The first of many!

We have completed our first year of homeschooling.

There were a plethora of highlights , joys and successes and few struggles and difficulties.

Many of these struggles were recoverable.

The greatest joy for me was to experience Jethro growing into a happy and more content child who is able to work with his strengths and work at his weaknesses at his own pace. He has learned an enormous amount and wholeheartedly enjoyed learning in many ways. We have experimented with different methods and tried a variety of approaches. Some we tossed out, others we gathered.

Doug and I are continually amazed at the son we have before us. It is profound and we are deeply grateful.

Our History curriculum was a South African system called Footprints on our Land. We loved it and so enjoyed immersing ourselves  in our South Africa.

I am not one to write negatively about our school system and National Curriculum.  In part, this is because we have children in the system or are thriving and growing and learning. They are critical thinkers and great kids. It is also because I have worked with our CAPS Curriculum . the textbooks are great. the information relevant and child focused and the information is like any other collection of information.  It has its faults, of course but it is none of these; the system nor the Caps curriculum that we rejected outright. I am a firm believer that there are and must be a variety of educational options for children because we are individuals and different ways suit different kids.

I am grateful we took this plunge and have been privileged to make this option available to Jet.

We are super excited about 2018!

The space to do the "other"

I thought I would write a note about space. One of the joys of homeschooling has been the space it has provided. The breathing space. The time space. The calm, no urgency space. All of these provide, for us, some time to do those things we just never seemed to get to.

One is to join OT. Jethro has been learning so much from his OT. Once a week, set apart, for discovering what his body can actually do.

Joining the gym. We have both joined up so we can swim. He has FINALLY discovered a happy space exercise.

Space to spend time with his family. Now he is relaxed and has more energy, Jet has time to share life with his brothers.

Space and time to pause and take stock of actual learning.. We can take a breath to assess, seeing where he might need to recap or practice something. He can also be a part of this process.

Space to just really get into something. Last week Jet wrote a three page legend. It took all morning. He could just settle into it with vigor.

Space to take brain breaks and be creative.
We get to bake and do science experiments or just read, well, because.

Space. That beautiful gift that has sharpened and lengthened Jet as we know him.

And we are back

The holidays passed with lots of good family time. Time to connect and enjoy each others company. One of the things I love about holiday times with our big, busy family.

We are back and we are having fun. This term I decided we are going to make a lot more things. This will give us hands on experience which is great for learning and memory and also those times where we can just have brain rests. I have tried several different ideas for brain rests for Jet and some work while others just do not. Hands on activities are awesome and work well.

We have said goodbye to the 1820 settlers and are moving on to discover the world of the Voortrekkers and the Great Trek.

A friend noted last night - " Do they still do The Great Trek?"

I totally get her reluctance. We were fed a steady diet of skewed History in relation to these events. However, the approach that the History curriculum we are using has taken, is a liner approach. it builds up events from the beginning and moves through the events in a timeline kind of way. One thing overlapping and or leading to the next. I love this approach as we are building a complete picture of time and events that will lead us to the present day.

So, we have marbled paper, baked rusks , drawn an ox wagon and read a whole lot. 

#learningisfunagain

Books Galore

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It is not that he did not read before we home schooled.

 No, that is not quite it.

It is just that he his reading has more than doubled. I am talking about reading books FOR school. 

I struggled to decide on our English Language curriculum for Jet and as yet am struggling to settle on anything really excellent. However, the one thing that our Language program introduced us to, was some different sorts of books.

In addition to the 5 books in the program, I ordered a whole stack of other books from another selection. We are gradually making our way through those. In addition to these books, jet has read some books from our History Program and of course we are reading aloud the books that introduce the history to him ( and myself) through literature. 

I have a whole stack of excellent reads that I am giving him to do some theme thinking and book reviews  on and he is ploughing his way through those too. 

The thing with ADHD kids is this one difficulty with reading. If they love reading, then the tricky thing is to find books that hold their interest. Jet loves reading but we often struggle to find books that will grip him.  He struggles to try a new book, especially if it might not look as if it will grip him. This approach to school, for him, is excellent because he is getting exposure to a wider range of books that he might not have read by choice. 

