New Year, New Challenges

Krantzkloof Nature Reserve

It’s February and we’ve hit the road running into our home-school curriculum. Our routine has changed a little because my eldest now attends math and science lessons daily, so our day is full of good interruptions. We learning to navigate this new change. We try to always start our day with 15 minutes of devotions. This year we started with Joel Osteen’s book “I Declare”. We then try to get through at least three subjects before we leave the house to drop my eldest at his lessons. I find if we can get through at least 3 subjects in the morning, half the work done for the day.

To be more productive, while we driving, my youngest sings her math timetables. I purchased this amazing timetable tool from The Good and the Beautiful curriculum, which has downloaded songs, so she sings her timetables while we drive. It comes with little picture books for her to see the story while she sings it. She also gets car sick, so this takes her focus off the sickness. My second eldest carries his English and Afrikaans readers and catches up on his reading during the ride. We come back home for two hours before we need to leave again to pick up my eldest. In this time, we’re able to complete the rest of the days task. The timetable for the math and science lessons change often so we navigate each day differently and some days incomplete work is done as afternoon homework. The flexibility of been able to carry our books with us is an amazing positive of home-schooling. Some days are easier than others. We have extra murals most days, piano, guitar, karate, ballet, drama and soccer…. yes! My kids are really busy, and we prefer it that way!

My eldest son has found AS level Cambridge quite challenging and often finds he needs to complete tasks on a Saturday as well.  After his maths and science lesson he then comes home to complete the days homework from the lessons, so it takes up his entire afternoon. Mornings are for the other two subjects Business studies (which I tutor him daily) and English which we go through together and get extra help where needed. His day starts at 7.30am and ends at 5pm, he has a break then studies at night. He will also be writing mini exams in 2 weeks. During his breaks he goes to gym, plays soccer and practices piano. I think he assumed doing four subjects in matric wouldn’t be that difficult, but he’s come to realise that the volume of work is challenging. He has assignments most weeks which he completes on a Saturday. This week he did a math test with his tutor as well as a math assignment which is submitted via email to T.C.E. He also completed an English literature assignment based on the play Henry IV. I could see it was a busy week for him. He learnt how to email his assignments without my assistance as well, all this is preparing him for university next year.

We have started our research into the various degrees he is interested in, as well as the cost of boarding and fees. It’s quite daunting thinking about the cost of university and wishing you were more prepared for it financially. It’s never too early to save for your child’s education. While we started saving on and off since he was about two years old, it’s still no where near the amount we will need for the next couple of years.
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We are looking at his strengths and interest and working with him to guide him into the next phase of his life. It’s been an ongoing topic in our family for the last two years and his always gone back to his love for drawing and careers that will suit that field of interest. Architecture has been his number one interest since grade 7. Other interest is music, as he plays the piano. He is also interested in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He has various career guidance books he has been reading since grade 11 to get an idea of what these careers entail. Our job is to guide him and pray for him to walk in God’s plan and purpose for his life.