Home Education South Africa Style

We are grateful to have more space to spread out our home learning area here in South Africa. Much of my week between Christmas and New Year was spent organising education materials while Dave helped occupy the children.

We now have a large open plan living area where we can have more distinct areas for our learning materials, play and our sitting area. There is lots of wall space for displays. Below is my desk with an education materials shelf next to it, then some lovely new daily and monthly calendars, and a little blackboard. We also have our music spot with the piano and our music players. Mercy has begun to take an interest in learning the piano and I am attempting to include lessons.

These pictures were taken after our domestic worker comes on Tuesdays, things are not normally quite so neat. God has been good to us in blessing us with a good helper. It has also been a huge step forward to finally purchase my lockable toy and puzzle cupboard! You can see it here next to the play mat. This really helps to keep the craziness under control. This cupboard was purchased second hand and has four levels and even smells nice inside . . . all in all it is a great blessing and help (yes, almost as good as having another adult in the house, as I once read).

Near the door to the garage there is a sweet little nook that we are shaping into an art and craft and science area. We are keeping some materials out all the time and Nate spends a lot of time there. I put up some drying lines on the wall for paintings. I found a bucket caddy for pencils, sticky tape, watercolour paints, and glue that can be used on a daily basis. This has the added bonus of temporarily housing the random pieces of paper with possibly precious creations that are always around this table. God is good to give us the space to have a little table like this that can stay a mess. Later on I hope to get a small lockable cupboard to house craft materials and paint that become unmanageable if the children are allowed to access them at any time.

We are keeping some nature finds on the top shelf. I read the idea of a nature discovery table but realised this would not work in our house if kept out at all times . . . think pieces of coral in beds. So I decided to display the items out of reach and bring them down for specific nature discovery times. The other day Nate painted a watercolour of some of his finds.

Opposite the wall with the piano, bookshelf, etc. is this green wall. We hope to put up a big display board there when we find the right one to finally use some of our posters and create craft displays. Meanwhile the easel is getting more use as there is space to keep it out.

In the garden we had the delightful surprise of being given a chicken house. Eventually we hope to turn this corner into a chicken run. We are not quite ready to resume having hens yet though.

Finally we went to a birthday party with new friends on Sunday. We joked that the children were having "sensory play" in the mud at the Helderberg Nature Reserve. 

 Who needs sensory tables when you can have the joy of painting red clay on banks and trees in nature's playground?

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iSonto #65

Hello from the Drew Patch! Bill was very pleased when he got to have a go with kid-safe scissiors.

We had a train play time with chairs lined up as the train, thanks to our Sonlight P 3/4 Richard Scarry reading. This was the suggested accompanying activity! Mercy is joining in with Nate's Sonlight Core A studies but I am also incorporating some of the preschool fun she may have been too young for when I did it with Nate.

We are also pressing repeat on some crafts, at their request. We did this one last a couple of years ago now. I love my "Crafty Ideas A-Z" book so I'm happy to do it as many times as everyone is happy! This time we not only made the ants but also an ant hill. We painted the ant hill and ants this time, which appeased my home school mummy guilt about not painting as much as might be good!

Mercy is "reading" our Curious George story book to their monkey. He was formerly called Luca, but is now George for obvious reasons!

Nate is showing the number book we are putting together. The rice in the dish in the backgrond was an attempt at tactile help for letters like lower case a and h which are difficult to write correctly when you first start. The idea is that you form the letter with your finger in the rice, and therefore feel the way it is formed.

Our biggest achievement though was our terrarium! It has taken me some weeks to get all the materials together. A jar from the reject shop, appropriate ferns from a garden centre, potting mix and peat moss from Grandad, charcoal and pebbles from our garden.

These are they types of things that seem oh so daunting when I read about them in the curriculum. Where am I going to get the time to organise all those extra bits and pieces I think to myself??? Yet when it is eventually done we learn a lot, have a lot of joy, and it is all worth it.

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The end of an enjoyable chapter

Today marks the end of a chapter of my life that I look back on with gratitude and enjoyment. Today I handed in my last assignment for the Wesley Institute Diploma of Education. I highly recommend this course to anyone considering teaching. The thorough biblical basis to each unit, coverage of many helpful teaching resources, practical assignments, and substantial amount of classroom experience make it a winner. It hasn't always been easy, and sometimes I may have looked like the picture above, but it has been good!

When I began this course at the beginning of 2007, I did not know that I would be married by the end of that year and a mother to an unborn child by the end of the next! I began it knowing that I might be a wife and a mother, or a classroom teacher, or I might have to try and combine both. In any of these scenarios, the Diploma would be of use. Unlike former study, I had a clear interest and vocation in mind. I don't know if I'll ever work in the profession this course qualifies me for, classroom Primary Teaching. I do know that I've gained valuable experience, good memories, and lots of knowledge for (God willing) home schooling.

Now when people ask me what I do with my days, I'll have to say (with a smile) "I'm a housewife". Yep, I've gone back about 100 years and believe that being a wife and running a home well is a job in itself. Being a truly productive housewife requires planning, dedication, prioritisation, research and creativity. I'm one of the most blessed women I know, 'cause it is my job.

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John Newton's childhood tales

I have been reading John Newton, a biography by Jonathan Aitken. It is amazing to read of the many biblical passages and sections of catechisms that John's mother taught him before he was six years old.

I guess parents these days don't need to worry about inflicting such unnecessary work upon their offspring, because we have - wait for it - VeggieTales.

All sarcasm is intended.

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One step closer to a Diploma

Last night I finished my final assignment for the Diploma of Education subject I studied this trimester. Now I only have three more subjects to go before I'm finished! It should be all done by the end of November. I am studying Primary teaching. For my major Developmental Psychology for Teachers assignment I made a PowerPoint presentation for parents of children entering Prep (first year of full time schooling). I also wrote a 2,500 word essay on the theory behind the presentation.

While putting together the presentation, I enjoyed using google image to search for pictures to compliment what I wrote. Here are some of the images I came up with . . .









I used this cartoon for a whole slide, to add a little humour to the presentation! It comes from www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au

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