Review ~ Footprints Nature Quest

Wendy and Shirley, veteran homeschool moms and authors of the amazing South African Little Footprints, Footprints On Our Land and Footprints Into 21st Century curriculums, have launched their latest curriculum called

Footprints Nature Quest

This curriculum covers South Africa’s natural biomes, Geography and Natural Sciences. The focus is on the unique flora, fauna and other natural features of each distinct area. The curriculum takes you on a journey of discovery exploring the depths of the dark kelp forests of the west coast as well as the diverse east coast with its warm ocean and lush vegetation. Your family will uncover the secrets of animals and plants of the Nama Karoo, and meander through the rich floral kingdom of the fynbos biome. You will marvel at South Africa’s forests, rivers, mountains, bushveld, and the vast Kalahari desert.

I was delighted to preview their parent guide when I proofread it, and the content, the flow of the narrative and the details of the background information they provided utterly enchanted me! Here is my review:

What age groups?

Footprints Nature Quest is a literature-based unit study aimed at children between the ages of 8-16 years. Footprints Nature Quest also includes the option to buy a package of beautiful picture book stories for families with children in the 4-8 years age category. These books will include your younger children in the different safaris of each biome, perfect for multi-level home education. Anyone interested in nature will thoroughly enjoy this curriculum!

How long will this curriculum take?

Your family will experience an incredible 2-year+ safari-style adventure through the spectacular nature of South Africa! This is a stand-alone curriculum, but it will dovetail perfectly alongside the Footprints On Our Land curriculum, where it may take a little longer to complete. It is very flexible and parents can include the Nature Quest reading as part of a weekly nature study cycle. I would encourage parents to take it slowly, savour the books, include wide margins to follow “rabbit trails”, take trips and invest in your children’s passions and interests.

How is it written?

Footprints Nature Quest parent guide is written in a gentle conversational style and I really loved that the story flowed as a safari journey following local guides. These guides are men and women of different nature careers, providing children with vocational inspiration, and there are a few adorable animal guides in other biomes. These guides will even take your family travelling back in time using a “time machine” to learn captivating facts about human settlements in South Africa.

What is included in the package?

As with all the other Footprints curriculums, the Footprints Nature Quest curriculum provides a Charlotte Mason-styled education with a collection of great living books, beautiful picture books, exceptional reference books and their in-depth parent guide.

The Footprints Nature Quest parent guide provides useful background information and well-researched facts about the details and complexities of each biome, as well as other enriching resources, lists of videos, movies and documentaries suited to the topics. Their course website includes additional links and references.

They have collected a wonderful selection of “living books” that bring subjects to life through stories, biographies or autobiographies. These authors share their knowledge and passionate insights from their experiences, as well as descriptions of this beautiful country and its natural inhabitants. These living books, unlike textbooks, are alive with details and will draw your family into the story as if you were there! Their picture books for younger readers are so beautiful and well-written, enchanting even the older children and teenagers in their families.

No need for worksheets, tests and exams?

The curriculum guide provides prompts and options for a wide variety of meaningful assignments such as narrations, timeline work, map work, writing assignments, practical activities and hands-on activities that will enrich your children’s learning and experiences. These assignments replace the need for traditional school-type quizzes, busywork and tests. They suggest relevant outings, trips and holidays for family explorations for each region, as well as highlight important environmental issues and voluntary organizations. 

You can read more about Footprints Nature Quest, costs and how to order here: South African Homeschool Curriculum – Footprints Nature Quest 

Footprints Nature Quest literature-based curriculum will stimulate rich family conversations, inspire purposeful work, offer potential career and environmental work opportunities, all in an atmosphere of joy and delight that leads to a love of learning. 

I highly recommend Footprints Nature Quest!

Blessings, Nadene

Questions about South African Artists download

 A reader ordering my South African Artists download asked ~

“I just wanted to check with you if the artist study would be suitable for children aged 9, 7 and 5 or is it mostly aimed at older children?“

Another reader asked,

“I am new to Charlotte Mason and wondered how to use your South African Artist download?”

