The 7-step process to improve your Homeschool

HOMESCHOOLING CURRICULUM GUIDE ON The 7-step process to improve your Homeschool my house is full of warmth by Willemien Krüger

This book is dedicated to my children who have been the reason for doing this ministry of home education. Thanks also to my husband in encouraging me to take one step at a time in developing resources which will help others.

HOMESCHOOLING CURRICULUM GUIDE on THE 7-STEP PROCESS TO IMPROVE YOUR HOMESCHOOL by Willemien Krüger

Homeschooling Curriculum Guide on the 7-STEP PROCESS TO IMPROVE YOUR HOMESCHOOL Copyright 2013 by Willemien Krüger at: www.homeschooling-curriculum-guide.com ISBN: 978-0-9922150-5-7 eisbn: This book is for encouragement and educational purposes only. Permission for personal use is granted. All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means electronic, mechanical, photographic (photocopying), recording, or otherwise without prior permission in writing from the author. Find support to continuously improve your homeschool on www.homeschooling-curriculum-guide.com pointing YOU in the right direction, whether you are starting out homeschooling or have been doing this for a while. Cover & Layout design: Designwave www.designwave.co.za

Preface: The Homeschooling Curriculum Guides series will be pointing YOU in the right direction as it provides lots of practical answers to questions by parents investigating homeschooling. As you use and apply this guide, it will help you: understand that home education is a continuous process improve your homeschooling process over time relax seeing that there are long-term goals you are working to a vision for your family including academic, spiritual, physical and emotional aspects vision for each individual child each year understand the variety of home education approaches comfortable with a Course of Study related to your long-term goals you have for your children be more when looking for curriculum take note of curriculum choices in a easy-to-use format plan a practical homeschool schedule know how to evaluate progress by understanding the importance of Measurement become comfortable with adapt, change and growth in your home education journey, in the short and long term The Homeschooling Curriculum Guide on the 7 step process includes: Detail descriptions of what is meant by each process step Action steps to do associated with each step individually Templates to use or adapt with each process step v

This book has been developed for the homeschooling community at large, with the purpose of being a practical book to be used as you complete the templates for personal application. The templates can be adapted for your own situation. As one executes the steps in the process, it will become second nature as you continually improve your but also enjoy the journey you are on! The seven guides included in the Homeschooling Curriculum Guides series currently are, in order of a recommended reading strategy: Homeschooling Curriculum Guide on CONSIDERING HOME EDUCATION Homeschooling Curriculum Guide on HOW TO START HOME EDUCATION Homeschooling Curriculum Guide on CHILD DEVELOPMENT PHASES Homeschooling Curriculum Guide on HOME EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA Homeschooling Curriculum Guide on ORGANIZATION, ADMINISTRATION AND SOCIALIZATION Homeschooling Curriculum Guide on THE 7-STEP PROCESS TO IMPROVE YOUR HOMESCHOOL Homeschooling Curriculum Guide on A PERSONAL ECLECTIC CURRICULUM websites are active and current during the publication process. If any link is not active, I do apologize. Please inform the author. vi

Contents Preface:...v ECLECTIC HOMESCHOOLING - DOING IT YOUR WAY...1 7-step process diagram...3 STEP 1 - DEFINE YOUR HOMESCHOOL VISION...5 1.1. What is it about?...6 1.2. Actions to take...9 1.3. Templates...11 STEP 2 - UNDERSTAND HOMESCHOOL APPROACHES... 13 2.1. What is it about?... 14 2.2. Actions to take...19 2.3. Templates...20 STEP 3 - DESIGN A COURSE OF STUDY...22 3.1. What is it about?...25 3.2. Actions to take... 31 3.3. Templates...32 STEP 4 - INVESTIGATE AND GET CURRICULUM...33 4.1. What is it about?...34 4.2. Actions to take...41 4.3. Templates...42 vii

STEP 5 - PLAN AND DO...44 5.1. What is it about?...45 5.2. Actions to take...49 5.3. Templates...50 STEP 6 - MEASURE AND REWARD...52 6.1. What is it about?...53 6.2. Actions to take...57 6.3. Templates...58 STEP 7 - ADAPT TO IMPROVE YOUR HOMESCHOOL...59 7.1. What is it about?...60 7.2. Actions to take...64 7.3. Templates...65 AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY...66 viii

ECLECTIC HOMESCHOOLING - doing it your way You may have started out with a full textbook curriculum, or with just a few books, or maybe even using no resources...but once you started months) at home, the following questions will emerge: Are we doing ok? Are we doing the right thing? Is this going to work? The questions will be more if you tend to compare yourself and your children to other people. It is easy to fall into the trap of Questions will be more comparing to be able to measure if you tend to compare. your progress. Measurement is important, but you do not measure progress by comparing yourself with others. You measure yourself against your own goals, your own set of values 1

and your own vision. Then only will you know if you are really making progress and doing the right thing. It is when you measure that you start to make changes etc.), adapting and doing your You do not measure progress by comparing yourself with others. own thing to suit your style. It is then that you start doing eclectic homeschooling. It happens to most homeschoolers over the years, since no curriculum is the your child s individual needs. Do not despair just keep moving forward. process broken down into seven easy steps that will help you continuously improve your homeschool. To summarize the 7-step process, the following diagram can be memorized. 2

