Leading expert advice from Wingu Academy
Wingu Academy

Embarking on the Homeschool Journey: A Comprehensive Guide to Planning for Success with Wingu Academy

Homeschooling offers families the opportunity to tailor education to their child’s unique needs, values, and interests. With the rise of homeschooling options, families are increasingly seeking guidance on how to embark on this educational journey successfully. In this comprehensive guide, we unveil the homeschooling journey with Wingu Academy, providing valuable insights and practical tips for planning and achieving success. Understanding Homeschooling with Wingu Academy Wingu Academy is renowned for its innovative approach to education, combining cutting-edge technology with personalized learning experiences. As a pioneer in online schooling, Wingu Academy extends its expertise to homeschooling families, offering a flexible and comprehensive curriculum designed to meet the diverse needs of learners. Assessing Your Readiness Before embarking on the homeschooling journey with Wingu Academy, it’s essential to assess your readiness and commitment to this educational path. Consider factors such as your child’s learning style, your availability as a parent educator, and your access to resources and support networks. Reflect on your motivations for homeschooling and establish realistic expectations for the journey ahead. Setting Educational Goals Setting clear educational goals is fundamental to the success of homeschooling with Wingu Academy. Collaborate with your child to identify academic, personal, and extracurricular objectives that align with their interests and aspirations. Establish measurable benchmarks and timelines to track progress and celebrate achievements along the way. Choosing Curriculum and Resources Wingu Academy offers a diverse range of curriculum options and resources to support homeschooling families. Explore the curriculum offerings, including core subjects such as math, science, language arts, and social studies, as well as elective courses and enrichment activities. Customize your child’s learning experience by selecting materials that cater to their individual interests and learning preferences. Creating a Flexible Schedule Flexibility is a hallmark of homeschooling with Wingu Academy, allowing families to design a schedule that suits their lifestyle and learning goals. Collaborate with your child to establish a flexible daily routine that balances academic instruction, hands-on activities, and leisure time. Be open to adjusting the schedule as needed to accommodate evolving priorities and interests. Fostering a Supportive Learning Environment Creating a supportive learning environment is essential for homeschooling success with Wingu Academy. Designate a dedicated space for learning that is free from distractions and equipped with essential materials and technology. Cultivate a positive and nurturing atmosphere where curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking are encouraged and celebrated. Embracing Technology as a Tool Technology plays a pivotal role in homeschooling with Wingu Academy, serving as a powerful tool for communication, collaboration, and learning. Embrace technology as a means to enhance instruction, access educational resources, and connect with educators and peers. Leverage Wingu Academy’s online platform to facilitate interactive lessons, virtual discussions, and multimedia presentations. Monitoring Progress and Celebrating Achievements Regularly monitor your child’s progress and academic achievement to ensure they are meeting educational goals and milestones. Keep detailed records of coursework, assignments, and assessments, and review them periodically to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement. Celebrate your child’s achievements and milestones along the homeschooling journey to foster motivation and self-confidence. Seeking Support and Collaboration Homeschooling with Wingu Academy offers families the opportunity to connect with a supportive community of educators, parents, and learners. Take advantage of Wingu Academy’s resources, support services, and online forums to seek guidance, share experiences, and collaborate with fellow homeschooling families. Engage in professional development opportunities and networking events to stay informed and connected within the homeschooling community. Conclusion Embarking on the homeschooling journey with Wingu Academy is a rewarding and empowering experience for families seeking personalized education options. By following this comprehensive guide and leveraging Wingu Academy’s expertise and resources, you can plan for success and create a fulfilling educational experience tailored to your child’s unique needs and aspirations. Embrace the journey with enthusiasm, curiosity, and a commitment to lifelong learning, and watch as your child flourishes and thrives in the homeschooling environment.

April 17, 2024
Wingu Academy

Unlocking Potential: A Guide on How to Support Children With ADHD Learning Disabilities