Here are my responses~

This  South African Artists download is designed for middle and high school students for Art History & Art Appreciation. This download includes simple biographies, Internet links and at least 4 examples of each artist’s works, as well as a blank biography page. I used it with my children when my youngest was 6 or 7 years old, and her siblings were around 9 and 13 years old. 

The wide variety of art and artists that I included in this download covers notable South African artists from the 19th century to modern contemporary artists. The art ranges from classical oil paintings to modern sculptures, classical to contemporary art, both male and female artists, and includes both European as well as indigenous artists. Many of the artists produced landscapes or portraits, some were sculptors. One South African artist’s traditional Ndebele style was famously used to paint a car and even an aeroplane! 

I believe in exposing children informally, regularly to fine arts each week in our Fabulous Fine Arts Fridays.  Following a Charlotte Mason approach, we studied and appreciated one South African artist for a month, focussing on a new art work each week. The aim is to appreciate the artist’s style, content, method, materials and message in their art.  In the first week, I introduced the artist, read their biography and we viewed one new art work.

I used larger images of the art work on my laptop, zoomed in to fill the screen, to appreciate the art. I encouraged detailed observations, informal discussions regarding the subject of the painting, the style and colours, and any message they personally experienced. Sometimes we looked at other works online, and maybe added further research. Then each child responded with their narrations. Some weeks we included supporting art activities to imitate the art work. Sometimes we copied the art work, or coloured in an outline drawing of the art or made clay or paper mache sculptures.  Most times, we simply looked and then discussed the art work. Don’t worry if you don’t have anything to “show” for your Fine Arts lessons.  It doesn’t have to be recorded or written or filed.  Just talk with your children and listen to their interpretations, encourage their creativity and personal connections.  Look for ways to for them to “make it their own”.

All this to say that perhaps your 5-year old may simply enjoy the exposure, whereas your older two children could gain a deeper art appreciation experience.  May I suggest, because art appreciation is so personal, choose the art that you enjoy and relate to from my South African Artist collection.  You definitely do not need to do them all!  

Scroll to the bottom of this post for your FREE SAMPLER of this download.

Please pop over to my Packages page to order your downloads.

Blessings, Nadene

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Footprints Nature Quest Livestream

Wendy and Shirley, two veteran homeschool moms and authors of the amazing South African Footprints curriculums, are unveiling their latest curriculum bundle called Footprints Nature Quest.

They will be hosting a FREE livestream on Monday 28th February at 7:30pm and will record the session if you cannot make this time. Here are 3 reasons for you to attend the livestream:
1. It’s FREE!
2. You can ask real time questions
3. Because it’s fun!

Booking link for your free ticket at Quicket.

Here’s a peek at Footprints Nature Quest

This new Footprints Nature Quest is a literature-based unit study aimed at children between the ages of 8-14 years that covers South Africa’s various natural biomes, Geography and Natural Sciences, focusing on the unique flora, fauna and other natural features of each distinct area. As with all the other Footprints curriculums, Wendy and Shirley provide a collection of great stories, prompts for rich conversations, purposeful work and an atmosphere of joy and delight that leads to a love of learning. 

They have collected a wonderful selection of “living books” that brings subjects to life through stories, biographies or autobiographies. These authors share their knowledge and passionate insights from their experiences, as well as descriptions of this beautiful country and her natural inhabitants.

The Footprints Nature Quest curriculum guide is written in a gentle conversational style and provides useful background information and researched facts about the complexity of each biome, as well as other enriching resources, lists of movies and documentaries suited to the topics. The curriculum guide provides a wide variety of meaningful assignments such as mapwork, writing assignments, practical activities and hands-on activities that will enrich your children’s learning and experiences. They suggest relevant outings, trips and holidays for family explorations for each regions. 

Wendy and Shirley credit the team effort who assisted in their development of this new Nature Quest – Shirley’s son has given valuable feedback from a child’s perspective about which of the many living books gripped him most. Wendy’s daughter Sarah created the beautiful graphic designs and layout, while @se7en_hoods, mom to eight children, gave valuable input to make it super homeschool mom friendly and @nadeneesterhuizen (that’s me) added suggested thoughts and ideas for content and fun assignments.

