

  • a summary of the story
  • suggestions of possible field trips,
  • relevant internet websites, and
  • titles of additional reading material

Since forward planning is needed for some hands-on activities, a lesson plan at a glance, is provided to facilitate this.

Footprints On Our Land – sample lesson – You will need Adobe Reader (the latest version is recommended) installed on your computer in order to open and read this sample lesson. You can get Adobe Reader here (a new window will open so you can download without leaving this page).

I especially, am very appreciative of all the effort and extras you have put into the manual. You have it all there for me.

~ Kerry McDonald

Timeline book

A timeline book is provided for your child to keep a chronological record of significant events in the history of South Africa. One page has space for drawings and notes, the other side is to add dates along the timeline and the picture discs or other pictures you wish to add.

If you use Footprints with more than one child, be sure to order an additional timeline book/s. One is included in your Footprints package.

The Map and Picture Discs

The Footprints package includes a large laminated map of the outline of South Africa for you to customise as you learn together. You can write on the map with white-board markers and plot the places you learn about. Mark off boundaries, rivers, mountain ranges or historical battle sites. Add paper cut-outs of the provinces, notes, photos, the Footprints picture discs or anything else you choose.

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Optional Language Arts

Charlotte Mason-style language activities, based on the natural way of acquiring language skills, are included. Narration is the main tool for developing language arts skills but copy work, recitation, dictation, spelling and creative writing are used as well.

The language arts assignments are suggested for you in the Curriculum Guide. Charlotte Mason’s way of using gentle and age-appropriate methods to help your children become great thinkers and users of the English language are encouraged.

In addition to the above, the Footprints Heritage Language Arts offers an optional extra full grammar and word study programme to go along with the readers and read alouds, thus being relevant to what your child is reading about in each book. These lessons are offered on two levels, beginner and advanced. This is an optional add-on which you can purchase in digital format.
Buy one for your family and print it for as many children as you need.

Optional Notebooking Pages

Use our delightful printable notebooking pages to record and reinforce the topics that your children have learned about.
There are 24 sets of notebooking pages – one for each story book or section of the Footprints On Our Land programme.

Buy one set for your family and print them for as many children as necessary.

Below are some sample pages of our beautiful, uniquely South African notebooking pages, which you can order when you order your Footprints package or purchase separately at a later stage. Read more about notebooking.

Sample Footprints notebooking pages
notebooking pages
We are doing Footprints on Our Land. You cannot go wrong. My boys LOVE the stories. There are no time limits, you work at your own pace… definitely our favourite part of our homeschool day.

~ Candice Sudbury

Optional South African History Lapbook Projects

We offer a series of nine South African History file folder projects and lapbooks to reinforce your children’s learning on these topics. They are digital products which you print and then cut and fold to make each lapbook together. They can be purchased as a set or one by one as you go. Pay online and download each one instantly.

  • The San of Africa
  • The Dutch at the Cape
  • The French Huguenots at the Cape
  • The amaXhosa
  • The 1820 Settlers
  • The Great Trek
  • The Zulu
  • Gold & Diamonds
  • The South African War

What else should you know?

You will be able to fit the lessons into one year if you plan carefully and keep up a strict pace. However, it could take up to two school years to work through in its entirety, especially if you take plenty days out to visit places of interest that you are learning about. We feel that to gain the most benefit from all the books and lessons that it should rather be studied over an 18 month to 2 year period.

You will need to add a maths programme and if you have very science orientated children, we suggest you choose one of these excellent science programs to go along with Footprints.

We have found that parents have used the lesson plans to springboard other lessons or to dig deeper into topics that we raise in the manual. Should you try and run on a very tight 1 year schedule, you will certainly miss out on this wonderful opportunity to cater for your creative bent and your children’s delight directed studies.

Worldview

This programme contains Bible lessons as the authors and most of our clients have a Christian worldview. However, families of other faiths, including Buddhists, Muslims and atheists have used it and enjoyed it. The Bible lessons mainly focus on moral lessons that almost all parents are comfortable with such as honouring parents, facing problems, overcoming fears, being kind to others. However, they can easily be omitted if you choose.

Order Footprints On Our Land

Since nearly all the essential books for this programme are out of print, you have to purchase this programme in package form.

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