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects millions of children worldwide. One of the challenges that children with ADHD often face is learning disabilities, which can impact their academic performance and overall well-being. As parents, caregivers, and educators, it’s essential to understand how to provide effective support to children with ADHD learning disabilities. In this guide, we’ll explore strategies and resources to help unlock the potential of these remarkable individuals. Understanding ADHD and Learning Disabilities ADHD is characterized by symptoms such as impulsivity, hyperactivity, and difficulty sustaining attention. In addition to these challenges, many children with ADHD also experience learning disabilities, which can affect their ability to process information, organize tasks, and retain knowledge. Common learning disabilities associated with ADHD include dyslexia, dyscalculia, and auditory processing disorder. Early Identification and Assessment Early identification and assessment are crucial for supporting children with ADHD learning disabilities. If you suspect that a child may be struggling with ADHD or a learning disability, it’s essential to seek professional evaluation and diagnosis from qualified healthcare providers or educational specialists. A comprehensive assessment can help identify specific areas of difficulty and inform personalized interventions. Creating a Supportive Environment Creating a supportive environment is key to helping children with ADHD learning disabilities thrive. This includes establishing clear routines, providing structured guidance, and minimizing distractions in the learning environment. Simple strategies such as breaking tasks into smaller, manageable steps and using visual aids can help children stay focused and organized. Implementing Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and Accommodations Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and accommodations are essential tools for supporting children with ADHD learning disabilities in school settings. These plans outline specific goals, accommodations, and interventions tailored to the child’s unique needs. Examples of accommodations may include extended time on assignments, preferential seating, and access to assistive technology. Utilizing Multimodal Learning Approaches Children with ADHD learning disabilities often benefit from multimodal learning approaches that engage multiple senses and learning styles. Incorporating hands-on activities, interactive games, and kinesthetic learning techniques can enhance comprehension and retention of information. Additionally, providing frequent breaks and incorporating movement into lessons can help children with ADHD stay focused and engaged. Encouraging Self-Advocacy and Self-Regulation Empowering children with ADHD learning disabilities to advocate for themselves and develop self-regulation skills is essential for their long-term success. Encourage open communication, teach problem-solving strategies, and provide opportunities for children to practice self-monitoring and self-reflection. By fostering autonomy and resilience, children can learn to navigate challenges and advocate for their needs effectively. Collaborating with Parents, Educators, and Healthcare Providers Collaboration among parents, educators, and healthcare providers is crucial for providing comprehensive support to children with ADHD learning disabilities. Regular communication and collaboration allow for the sharing of insights, progress monitoring, and adjustment of interventions as needed. By working together as a team, stakeholders can create a supportive network that maximizes the potential of children with ADHD learning disabilities. Accessing Supportive Resources and Services Numerous resources and services are available to support children with ADHD learning disabilities and their families. These may include tutoring programs, educational therapists, support groups, and community organizations specializing in ADHD and learning disabilities. Additionally, online resources, books, and workshops can provide valuable information and guidance for parents and educators navigating the challenges of ADHD and learning disabilities. Conclusion Supporting children with ADHD learning disabilities requires patience, understanding, and a collaborative approach. By implementing personalized strategies, creating supportive environments, and accessing available resources, we can help unlock the potential of these remarkable individuals and empower them to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. Together, we can make a positive difference in the lives of children with ADHD learning disabilities and ensure they reach their full potential.

April 10, 2024
Wingu Academy

Pioneering a New Era: The Inception of Wingu Angela Academy Campus in Lakeside, Cape Town

Wingu Academy, a leading online school renowned for its commitment to innovation and excellence in education, proudly announces the establishment of The Wingu Angela Academy Campus in Lakeside, Cape Town. This momentous endeavour signifies Wingu’s dedication to pioneering a forward-looking approach to education, underpinned by a holistic philosophy that prioritizes the well-being and development of every child. A Visionary Approach to Education At the heart of Wingu Academy’s mission is the Whole-School, Whole-Community, Whole Child (WSCC) approach, which seeks to integrate educational initiatives with community partnerships to nurture not only academic excellence but also emotional and physical well-being. Engela Janse van Resnburg, Principal of Wingu Academy, shares her vision for the new campus, expressing a commitment to establishing flourishing independent schools across South Africa. Wingu Academy has a DBE-registered school in Centurion and is busy with an academy in Cape Town as well. These schools aim to provide accessible, high-quality education to communities facing challenges in accessing quality high school education. Inspiration and Dedication Founded by Nicole Griffith in 2023, The Angela Academy has served as an inspiration, offering holistic education to children from previously disadvantaged backgrounds. Griffith’s dedication and generous funding have ensured the continuity of quality education for current students, covering all necessary resources for successful high school completion. Wingu Academy pledges to uphold this legacy of excellence and expand upon it by introducing proven methodologies from its Smart School in Centurion. Navigating the Path Forward The establishment of the Lakeside campus marks a transition for both Wingu Academy and the community it serves. As the registration process with the Western Cape Department of Education (WCDE) progresses, Wingu Academy remains committed to addressing challenges and fostering community engagement. Through proactive measures, such as a comprehensive review of educational and administrative processes and stakeholder engagement, Wingu Academy seeks to ensure a smooth transition and uphold its commitment to academic excellence. A Collaborative Endeavor Key to Wingu Academy’s success is its collaboration with educational authorities and stakeholders. The positive relationship established with the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) serves as a model for future partnerships with the WCDE. By registering a new, innovative model of education, Wingu Academy aims to inspire a new era of possibilities and address the shortage of traditional school options in underserved communities. A Bright Future Ahead With the support of dedicated staff, community stakeholders, and Nicole Griffith’s invaluable backing, Wingu Academy is poised to embark on a transformative journey in education. The addition of seasoned educators, such as Vice-Principal Julie Arguile, reinforces Wingu’s commitment to excellence and ensures a bright future for the Lakeside campus. As Wingu Academy looks ahead, it remains steadfast in its dedication to providing every child with access to a comprehensive, holistic education. Conclusion The establishment of The Wingu Angela Academy Campus in Lakeside, Cape Town, heralds a new chapter in the history of education in South Africa. Through innovation, collaboration, and a steadfast commitment to excellence, Wingu Academy is poised to redefine the educational landscape and empower future generations. As the journey unfolds, Wingu Academy invites all stakeholders to join in shaping a brighter future for education in South Africa.