You can read more about Footprints Nature Quest here: https://www.south-african-homeschool-curriculum.com/footprints-nature-quest 

Book your ticket for this livestream soon as there are limited seats available. See you there!

Blessings, Nadene

F-Words to Include in Homeschooling

In my previous post – F-Words to Avoid in Homeschooling, I shared my thoughts about some of the negative attitudes and approaches to homeschooling that I struggled with during my years of teaching my daughters from preschool to high school graduation.

This week, I would like to encourage some positive F-word attitudes and practices that will create a wonderful homeschooling experience for you and your children.

• FAITH – It takes faith to believe that you can homeschool your children. It requires faith to work through the struggles, doubts and fears. I prayed often for each of my children. I needed God’s word and leading and wisdom in my approach. We prayed together each day, especially when the children were young.
• FLEXIBLE – Being inflexible will always lead to unmet expectations, disappointments, stress and exhaustion. Life happens. Your family is unique and your plans will not always work out. Stay flexible and learn to find your rhythm. It is fairly easy to catch up if children were too tired or were sick. In the grand scheme of things, when real life is “interrupting” your plans, real learning and character formation happen when we learn to adjust and adapt.

• FULL – Offer your children a “full” education. Include a wide range of subjects, projects, activities and approaches as well as the basics. I used daily themes to include all the “extra” subjects such as Fine Arts, art lessons, music appreciation, poetry, Shakespeare, Latin, Current Events, and Nature Study. Of course, I don’t advise over-full days! Beware of taking on too many extramural activities, too many sports trips and outings each week. Give your children free time at home to have hobbies, to play, to read, to be bored. These are the moments your children will discover their passions and interests.

Creative free time – my daughters sewing, making jewellery, doing arts and crafts – selling their products in markets and giving them as gifts.

• FEAST – Your children’s education should be like a wonderful buffet table full of options, opportunities and choices. Offer your children different hands-on activities, give them an opportunity to dig in deep when a topic sparks a flame of interest. Follow them on these rabbit trails and encourage reading, videos and meeting real people in these areas of interest. May I say that this is an essential benefit of homeschooling? You’re not like a school teacher, limited to a specific number of days on a topic in the curriculum — you can tailor-make your child’s learning to meet their passions and interests.

My youngest daughter’s interest in calligraphy

• FRESH – Keep things fresh by changing their learning environment for each new theme and topic. Display new posters, and have new library books open and on display. Hang mobiles and place objects of interest on the bookshelf. Regularly change your children’s own art and projects displays. Use different options for narrations instead of asking them to simply tell back what they learnt. I have over 100 narration ideas in this eBook that will equip you with fun, new and fresh ideas.

1. FUN – Remember to have fun! Play fun music, sing songs and move together. Regularly go outside and spend time together in nature, have picnics in the garden, on the trampoline, at the pool, under a tree. Read aloud in a tent, in a fort, even under a table. Dress up and play-act the story, do puppet shows, eat foods described in the story. Watch suitable movies relating to the read alouds or themes. Young children especially need short lessons interspersed with physical release activities and they love action songs. These are the moments that make a day feel good and, guess what, these are the moments that your children will never forget!

