WHY DON'T I POST MORE OFTEN?

I get quite a few emails about this from various people, so I need to let you all know. This was a secondary blog that I started. The actual Homeschool blog that I update at least twice a week is at

www.ourhomeschooljourney.co.za/wordpress

There is a newsletter, articles, opinions (lots of those), craft ideas, craft patterns, worksheets, wordsearch puzzles, kids recipes and so much more.

I just at this point in my journey, keep more than 1 Homeschool blog going, so, my apologies to everyone who likes to visit here, but if you could just pop over to my site, you should get all the info you need.

Thanks for always visiting.
Blessings to you all,
Susan

PS. Another reason I'm out of time, is that we're about to start our Homesteading Journey, and it is taking a lot of preparation, planning and life changing decisions.

KIDS CRAFT TIME

Hi Everyone,

I've received many emails for Mom's around the world, that don't like sewing. Now I love sewing and most of the kids craft time we do revolves around sewing! But after quite a few Mom's have made it clear either they or their children are allergic to needles and thread, I went off to try and find a source of other kids craft ideas.

I've found a few that I find to be really useful for kids craft time, they're cheap, most of the material is lieing around the house, and the kids have loved them. They don't complain they're boring!

So pop over to our Kids Craft Time page and see what we have there, as it's just been updated, and their are also a few Free Craft Patterns, if you don't mind a touch of sewing!

Blessings to you all.
Susan

PS. That's StJohn making puff the magic dragon, who seldom allows any picture to be taken without a really odd face being pulled! But he does love craft time!

THE TRUTH ABOUT HOME SCHOOLING

Okay, wanna know the Truth about Homeschooling and why I threw a Banana down our passage?

Visit our Homeschool Blog, I can't tell it again, I'm too tired!

NEW MATHS DIVISION WORKSHEET

Hi Everyone,


Juliette is busy learning division at the moment, using the division board game I made for her and worksheets. As I make them for her I try and upload as many as possible for free on my site.

I've just uploaded a new Maths Division Worksheets, dividing by 3! So please pop over and visit us and download it or any other that takes your fancy.

Have a stunning week homeschooling!

Blessings,
Susan

ADDING CULTURE TO HOMESCHOOLING

Just sitting here waiting for the courier to come with our tickets for a Broadway play, showing here in Africa.

We're taking the kids tonight. Expanding there cultural horizons!

I want my kids to have a classical education which for means means they go to plays, the opera, musicals etc. Not just the movies.

More details on my site....

Blessings S.

WALDORF HOME SCHOOLING CURRICULUM

Hi Everyone


Well I've finished the review of the Waldorf Home Schooling Curriculum, along with recommended reading of various Rudolf Steiner lectures.

If you're considering using Waldorf methodology to Homeschool, then our site is definitely a must for your to have a look at.

There is a page to help you find out which curriculum is best for you, and then various pages of different curriculum, some Waldorf, some Christian.

I truly believe that there is a Home Schooling Currciulum out there for everyone! No matter how different our needs are.

See you at www.ourhomeschooljourney.co.za!

Blessings, Susan

HOMESCHOOL MATHS GAMES

Hi Everyone

Just a quick post the kids are yelling for dinner!!!! I've been teaching Jules maths division and needed to find a way for her to practise without using piles of worksheets and written sums.

So I've put a board game together, which is a free download if you'd like on my Homeschool site.

There is no better way to teach maths then by using games. By using games, your child doesn’t feel like they’re doing school work, it’s just fun. This is when learning takes place so easily.

If you’ve visited our site before you’ll know that I’m a firm believer in

PRACTICAL HOMESCHOOLING, taking normal everyday events and turning them into a learning experience.

With this is mind, I was teaching Juliette division, and we do this using Rudolph Steiner’s Waldorf Method. We started a play shop, she was the shopkeeper, and she had customers that she had to sell to. The farmer gave her only so many eggs and she had to divide them equally between her customers.

