Switching to My Father's World Curriculum

Learning about our precious rhinos- Folded Paper Rhinos

Our homeschool journey has been a very bumpy one.  First, we were unsure how to go about homeschooling in South Africa.  We started off rather blindly, with no support or information about homeschooling.

Then, we found curriculum, but weren't sure which one to use, as there were so many choices.  We were seldom privileged to see curriculum being used in other South African homeschools, and we just don't know that many HS'ers.  After trying many and ditching many, I found that the one that offered most of what I wanted was the Weaver curriculum.

Musical water glasses

As I have always said, I love the way Weaver has the Bible integrated into so much of the lessons.  Whilst we really loved doing the preschool Interlock, we have not had as much success with the Volumes.  I have struggled to piece it all together.  The planning took me a long time and I altered so many activities as too many were written.  I also added a lot to Weaver, such as literature.  I always feel as if I "missed" an essential part of the Weaver puzzle, and perhaps, just having another user nearby would have done it.   I've taken breaks and prayed about it and so wanted Weaver to work,. We've tried it again, but it seems that now is just not the season for Weaver in our home.  And so, I started to do my own unit studies again, and pretty soon I was burned out, and looking again...

Although I have laid out a lot of money for Weaver, and other curriculum, I am closer than ever at finding what is right for our family.  I suppose all is not lost then.  I've discovered a few things about our homeschooling:

• We want a curriculum that is Bible based, one that doesn't just tag on Bible
•  We'd like to concentrate on Bible, lifeskills, missions, character and service at least as much as academics
• We love unit studies, because we can combine various grades and cover a variety of subjects, thus saving time
• We all love books, and reading plays a huge part in our learning
• We like our history to be more or less chronological, and don't like jumping about too much from topic to topic
• We like to do some hands on activities, some art and picture study, study composers, learn poetry- but often don't get time for these
• We need the curriculum to be laid out for me, in a daily schedule, so that I can just pick it up and use it, without lots of planning time
• I want to have all the books, not have to go to our library weekly, which is just not possible
• We don't do well with too much planned for us, as we get burned out
• We need LA and Maths that is not too intensive and time consuming
• We want to lay a good foundation in academics, but still have enough time to do the fun things like nature walks, science experiments, poetry and art

Sunset on our beautiful Eastern Cape coastline

Starfish from an intertidal rockpool

In looking for curriculum that had all those points, I found My Father's World curriculum (abbreviated MFW).  I had heard of it before, but thought it was very "American".  By that, I mean, most curriculum from the US concentrate largely on US history and geography, naturally, and I thought it would be the same.  However, I was pleasantly delighted to discover that I was wrong! Students in Grade 2-8, begin MFW in the 5 year multi-age cycle.  The cycle starts with a year of studying geography and cultures of the world, with an emphasis on missions and the book of Matthew.  And several of the MFW years to follow are not as "American" as I suspected.  In fact MFW has suggestions for International users on how to make MFW work.  I looked at all that MFW had to offer, and decided to order.  Since Joel is in Gr5 and Emma in Grade 2, we would start Exploring Countries and Cultures.  We now eagerly await our box.

Cape Autumn Widow Butterfly

We also took the plunge and ordered all the authors suggestions for LA and Math, after reading the reasons for their choices.  I have listened to a couple of audio's by the authors and I am very impressed with all I have heard so far.  David Hazell, the author, talks of many issues relating to homeschooling and I have been able to relate so much to this excellent speaker.  It has taken a long time for me to find a curriculum that is nearly perfect.  I am praying that MFW will be the right thing for us.

Phases of the Moon, with Oreo Cookies,  yum!

 

Our Journey into Homeschooling

So, why are you homeschooling?  I have to say, though I am often asked this question, I honestly do not tell people the full answer that you'll read here.  Why?  Because quite frankly, most of the time people are not really interested in your answer, they are just making conversation.  So for their sake and mine, I keep it brief.  For my kindred homeschoolers who visit my blog, here is how our homeschool journey started ;-) 

In 2001 our first child, a son, was born. Sometime before Joel's third birthday there was pressure from our social circles to send him to play school.  I had a deep sense of sadness about this, and wanted to keep Joel at home.  I was surprised that other parents were so keen to send their children off to school at such a young age.  Already I was the only one left who had not returned to work.  But I was loving my time at home, enjoying every moment of learning alongside my little one. 

Everyday, whilst I nursed his sister, my son and I would read books.  Then we would go for walks in the veld, and discover new birds and plants.  I really learned a lot more than I had ever learned because my little guy asked so many questions.  We did crafts, and also just "mucked about" in mud or sand or water ;-) it was glorious.  My daughter was a most obliging baby, always willing to join in. 

Around this time, my husband read a book, in which Dr. James Dobson called for parents incertain states of the United States to pull their children out of school, and home educate them. The books is called Bringing up Boys.  When my husband suggested that we homeschool our child, I thought it was a ridiculous idea.  Surely, only weird people and those living in the sticks homeschooled?  And, in any case, was homeschooling in South Africa even legal?

Well, the Lord certainly had a lot to teach me. Because of my husband’s insistence that I at least look into homeschooling, I began a season of intense research. This endeavour was less fruitful than I had hoped- I had expected there would be some sort of National Council for homeschoolers’ and of course books. 