• FAMILY – Remember that homeschool is a family journey. It is important that you include dad in the day. Encourage family participation — go on family outings, read aloud at the dinner table, include grandparents in show-and-tell and at graduations. Your family is unique in its vision and therefore your homeschooling will look and feel different to another family using an identical curriculum.
• FAN – Be your child’s fan! Be their support, their encourager, their cheerleader. Be their facilitator and find ways to support and stimulate their interests and passions. Never underestimate the power of your positive input, even in their hobbies. Let them overhear your good reports. Build them up. Look for their positives and recognise their hard work as well as their achievements.
• FLOW – Find your daily rhythm and flow. Adjust your schedule to suit your family’s most focussed and attentive times in the day. Avoid disruptions, distractions and interruptions for yourself = put your cellphone away! Keep your lessons short and sweet so that the work flows quickly and effectively. Then take your time with read alouds and projects. Also, note, some days will flow better than other days. In my many years of experience, I discovered that there are usually only 2 days in a week that flow effortlessly, but in those days, we covered more work and completed activities with joy and simplicity.
• FINISH – There is much to be said for perseverance! Commit to finishing what you start in your homeschooling. Stay the course. Of course, there will be times when you want to give up, but there is such a blessing in holding on, keeping on going and making it through to the success at the end. You will need encouragement to turn frowns upside down. There will be many mornings where you will need prayer and faith to motivate yourself. You will need to address issues and encourage your children to press on, keep trying and give their very best. Finishing does not need to be dogmatic and fundamental, especially when your homeschooling does not fit and when relationships suffer because of the struggles. That is when you should stop and reassess and figure out the best way forward. There are times when it is important to put an unsuitable book or awkward curriculum aside that doesn’t gel. I am suggesting that in order to finish what you are committed to, you will need to be resolute about your family vision in order to see it come to fruition.

May these F-words encourage and motivate you in your homeschooling journey. Please encourage others and share your experiences with us in the comments.

Blessings, Nadene

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F-Words to Avoid in Homeschooling

I was a professional school teacher who then homeschooled my daughters for over 23 years. Many of my school teacher attitudes and approaches did not work for us in our homeschooling. In those early years, I had many fears and flaws and I had to learn a new and better way. May this list of 10 F-word of these flaws encourage you to avoid these pitfalls.

1. FEAR – Most moms are afraid. They fear not doing the “right” thing or not knowing what to do. New homeschool moms are terrified. I was. I remember that sick, cold feeling of fear in the pit of my stomach when I ordered my first, expensive, bells-and-whistles curriculum, and I desperately hoped that I had made the right choices. I was afraid that my children would fall behind if I didn’t keep to the schedule. (Hint – They do not fall behind!) Fear nagged at me and dragged my heart down. I was afraid of what my family thought of us, of how my children didn’t do things like they “were supposed” to … just so many fears. May I suggest that homeschooling requires faith?
2. FORCE – You cannot force a child to learn. No nagging, badgering, or pleading will help. Either the child is not ready, the work is not at their level, or the approach does not fit. Adapt, adjust or amend your approach.
3. FAST – Don’t rush. When homeschool feels like a continual FRENZY or you are FRAZZLED, slow down. It is not necessary to stick to the exact schedule. Remember that learning is like a travel itinerary. Learn to trust your family’s pace, take time to pause for scenic detours and or to rest. I shared my best homeschool schedule advice = take more time!
4. FORMAL – Homeschooling is NOT the same as school-at-home. You can learn without textbooks or a teacher teaching, or children sitting at desks in a classroom. While discipline subjects such as handwriting, spelling and maths should be done with children sitting at a table, rather relax and sit together and use living books to learn most of the other subjects. Ease into a daily rhythm rather than a strict formal classroom schedule. Cuddle together and read-alouds on the couch, read poetry under a tree, or work on projects in the kitchen or while lying on the carpet.
5. FACTS – Don’t focus entirely on only learning facts. Charlotte Mason encourages the child to develop a relationship with the subject matter and the author who share their experiences in living books. The focus of a wholehearted education is not on simply memorizing facts but accurately recalling the details described, the emotions connected to these experiences and the child’s relationship to them.
6. FIXED mindset versus growth mindset. A fixed mindset is limiting, whereas a growth mindset is a freedom, especially in dealing with struggles and difficulties. A fixed mindset performs to achieve success and wants to prove intelligence or talent. A fixed mindset compares itself with others, is threatened by others’ successes and avoids challenges that may lead to failure. Fixed mindset moms often compare themselves and their children to others, feel threatened, feel anxious and are usually desperately striving. When one has a growth mindset, you are inspired by others’ successes, look for ways to improve and overcome challenges, and treat difficulties as opportunities to persist and improve. Encourage a growth mindset in yourself and your children.
7. FLUCTUATE – Stability and consistency in education are important. Avoid constantly changing your approach, exchanging your curriculums, vacillating on your choices, or wavering on decisions. Of course, it is natural to doubt yourself when you are unsure or beginning something new. I recommend you ditch a book or curriculum that genuinely does not fit, but at some stage, settle down and make the best of the situation and persevere and figure things out. Disillusioned children and parents who keep changing things do not learn to persist and persevere, which leads to a weak character.
8. FRET & FUSS – Mom, your job is to hold space for your child for deep, intentional learning and connection. Avoid nagging, interrupting, fretting and fussing. Give your children a calm, loving atmosphere where they can focus and learn. When your plans overwhelm you, spend some time and prepare yourself, your lessons and your homelife so that you are not scurrying around looking for lost books, stressing over what to cook or fussing over a child who is distracted.
9. FLAT – Avoid dull, flat learning as this will quickly quench your child’s natural, in-built desire to learn and discover. Develop a rich, wide education for your children. Find fascinating books, watch interesting videos, listen to marvellous music, observe nature, look at amazing art. Take time and go on educational outings, go to museums, and meet interesting artisans and artists, farmers, builders and inventors. Provide your children with a full, flavourful education.
10. FAIL – Fear of failure is crippling. Let me reassure you that you and your children will not fail. Avoid curriculums that require tests and exams, especially with young children. Your child does not require 12 years of exam-based curriculums as preparation to be able to write their school-leaving exams. They do not need quarterly tests and exams to ascertain whether they understand their work because homeschooling is often one-on-one and you will quickly see if your child can manage their work. My eldest daughter wrote her first formal, timed exam for her Prelims in her final school year. A few months of preparation at home using the previous years’ exam papers and a timer prepared her efficiently for her actual exams. When a child shows signs that they did not understand or master the work, gently re-do the lesson or find an alternative approach.

