Big change for our family this week: we started homeschooling the kids. Eek! What a giant leap and an uncertain one. At first we were very happy with the school and it seemed like such a great thing. The environment is amazing and the kids had made a few friends. There were a few unexpected bonuses- Henry came home speaking a little TshiVenda he had learned from friends and the kids generally picked up on the different English. As a matter of fact, some things have been seemingly set in stone for them. "Z" is now "zed" and the word "been" is pronounced "bean" by all of them. An eraser is a rubber and bandaids are plasters. Also, jello is now jelly and the stuff you spread on bread is jam. Instead of 2nd grade it is now grade 2 and Math is now Maths. We wanted them to be able to adjust and blend in and thought school was the best way to do that.
Indeed, school is the best way to do that, but it isn't our only goal for their education. At first we just waited and watched to see how things were going. Then one day Rosie brought home her grammar "book"- it was really no more than a little booklet and had no organisation, but rather seemed a collection of unrelated exercises meant to fix grammar problems rather than teach a system. Not long after that Charlotte stayed home sick one day and her school work came home with Rosie. I had seen the homework but didn't know what was being done in class. The math instruction is a lot of rote memorisation with hardly any practice with the concrete or with learning the concepts. They had learned place value in one day and one lesson in Grade 2 and were expected to apply the knowledge immediately.
As we started asking questions we found that the school was not on the Cambridge system, but rather used the government curriculum and Cambridge resources to supplement. So disappointing! (They advertise that they are on the Cambridge system and told us that when we started) They start children much later and Liam, in grade R, was learning the same things he had learned in pre-K before we moved. There was still another year before the school expected him to start learning to read, but every day he was coming home and asking for a reading lesson. Rosie had not learned anything new except for Afrikaans and it began to feel like we were paying for her to play all day.
I know that there is a lot to be said for them adjusting and making friends, but academically they were going to end up years behind. Our children love learning and reading and academic things. They were craving knowledge and we were spending 1 to 2 hours a day doing extra lessons at home (their choice). I am not a big fan of homeschooling in general. I do not think it is always best and up until now I did not think I could do a better job than the school they were at. Now, however, I do think that homeschooling is the best thing for our kids. And I want to give a big shout out to Agathos Classical School because our experiences this last year have shown us what an amazing school it is. Academically Agathos is great, but more than that the environment and people that make up the school make it exceptional. So often I wish the kids could still be there, but at least the older ones got to be there for a few years.
We're still trying to find ways to fill the social gap for the kids. There is no homeschool group here...yet. I have met one other homeschool family and have been connected to some other possibilities. Information on the internet just isn't available here so you have to find things by word of mouth and it takes a while. The 3 older kids will be starting karate classes tomorrow and they seem excited about it. It's very different from the US (or at least from our experience)- bare concrete floor, open windows and children with bare feet (I know that's normal in the US for classes, but here the kids were not wearing shoes to begin with- most kids here do not wear shoes most of the time). Charlotte has started recorder lessons and we're hoping to start horse riding and swimming lessons soon. One happy surprise here has been how cheap services are. For all 3 kids to take karate twice a week comes out to about $50 a month. Recorder lessons are $12 a month and swim lessons about $10 a month. Now if only my groceries were less expensive...but I suppose it all has to even out somehow. :)
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