April 3, 2024
Wingu Academy

Wingu Academy Unveils the Early Years (Stage R) Oxford International Program: The evolution of learning in South Africa

In a groundbreaking development for the Wingu Academy, we are thrilled to announce the upcoming launch of the Stage R Early Years Program, scheduled to commence in 2024.  This transformative educational initiative promises to usher in a new era of learning, providing our students with a world-class educational experience designed to prepare them for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. Learn more about the Stage R Oxford Program and sign up for this exciting journey by clicking here. Stage R Implementation: South Africa’s educational landscape is undergoing a transformation, marked by recent legislative shifts such as the proposed BELA Bill, which mandates an additional 1-2 years of schooling and makes Stage R compulsory for children. Under these new regulations, Wingu Academy’s Early Years (Stage R) program gives South African children the best possible Stage R education. This groundbreaking program sets a new standard in home education, incorporating the internationally respected Early Years program from the Oxford International Curriculum.  The Oxford International Curriculum is recognized globally for its impeccable standards and comprehensive approach to education, making it the perfect choice to support our young learners on their educational journey. Implementing the prestigious Oxford Curriculum at Wingu Academy will open the door to a myriad of benefits for our Stage R students: Enhanced Learning Opportunities: The Stage R Oxford Program will provide our young learners with access to a more enriching and challenging curriculum, enabling them to realize their full academic potential. Preparation for the Future: In an ever-competitive and increasingly globalized world, the program will equip Stage R students with the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive and succeed. Personal Growth: Beyond academics, the program will focus on character education and extracurricular activities to foster essential life skills, including leadership, teamwork, and resilience. Global Citizenship: Exposure to diverse perspectives and cultures will broaden our Stage R students’ horizons, making them more informed and compassionate global citizens. As we embark on this new chapter in our school’s history, we eagerly anticipate the endless possibilities it holds for our Stage R students.  The Early Years (Stage R) program will undoubtedly shape the future of education at Wingu Academy, enriching the lives of our Stage R students and preparing them for a bright and promising future.