I recommend you tailor-make your child’s learning and make child-led choices in projects, activities and subject choices. Grace and gentleness provides mercy that produces natural growth.

Please share your experiences with us. Feel free to write to me with any questions. Fill in the contact form on my About & Contact page, and I will do my best to advise and encourage you.

Grace and mercy to you and your family this year.

Blessings, Nadene

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Comic Strips Tips & Templates

Comic strips are picture stories that convey loads of information and visual detail. They are a wonderful resource for language arts and creative writing activities and make an excellent option for narrations and storytelling.

Here are some comic tips:

1. Plan out six to 8 facts or ideas for your story on rough paper first. Just think … eight blocks = eight facts?
2. Look at some real comics with your children before your start to show how a reader reads the dialogue from left to right, from top to bottom if there is more than one “call out” or speech bubble in a block.
3. When writing the dialogue, first print the dialogue small & neatly, then draw the speech bubble around the words.  This prevents you running out of space in your bubble.
4. Use different shaped “call out” bubbles – bubbled for thoughts, pointed to a mouth as speech, zig-zag to show radio comments or computer voice.
5. Add a top or bottom information phrase block if needed, like: Later on … or Back inside …
6. Use the space left after the speech to draw simple ideas. Colour adds to the effects.
7. Use onomatopoeic (sound effect) words and draw them with style to show something popping, crashing, exploding, squeaking etc.
8. Be creative!  Have FUN!

Here is your free comic strip template download ~

Comic Strip TemplateDownload

Most the comics include dialogue written in speech bubbles. In my post Use Comics To Teach Direct Speech I described our effective lesson on how to write direct speech from a comic strip. Here’s a brief summary:

Simple direct speech rules.

