2013 Challenges
Well, the good news is we have another student :). So we have grown to a class of three 5 year olds :) yay!
We are fast outgrowing our temporary venue and I would love to have a more permanent venue...that's to come.
In terms of curriculum....our two five year olds are fast outgrowing the current curriculum. They know their shapes, colours, patterns etc. so the challenge is to find some new work for them.
We have used 1+1+1=1 extensively and I am so grateful to her that we are able to use her free printables. We have now completed most of the letters of the alphabet (only 6 to go) as well as most of the tot school printables (used when we started) and the Raising Rock Stars Preschool stuff. We have used some kindergarten printables....although our South African children do not know all of the characters she uses in her printables for kindergarten. Wish I had time to create a South Africanised version...he he.
Organisation:
I have spent quite a bit of time re-organising our prep, instead of themes (per letter) I have filed them into skills (literacy, numeracy and other).
I hope to make it easier to pull out as we do revision.
New prep:
I have found some new printables: will share the links soon!
For sight words
We are fast outgrowing our temporary venue and I would love to have a more permanent venue...that's to come.
In terms of curriculum....our two five year olds are fast outgrowing the current curriculum. They know their shapes, colours, patterns etc. so the challenge is to find some new work for them.
We have used 1+1+1=1 extensively and I am so grateful to her that we are able to use her free printables. We have now completed most of the letters of the alphabet (only 6 to go) as well as most of the tot school printables (used when we started) and the Raising Rock Stars Preschool stuff. We have used some kindergarten printables....although our South African children do not know all of the characters she uses in her printables for kindergarten. Wish I had time to create a South Africanised version...he he.
Organisation:
I have spent quite a bit of time re-organising our prep, instead of themes (per letter) I have filed them into skills (literacy, numeracy and other).
I hope to make it easier to pull out as we do revision.
New prep:
I have found some new printables: will share the links soon!
For sight words
Why Homeschool?
The education system in South Africa has many challenges. Being a qualified teacher and having had some experience teaching in a government school opened my eyes. I wasn't able to afford a private school. Home schooling seemed like a better option. Before I made the decision a lot of thought and prayer had to go into it. I decided to go South African. I wanted my children to receive a 'South African' education, to experience the culture, have a knowledge of their own country and not get confused with different spellings.
Suggested reading for moms or parents considering homeschooling their children:
homeschooling and the law in South Africa:
www.pestalozzi.org
http://www.homeschooling-curriculum-guide.com/homeschooling-South-Africa.html
Suggested reading for moms or parents considering homeschooling their children:
homeschooling and the law in South Africa:
www.pestalozzi.org
http://www.homeschooling-curriculum-guide.com/homeschooling-South-Africa.html
Our Journey:
I joined my aunt in the journey to home school. We wanted to start at the beginning with preschool. Her son was 5 years old and my daughter was 4 years old. We started our journey at the beginning of this year (2012). So we decided to home school together, part time. "Really, part time home schooling? Have you ever heard of that?' you may ask. Well, we decided to go for it. She would do 2 days of teaching and I would do 2 days of teaching and we would get together on Fridays for crafts. We decided to do this as my aunt had another job and I was in the process of starting my own business and wanted to allocate some time for that. Part time home schooling? It has it's challenges, but it works for us. One of the big pluses for us is that we are not sitting with our child on a one to one basis everyday.
Our Starting Point
We started off by visiting other home schoolers. We visited a lady who has four children and she had started using the ACE curriculum. Then we visited a group of 4 home schooling mom's who had 6 children between them, their children are mostly high schoolers. They had some experience using Footprints and Sonlight, as well as Love to Learn and various others. We next visited a mom with 3 preschoolers using the Love to Learn curriculum.
Choosing a curriculum:
Choosing a curriculum can be difficult. Especially for a preschooler!
We visited the South African Home school Expo at the London Road Church:
www.homeschoolexpo.co.za
We have a unique situation as we wanted to home school our children but could only afford to do that part time.
http://www.south-african-homeschool-curriculum.com/south-african-homeschool-curriculum.html
We started with ABC 123
http://www.shirleys-preschool-activities.com/abc-fun.html
Shirley's site has wonderful ideas and tools for you to use especially when working with preschoolers. She introduces one letter per week, which is how we started off. Once we got into it we realised we needed some more and varied material. So we added to this curriculum by searching for material on the world wide web! No curriculum will be a perfect fit for a child so we decided to supplement the material we had by creating our own curriculum.
Creating your own curriculum takes a lot of time......most of your time will be spent looking for wonderful ideas on the net! There is so much, and there are so many beautiful ideas. Our preschoolers were 4 and 5 years old when we started. The basic skills we needed them to learn were: bible knowledge, counting, letter recognition and exposure, gross and fine motor skills, literacy. We wanted them to have fun while they learnt.
So, to point you in the right direction, here are our favourite site's or blogs:
We visited the South African Home school Expo at the London Road Church:
www.homeschoolexpo.co.za
We have a unique situation as we wanted to home school our children but could only afford to do that part time.
http://www.south-african-homeschool-curriculum.com/south-african-homeschool-curriculum.html
We started with ABC 123
http://www.shirleys-preschool-activities.com/abc-fun.html
Shirley's site has wonderful ideas and tools for you to use especially when working with preschoolers. She introduces one letter per week, which is how we started off. Once we got into it we realised we needed some more and varied material. So we added to this curriculum by searching for material on the world wide web! No curriculum will be a perfect fit for a child so we decided to supplement the material we had by creating our own curriculum.
Creating your own curriculum takes a lot of time......most of your time will be spent looking for wonderful ideas on the net! There is so much, and there are so many beautiful ideas. Our preschoolers were 4 and 5 years old when we started. The basic skills we needed them to learn were: bible knowledge, counting, letter recognition and exposure, gross and fine motor skills, literacy. We wanted them to have fun while they learnt.
So, to point you in the right direction, here are our favourite site's or blogs:
Useful educational websites for Grade O
www.dltk-teach.com
www.3dinosaurs.com/printables/abcs. www.hsprintables.com/ABC.html |
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xvcBuOM5WVQ/TrSlnnuC_XI/AAAAAAAABQI/614x88WFJUY/s150/vbk.jpg
I would like to give you a step by step break down of what we have done week by week, but that will take a little bit of time. So watch this space for more information. Let me know if you have any questions.
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