November 21, 2023
Wingu Academy

Setting boundaries – how to draw the line before it gets blurred

First, we need to look at why we need to set boundaries? Boundaries are the rules you set, about how others are allowed to treat you. The purpose of setting a healthy boundary is to protect and take good care of you, as well as, the relationship with others.   Whether it be in relationships, at work, at home or at school, they are crucially important to your personal well-being, as well as that of others. Why then, are we afraid of setting boundaries if they are there to protect us? Everyone is different Something that affects you might not be a big deal to someone else. This could make you feel like your boundaries are wrong.  Fear of Rejection  You might feel afraid to enforce your boundaries because it might upset someone else  Effort Enforcing boundaries can feel like a lot of work, so you might be tempted to ignore issues in the hopes that they will go away on their own. It is thus unfortunately easy for lines to get blurred.  These adapted guidelines from psychcentral.com may help you in the process of setting healthy boundaries: Enjoy some self-reflection To successfully introduce and set boundaries, it’s key to understand why they’re each important to you and how they will benefit your emotional well-being. Sometimes stuff happens to people that makes them feel uncomfortable, but they’re not sure why. The first step in having healthy boundaries in any situation is spending the time to explore what’s happening to you and why you feel uncomfortable. Start small If you don’t have many boundaries in place already, the prospect of introducing more might seem overwhelming — so build them up slowly. Doing so allows you to take things at a more comfortable pace, and it provides time to reflect on whether it’s heading in the right direction or if you need to make some tweaks. Set them early  It can sometimes be hard to start putting boundaries in, especially in pre-existing relationships. Rather set them straight away. By setting boundaries and expectations from the very beginning, everyone knows where they stand, and feelings of hurt, confusion, and frustration can be lessened. Be consistent Letting boundaries slide can lead to confusion and encourage new expectations and demands among those around you. Try keeping things consistent and steady. This helps to reinforce your original thresholds and beliefs, and it ensures those lines remain clearly established. Create a framework Boundaries may vary, depending on the type of relationship. However, if you find it helpful, there’s no reason not to have a few basics in place that can be adapted accordingly. Feel free to add extras In some aspects of our lives, there may already be boundaries in place, but consider these the minimum. Setting boundaries in certain aspects of your life, may lead to more productivity and feeling empowered. Be aware of social media These platforms allow for more communication than ever, but they’ve also encouraged some considerable boundary blurring. Oversharing can become a concern, especially on public platforms where family and friends may post personal information or photos that we don’t want shared publicly. If you deem a particular action as boundary-crossing in real life, your concerns are no less valid when it occurs digitally. Talk, talk, talk Communication is critical in the world of boundaries, especially if someone consistently oversteps yours. While you might need to raise your concerns, these discussions need not be confrontational. By approaching the situation relevant to the circumstances in context, it may prevent confrontation, resentment or awkward situations before it becomes a concern. Be your biggest champion For boundaries to have a strong foundation, you need to show yourself a bit of love. A lot of it comes down to self-worth and self-value. If this is lacking, you may find it difficult to set and enforce boundaries to protect yourself. Changing your internal dialogue will make you feel more deserving. Gain some perspective  Not having boundaries can be detrimental to our mental health, but going too far and over-thinking them can also impact our emotional well-being. It’s good to have boundaries, but don’t be dictated by them. Sometimes you’ve just got to go with your gut instinct. We can forget that we’re actually quite good at navigating most things and are quite intuitive as human beings. Also, flexibility is not always a bad thing, as long as it justifies a positive outcome.  Recognizing the boundaries of others In addition to setting your own boundaries, it’s important to appreciate those of others, too — even if they’re different from your own. Repeatedly violating boundaries can breed resentment and contempt, and cause people to withdraw. So, take a moment to consider what may be important to the other person. On a final note Don’t feel guilty about setting boundaries. They’re essentially a form of self-care, and we actively look to incorporate other elements of this into our lives daily — from eating a balanced diet to exercising. This should not be different! At Wingu Academy we have a dedicated Wellness Hub to assist in both academic and mental well-being. The Wellness Hub offers a range of free resources to parents, learners, as well as staff members to support personal growth and well-being. Read more about setting boundaries at: https://psychcentral.com/lib/10-way-to-build-and-preserve-better-boundaries#recap