This is great and the concept was learnt easily. Now it was a matter of practising. And there’re only so many times you can play “Shopkeeper” before it gets boring! For me there is nothing more boring then piles and piles of worksheets or written sums either.

My kids love board games, especially when Mom and Dad play as well. This gave me an idea that I’ve been using, and it works! I want to share it with you, I hope it’ll bring you as much fun into your maths curriculum as it has into ours!

You can use any board game that requires a dice to be thrown.

You’ll need a normal dice, any type is fine. A few small white stickers, and a couple of coloured pens (I borrow my kids fibre tips).

It's all FREE on our website so if you have a chance pop over and download as much as you want, you'll also find free craft patterns, free recipes and a whole pile of other goodies!

Have a great weekend.

Homeschool with love,

Susan

FREE HOMESCHOOL BAKING BOOK

Hi Everyone,

Firstly I must apologise I haven't been blogging for a while. Not here anyway, only on my website blog. Sorry!

Time has just got away with me. I've been teaching my son his 1st grade letters the Waldorf way. He loves it, I love it, ooohh I'd just do grade 1 over and over again if I had a choice. (Better be careful what I wish for hey?)

Any way, Juliette has been tackling divide, also using Rudolph Steiners Waldorf Method. She's doing great!

But the thing that's been keeping me away from Blogging.....

We've finally managed to put a new gift together for you all.

If you've visited before, you'll know that I wrote a book, Conquering Bakers Day, in which I showed Homeschool parents how to turn plain old baking days into an educational experience and how to make baking part of the Homeschool Curriculum, incorporating maths and reading skills - WITHOUT THE KIDS REALISING IT! Always important. It's got to be fun, fun, fun. That way learning is easy.

Anyway, back to your free gift, we've managed to make a FREE DOWNLOAD out of the first 2 chapters of Conquering Bakers Day.

So please pop over to my site and help yourself to a copy. And enjoy every minute. I hope it'll bring you as much joy as the Mom's who are currently using it.

Now I have to go to bed, I'm exhausted, and it's another Full Homeschool Day tomorrow. Boy I need this coming Weekend.

Blessings to you all as you Homeschool.
Susan

WALDORF GRADE 1

Yesterday I started teaching my son, StJohn (Sinjin) his letters using Rudolph Steiners Waldorf method. I can't go into all the details, but if you visit us you can see what we've been doing. Everything from storytelling, to writing his letters in Cocoa powder, to making letters with playdough.

We're incorporating all his senses and he's loving it!

Isn't this the way to Homeschool?

Blessings

Susan

PS. Come and visit us on our site. All the details are there, along with a lot of Free Online Homeschool Resources.

AN EASY KIDS RECIPE FOR YOU FOR FREE!

Hi Everyone,

My kids and I have been having a bit of a holiday! And I've been working on my website. I chucked the ads and changed the colours back to the ones I liked. And wrote a few articles and things to help with Homeschooling, I hope!

My favourite.... I've uploaded one of my kids favourite recipes to make. Chunky chocolate squares. They filled with oats, coconut, cocoa and oh they're so nice. They're so easy to make and cheap, which helps if you're on a shoestring budget like us!

Give them a try while you're having a holiday, they're great to take with on picnics, as well!

Chat soon,

Blessings,
Susan

I'M BAKING WITH MY KIDS

I love baking with my 2 monsters! There was a time I really dreaded it, all the sticky bowls, counters and floors. All the fighting and wasted ingredients. But that is all ancient history now. One day I just decided this isn't working for us. Things had to change.

So I worked out a system, and fine tuned it on my babies! Bakers day for us now is bliss.

Clean up time is fun!
Ingredients are never wasted!
The kids are happy and take turns kindly!
My baking time is cut each week!
I can bake once, without have a kiddies bakers day and an adult cake baking!

We love it and so do our neighbours. We made Muffins today, and then took some to our 83 year old neighbour. She loves them too!

Baking with your kids is so important, it improves their reading skills, maths skills, and it promotes self reliance! So important.

