This is a list of homeschool articles to encourage and equip South African homeschool families.
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2024
Footprints Guidelines for Registration with the DBE
If you choose to register with the DBE, get help writing your letter of motivation and description of your Footprints eclectic home education plus informal learning.
Your Learning Pathway with Footprints
Use this handy table to determine at which level you should begin with one of our beautiful Footprints programmes. From preschool level to high school, Footprints gives you the tools you need to prepare your children academically for excellence when they reach matric level and beyond.
Is the BELA Act a Sword over Your Head? Many parents feel conflicted about the BELA Act and the registration requirements for home educators. Gut feelings, vagueness of the law and the current ‘climate’ are valid considerations. What now?
“You may register later,” says WCED. In response to the passing of the BELA Act, the Western Cape Education Department said it is “business as usual”. No need to worry. No need to rush to register.
Give your children a 1.4 million word advantage
Discover one thing parents can do to catapult their children’s language and concentration skills to give them a lifelong academic advantage.
Barefoot Days/ Kaalvoetpret versus CAPS
A comparison of our junior programmes versus the recommendations of CAPS for Life Skills in the Foundation Phase. You can give your children a rich education that easily meets and exceeds the minimum requirements of the national Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS).
5 Tips for the Stressed Homeschool Mom
When the day-to-day reality of homeschooling doesn’t match the ideal you imagined, these 5 tips for the stressed homeschool mom can help you address the cause of your stress.
2023
Footprints and CAPS – Astonishing Alignment
Footprints and Voetspore meets 80-90% of the CAPS Social Sciences requirements and exceeds them! Our story-based programmes for the intermediate and senior phase are well-aligned with CAPS! See how they compare with tables of comparison and a never-before-published scope and sequence for Footprints and Voetspore.
Refocus for a Strong Finish to 2023
Reflect on how your plans have unfolded so far this year, acknowledge the curve balls and disruptions to you plans, adapt, adjust and refocus for a strong finish to 2023.
Homeschooling – Blessing or Burden?
Four easy tips to lighten the daily load and make home education a joy!
Reading Power On! – Help us kickstart a national movement to get all parents in South Africa to read aloud to their children. Research shows that reading aloud catapults children’s progress academically. We can’t wait for the school system to be fixed, we have to help families to help their children learn at home, by giving them books and lights to light up the darkness of illiteracy!
Home Education with Dyslexia (and other Labels) – Children with learning challenges fail to thrive doing school-at-home. They need customised learning that allows progress at their own pace. This article explains why and what to do instead.
2022
Nature Study Made Easy:
Unlocked Learning at Home – Discover how home education can equip your children to excel at their strengths and stand out from the crowd, if YOU will let them!
Homeschool Daily Schedules – The good, the bad and tips to make them work instead of stressing you out!
2021
5 Tips for “Just Right” Homeschooling – like Goldilocks in the story of the three bears, the first thing you try is not always the best for your family!
7 Skills Schools Don’t Teach Children – It’s vital to focus not merely on preparing kids for tests, but to equip them for success in life!
8 Tips When Learning to Read is Hard – sometimes you have to choose between persevering or waiting for your child to be ready. Both are hard. Here are tried-and-tested tips to encourage you.
6 Reasons Stories are Better than Textbooks – research shows we learn best through stories and real-life experience. Read why.
School-at-Home vs Eclectic Homeschooling – if you are tired of feeling stressed, find out how to switch to a more joyful way to home educate your family.
9 Tips for Winning Dad’s Support for Homeschooling – advice if your children’s dad is still doubtful about the decision to start homeschooling in South Africa.
Please use the contact form to request permission to publish any of these articles in your homeschool publication. Reproduction on other websites will not be allowed.
Tips for Starting Homeschooling in South Africa
Read our 7 part series of homeschool articles:
You might like to bookmark this page so that you can come back to it when you have time to continue.
