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April 2009, Issue #060

1. Hello from Shirley

A friend just shared with me how they have friends who are both primary school teachers who are very skeptical about her decision to homeschool her kids. Afterall, they have had years of teacher training and experience and now she assumes she is capable of doing what they are doing ... and to crown it, she is a high school dropout!

The thing is, that Lesley (not my friend’s real name), like most homeschooling moms would probably never assume to be able to teach a class of 35+ grade 1 children and that is what professional teachers are trained to do.

But the research into homeschooling, has shown over and over again, that homeschooled children outperform school-going kids in every area – socially, academically, in leadership and other areas that have been assessed – even in cases when their parents never completed high school!

Now, I know that homeschooling is NOT for every family. But for those who choose this option, like Lesley, it will work for the reasons below (and many, many others!)

Generally, new homeschool mothers are always asking, “Am I doing enough?” and usually, because of this uncertainty, they usually make sure that their children accomplish far more than their school-going peers.

I am not knocking the importance role of teachers in our society. I know that they are among the lowest paid professionals and yet many of them (like my mother did) spend long hours at preparing, marking, planning and doing far more than their job description requires of them because they are passionate about their vocation and love to make a difference in children’s lives….but in my ideal world, I’d like to see every mother who is willing and able, doing that for her own children, with support instead of criticism from those around her!

Click here for more articles on Homeschooling

2. Check my website

Before its too late, check out the Easter Activities. My older kids love making the tomb cookies together and the bag of candy is a great treat too!

It is school holidays, so I hope to get some new pages built before the next ezine. This month, I have a new page, not for preschoolers, but maybe for you:

Has your bank manager ever asked for your diploma or your school report card?
No, he wants to see your financial achievements.

This article explains how to RE-EDUCATE yourself and your children to thrive (not just survive) in the Information Age by learning how to profit from the thousands and thousands of people that are passing by on the Internet each day.

Re-education for the 21st Century

3. Quote

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards." -- Unknown

(..so, if you can, learn from the lessons of others!!)

4. Tips

4.1. Making the best of a ‘bad’ thing!

Most of us, if we are diligent parents, will do everything we can to protect our children from being exposed at too young an age from things that are not age-appropriate – be it bad language, bad movies, bad habits, or bad lifestyles – whatever you define those to be.

However, there comes a time in every parent’s life, when due to no negligence on your part, someone else brings the ‘bad’ thing into your child’s life.

Unless the bad thing constitutes abuse of any kind, I would encourage you to look past the offense and find the learning opportunity. Instead of dismissing the topic, explain your views to your child and let good come of it.

For example, through various relationships that we have with people beyond our immediate family, my children have at times been exposed to things that they don’t experience at home – smoking and a homosexual lifestyle being two examples.

The little ones asked me, “Why does X smoke cigarettes?”..and so a learning opportunity arose. The homosexual one was a little more tricky to explain, but since it’s a reality in this person’s life, we explained it as appropriately as we could.

Children know instinctively when parents are avoiding something, so either explain why you are withholding information or else tell the truth in only as much detail as is required to answer the child’s question.

See these somewhat awkward moments as times to build the child’s confidence and trust in you as a source of good information. If you don’t, they’ll soon learn to ask elsewhere – and that might not be a good thing!

4.2 Lapbooking

Many times, we, mothers of preschoolers feel that we have very little to ‘show’ at the end of a day. You may have had plenty of learning opportunities, interesting discussions, read stories together and played games...but when dad walks in the door, there is no ‘product’ to show him.

Now, having a product is not the only way to measure your accomplishments. Character training, discipline and growth in relationships are not tangible things that you will ever be able to show…but…if you sometimes want to have a ‘product’, try the odd lapbooking project with your little ones.

Be prepared to help them a lot…and have fun yourself if you enjoy hands on, crafty type of projects. If I am recommending this, you can rest assured, it is not TOO messy. ..just plenty of paper cuttings to tidy up if you don’t work neatly!

There are a few lapbooks that I recommend here (scroll down to find the lapbooks: Printable Crafts and at CurrClick you’ll find a lot more just like them.

4.3 ABC Fun & 1-2-3

ABC Fun & 1-2-3 was written to help moms of little ones to stimulate their preschoolers in a gentle, age appropriate way, using lots of good quality stories, nursery rhymes, easy crafts, counting activities, games and more.

5. Sitesell eLearning

I’ve told you before about the product I use for both my preschool website and this newsletter – Site Build It!. SBI is so good, that their Building A Successful Business Using The Internet is being used in numerous universities and colleges in the USA, Canada and Australia.

Thanks to technology, this course can now COME TO YOU, via their new SBI eLearning programme.

If you need someone to hold you accountable or to coach you through the process of building a website, you can now sign up for an online class of 1h30 per week. You will also need to invest an hour a day for ‘homework’.

After 12 weeks you will graduate, not with a certificate, but with an income generating e-business!

Click here for more info about this course: SBI eLearning

6. Readiness Activities

You will need to have Adobe Reader installed. It’s a free download. Repeat these activities often - with your own variations too!

April

1. Gross motor skills

Spatial Orientation: Arrange a simple obstacle course for your child, either indoors or outdoors. Let her walk around something, under a chair and touch a wall. Join in the fun and add a few more obstacles if you child can manage them.

2. Fine motor skills

Hand-eye Co-ordination: Set up a large plastic bottle like a skittle at which you child can roll a tennis ball or toss a bean bag. Move it further and further to make the game more challenging.

3. Visual skills

Visual sequence: Place a red cube on the left and blue cube on the right in front of your child. Give her the same colour cubes and ask her to arrange them in the same order. Repeat adding more blocks as she succeeds.

4. Auditory skills

Auditory Discrimination: Sing a song to your child, first in a high pitch and then in a low voice. Tell her which is which and then ask her to copy you.

5. Mathematical skills

Tactile perception and numerical relations: Ask your child to stand with his hands behind his back. Place a stick of one, or three construction cubes in his hands at a time. He must tell you whether it is a long stick or a short stick.

6. Language and thinking skills

Classification: Cut out pictures from magazines that can be classified into groups, such as people, vehicles, food or animals. Give your child ten pictures and ask her to place the animals in the animal box and the food in the food box. Expand the game using the other groups.

7. Faith-building

The Bible teaches us that perfect love drives out fear. We experience fear when we lose focus of how much God loves us. Most often we fear or stress about things that have not yet happened. Children have fears too – fears of anything unknown, of the dark, loud noises or imaginary things. Help them allay their fears, by reminding them that God is always with them, watching over and protecting them and that you, their parents are also there to watch over them and keep them safe from harm.

Greetings until next month
Shirley
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