It's a part of the curriculum that uses all 5 of their senses. This is how Homeschool is meant to be!

We're loving it!

Blessings
Susan

PS Visit us and see what we bake, your mouth will water just reading about it!

HOMESCHOOL GRADE 3 BIOLOGY LESSON

Hi Everyone,

Well it's the start of a brand new week! This week Juliette is continuing her Biology lessons, we're nearly finished the human body. Today we did the respiratory system. It's Grade 3 Biology, so we keep it simple, just giving an overview.

Very simply put we've taught:

air goes in (inhale oxygen)
nose makes air warm and nose hair filter impurities
air goes down windpipe into lungs
lungs (2 of them) absorb oxygen into blood
air gets xhale (carbon dioxide)

We then did an experiment, being light a candle, cover with a glass jar, when the oxygen is used up your candle goes out! They made me repeat this 6 times!

Then we held each others noses, and soon realised how badly we need oxygen.

They loved this,this is another example of taking normal Homeschool lesson and teaching it in a PRACTICAL HOMESCHOOL way.

Have a great new week.

Blessings
Susan

HOMESCHOOL MAKING MATHS FUN

Hi other Homeschool Mom's!

Juliette, my 8 year old is doing so well at maths, now that she's homeschooled! It took me 6 months of Homeschooling to get her out of the idea that maths was boring and difficult. She finally looks forward to maths, most probably because of the printable maths games, she absorbs concepts and has a great time. The reason why?

WE'VE MADE MATHS FUN! MATHS IS A GAME!I FOUND GAMES FOR MATH!

As adults, we all know that math skills will be vital to every child’s future.

It helps them in school… at work… in social situations… in all areas of life. You simply cannot get along without it.

But when kids struggle, and many do, we need a way to help. We need fun maths activites for kids.

Experts now agree that children learn far more readily when they are having fun. This is easy to do if you're Homeschooling. So what is the simplest way to have fun with math?

I went and did everything from scratch making games when I started Homeschooling my kids. It ended up costing a fortune, and soon I'll be starting with StJohn my 5 year old. I felt tired just thinking about it! So what did I do, I checked my Online Homeschool Resources. I found a fantastic person, thats done all the hard work! All I have to do is order ! I can't wait!I had to share it with you!And its not expensive either. They're all fun math activites for kids!

Making Math More Fun - Math Games Package brings you tried-and-true games that really work — games and activities that have been used in the classroom for years with great success. Games that kids like to play. Games that help them master key math concepts and then use what they’ve learned.

It's amazing no more boring maths, just games and fun.

What more could a child ask for! Homeschooled and having Fun! Wow!

Enjoy it, you deserve to take it a bit easy!
Blessing

Susan

LEARNING GRATITUDE AT HOME

Hi Everyone,

Today I'm obsessed with Gratitude. Gratitude for me means being thankful, grateful. As a Homeschool Family we try and teach our children gratitude, love, respect and care.

How often do you say thank you for all that you have? Do you even realise how much you have? Everything is relative.

Our family is not too fussed with material things, we need the basics, and have them. We live in South Africa. An affluent area in Gauteng, and half an hour away we have people who are no different to us,yet they have no running water, live in tin shacks and are lucky if they have a meal a day. Now I'm not asking for pity on behalf of these people.

What I am saying is don't take things for granted. Don't forget to say thank you, for all you have.

I have family, friends, pets, who all love me. I have food, shelter, electricity, water, a car, and all the goodies that go with this. I'm also privileged enough to be able to homeschool my kids. I do not see this as something to take for granted.

Homeschooling is an incredible experience, that I am very grateful to have the chance to enjoy.
As much as I teach our children gratitude, they teach me in equal amounts. We can be walking to the park, I'll be preoccupied with something, and they turn to me and say something like, "Wow Mom, look at the sky today, it's so blue. We're really lucky to be having a walk on a day like today."

It's at times like this that I'm made aware of GRATITUDE. Being thankful for the gifts we are given.

