The layout of the E-zine is as follows:

• Greetings from Marianne
• News
• Our Changing Teaching Methods
• Instruct, Encourage, Inspire, Mentor, Model
• Thoughts from a Homeschool Dad
• Organizational Tips
• Coming soon

Greetings from Marianne

I have said this before, but one thing I have noticed as we homeschool through the years is that nothing remains the same.

As it says in Ecclesiastes, there are seasons in our lives.

Our children grow and change, we move through changes as individuals whether we are ready for it or not, our life situations can change and even our teaching methods change. Is that okay? Is that supposed to happen? Are we being lazy or negligent in our duties if our role seems to diminish and alter?

In this ezine, I want to talk about how our teaching methods change as homeschooling parents.

News - Monthly Giveaway!

Looking for a family resource with discipleship instruction for the whole family?

Over the last two months, we have had some new curriculum descriptions added.

Thank you for adding descriptions. If you have used the curriculum below or would like to add a comment or review on any other curriculum descriptions, see the Curriculum Review Page.

Thank you for these curriculum descriptions:

Learning Language Arts Through Literature by Willemein Kruger.

And a comment from Linda added on the exciting new online Science Program for Homeschoolers: Supercharged Science. Don't forget the Science Experiment Freebies I mentioned last time - get them here.

Each of these families will receive, “Our 24 Family Ways” by the Clarksons. Look out for it in your letterbox and may you be blessed through it.

Our Changing Teaching Methods

To me there seems to be three significant problems with my long-term ‘specific’ planning. (I am not talking about big picture goals here – I’m talking about the specific details that I was trying to plan....)

1. Firstly, I am not leaving room for God’s directions and changes.
2. Secondly, I am not considering each child as an individual with their own gifts, talents, strengths, weaknesses and differing abilities.
3. Thirdly, I am assuming that the teaching methodology stays the same.

Please don’t get me wrong: I am not saying, “Don’t Plan!” Rather, make your family’s educational big picture goals (the Relational, Spiritual, Practical and Academic Goals) with flexibility in mind. Generally speaking, you do need to know where you want to lead your children. That is why I have a number of pages of setting educational goals.

Yes, as Christian homeschooling parents, we want to nurture our children for God’s glory and for use in His Kingdom work wherever He has called them to be. However, what that exactly looks like – might be and probably will be different than we first envision when our children are very young.

In this Ezine, I want to concentrate mainly on different teaching methods we use as homeschooling parents and how it changes as our children mature. When our children begin to eat solid food, we naturally spoon-feed them. Whether we are ready for it or not, they decide to take that spoon in their own chubby hand after a while, and although it is a messy procedure when they begin, eventually they do feed themselves.

In my mind, education has to be like that. Yes, initially we teach them many, many things. That is our role and our privilege. We give them skills to read, tools to think, skills to write and express their thoughts clearly and in and through the process, they feed themselves, they educate themselves. In the process, as they develop and explore their world and develop their character and personal interests, they lean in a certain direction, look to learn and spend more time developing and following their interests. Our role seems to diminish as parents and our children desire to take the lead.

Instruct, Encourage, Inspire, Mentor, Model

Instruct

Teaching is the imparting of knowledge and we often instruct our children in order to teach a new concept or explain an idea. It is more of a lecture style – teaching a math’s concept; writing the steps in a math problem, explaining the order of historical events on a time-line. Last week, I spend some time explaining the differences between narrative, expository, descriptive and persuasive paragraphs. I needed to instruct my children and showed them examples of writing on the whiteboard as well as reading sections out aloud and discussing various points. We instruct our children in a variety of subject areas from the time they are born. We teach them their colours, their numbers and letters. We play games with them and teach them to wait their turn and sharing. We teach them Bible stories and how to pray. We teach them how to use reference materials to find information and how to explore the world around them. We teach them about dangers, electricity, music, playing in a team. We teach them about manners, how to fold their clothes, how to brush their teeth, how to pack the dishwasher.

Often when we teach, we stand alongside of them and show them new skills step by step. We may explain a concept, and then watch them repeat what we have just taught them. A lot of our chore training happens in this way, and although it takes far longer to do this, it pays off in the end. We want them to gain a set of skills so that they can engage with God, with others and in the world around them. What skills? To read, write, think, understand and express themselves clearly.

Encourage and Inspire

Much of our role as a parent is to stand alongside our children and encourage and inspire them. It begins very early in their life. We encourage them to take their first steps with endearing words of praise. We clap our hands in delight when they achieve their milestones – when they climb the stairs, feed themselves, put on their shoes, tie their laces, graduate out of nappies!

