Voortrekker Ox Wagon Paper Model

Here is my 3D paper model of Voortrekkers and ox wagon, the latest paper model in my series of historical African culture and heritage hands-on activities.

This download includes a Voortrekker family, an ox wagon, a team of yoked oxen and Africans with a mountain pass background triorama. Colouring in, cutting out and creating these 3D paper models are wonderful hands-on activities while mom reads aloud. This paper model is fairly fiddly and young children may need some assistance.  Encourage your children to interact and act out the Voortrekker stories with their paper models.  It is  a wonderful way for History to come alive!  This paper model is a perfect fit for the Footprints in Our Land, our South African, literature-based Social Studies curriculums.

Some historical background:

The Voortrekkers were Dutch-speaking colonists living in the Cape under the British-run colonial administration of southern Africa and who migrated away from the British colony in large groups from 1836 in a movement called The Great Trek.

The traditional Voortrekker wagon was called “kakebeenwoens” because they resembled the jawbone of an animal. These wagons carried essential household goods, clothes, bedding, furniture, agricultural implements, fruit trees and weapons. These wagons negotiated the veld, narrow ravines, and steep precipices of the Drakensberg mountains with their livestock and family walking alongside.  When the travellers reached the end of their day’s journey, they set up their laager ‘wagon fort’ camps in an area which had water & suitable grazing for the oxen and horses.

You can order my Voortrekker ox wagon paper model download on my Order Packages page. You can find all my African houses paper models in the series —

• Khoikhoi House & Village
• San Bushmen House & Kalahari Desert
• Xhosa House & Village
• Zulu House & Village

I would love to share a freebie with you. Each paper model comes with a triorama background. A triorama forms a wonderful 3D pyramid shape with a base. It requires just 2 folds and snip to make, so it’s very simple, but looks dramatic!

Here is a free, blank Triorama template ~TrioramaDownload

Please pop over to my Packages page to order your download. Thank you for your support.

Blessings, Nadene

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Been There Done That – Ask The Experts – Free Livestream

If you could have 3 homeschool mom’s who have homeschooled their joint 13 children “all the way” around for tea, what would you ask them?

What would you want to talk about, because we have “Been There. Done That“?

I’m no expert, but experience has taught me a lot, and over the years, my approach and attitude to homeschooling has changed as I have adapted to each child and season in their lives. Do you have these or similar questions?

• How do I teach my child to read?
• What does a Charlotte Mason education mean?
• What are the best read aloud books?
• How do I help a despondent child?
• My teen needs help and direction, help!?
• We just can’t get maths to stick!
• When do I get time for me?
• My kids squabble all the time, please give me tips!
• How do I build an eclectic education style?
• What are our school leaving options?

Well, here’s your chance! Join Shirley Erwee,  Wendy Young and myself, Nadene Esterhuizen, on the 28th April at 7:30pm for an hour of Ask the Experts.

Booking is free at Quicket – https://www.quicket.co.za/…/137828-been-there-done-that-ask-the-experts#/

Looking forward to meeting you all there!
Blessings, Nadene

Khoikhoi House & Village 3D Model

I am happy to share my latest 3D paper model in a series of traditional African houses and villages ~ Khoikhoi House and Village.

The Khoikhoi were nomadic pastoralist indigenous people who lived in the southern parts of Africa and farmed with sheep, goats, and cattle. They traded with seafarers who landed at the Cape from all over the globe for centuries.

The Khoikhoi village was relatively large, and the Khoikhoi lived in round huts covered with reed mats that could be dismantled and re-erected in a new location when grazing in the area became depleted.  Each village had a headman who made decisions with the clans about when and where to move. There was a group that was more sedentary known as “Strandlopers” who live by hunting and gathering food along the beaches of south-western Africa, originally from the Cape Colony.

The 3D model of a Khoikhoi grass hut and village background triorama page (1-page triorama which forms a triangle/ pyramid-shaped folded page) is a 6-page purchase package download that includes both black & white outline illustrations as well as coloured-in pages. These illustrations include clear assembly instructions and some extra cultural details. I included some additional basic historical background information as well as Internet reference links. 

This grass hut template may look complex, but I have designed it so that most middle-school-aged children should manage to assemble the hut on their own.

Colouring-in, cutting out and creating these 3D houses and village models are a wonderful activity while mom reads-aloud. You can view details of the other African houses in the series — Zulu House & Village, the Xhosa House & Village and the San Bushmen House & Kalahari Desert background which are excellent hands-on activities that fit perfectly with Footprints in our Land, our South African, literature-based Social Studies curriculum.