Right now he is devouring the excellent read , "Wonder" by R.J. Palacio. I doubt he would have read it before but as his school reader, he is devouring it and loving it. This after having read a Footprints read alone book which is part of our History program and whilst reading a book , just for fun! Three at once. That is unheard of for this chap.

We are so enjoying this excellent way of doing school with books and stories. The books are exposing him to some great , new language and ideas.  Reading for learning is definitely a win.

Language is indeed an art

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English language as we call it in SA is known as Language Arts in the USA. It took a while to get used to this in the world of homeschooling.

We settled on an American curriculum called Learning Language through Literature. The purple book level is what we decided on for Jethro. There are 5 books that are to be read throughout the course of the study.  It has been good fun getting into some American literature  including some poetry. The work has a weekly method to it and includes skills such as letter writing. It has been good but it has not totally hit the spot for us. 

Alongside it I have been using our Platinum Caps grade 5 textbook and Oxford textbook. A couple of weeks ago we embarked on a poetry slot. First we set off with Caps poetry and ended with a section from LLATL. Boy, what a poetry blast we have enjoyed. Jet has been writing up a storm of poetry. We have really enjoyed learning and sharing all sorts of poetry types including Gcina Mhlophe live poetry and of course some modern Slam Poetry, South African style. Jet has found his happy place!

I am in search of some good South African books for kids ages 12-15. If you know of any, please share them with us.

Loving homeschooling with English - the South African way!

Crazy Kid

This is Jethro,, actually known as Jet by those who love him.
He is a great kid, full of fun and adventure. The thing is, we didn't know that about him, until we homeschooled him.
Today we visited a market. It was noisy, full of people and weird food. All the things that would have previously been enormous barriers to entry for him.
Before we went, I talked him through it.

Afterwards he concluded that it had been fun doing something new.

What has shifted for THIS kid.

Two things....

Trust.... He trusts our judgement all the more deeply since we decided to bring him home.
Energy.... He has way more energy to deal with difficult situations. School sucked his energy daily and now he has freedom to try the new. This has been an enormous shift for him and for us as a family.

Thank you Lord.

Jonny Clegg... Here we come.

The snapshot!

The first term of homeschooling with Jet is done and partially dusted.

It has been a good learning experience for us both.

Snapshots of my learning.

#plan a more end in mind planning structure for the term so we work with the whole picture in mind. This is indeed the most tricky thing for me as I am not necessarily a big picture thinking, yet.

I sat down yesterday and planned ahead with the end in  mind so that we can know where we need to get to. 

# . I have gathered a far wider understanding of the history of our country. Thank you Footprints and also the beautiful Platinum  Caps textbooks. ( yes I do love these!) They are designed for kids to read and so are full of colour and good information as well as excellent pictures and activities to build on.

# a renewed respect for teachers who have a classroom of kids to get much work done with.

# it has been a joy and an absolute pleasure to work with this kiddo. we are having enormous fun learning about microbes in our science group and about Barty Dias in History as well as working through some great geography lessons on South Africa. 

Maths and English are simply full and exciting. 

These photographs are all from our outing to the Slave Lodge in Cape Town . The art is from the wall in the section on democracy. The photograph is of a man whose heritage is from slavery. His surname gives this away. He is named after the month of one of the ships bringing slaves arrival at the Cape.

Snapshots of Jethro's learning include...

# what it feels like to be happy in learning and to enjoy school

# seeing that he actually can learn something he thought was just too difficult

# finding out his strengths and areas of "yet" for himself.

Thoughts

My head is just full of thoughts. Trying to reconcile what we are actually trying to achieve for Jet in education and thinking of the bigger picture, which to my mind is.....

Given where we are in history and given the unknown world we are creating, how can we best educate our children so that they can function well and not only that but contribute successfully in this unknown world?

This is a gigantic question. It is one that I allne do not have the answer to but there are many who are sharing their ideas on this topic. Helping to deconstruct my own educational framework and thus reconstruct something that works is an incredibly painful process. My thinking is in chaos. I am torn between that which ,as an educationalist, I know to be true and yet seeing in reality that something new has come along and is taking its place.

I am wrestling with myself.