7-step process diagram Understand approaches Design a Course of Study Investigate and get curriculum Plan and DO Measure progress and reward Change/adapt No Are we satisfied or happy with the fruit? Yes Well done, continue in wisdom www.homeschooling-curriculum-guide.com 7-Step process to homeschool improvement This process is something I have developed over the years as I have applied it personally in my own home. I also designed the templates for my personal 3

use. If you want to see examples of completed templates read Homeschooling Curriculum Guide on A personal eclectic curriculum. Remember that every family is unique and the outcome for each family is unique. It might also be useful to read Homeschooling Curriculum Guide on Child Development Phases to understand what is important when. Explanation on what every step entails is given on the pages to follow. 1. Each page will explain the step in detail. understand the step. 3. An empty template is shown with permission to use the concept in designing your own. Take your time in executing the actions suggested each step is not an hour s work, it may even take days. Please! Please! Do not just read it and think it is a nice concept. Do the hard work of thinking and Do the hard work of thinking and do the homework ; or else it will just remain a good idea. do the homework ; or else it will just remain a good idea in your head and not bear the fruit it is supposed to do. Like anything worthwhile, the doing is the hard work, and it will require some with your spouse and even with close friends), but the 4

Step 1 - homeschool vision You are today where yesterday s thoughts have brought you and will be tomorrow where today s thoughts take you by Elmer G Letterman Vision is about shaping your thoughts today to take you where you want to be tomorrow! Vision a picture of where you want to end will not just be step in the 7-step process, as it provides the something to measure against. Vision requires thinking, observation, discussion and some more thinking and it takes some and make time to think about it, observe and develop your personal homeschool vision. Remember to write it down as it will become a tool to measure progress. 5

1.1. What is it about? Vision is about having a picture of where you want to be when you have done the homeschooling thing. Yes, the picture will be described in words, probably many words, but the idea should always be to have a PICTURE in your mind of what you and your children must look like/end up/be like after a period of time. This period can be long term when you envision your young or short term when you envision what your child should have learnt by the end of the year/quarter or even week. Vision is missing if you are not happy with where you are now; vision is about changing what you are doing now to get somewhere else! In business, Vision is about having a picture of where you want to be. vision formulation is a strategic business activity, at home, vision one of those not urgent, but very important things to do. These are usually the things we normally do not get around to do unless we from, Stephen Covey) you must just give enough TIME to think about and it 6

since it is something you yourself will use for your own grammatically correct! It must just be something yóú can read and understand so you can measure progress. It is therefore sensible to try and include some means of knowing how you are going to measure what will be the husband for your own family), one may experience the in how it should be said. That is the valuable part in discussing it with someone else to clarify your vision so that can become your personal vision and not just someone else s good words. Sometimes we can get inspiration by precise words, but I believe that it will only be worthwhile if you force yourself to document the vision. That is the vision so that it can become your personal vision or even family want to be, what do you want to have achieved). Some questions to help the thinking process: What do you think a well-educated child means or ask your spouse. 7

8 What sort of character traits do you envision for your What type of home do you want to have while What do you want more of in life and what do you What are some of the fruit in your life that you are such as spiritual, intellectual, emotional, social and physical development.

1.2. Actions to take see someone having a good discussion with their young This is then a picture you have. If you see things you your vision) 2. Brainstorm ideas and statements make notes and more notes your husband for your own family): What will I say to people who ask me why I am What are some of the frustrations I experienced in my own life that I want to prevent my children from What are some of the good things I learnt as a child What is the most important thing I want my children What is the most important skill I think they should 9

10 What skills should my children at least have to What have I missed as a result of not being What bad fruit in my life are indicators of what I 4. Talk to people and share ideas 5. Write all ideas down 6. Try and formulate vision statements, for example When my child is 12, I want her to know xyz or When my child is 18, I want him to be able to do xyz or as simple as I want my children to be honest and reliable. 7. You can write a general vision for all your children templates shown as a framework.) 8. Organize, regroup, sort and prioritize statements. 9. Write it out or type it neatly/nicely and print it out. 10. Put it up for reference in your home and remember it will probably grow over time, just replace it with the new one then.

1.3. Templates VISION FOR THE [FAMILY] AS DEFINED ON [DATE] We would like to see our children as being/having/becoming SPIRITUAL GROWTH PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT CHARACTER/EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 11