These South African house and village downloads are purchase packages and I really appreciate your support, but I would love to share a freebie with you. Each house comes with a triorama background. A triorama forms a wonderful 3D pyramid shape with a base. It requires just 2 folds and a snip to make, so it’s very simple, but looks dramatic!

Here, once again, is a free, blank Triorama template ~TrioramaDownload

Please pop over to my Packages page to order your download. Thank you for your support.

Blessings, Nadene

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San Bushmen House & Village 3D Model

I am happy to share my 3rd, and currently my favourite, 3D paper model of traditional African houses and villages ~ A San Bushman House and Village.

The San, also known as Bushmen, are the oldest native tribe that live in the vast Kalahari Desert regions of South West Africa. They lived in southern Africa long before European settlers and other Bantu tribes arrived. They are nomadic hunter-gatherers, and they set up temporary camps as a family-based society.

The 3D model of a San Bushman grass hut and the Kalahari Desert camp background triorama page (1-page triorama which forms a triangle/ pyramid-shaped folded page) is a 6-page purchase package download that includes both black & white outline illustrations as well as coloured-in pages. These illustrations include clear assembly instructions and some extra cultural details. I included some additional basic historical background information as well as Internet reference links. 

This grass hut template may look complex, but I have designed it so that most middle-school-aged children should manage to assemble the hut on their own.

Colouring-in, cutting out and creating these 3D houses and village models are a wonderful activity while mom reads-aloud. You can view details of the other African houses in the series — Zulu House & Village and the Xhosa House & Village which are excellent hands-on activities that fit perfectly with Footprints in our Land, our South African, literature-based Social Studies curriculum.

These South African house and village downloads are purchase packages and I really appreciate your support, but I would love to share a freebie with you. Each house comes with a triorama background. A triorama forms a wonderful 3D pyramid shape with a base. It requires just 2 folds and a snip to make, so it’s very simple, but looks dramatic!

Here, once again, is a free, blank Triorama template ~TrioramaDownload

Please pop over to my Packages page to order your download. Thank you for your support.

Blessings, Nadene

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Xhosa House & Village 3D Model

Last week I shared my new Zulu House & Village, the first in a a series of my new paper models of African houses similar to those we used during our Footprints in our Land. Colouring-in, cutting out and creating models are wonderful hands-on activities while mom reads-aloud.

These South African house and village downloads are purchase packages and I really appreciate your support, but I would love to share a freebie with you. Each house comes with a triorama background. A triorama forms a wonderful 3D pyramid shape with a base. It requires just 2 folds and a snip to make, so it’s very simple, but looks dramatic!

Here, once again, is a free, blank Triorama template ~TrioramaDownload

This week I would like to introduce my 3D paper model featuring a traditional Xhosa House and Xhosa Village.

This 6-page purchase package download of a 3D model of a Xhosa house and traditional Xhosa village includes both black & white outline illustrations as well as coloured-in pages. The Xhosa village background page is a 1-page triorama which forms a triangle/ pyramid-shaped folded page. The illustrations include clear assembly instructions and some extra cultural details. I included some additional basic historical background information as well as Internet reference links. 

Please pop over to my Packages page to order your download. Thank you for your support.

Blessings, Nadene

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Zulu House & Village 3D Model

Children love to make paper models. These are a wonderful hands-on activities. My children enjoyed colouring in, cutting out and making things while I read-aloud. We made African houses while we did our Footprints in our Land and built paper models while we studied American History and World History.

Here my granddaughters, Emma, 5 and Kara, 4, are painting their triorama backgrounds.

I decided to create a series of African houses each with a triorama background. A triorama forms a wonderful 3D pyramid shape with a base. It requires just 2 folds and a snip to make, so it’s very simple, but looks dramatic!

Here is a free, blank Triorama template ~TrioramaDownload

Here is a look at the first African house in my series download ~ a Zulu rondavel with a traditional Zulu village and kraal background.

This 6-page purchase package download of a 3D model of a Zulu house and traditional Zulu village includes both black & white outline illustrations as well as coloured-in pages. The Zulu village background page is a 1-page Triorama which forms a triangle/ pyramid-shaped folded page. The illustrations include clear assembly instructions and some extra cultural details. I included some additional basic historical background information as well as Internet reference links. Please pop over to my Packages page to order your download.

Thank you for your support.