Despite the lack of information, by the end of 2004 my husband and I both reached a place where we knew the Lord was calling us to homeschool.  And so we stepped out in faith and began.

From our first days of parenting, this verse from Deuteronomy 6 was laid on our hearts:

⁶And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

 ⁷And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 

We had often wondered why, but now we felt  this was precisely the type of homeschooling we were being called to, a complete way of life, a walk with our children, workingalongside our children, from sunrise to sunset, so that we could impart our beliefs on our children.

Though we have tried many things over the years we are back to what the Lord led us to initally and we regret the time spent (and money wasted) in curriculum searching.  We use the Weaver curriculum, a Bible based unit study which teaches multiple levels, with hands-on methods to teach all three children at once.  The older two children use Christian Light Education Maths, Reading and Language Arts.  And my preschooler does a little Rod and Staff Preschool and a lot of playing.

To Facebook or not to Facebook- there is no question!

Okay, so zillions of people out there love Facebook.  And they are enjoying connecting with each other via this social networking system.  Some have met long lost friends.  Others have found new friends.  Mostly every day, at best these people log into Facebook and check out what is happening and who is doing what. At its worst, they're checking in every few minutes or constantly logged in.  I'm not sure how this is going to effect the worlds productivity levels.

The Homeschool world has not been left out of this, with many homeschool groups now moving onto Facebook.  I recently read that the days of Yahoo e-mail groups is "old school"!  Oh dear.  If that is the case, I'm afraid I am about to be left behind.  You see, I don't do Facebook.  I won't do Facebook.  I'm not on Facebook.

Four years ago, I did Facebook.  Not for long.  I had a few friends. One day, whilst in my little world of FB, in amidst searching through my "wall posts" and cyberhugs, I suddenly realised that my children were trying to talk to me.  They had been repeating something, but I was in another world, and hadn't heard them.  It struck me then- this is real life, these children need me to be communicating with them, not staring at a screen. 

Sure, I liked the people I was connecting with, but it was beginning to stop me from connecting with real life people. (It's so much easier and less messy to visit on FB, isn't it)see Were my children watching as visitors came into our home and conversed, seeing me support a crying friend, were they learning anything from FB about real friendship?  Was I still reaching out to others who were shut in, visiting them, taking them meals or was I sending them cyberhugs and then ignoring them?  What was I actually teaching my children about real life communication and love when I was on FB?  That those relationships and that type of communication was important, even more important than they were?!  These, and many other sentiments hit hard and deep!  I shut down my FB profile, only to discover that it never really shut down. Since then I have attmepted to follow a really complicated process to delete myself, I hope I was successful.

In the past few years I know of 2 marriages ruined, where FB played a role in deception and adultery.  Sure, adultery can succeed without FB.

I am probably  going to get nailed for saying this, but I feel that married women having male friends, and married men having women friends on FB, particularily those from their pasts, is just playing with fire.  I saw how people were inclined to be a lot more personal on FB than they would be in real life and that is dangerous.  I shudder to think how many more wonderful marriages are going to be ruined by FB, people innocently connecting with others, only to get deeper and deeper into a "unreal" relationship.

I am sure FB has it's uses.  I hear it's great if you own a business, and is the way forward.  So, I'm old fashioned and backward.  If all the homeschool groups move over to Facebook, I'll be very alone.  Especially if notices of homeschool events and such are only posted on FB.  I'll just take my chances.


 

Facebook user?  No thanks, I'll take real life anyday.

New baby cousin Kirsty

Here are some early pictures of my new niece, Kirsty, born on Thursday 15th September.
She gets more and more beautiful every day I see her.
The centre pic is me holding her, about two hours after birth, it was so special.
The children are thrilled, especially her big sister Amy, seen below holding her. 

Congratulations Tracy and Neil on your precious bundle.

Weaving again

Basic Weaver Set

Ihaven't posted much here these past years.  And I have not updated anyone about our homeschooling. Well, after about two years absence, we have started our beloved Weaver Curriculum again.  When the girls were smaller, I found they could not keep up and got bored.  Now Emma is 7yo and Shelley is almost 5yo and their attention span is much better.

We are now on Chapter 3 and really enjoying it.  Shelley does the activities that she wants to and wanders off if she doesn't feel interested.

The children have re-acted so well to the Weaver and I honestly think God has brought this into our lives again at the right time.  Twice this week Joel has looked at me in disbelief and said, "Mommy, you're different, you've changed!"  I think he can visibly see the tension has gone from me and I feel at peace about curriculum choices.

A seasoned fellow South African Weaverette gave me some very wise advise.  She said once you have chosen what you are going to use, do not even look at anything else.  Excellent!

I am also doing Interlock with Shel, I'm so blessed to be able to do it again.  I am wondering which I prefer mroe Interlock or the Volume?  It is not advised to do a Volume and Interlock together, but since I've done Interlock and some of Vol 1, I think it will be ok. Though I am lost as to how to schedule my day. I am thinking we'll progress through both these slowly at this rate!

We have one more week of school before our Spring break.  Yeah, I am really wanting to organise my school room again and throw out clutter in the house.