1. Reasons to Homeschool – Bringing the children home
2. Deschooling – Your first 6 weeks to three months
3. Parenting and spending quality time together
4. Learning styles, philosophies and methods in the homeschooling movement
5. Choosing a Homeschool Curriculum – essential tips to avoid costly mistakes
6. Organization 101
7. Preventing Burnout
More South African Homeschool Articles
Homeschooling and Family Relationships
The Hidden Blessing of Homeschooling
Homeschooling is not just about academics. Find out what else you get.
Are You Working Yourself Out of a Job?
Why Homeschooling Moms are Better Than Teachers
Seven reasons homeshooling moms are highly successful at helping their children learn.
10 Tips for Worried Homeschool Moms
Read solutions for concerns and real problems that homeschooling parents face.
Am I Doing Enough? Homeschool Self-assessment
Relaxed Homeschooling in South Africa
The majority of South African homeschooling moms are stressed out by their homeschooling curriculum and are looking for “permission” to relax and take “the scenic route”!
Raising Men and Women of Character – Homeschooling
The measure of your homeschooling should not be the capital letters behind your children’s name one day, but rather the people of integrity and good character they have become.
Entitlement and Teaching Thankfulness
Tips to raise appreciative and thankful children who won’t develop an entitlement attitude.
Healthy Teen Relationships
A few articles and recommended resources to guide parents and teens as you discover how to develop healthy teen relationships according to Biblical principles.
Life Orientation has been a hot topic amongst homeschoolers. Read our tips on this controversial subject.
Preschool Ideas – Living Alongside Your Little Ones
This homeschooling article answers a question that we are commonly asked by moms of preschoolers who feel pressured to ‘do school’ with their little ones.
Gaming Addiction
Wise tips, advice and strategy to prevent and rescue children from gaming addiction.
How Homeschooling in South Africa Works Best
Eclectic Homeschooling
Discover why eclectic homeschooling, customised education, with specially selected electives is the way to develop our children to their fullest potential.
Choosing the BEST Curriculum – How do you choose the best for YOUR family?
Homeschooling in Hard Times
6 tips to help you through hard times like financial, family, health or other crises.
How to Ensure Deep Learning in an Age of Digital Distraction
As homeschoolers can harness the power of technology in our world and yet still benefit from the time-tested methods of learning that best suit the way our brains were created.
Literature for Lifelong Learning
6 Essential skills that all kids need to be media-savvy and informed young adults.
Charlotte Mason Homeschool
A Charlotte Mason Homeschool explains the ethos and philosophy behind the Footprints on Our Land South African homeschool curricula.
Benefits of Literature-based Learning
Research has shown that reading to children significantly raises their potential for academic and life-long success and using a literature-rich curriculum offers many benefits.
Notebooking – an Alternative to Workbooks
Homeschool notebooking is a wonderful way for each child to keep a record of their learning and express their own unique personality at the same time.
Don’t be a Pirate Home Educator
Know the copyrights and wrongs of home education curriculum materials. When is it OK to make copies and when isn’t it?
Homeschool Expo Tips
Don’t be overwhelmed at expos but use these homeschool expo tips from seasoned homeschool moms to avoid making impulse decisions that you might regret.
Homeschool Abbreviations – Learn what they are and what they mean. There are so many!
Real Life Learning
Entrepreneurship for Kids is Essential
Most parents have a curriculum for traditional school subjects, like Maths and Spelling, but few realise that helping our children develop entrepreneurial skills is essential for success in the future economy.
A South African Garden Route Trip
This article describes an educational tour of the Garden Route undertaken by two homeschooling moms and their 11 children. Places of interest and sites that you can visit are described to inspire you to plan your own educational South African trip.
South Africa Travel – Footprints around SA
– a 6000+km educational tour through 7 provinces of SA, taken by a homeschooling family with 5 kids under 10 to see the sights and historic places of interest of South Africa.
Homeschool Special Education Needs (SEN)
Homeschooling A-typical children – a homeschool mom’s perspective
Video: Neuro-diversity and special needs, a homeschooling mom’s perspective – interview with Wendy Young