Blessings, Nadene

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Teaching Afrikaans phonics with “Alfabet Pret!”

Looking for a fun way to teach your child their Afrikaans phonetic alphabet?

Op soek na ‘n prettige manier om u kind sy Afrikaanse fonetiese alfabet te leer?

I have created “Alfabet Pret!” alphabet cards with the correct Afrikaans phonetic clues inside each letter shape.  These picture clues help your child recognize the phonetic sound of each letter and this helps him/her to learn to read easily.  Included in the download are fun activities and games that your child can use to learn to recognize their letter sounds and then use to start to build words.  To purchase this quality phonics download, please place an order on my Packages page.

Ek het “Alfabet Pret!” alfabetkaarte met die korrekte Afrikaanse fonetiese leidraad in elke lettervorm geskep.  Die prentjies binne-in elke letter help u kind om die fonetiese kank van die letter te identifiseer.  Dit maak dit dan vir jou kind maklik om te leer lees.  Instruksies vir prettige aktiwiteite en speletjies waar jou kind die alfabet kaartjies gebruik om die letterklanke te oefen  en om woorde begin te bou, is in die aflaai .  Plaas  aseblief jou bestelling op my Packages bladsy om hierdie kwaliteit aflaai  te koop.

How to teach the phonetic alphabet using “Alfabet Pret!” ~

1. Present a letter to your child and ask what picture they can recognize inside the letter shape.
2. Say the sound of the picture and then the name of the picture like ~ “a” as in “apple”, “b” as in “ball”.
3. Use only the phonetic sounds of the alphabet and do not say the official name of the alphabet, such as the sound “a” not “ay” and the sound “ba” not “bee”.
4. Repeat the phonetic sound of the letter and its picture again and ask your child to repeat the letter sound and the name of the picture.
5. Teach only one or two letters in a lesson, maybe a row of letters at a time.
6. Revise the previous lesson’s letters and then add a few new letters each lesson until your child knows the whole alphabet.

Print and laminate the 3 pages of the phonic letters and print, cut out and laminate 2 sets of the phonic cards for the activities and games.

Hoe om die fonetiese alfabet aan u kind te leer ~ 

1. Wys ‘n letter vir jou kind en vra hom/haar watter prentjie hy/sy in die letter kan sien.
2. Sê eers die klank van die letter en dan die prentjie wat met daardie klank begin. Bv. “a vir appel” en “b vir bal”.
3. Gebruik die fonetiese klank vir die letter en nie die amptelike alfabet-naam van die klank nie. Met ander woorde gebruik “ô” en nie “oo” nie, of die klank “mm” en nie die naam “em” nie.
4. Herhaal dit en vra dan u kind om die klank en prentjienaam agter u aan te sê.
5. Doen slegs een of twee letters, of dalk ‘n ry, op ‘n slag.
6. Hersien elke keer die vorige les se letters, voordat u voortgaan met een of twee nuwe letters in die volgende les. Gaan so voort todat u kind die hele alfabet ken.

Druk en lamineer die 3 bladsye van die letterklanke en druk, knip uit en lamineer 2 stelle kaartjies vir die aktiwiteite en speletjies.

The individual cards are perfect for playing games! Playing fun games such as “Snap!”, “Bingo!” or “Memory” is a wonderful and effective way to practice recognizing and learning the alphabet.

Die individuele kaarte is perfek om speletjies mee te speel.  Speletjies soos “Snap!”, “Bingo!” en “Lotto!” is ‘n wonderlike en effektiewe manier om die herkenning van die klanke en letters in te oefen.

Whether your child is learning to read in their mother language or learning a 2nd language, “Alfabet Pret!“ is a fabulous fun way to teach them their phonic alphabet!

Of u kind in hul moedertaal leer lees of ‘n 2de taal aanleer, is “Alfabet Pret!” ‘n wonderlike prettige manier om hulle hul fonetiese alfabet te leer!

Please pop over to my Packages page to order this amazing, quality phonics download!

Plaas  aseblief jou bestelling op my Packages bladsy om hierdie kwaliteit aflaai  te koop.

Blessings, Nadene

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PS. Afrikaans is one of South African’s 11 official languages, the third most spoken language, with its roots from the Dutch language which evolved when Dutch settlers settled in the Cape in the 18th Century.

Afrikaans is een van Suid-Afrika se 11 amptelike tale, die derde mees gesproke taal, met sy oorsprong uit die Nederlandse taal wat ontwikkel het toe Nederlandse setlaars hulle in die 18de eeu in die Kaap gevestig het.

