​When my kids were in preschool and primary school, they had a few special days they really enjoyed like Valentine’s day, break up day and spring day. When I asked my daughter what she enjoyed about those special days she said the arts and crafts, getting to dress up and goodies her teacher handed out. So, I set out every year to make her have that same excitement. This year for spring day I prepared in advance. I wrote a list of fun things to do on the day and researched and printed some fun activities to do. I printed a spring word search, set out different colour paper, glue, water colour paints, googly eyes and other crafts.

I prepared the goodies for the table the night before. I cut up some fruit to make a fun fruit platter. I baked banana muffins and bought some cupcakes and lamingtons. I also bought some colourful sweets like jellybeans and speckled eggs. My daughter made iced tea (she makes the best iced tea) and we poured it out into mason jars the next morning, so it stayed cold. I bought her a yellow daisy dress, so she had something cute and new to wear. She did her own hair and added a beautiful flower alice band.

We chose a poem the day before. We read through it and all said what we thought it meant. It was a silly poem by Lewis Caroll and lots of laughs were had. I printed and laminated scripture cards the day before which we each picked our favourite and did some scripture journaling. My son loves word searches so that was his favourite activity. I then left the table as it was set, and we continued with our schoolwork as usual. I realised that little bit of planning I did to make it a fun morning, did so much for my kids. They were so excited to learn on spring day and there was so much joy at the table. 

​Footprints on our Land (South African History)
Homeschooling is so wonderful because you can add these fun aspects even once a month to make your days fun and change up your kids attitudes towards learning. We also did a fun morning last week to mark the end of a book we were reading for our South African History by Footprints on our land. I made pancakes, we had some hot chocolate and I set the table with things pertaining to the book we read. The month before that one of our tasks for footprints was to start a vegetable garden which we did. In August all our veggies started to bloom just in time for the end of our book. 

​Science Experiments
I would love to encourage you to make the most of your homeschool days with your kids. Take time on Friday to skim through and see what you may require for the next week. Use what you have in your cupboards and buy what you don’t have. A little bit of planning can go a long way. Your kids will likely remember the little experiments rather than a worksheet. There is definitely a place for academics, but you can have lots of fun while learning. This month with Science my daughter is doing Astronomy, so we painted a solar system. My son learnt about circuits and he did a circuit on his own. These are practical projects we did to make our month exciting and develop a love for learning!

I was asked to share at the Kwa-Zulu Natal Homeschooling expo on the topic of using Cambridge for matric. My eldest son completed his Cambridge Matric last year. He also wrote a very honest blog for me on his experience being homeschooled. You can read about it in our previous post.
There are four different curriculums used in South Africa to complete matric. Cambridge(which we chose to do), The National Senior Certificate, The American High School Diploma and the GED.
The most important advice I can give to parents with high school children is to make sure you do thorough research before deciding which matric qualification to do. I would say you need to decide by grade 10 the latest. Not that you can’t do Cambridge after grade 10 you most certainly can, but the preparation should begin way before your child reaches grade 12 level. The earlier you start using the Cambridge curriculum the better you will understand how to get the best out of it.
My son started preparation for Cambridge from grade 10 and in hindsight I would have preferred to have started earlier. He was previously in a public school until grade 9 and we only decided to start homeschooling in 2018. Moving over from the Caps curriculum (used by South African schools) to Cambridge was quite a change for both of us.
He wrote his IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) in his grade 11 year. With lots of work put in on both his and my end, he passed with good marks. In that same year he did Afrikaans on AS level (Advanced Subsidiary level/ grade 12) The curriculum provider we used did not feel it necessary to do Afrikaans on IGCSE level, so he actually “skipped” Afrikaans on grade 11 or IGCSE level. He did very well for Afrikaans that year.
He wrote his IGCSE and AS level exams at a registered Cambridge Centre. We paid approximately R1200 per exam (not per subject) Some exams had two or three papers. The exams are all posted to Cambridge London for marking and we waited up to two months for his results. We were given a passcode by the exam centre and he was able to access his results on the release date given. His final certificate will be posted from London and we will receive it in approximately two months
For him to get a Matric exemption, he would need to pass matric in not more than two exam sessions. Which meant that because he already wrote Afrikaans at the end of Grade 11, one of his exam sessions was already used up. He registered for Maths, Physics, English and Business studies in 2020 November Exams and would have to pass them. If he failed them in November, he would need to write them in May 2021. If he failed the May 2021 exam, he would need to rewrite all his exams! Fortunately, he passed all his subjects. We then applied to USAF (Universities of South Africa) to convert his Cambridge results into a South African matric. We paid a fee of R250 and he received his Matric Exemption Certificate via email.
For my son to get a Matric exemption pass he would also need to have 4 AS-Level subjects with grades A-D and one IGCSE subject grade A-C, or five AS subjects graded A-D. You do not need English and Afrikaans on AS level but the service provider we went with preferred it, so he has both languages on AS level.
He passed all his exams in November 2020, but he did not achieve the points he needed for engineering. He decided to rewrite Maths and Physics to achieve better marks and reapply for what he really wanted to study. Most universities prefer six subjects for medicine or engineering.
He rewrote his exam in May 2021. This was regarded as a new exam sitting since, he passed his November 2020 exam.
He received his May 2021 results on the 10th of August and we were very excited with his new results. He was able to reapply to all the universities and already received an acceptance letter from Wits! We are awaiting to hear from the other universities, but he is very happy to accept the offer from Wits.
 
We chose the Cambridge Matric because my son wanted to play soccer overseas at that time and this qualification would enable him to do so. He has since changed his mind about going overseas. It has been a challenging journey with my son, but I would not change it for anything. Our relationship has also become so much stronger. I will be crying my eyes out in January when he leaves home! I am so proud of the man that his become. He is currently doing his driver’s licence, learning a trade at a technical school and working towards his music theory exam. I have kept him very busy while he awaits his new chapter at university!