Update on my now 6 year old

My elder child started grade 1 this year. We are fortunately homeschooling her.

This is what we have been using for her:

Reading: She reads aloud to me daily from various books (many are the Sonlight grade 4 choices as they are suitable for this age) though I continue to choose books that will challenge her vocabulary also. She can read pretty much anything and has been able to for a while, so now it has to do with keeping her interest while still extending her vocabulary at a rate that does not overwhelm her or put her off the material.
: We have started silent reading - my DD does read anything and everything, but is very busy so to get her to concentrate for a more extended length of time and read a proper book I have had to give her time to do this as a subject.
: She does reading for the gifted child grade 3 comprehensions and I make her write out the answers as handwriting practice too.

Other Language Arts: we are doing our own thing for spelling - I am making sure she knows how to spell all the Dolch words this year based on their phonetic spelling - so she is learning the phonics and associated words too. Will see where else we head when this is done - she already has a very good spelling ability and knows it works with both phonics and sight and that she should try various combinations and then “see” what looks right - her reading is advanced enough that she always knows when it looks wrong.
: Creative Writing - she still does some copywork, but also writes her own stories - as her handwriting stamina improves (it has a lot in the last few weeks even) then we will work more on this
:Grammar - we have been reading grammarland and doing the worksheets - usually I teach the part of speech before reading it in the book though.
: I am using some of the choices from Easy Peasy Grade 2 curriculum and Year 2 curriculum as many of the non fiction passages on there have been a suitable level for her to read by herself.

Maths: We are doing Life of Fred - we started late last year and are now in Edgewood and plan just to continue as we are and see what happens.
: She is still in Singapore 2a - sometimes we go fast and sometimes very slowly through this, we should start 2b very soon - with this she is also learning her multiplication facts
: We continue to do maths in real life like we did when she was much younger but now working at a harder level - money is still a big motivator to be able to do maths.

History: We are working through SOTW2 and associated books.

Geography: much of this is covered through BFSU and we are reading A Life like Mine as well and will move on to a proper geography book later (one written specifically to teach geography)

Science: We are almost finished BFSU1 and when we are will probably continue on to BFSU2

My husband does a world map testing with her once a week - he picks countries that have been in the news, shows her where they are in the world and we discuss the most recent “history” or news with her in a child friendly manner.

Bible: We are still reading Leading little Ones to God and other devotionals and she attends a good Sunday School.

Music: My DD has a great interest in movies and also musical and is now learning songs from these though I play all sorts of music for her. We have not done any formal studies though mention musicians and link music at times and include it as part of history too. I would like my DD to start an instrument, but may leave that for next year.

Because many of the books we read together are written in countries other than our own we also often look up and read about various things found in those books - so have learnt about various plants, animals, mining, how thread was made and how it is today - anything that sparks her interest in a book we read we quickly look up - if she shows more interest then we will look deeper into it.

She does gymnastics once a week, chess club once a week and goes to a homeschooling group to play also once a week though is with friends a few times a week. She still prefers children older than her (and for some reason she prefers boys too).

She still plays with blocks and climbs walls and digs in the dirt, she writes things in her own time and requests baking when she feels like it - she’s still very much a child. Education where I live is really shocking which means when she is performing ahead in her grade compared to countries overseas then she is performing even further ahead of the children here - I am not sure what would happen if we were ever to send her back to school)

This is a wonderful update, thank you!

Are you registered with a homeschooling provider at all?

No, we are not registered with anyone.

We are also in SA, and it looks like I’ll be following the same route as you are once my 3 year old reaches school age. I know how popular homeschooling has become, but I thought it’s required by law to enroll with a homeschooling firm. Then again, I’m asking questions but I’ve not really done my homework on the subject.

Thanks

There are a lot of changes coming in policies - I would explore it the closer your child gets - the year they turn 7 is when registration is supposed to happen (you do not have to register before that) and after that - well statistics showed that as of the census of 2011 there were approximately 57000 homeschoolers in South Africa and only 3000 of them were registered. I have friends homeschooling who are regsitered and those who aren’t - the requirements are that you must show what you did the previous year or show an outline and materials for the year you plan to school - they do prefer school based curricula (like Love to Learn, possibly one of the overseas boxed curricula, Little Footprints etc) They need you to have a table and chair and place for schoolwork.

The reason I am not registered has partly to do with timing of schooling - they expect a parent to be with them during traditional school hours and I school year round and work when called in when I have someone watching my children who does not educate them. We are not at home schooling during traditional school hours and often can be found shopping or going out if school is done for the day and we take holidays whenever we feel like it. This can clash with authorities and it is not a legal requirement to register here. However things may change and there have been worrying documents going round about registration and what it can entail so we are all watching and waiting and complaining.

Thank you very much Tanikit, this is very valuable information! I hope the law doesn’t change to force us to register or conform to some external rule, one of my main motivations behind homeschooling is for the freedom of study times and curriculum. Suppose we’ll just have to wait and see…