Traditional African Houses

In our Footprints On Our Land (South African History studies), we have joined the 1820 British Settlers who settled along the Eastern Frontier, to the land where the Xhosa people lived.

The frontier with allotted farms, c. 1835 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This section of History covers aspects of the Frontier Wars between the Xhosa and the settlers and the British government.

Tensions were so great that a neutral territory was created between the Great Fish River and the Kei River to prevent the Xhosa crossing over to steal cattle and burn settler farms, and the retaliatory raids to recapture stolen cattle.

These issues come to life as I read wonderful living books, and our current story “Strangers in the Land“.

While I read, my young daughter cut and created these African homes from postcards that I had collected long ago in my teaching days.

She displayed all the different houses on the bookshelf, each house in its own ‘village’, separated by a book pulled out slightly.

We will focus on the Zulu in the next theme. This is what their traditional house looks like.Many of my readers may have seen the brightly colored, geometric designs the Ndebele use to decorate their homes on African-themed designs.  Theirs is truly the most colorful homes!

Below is a Venda home, also painted and decorated, but they use more earthy, natural colored paints.

And this Sotho house completes this collection:

Blessings,

Fun History!

What a shock my kids had when I walked into the room like this!

(Excuse the slightly blurred photo.  My 10-year-old was giggling too much to focus the camera properly!)

It was a great way to introduce the British Occupation at the Cape and the 1820 British Settlers for our Footprints On Our Land history curriculum.

All Miss.L10’s narrations were done with the mask and a most ‘proper’ British accent!

(And lots of giggles from Miss.K13 studying in the background!)

Some novelty and fun makes History fresh and exciting!

Hope you and your kids have fun now and then!

Blessings,

Freedom Homeschooling Brings?

Would these be good reasons to homeschool?

• provide intimate learning relationship between children & parents
• nurture a child’s love to learn
  

  a unique hollow log “garden” with wild flowers, moss and mushrooms that my 12-year-old created one afternoon

• maintain a “one-life” unity of life & learning
• encourage spiritual discipleship
• nurture character mentorship
• do school in pajamas, or comfy clothes
• start school as early or as late as suits you and your family
• do short official school lessons – sometimes 5 to 10 minutes!
• finish all school work after just a few hours of work
• lazily read under a tree or snuggled up on a couch instead of filling in workbooks
• focus on arts, creativity and “non-essential” subjects
• progress in maths, spelling and writing at their own pace
• it is tailor-made for each child
• meets the dynamic needs of the children as they develop
• live free of peer-pressure, bullying and labelling
• allow children to be unique and different
• express unusual and unpopular thoughts and views
• focus on life skills, family business, hobbies, and entrepreneurial activities rather than grades and standards
• reduce stress – no need to drive through pre-school traffic
• save on costs – no school fees, fund-raisers, uniforms, long stationary lists
  

  nurturing a baby wild hare rescued in the fields

• eat healthy food instead of school lunches
• house-cleaning, cooking, baking, gardening, chores and routine is all part of school
• encourage a new creative flair and foster a passion or interest
• provide the opportunities for entrepreneurship and young businesses
• provide and nurture relationships with all ages, all types of people
• become missions-orientated
• connect with community and the needy
• get involved with church, ministry or charity

Yes!  All these and more!

I see most of these homeschooling choices as the freedom that homeschooling brings.

When the kids are small, it makes perfect sense to homeschool. And it is fun, free-style and fabulous!

Over the past few years we have had to change our homeschool emphasis as we navigate the High School years.  There are now time and subject requirements.  Learning takes longer, and lessons are more academic.  My high school children have to learn how to study for and write exams.

My role changed from the mom-learning-alongside in discovery and delight, to the tutor-mom.

I now focus on specific subjects with my high school children, teaching maths, or geography or subjects that are more academic.

Generally my high schoolers manage their learning and work quite independently.  I sometimes feel nostalgic. I long for those warm, intimate learning days.

So enjoy the early years!

Take your time!

Look for tadpoles and watch butterflies.

Read, read, read aloud.

Do art, singing and poetry.

Make the time for the fine arts.

Go on educational outings, take trips, plan those picnics.

Enjoy your homeschooling!

What freedoms do you enjoy most in your homeschooling? Feel free to share in the comments.

Blessings,

This post was written and submitted for the upcoming South African Carnival of Homeschooling’s topic ~ ‘Beyond Homeschooling‘