Have a think, and tell me what you feel about Gratitude. How do you show it?

Blessings, Susan

HOMESCHOOLING ASTRONOMY

Hi Everyone,

You know that painfully boring question homeschoolers get asked, repeatedly, "How can you Homeschool you're not a teacher?"

Well I'm sick of it, along with the unoriginal socialisation maniacs! Anyway back to the teacher question.

Yesterday I was about to teach our kids about our solar system. So NOT BEING A TEACHER LOL, I did a lot of research beforehand.

Remember - we were taught in school there are 9 planets. Well I was aware that one of them was no longer with us so to speak. Anyway research revealed 8 planets and the suns a star, we had a great time "googling" our way around astronomy.

And I happened to stumble across a forum where parents were concerned because there kids were still being taught in Public School about the 9 planets! Shouldn't this be a history lesson?

Mmmmhhhh.... Again I see not being a teacher as an advantage. My kids got the latest info available on our solar system. I have no set ides about subjects, I research them.

So no, I'm not a teacher, but it would appear I may be doing a good job. Makes you think about the advantages of Homeschooling!

See you later!

Blessings
Susan

PS. We've started a Homeschool Newsletter so you can be the first to know whats happening, and receiving the free stuff. Come and visit ans sign up. The first 1 goes out on the 15 July 2007. Don't miss it!

ONLINE HOMESCHOOL RESOURCES

Hi Everyone,

We're busy learning about the solar system. Grade 3, so nothing technical, just the names and where they live!

We found some great online homeschool resources, everything from a walk throught the solar system on your computer to just a brief description of each planet, size colour etc.

One thing I put together quickly this afternoon was a wordsearch puzzle using the names of the planets. This definitely helps as a spelling tool.

I've uploaded the puzzle onto my site, so if you wish to download it for free, simply visit and click away.

We're just taking it slow this week, the kids are have a relaxed Homeschool week, (part holiday) and I've been using the time to write articles, and update our site. And as usual I'm desperate to get people to start Homeschooling!

Speak to you soon,
Blessings
Susan

PROS AND CONS OF HOMESCHOOL

Hi Everyone,

I've been a bit tied up and haven't posted for a few days. That's Homeschool! There is a new article on the Pros and Cons of Homeschool on our site. This took quite a bit of research and I've tried to answer all of your concerns, and questions in it.

The Pros and Cons of Homeschooling articles is our opinion. A view by an average Homeschool family. One of the Cons of Homeschool that wasn't mentioned and only became clear to me yesterday was the importance of a support system. Now I'm not talking about other Homeschool Mom's only.

I have a group of friends and family that keep me grounded and sane. I find it too easy to get so wrapped up in Homeschooling the kids, that the world can often appear a bit distant. This doesn't happen often due to my family and friends, who inject a touch of reality for me, Sometimes quite harsh, but needed!

You'll see I've thanked them all in my Our Homeschool Journey Blog. One is a Homeschool Mom, one is a Public School Mom, and one is a goal oriented career woman. They are all so different, but all mean the world to me. They provide, Homeschool support, emotional and spirtual support. I never realised how important this all was until we moved from our Hometown to a new "city" (yucky place but it's not forever).Even though we no longer live in the same town, we all still continue the role we had in each others lives. I miss seeing them often, but I know they're still so there.

I cannot stress enough the support I need to Homeschool. One of the Pros of Homeschooling is realising how important your friends and family are.

I feeling very blessed to have realised this, and to have the oppurtunity to cherish these people.

Speak to you all tomorrow.
Love Susan. xx

HOMESCHOOL vs PUBLIC SCHOOL

One of the things I'd like to discuss today is one of the perceived negatives of Homeschooling your child. If you're already Homeschooling, you'll definitely have heard it.....

How can you teach your child you're not a teacher.

Yes I know, roll your eyes. Well the short answer is easily. LOL. Okay seriously, I'm not a teacher, and what I've found is that I have a limited knowledge of the subject I need to teach our kids. This is fantastic, it's not a negative.