1. Write down the spoken words or dialogue that appear in speech bubbles exactly  as they appear, but inside inverted commas.
2. Use inverted commas or quotation marks “…”  immediately before and after the spoken words.
3. Insert punctuation marks that suit the dialogue after the dialogue inside the inverted commas.
4. Use capital letters to start any dialogue, or any new dialogue that follows a full stop.
5. Question marks  & exclamation marks act as a full stop.
6. Use an appropriate attribution for each speaker and try be creative and vary using the word “said”.
7. Separate dialogue from the attribution with a comma.
8. ALWAYS skip a line and start a new line for a new speaker. When typing the direct speech on the computer, press ‘enter’ + ‘enter’ again to leave a line open and begin on a new line.

Comics contain a lot of visual information. The scene and actions should be described in words. Adding this to the direct speech, and conveying a flow of action, thought and interest to the written dialogue is a more advanced skill, making a wonderful, interesting story.

In my post Use Comics to Teach Reported Speech, we chose my daughter’s most dramatic comic strip story and she pretended that she was a news reporter, changing her speech dialogue in speech bubbles into reported speech. Once again, we looked for examples of reported speech in our read aloud literature books.  Charlotte Mason’s principle to teach grammar and language arts through living books and good literature is amazingly effective!

Here are Usborne Book of English Grammar basic rules of writing reported speech summarized ~

• Report what someone said using your own words.
• No need for inverted commas.
• Change the verb to the past tense.

This report can then be written as a newspaper report or given as a speech as a TV news reporter.

The comic strip template is included in my more than 100 Narration Ideas Booklet which you can order on my Order Packages page.

Blessings, Nadene

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3 Things To Keep In Mind

Recently Wendy and Shirley shared on their Footprints Instagram page 3 things to keep in mind if you are concerned about your child’s learning progress ~

These are the questions from concerned parents that often come up ~

• How do I know that my child is not behind?
• What if my curriculum has gaps?
• My (mom/aunt/husband) says my children should be (reading/doing division etc.) by now?

Here are Wendy & Shirley’s 3 things to keep in mind:

1. Comparing your homeschooling with the school system is counter-productive. You are not in that system.
2. You are giving your children a customized education.
3. You are neither behind nor ahead because you are not on the same path!

@footprintsonourland

I would like to share my encouragement to parents who may also be asking these questions —

1. The school system versus homeschool:

Homeschooling offers parents the freedom to follow each child’s pace and interest which no school system can effectively do. For the average child in school, this may not seem to matter, but any gifted or struggling child will probably “fall through the cracks” of the system.

In most schools, classes are large and the student-to-teacher ratios are about 1:37 for primary schools. Very few classes offer any differentiation or remedial help, and so all learners are expected to meet the same results with the “cookie-cutter” approach. Children who struggle or who are bored often are labelled and this can be damaging to their self image.

As a professional senior primary school teacher with 10 years of teaching experience, there were many years where we could not complete everything on our year plans. There are always gaps because you cannot teach “everything”. There is no perfect or complete curriculum that can provide exactly what every child in the class requires. Remember that children in a classroom are not all ready to learn all at the same time.

Teachers are constantly under pressure to perform and they stress to try catch up, push struggling children through, try to force learning, teach their students for tests and exams rather than to ignite a love to learn and stimulate a child’s natural curiosity. Teachers are compelled to do tests and exams to establish each child’s measured ability. They are expected to evaluate a child’s understanding based on these academic standards.

2. A customized tailor-made education:

The simplest homeschooling, where the parent is mindful of each child’s age, stage and ability, will offer a far more effective education, no matter what exact curriculum they follow, than any professional school teacher can give your child. You are able to tailor-make each child’s curriculum, perfectly suited to their learning style and interest. Parents do not need to tests or do exams because you are one-on-one with your child and can almost instantly assess your child’s progress and mastery.

For new homeschool parents I would recommend you follow a good, practical Maths program and use a suitable phonics program for each child. For the rest, Living books and child-lead interest research will provide rest of the subjects such as Bible study, History, Geography, Social Studies, Biology and Science.

3. You are on your own path:

Every family has its own unique flavour and ethos. Please don’t underestimate the power of reading aloud to your children. Spend quality time talking together about life, issues and experiences! Your children will enjoy a wide, rich and meaningful education.

I pray that you homeschool your children with peace of mind. May you rest in the knowledge that you are providing the best for your family, however unique it may appear.