We continue to encourage them through their life and through their educational milestones. Counting, skip counting, writing letters, words and sentences. We proudly show off their drawings and the new skill of writing is displayed in a card sent to grandparents.

We encourage them to learn, explore and discover their world. “I’m not sure why that happens. Why don’t you try ....” We encourage them to experiment, try new things and inspire them to open a book, experiment and research.

As we see them mature and develop gifts we desire to embolden them to use their gifts – to cook, perform, to write, to create, build and just to ‘be’ the person God has created them to be. We encourage them, “You can do that!” “You’re our cooking expert. Why don’t you make dinner tonight?” “Please fix our computer problems – you’re the family network administrator!” “Thank you for setting the table so beautifully! You really know how to make it nice for our family!” “Please play us a tune on the recorder tonight. We love your playing!” “I really love the way you welcome guests into our home – you are a lovely friend to those you don’t even know that well!”

It is wonderful to see our children shine in completely different ways (they often surprise us) and as parents we need to look for ways to encourage them and inspire them to grow by providing opportunities for them to bless the family and others with their skills.

Act as a Mentor

In the continuing process of inspiring and encouraging, and as our children grow, they will discover what they really love to do. In our role as mentor, we discuss their ideas, their dreams, the things they love. We talk to them and ask them where God is leading them; We ask what we can do to help them to grow in a certain direction. This is a time where we as parents need to listen carefully and be creative to explore ways in which we can help our teens grow and develop their gifts and interests. Is there a course which would benefit them? Do we need to outsource to provide an avenue for a skill to be learned? Do we need to find an online course or begin a certificate course online or in a local college? Would an overseas mission trip be right for our teen? We should spend time together in prayer before God finding avenues to develop and grow our teen in accordance with the desires God himself has placed inside them.

Model

Another teaching role we have as parents is to model what life-long education looks like. We should set an example of researching, discovering new talents, developing our gifts, stepping into service opportunities, reading for our own pleasure and development. As we walk along the road together, we will model what the Christian life is like and disciple our children in this. At times, when our children are very young, it is a matter of just staying ‘on top’ and organizing the house, but in doing that, we can also model good habits (Time for Bible reading and prayer), model creativity in making our house a home (a bunch of garden flowers on our dining table), try new ideas (new recipe, ideas for organization of laundry piles etc) and be excited about the family’s learning adventure.

Throughout the years of homeschooling, I have found that there is a natural progression from our didactic instruction to the time when we as parents act more as encouraging mentors and models in discipleship training.

• “What would be a good course for you to follow?”
• “You can use your gift to.....”
• “How can you best express what you’ve learned?”
• “What would help you most right now?”

I would feel frustrated as a parent, if I was still spoon-feeding my child at the dinner table when they were 16; As far as their education is concerned, I also want to see them take more and more ownership and responsibility of their own learning and how they can develop and use their education. We want them to take initiative, follow their God given interests and look for areas where they can serve in His Kingdom.

I would like the phrase, “What do you want me to do now, Mum?” to become “I would like to take on this course/ read this book/ study ... because this would really benefit me.”

So, don’t be surprised or disappointed that at some point your “upfront” teaching role diminishes; Raising an independent learner is a good thing; Give your child the skills they need to educate themselves– to read, write, reason, understand the world and the ability to express it both orally and on paper, and you will open up the world for them to be life-long learners continually developing their gifts and talents for God’s glory.

Thoughts from a Homeschool Dad

Our hope is that the children will grow and develop into independent learners capable of being the people God wants them to be. I can see that Marianne as a teacher has also changed and grown over the last decade. She didn’t like it too much when I said that she had become a little more pragmatic and perhaps a little less idealistic. What I meant by that is that as parents you have to do what works well for your child as each one of them is unique and learns differently to their siblings. I also think that if you are banging your head against a brick wall because you like a particular program or approach but your children don’t, you still ought to change your approach in order to help your children to learn. There is nothing worse than when both teacher and student are frustrated and I think Marianne has thought of creative ways to inspire our children to learn.

Till next time,

Gerald

Organizational Tips

I have also been trying to clear off our shelves - get rid of trinkets and things that don't mean that much.

I must say that it is difficult for homeschooling mums to declutter their children's rooms. Often I hear that in 'school' families, the mum gets into the rooms when the children are away at school for all those hours and when they return - they usually don't even notice! It's a bit trickier when our children are always with us - somehow we need to help them to toss their 'treasures'.

Do you have ideas on decluttering?

Please let us know your organizational tips here.

Coming soon...