I often have no preconceived ideas about a subject. There's no, "oh no it's geography tomorrow". I don't know much about it (not that I can remember from school anyway) so I tackle it from a fresh unprejudiced, excited standpoint. I love learning new things. This enthusiasm rubs off on the kids, and we spend ages together researching things after the lesson is completed. We learn even more than we needed to know in the first place.

Half of the battle of teaching, is won, when there is a love of learning as an example to follow.

We don't just learn about a subject, we discuss it afterwards, even at the dinner table when Dad comes home. He's always got a different perspective, as his life experience has been different to mine.

And even if your still not convinced, then stop and ask yourself...."Before I sent my children to school, who taught them not too touch dangerous things, how to eat at a table, to ride a bike?"

You see you've been teaching them since they were born amazing isn't it, so why stop now when you're doing so well?

If you want to hear more indepth discussions about the Pros and Cons of Homeschooling or are just curious visit our family on our website.

Have a weekend filled with Love and Laughter.

Susan

THE JOY OF CRAFTING

Hi Everyone,

It's winter here in South Africa, and we're busy crafting. Today this brought home the fact that crafting is so important for a child's fine motor skill development. Both Rudolph Steiner and Maria Montessori agree on this!

There is nothing more calming for me than to curl up with the kids, and sew quietly. I started mine sewing at age 3, both StJohn and Juliette. They love it.

I hope you'll join me as we craft today. While the kids were doing worksheets this morning I uploaded Free Kids Craft Patterns on my Homeschool site. These are hand drawn and come with step by step instructions, you just can't miss! You need no experience or skill to do these.

Perfect for children who have never used a needle and thread before are the Rainbow Snake Instructions. Never made one? It won't be long and you'll be hooked! I certainly was.

The second pattern is also dead easy, it's for a Heart Shaped Felt gift. Perfect to finish in an afternoon.

Please pop into our site www.ourhomeschooljourney.co.za. There are many free kids gifts for you to download other than the craft patterns. Definitely worth a look!

READING WORKSHEETS GRADE 3

Hi Everyone,

My daughter, Juliette in Grade 3, has been increasing her vocabularly daily. The way we've been doing this is by using Wordsearch Puzzles. I put them together for her as themes, there are "things we find in the garden", "colours" and many more. It's a great way to teach spelling, as she doesn't view it as "school work" she sees it as a game! Isn't this the easiest way to teach?

If you would like to give a few to your child to try, whether they're Homeschooled or not, you can find them for free on our website, www.ourhomeschooljourney.co.za.

Just go to the "Gifts For You" page, and help yourself to as many as you want. Thanks for visiting, come again soon, we'll be posting daily, so not only can you see how we Homeschool, but you'll also find links to many Online Homeschool Resources.

Have a relaxing day!

Blessings,
Susan

HOMESCHOOLING FOR LOVE

People always ask me,"why do you Homeschool your kids?"

The simple answer? Because I love them!

No, I'm not a qualified teacher, I'm just their mom, and because of this I am more than qualified to teach my children. Who knows my children better? I know their strengths, I know their weaknesses. Because of this I'm able to teach them what they each need to know.

I'm able to help them to strengthen their "weakpoints". Every single individual has completely different challenges in life. As we Homeschool we deal with these challenges one at a time. This is done by teaching my kids one on one, not one on 30 (if you're lucky!) in a public school.

I've done the public school "thing" and it ended in my 2nd grader being unable to read the most basic words, and having to deal with Bullying children in her class. Enough already, one challenge at a time!

After 18 months, my daughter is reading marvellous books, and most important for me she's gained her self confidence back! She has respect for herself and others.

This was taken away from her during her "public school" days. (In all honesty, deep down I feel that this was an unforgiveable thing to do, but I'm doing my best to forgive the teachers and student involved)

So Public School vs Homeschool.... There's no comparison, Homeschool is best, Everyday!