Blessings, Nadene

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Stop Interrupting!

Interrupting narrations.  Isn’t it annoying to lose your train of thought when someone interrupts you? It is for your child too.

Narrations are a cornerstone of a Charlotte Mason education. Rather than workbooks, tests, enrichment exercises, children need to listen and remember as many details, facts or information from the material just read.  Children must pay close attention while they listen to the story so that they can make it their own and express what they remember and understood as they narrate.  Young children begin with oral narrations first, then dictated and finally at about 10 years, children start to write their own narrations themselves. In essence, the narration is the information the child recalls and tells back what he just heard in the reading.  This is a simple, but very critical learning strategy!

But, as most parents know, children don’t always listen attentively, and our parenting habit of reminding, prompting and telling (and nagging) our children about everything can quickly and easily become a bad habit in our homeschooling.

Charlotte Mason says,

“Be careful never to interrupt a child who is called upon to ‘tell’ ” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 172).

For some of us, that’s easy. For others, it’s much more difficult.

Some of us love to make narration time more like discussion time, with give and take in a conversation. But don’t get the two confused in your mind: narration is different from discussion.

So, how does an uninterrupted narration work? 

• Before you begin the read aloud, first introduce the story or recap the previous reading.
• Give your child a “heads up” to pay close attention to the reading to be able to retell the reading accurately, in detail, once you have completed the section.
• For children who struggle, begin to read only a paragraph, then a page, then a section and finally a chapter before asking for your child’s narration.  Try it yourself — this is hard stuff!
• Give your child a chance to collect his thoughts, form his sentences, and then present his ideas as a cohesive whole.
• Here’s where it may require your super-human strength — sit listening attentively to your child’s narration without . saying . anything.  No questions, suggestions, prompts, reminders.
• Wait quietly until the end.
• Remember to keep your face engaged and positive, with no frowns, or sighs.  Smiles, nods and positive facial expressions reacting to your child’s narration are good though.
• Some children may falter, others may require a starting point.  Others prefer to ramble on or leave out details.  Some children need to see a picture or have a specific theme to narrate.
• Only when your child is done with his narration, can you encourage additions, elaborations, and discussion.

Here are some of my Narration blog posts ~

• Narrations show what your child knows
• Mom – The Narration Scribe  ~a very practical and important post that I refer to very often in other posts
• Narration Ideas Booklet ~Over 100 narration ideas & templates for every learning style on my Packages page
• Taking Time for Tangents
• Illustrated Narrations
• Oral narrations when a child hates writing
• Word Banks for narrations
• Lego hole-punched pictures for narrations
• Narrations 101 Jot & Draw
• Narrations 102 Type & Print
• Narrations 103 Puppets

Remember that learning to write narrations is a slow and gradual process and may take years of work to hone and mature their skills.  Don’t feel that your child should master this in a year.  Some children take years to develop good narrations, so be positive and be patient … and keep quiet as you listen!

 Blessings and grace, Nadene

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Aim For Best Effort

Charlotte Mason said,

“No work should be given to a child that he cannot execute perfectly, and then perfection should be required from him as a matter of course” (Home Education, p. 160).

Your parenting and homeschooling aim is for your children to always do their best.  Training and instruction that develop good habits form ‘railway tracks’ for smooth parenting and homeschooling days. (You can read this excellent post at Homegrown Learners Laying Down Rails – The Foundations.) While this training stage may seem to extend for years, may feel completely irrelevant and can be annoying and time-consuming, it is worth it — oh, mom, it is so very worth it.

Training should be simple, clear, easy to remember, possibly made fun with songs or rhymes.   Work done poorly because of haste or because of inability needs to be quickly addressed.  Don’t overlook poor effort, sloppy attempts or bad attitudes.  Any inability requires training if the task is appropriate to your child’s age and stage.  If your child can’t manage the training, then break it down further or leave that task or skill for a month or so until he has matured a little and can manage better.

