ISBN: 9781432303686
Format: E-book only at online stores.
Release Date: July 2015
Pages: 200
Homeschooling the Primary Years is a comprehensive guide for South African families embarking on the adventure of learning at home with young children.
Homeschooling is a growing phenomenon worldwide which is spreading across all ethnic groups in South Africa. More and more concerned parents are choosing this option as an alternative to government education, which is in a crisis and to private education, which can be very expensive!
Both local and international research has shown that, in general, South Africa’s school system is failing. For parents who realise that their children are aboard this sinking ship, homeschooling is a life boat which can save their children’s education from potential disaster!
“While families are being fragmented by modern culture, home educators are brave agents of social change – they are redefining education and re-establishing the boundaries of work, school and family life.”
Since homeschooling is not the educational route that most of our society follows, prospective home educators often feel that they are setting out into unchartered territory.
Homeschooling the Primary Years is a comprehensive guide for this journey, written by an experienced homeschool mom of 6 children, who started her own family learning adventure in 1997.
The book explains how all kinds of families, from single parent and single child families to large families with children across every age group, can successfully educate their children at home.
It provides information on legal issues, socialisation, sport, common mistakes to avoid, the benefits of learning at home, choosing curriculum, teaching tips, helping children with special needs and more.
Homeschooling the Primary Years highlights that home education is ideally not school-at-home and will help you to make the mindshift needed to choose a different learning model for your family.
With anecdotes and testimonies from real South African homeschooling families as well as photos to give you a glimpse of how education at home sometimes looks, this book will explain alternatives that have been tried and tested by other homeschoolers, which will enrich and facilitate, rather than hinder, the process of home education.
Since many prospective homeschool parents are concerned about the financial implications of juggling work and supervising homeschooling, it also offers practical advice to parents about earning an income (from home or elsewhere), while educating their children at home.
Parents worry that their decision might ruin their children’s education but international research shows that homeschooling is generally more successful than public education.
No one is as committed to your family’s long-term success and happiness as you are!
Invest in Re-educating Yourself
“My friend, Debby, is also a home educating mother. She is pursuing a life-long dream by training to become a direct-entry midwife, specialising in home births. To be an accredited midwife she has to undergo specific academic and practical training in order to qualify. For most of it, she is home educating herself, with a professional mentor, an older midwife, providing the practical training and home birthing experience she needs.
I am sure you will agree, bringing a baby safely into the world is a responsibility that requires expert knowledge and skill.
Likewise, equipping your child to go out into the world also requires knowledge and skill. By choosing home education for your child, you have chosen another career-path for yourself and although there is no examination or professional qualification required, you would be wise, like Debby, to invest time and money educating yourself for this life-shaping task.
This is equally necessary if you are already a professionally trained teacher. Teachers are trained specifically for the classroom environment and experience has shown that this is a disadvantage and not an advantage when you start homeschooling! Local experts say it takes about 4 years for ex-teachers to break out of the way they were trained (in classroom management) when they start educating their children at home.”
Before you make a mistake and choose the wrong course of action, which could cost you thousands of rands and much stress and emotional turmoil, let Homeschooling the Primary Years show you the various options to chart your journey to SUCCESS.
If it seems risky, remember:
Amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic!
Homeschooling the Primary Years will not only get you started on this new career path, it will build your confidence and outline the basic skills your children should acquire for success in life.
Look no further – everything you need to know about Homeschooling the Primary Years in South Africa could be at your fingertips.
Update 2020 – this book is now out of print. Try your local library or homeschool support group to locate a copy.
The Pestalozzi Trust library has a copy. Go to www.pestalozzi.org