Reaching Higher
Homeschool News
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Mid-year generally sees a slump in the homeschooling home as winter sets in here in South Africa. Winter mornings are cold and dark and starting early is a challenge!
Many moms start taking stock of where they are with their schooling. For many, the plans that were so meticulously laid out at the beginning of the year are not being realised. Children still seem to offer the same resistance to desk work, meals still need to be cooked, sports attended and the house cleaned. To make it even worse the end of the year is peeping its head over the horizon and moms are thinking about next year already.
What does a mom do in this situation? It is very easy to become overwhelmed in all of this, so we would like to offer any of you who find yourselves in this space an alternative for a little while.
The best way to get perspective is to draw back from everything that you are doing, and making your children do, and take a long hard look at your lifestyle. Things that you need to consider are:
- What are the stressors? This could be family relationships, getting children to do chores, getting through the school work load, running all afternoon from one extramural to another or even the marriage between mom and dad.
- What times are you finding yourself most irritable? A wise woman said once that anger is an indicator that something is wrong, but do not sin in your anger. Are there particular times that you find yourself bubbling over with anger in your relationships with your children? Pin point why this is happening.
- Are you simply trying to pack in too much, which is taking away the joyful lifestyle of homeschooling and being with my children?
- Are you a slave to the schoolbooks or schedule to the point that you never feel like you are getting it all done?
If you have made your list (either mental or journalled) and find that there are areas in your home, children and schooling that needs to be changed you need to create the time to do this.
Here comes the tough part…particularly if you are a slave to the schedule…put the books away for a period and deal with your issues one by one. The most important would be to stop the running around! This creates time for you to really connect with your children and dialogue with them, share scriptures with them around their issues, practice chores and first time obedience and more.
Allow everyone to take a deep breath, refocus on priorities, get systems back in place and address character issues without the added time spent on school books.
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Cape Town kicks off the expo season earlier than usual this year, with the Cape Home Educators expo on 31 August.
KZN follows on 14 September, George on 19 October and the Johannesburg expo details for November are still to be announced.
For more information about times and venues go to
Homeschool Events
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The term 'relaxed homeschooling' may sound like an oxymoron to many, because getting kids to do their work is often anything but relaxing.
Its not something many mothers choose to do for fun. Relaxing is rather something you do on week-ends and holidays.
But, homeschooling need not be as stressful as it is for many South African families.
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Every year, after spending time
listening to homeschooling moms that we chat to at the homeschooling
expos around the country, we find that overall moms are feeling stressed
out by their homeschooling curriculum and are looking for “permission”
to relax and take “the scenic route”.
Martie du Plessis, a homeschooling
consultant has found that 87% of the South Africa homeschooling families
she has consulted are experiencing this same stress. The kids are bored
and overworked and the mother is frustrated and feeling overwhelmed.
What do we mean by
“the scenic route”?
Click here to read the rest of the article: Relaxed Homeschooling
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Tips for Homeschool Expos
Expos can be overwhelming if you are not prepared, but use these homeschool expo tips from seasoned homeschool moms to avoid making costly impulse decisions that you
might regret.
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