Craft each child’s assignments thoughtfully, then require his best effort – every time.  Think about how you taught your child to brush his teeth; how you carefully demonstrated and instructed him?  How you watched him doing it first with your help, and then by himself until he did it perfectly?  Then for weeks and months (and some children even take years …), you sat watching and supervising his teeth-brushing before just assuming that when he went to the bathroom, he was going to do an excellent job on his own.  Age played an important factor in knowing when your child was ready to learn, able to physically do the job and trained to remember to do it well on their own every time.

Don’t confuse a gentle approach with being a “push-over.”  If he gives sloppy or resentful work, immediately address his attitude.  Don’t worry about his academics if his negative attitude is an issue.  Character training is your chief job in parenting and homeschooling.  Have a tea break and talk about what is worrying or troubling your child and try to get to the root of the issue and reassure him.

Recognize your child’s efforts and encourage improvement where needed.  Don’t shower your child with blanket praises such as, “Good job!” but rather be specific and mention actual skills or abilities such as,  “Well done on packing all the toys into the correct baskets,” or “I can see how shiny the mirror is now that you’ve dusted the room.”  Start any necessary critique firstly with acknowledgement of your child’s effort and things he has done well.  Then be clear, specific and encouraging regarding any area that requires more effort or greater perfection,  “You remembered all your spelling words and wrote your dictation so neatly. Just remember to use a capital letter for … next time.”

Focus on one area or task or skill at a time.  Set the expectation with the most positive statement or description and keep your voice and tone cheerful, happy, and positive.  If your words are filled with rebukes and negativity or filled with disappointment or exasperation,  your negative approach will shut down your child’s happy response.  You want your child to engage with enthusiasm.   Timing, approach and positivity are key.  Pray for guidance on what to focus on and how to encourage your child to do their best.  Avoid all manipulation and autocratic demands, especially using fear and punishment as a form of motivation.  Focus on the rewards your child will gain from doing something correctly and excellently, from doing their very best.

May I encourage grace for you and your family for failures, for any faltering, for fear in the process.  Growth and character development are not easy, not always perfect and we are not always at our best.  But take a moment to breathe and find grace to start again. Grace to you as you do your best and instill the desire for your children to do their very best!

Blessings, Nadene

Revisiting “Little House” and dress-up

During this global pandemic and our current nation-wide Covid-19 lockdown, we have enjoyed having our son, his wife and our gorgeous two little granddaughters come live with us on the farm.

Emma (5) and Kara (3)  have enjoyed spending time playing with me and I have found myself reliving my early homeschool and parenting days as we played with my daughter’s old toys and dress-up clothes that we took out of storage.

Currently, we are also enjoying watching the “Little House on the Prairies”  DVD series.  These stories are beautifully portrayed and moms and dads are also encouraged by the wonderful values and skills taught by Charles and Caroline Wilder to their children.

My daughter Lara when she was 6 years old

My little grandies, Emma and Kara love wearing their bonnets and calico aprons that I sewed for my three daughters over 15 years ago.  These simple dress-up clothes have served my children for years and they were adapted to suit many themes and eras in the stories I read aloud.

All my girls needed to act out scenes from stories in our living books were a long skirt, an apron and a bonnet.  They have happily played and re-enacted scenes from the Little House books as well as Anne of Green Gables, Little Princess, What Katie Did,  The Secret Garden, Pollyanna, and Jane Austen stories!  I even made my younger daughter boned corsets for their dressing up.

I have shared several posts on encouraging your children’s freedom to play ~

• Children should be free in their play
• Freedom to play
• Letter 3 – Unique Individuals
• Letter 27 – Creativity

Here are some of my Little House blog posts ~

• Childhood simplicity “Little House” style
• Our 3-dimensional model of “Little House in the Woods”
• What little Girls and Little Boys Should Be Taught
• A Little House Notebook

Give your children something innocent and inspiring to focus on and act out.  They need the freedom to play and be creative.  Read aloud to them and then give them the time to be free to play.

Here’s wishing you and your family safe and happy moments in this unprecedented time.

Blessings, Nadene