This morning Jet and I have revisited maths ,touching on a concept that he was struggling with. Here is the wrestle. If you watch the Ted talk called build a school in the cloud by Suguta Mitra  , you will notice that the notition that we should actually write out long division sums is rediculous. That we can do them is of course a given for me, in that good neurological connections are made in thinking  it all through. Figuring things out and joining the dots seems far more worthy a lesson given that problem solving is going to be the order of the new world. Indeed it is already the order.
So, after maths Jet asks if he can continue on his Khan programming course. For the past hour he has been busy learning to code using functions. A worthy hour.... indeed... on the curiculum ... not really. And so my inner chaos reins on,

What are we to do because we are straddling two worlds. The world of the old and obselete and the new , misty world. Our kids are pioneers and adventurers. They will be exploring the new. Are we giving them the right tools to do this well?

The more I think about it, the more I thknk the Finish approach to education is spot on. Inquiry based, real life learning makkng ALL subjects relevant to actual life so that it all makes sence.

Lets get out of here!

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Our choice of curriculum, especially for History , has been Footprints on our Land. We are thoroughly enjoying the book Ghamka By Eve Merchant. Yesterday we set of to The Natural History Museum to explore the San Rock art and other connected sections.

On route, we swung by some fellow homeschoolers to drop something off. It worked out that they two wanted to join our outing. 

What a fabulous time we had. I set them a question.

What were the pros and cons of this way of life? ( followed by the comment that they thought this was a good question)

We had a blast sharing ideas and checking out the information cards as well as asking lots of questions. 

I just loved the depth and breadth of engagement from all three children and of course am thrilled that Jet is super engaged and interested. 

I love that we can join up our learning and this meant we could also check out the bone section and briefly chat about the types of joints found on the colossal whales.

I am personally thriving on exploring how to make learning relevant and deep.

Learning is fun and people, both child and adult alike, are designed to learn, think, problem solve and grow in our understanding.

This is my aim. The absence of tests and assessments have meant that that pressure is off and we can focus on developing other skills.

For those who have never been to this museum, here is a link to check out.

http://www.iziko.org.za/museums/south-african-museum

Step by Step

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The truth is that this homeschooling journey is a step by step walk.

Some days are a more quick jog and others a little like a snails slow travel across bumpy terrain.

The things I am absolutely thriving on are all the things I imagined to be true. Things like joining up learning experiences and solidifying concepts across the different areas , making all of our learning rich and meaningful.

Another is being able to fill up gaps that exist in thinking or understanding or just in lack of life experience.

I am getting to experiment with methods of teaching and learning first hand and enjoying the outworking of these. 

Inquiry learning and growth mindset ideas have shifted my thinking around education and learning and awoken in me a real thirst for knowing more. It is extremely stimulating .

The difficult bits have much to do with my expectations and insecurities. These ride on the wave of fear which I have for all my kids. However, the reality is that now the buck stops with me, with us and that feels heavy .

It is heavy!

So I have to do a lot of self talk and looking at the bigger picture in education rather than the small , local Bergvliet world experience. I have to set aside the old and familiar and test what we are experiencing with itself.... this is forcing me to live, with Jet, in the here and now and this is both very difficult but also beautiful.

(Because I am the person I am , I mention these struggles to a few Homeschooling moms. I discover to my joy that I am not alone! It is part of the journey. Thank you for being honest!! It was helpful.)

The difficult bits have to do with Jet and his ADHD brain. This is a constant and despite coming home, he still has his difficulties in concentrating and boredom. We have to navigate this and at times it is disheartening, for us both.

He is getting to talk through what is happening in his head and how meds  make him feel. All good but sad too.

On Friday Jet did a comprehension.  It was dull and quick.( Note to self: I really need to find some more inspiring comprehensions)

However the last question was excellent, not in itself but in the answer.

Here it is.....

What subjects do you like?

mmmmm. So he sits and thinks. I ask him if all is ok?

He says," I dont really know what I like." Well, I suggest we start with what he DOESN"T like.

Histroy!  

"Jeepers! You Do not like Ghamka and Byrd and the other explorer we looked at?"

" Ooh, no , no I do!"

and then this gem......

"Mom, I really like everything. When I was at school I did not like anything. - he lists them all- but now I like doing the learning we are doing."

BINGO!

Time to Write

This morning began with me having to attempt a visit to Home Affairs in Wynberg rather urgently. I had set some work for Jet and Doug was with him. I antisipated that the entire day would be a mess.

However, extraordinarily pleasantly , I was done and dusted by 930. I arrived home to Jet having been busy at school , all on his own, and he greeted me enthusiastically.

He was off his meds and not much good focus had been at hand but he was perservering and hungry.

We downed tools so to speak and went in search of suitable food. After a delicious time at one of our local resturants ,we headed home to begin and try again.

I am introducing all my children to the concept of growth mindsets. We watched a TED talk which was really facinating  and given by the key researcher, Carol Dweck, and we settled done to watch some short, pithy explainations for kids on youtube.

In short, having a growth mindset is my goal for the year. Making every effort to try and perservere and not think we can not achive new things. This is a big shift for a young man who has a rigid brain by nature.

Creative writing was the order of the morning. Through much huffing and puffing and brain pain he hit on a topic of HIS choice and ditched all my fabulous ones. I just love this about him.

He then proceeded to, through much pain, write and write and write........ he wrote for over an hour and announced at the end ,"I think I will turn it into a book." Whether he will or not is neither here or there for me but the process was exceptionally important, as will all ideas around growth mindset thinking. His brain made lots and lots of new connections this morning.

A simple joy of being able to homeschool Jet - he had time to write for as long as he needed to.

The Real Reality Dawns

Here we are.. A week and a bit into the first term of our first year of homeschooling Jethro.

 Our other three songs ( although they are our songs, all four of them, I meant to write-SONS) are settling in at their two schools and so are we.. 

It is indeed "a settling period".

 A coming to grips time. 

A finding out feet space.

I won't lie.. I wake in the wee early hours of most mornings and think to myself " What the heck have we done?" ............and then I remind myself of these two things a friend's husband asked me.

Is Jet happy?
Are YOU learning?

Along with all the other good tips people have given me these two things were compelling and I can answer without missing a beat.. 

Yes!

I am totally aware that many "Purest" homeschoolers would be horrified at us having some of our children in school and one at home. They might even think we are not true homeschoolers BUT I know that we are so encouraged and enriched by the broader educational community, despite its faults. It has enormous strengths  despite our own individual experiences and I count myself fortunate to straddle these two worlds. It would be great to see more of a sharing and integrating of the two sides of the same coin. There is much to be shared!

This week we had the usual orientation meeting at our primary school.. This year it was a meeting with a new, fresh start. You see, as things shift in life education is forced to shift too. Gratefully but a little late for us, this school is shifting in a good way.

 Collaboration and team work learning is going to be emphasised, rather than individual's competing against one another. Etc.

The introduction of Kagan. Took me on a search and I stumbled upon another world of growth mindset education.. This was an exciting and helpful discovery for us. I feel as if I want to go study again. There is so much new info on education and brain development and it is exciting.

So, back to Jet.......and me.

We are having fun and we are experimenting.. I am adding, chucking and using so much good stuff from Footprints to LLATL.. Through to Cambridge and yes CAPS( which despite the much shared negative thoughts around it, it has many helpful learning tools and great activities)

 We are both experimenting, exploring, trying and discovering and we have not yet found our rhythm.  He is learning something about himself and so am I.

The best thing so far is such a simple thing. We can go and stop doing something when we feel Jet needs a brain rest or when he has got it. The flip side of that is we can pick it up again in the car or while watching CNN Student News  because that is how we rock with home-schooling.

and so we begin....

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A brand new year. A brand new beginning for our children. 3 of them are off to new grades. Grade 11, 9 and 7 and the forth is being home schooled in grade 5. 

We begin for real now and my tummy id full of butterflies. I keep thinking," what the heck have we done?"

This weekend I got to share a birthday with a friend and she brought with her a whole bunch of homeschoolers. One mom I am getting to know and we are sharing Science together with two other home school families.

I shared my fears!( daring greatly and being authentically vulnerable. Thank you Brene Brown!!)

To my surprise she told me she felt the same , often. What a great and honest thing to share with a brand new homeschooling mom. Thank you oh fellow brave one.

And so here we are......

My other boys keep asking me if we are actually going to do any school this week. They are as curious as I am!