October 25, 2023
Wingu Academy

Why we made the switch from brick-and-mortar to online homeschooling

The following account is the story of a parent, Engela Janse van Rensburg, who decided to make the switch from a brick-and-mortar school to online homeschooling and she has never looked back! “Here’s a riddle for you: What is the most in-demand occupation – no, let me rephrase – profession, in the entire existence of the human race? Which profession needs no qualification, has the lowest monetary reward yet has the highest impact on the human race, and the highest emotional reward? Parenting! Any parent will tell you that the privilege of having a child and the joy that it accompanies, is something very special. But, with this privilege comes a number of choices you have to make. At the birth of your child, you are given a clean slate and you as the parent have to decide what is written on that slate, since this will form the foundations of that little human being entrusted to you.   I call these choices the three C’s: Choice of morals and values; Choice of religious beliefs and Choice of education. And it is in this third choice, Education, that many parents faced a new challenge the last couple of years since the global pandemic struck. Three years ago parents who decided to homeschool their children were seen by many as the ‘different’ ones. Two years ago parents who never thought of homeschooling their children, were suddenly faced with a challenge: how do I ensure continuous education for my child, how do I keep my child safe and healthy and protected against an enemy no one can see (Covid-19)? And just like many other families, we were faced with the same questions. When we started to do research, we realised that education entered its own “industrial revolution” phase. We were standing in front of three options: homeschooling where the support from the school was only administrative and I will have to teach my child; a school where classes were presented on a set timetable and the only difference between the online school and a brick-and-mortar school, was that he was at home and did his lessons online; and the third option was a combination of the first two: online lessons combined with self-study. We realised that with both parents also in education and working long hours, there was no time for us to teach our son, although we had the knowledge. It was also for our son a much easier transition from what he knew to something totally different.   Two years later we have settled into our new lifestyle and in the process we have learned a lot of lessons. Time management became very important and it was a skill that I had to teach my son. I had to show him how to plan his term, his week and his day. I had to show him how to plan when to start with an assignment to make sure it is completed and submitted on time. He had to learn how to take responsibility and attend classes, even though he has the freedom to make that choice.  In a brick-and-mortar school, parents are so much less involved in the day-to-day activities of their children. With an online school, I became involved in what happened in my child’s education on a daily basis. I check on his daily classes, I look at his performance and results when assessment results are released and I assist with his revision planning. Then there is of course the technical side – make sure he has access to Wi-Fi during load-shedding, make sure the printer is working, make sure the laptop is still on standard.   The biggest change in our lives was that we became so much more involved in our child’s education. But it also brought another concern with it – we had to make sure that the social development  of our son was still taken care of. It is so important to remember that your child still needs contact with his peers and that he can still interact with them outside the academic sphere. It is very easy for a child to become totally isolated and if both parents are working, this can happen very easily.   Whether your choice is homeschooling or an online school, any parent will have to remember that your view about your child’s education will have to change. You need to become more involved in the education and social development of your child. Both you and your child will have to focus on time management, your communication about his education will have to be daily and maybe the most important before you even venture into this new adventure is that you have to make sure your child has the right personality to make a success of it. We are very fortunate. Our son is a self-starter, a self-motivator, and can work independently. Our transition was very easy. In the first year, both of us had to get used to the technical aspects and he had to learn time management skills – which learners do not learn in brick-and-mortar schools. But after 9 months at an online school, I did not need to create his calendar anymore or remind him about tasks. Today, two years later, we have an independent 14-year-old who is far above many first-year university students when it comes to planning his academics and taking responsibility for it.  Do I recommend it? Absolutely! Why? I wrote on that slate given to me the following objectives to instil in my son: independence, responsibility, work ethic, confidence, self-trust, and high-quality education. What is the downside? Social interaction in the form of sport or cultural activities takes a lot more effort, planning and involvement with the homeschooling/online schooling community. When should you not do it? When you think it is an easy way out of “school” or when your child is not yet emotionally mature enough to take responsibility for engaging with their schoolwork. It is not an easy way out – it will take commitment from both you as a parent as well as your

June 15, 2022
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Koa Academy

WHY EDUCATION SHOULD BE DESIGNED FOR THE INDIVIDUAL, NOT THE AVERAGE

Whenever we design one thing for many users, we rationalise that if we ‘design it for the average’, we’ll have a good fit for most users.  An example of this was in 1926, when the US Air Force was coming up with a design for their first fleet of fighter planes. They constructed the cockpits based on the average measurements of over 100 of their prospective Top Gun pilots.   After around 25 years of inexplicable crashes involving highly trained pilots, they decided to revise their cockpit design. They doubled down on their assumption about designing it for the average pilot, and this time they took many more measurements from over 4000 pilots, hoping to have ‘a better average’.  But the plane crashes they put down to ‘human error’ only increased. As Koa Academy CEO and Principal, Mark Anderson tells the story: “Then along came Lieutenant Gilbert S Daniels, a Harvard graduate who had studied the law of averages.  He had a firm belief that if you wanted to design something for an individual human being, the average was useless.  He went on to prove this by studying the data of the 4000 pilots and showing that not one of them fell into the ten most basic average measurements, even with a generous 30% margin of error. In other words, not one of the individual pilots was average in every way, and so none of them fitted into the cockpit with optimal access to all the aircraft’s controls.” Daniels concluded that in designing a cockpit for the average, they had effectively designed ‘a cockpit for no one’.  Anderson maintains that the same is true for our traditional education system. “Teaching to the middle is simply not a good way to educate individual human beings; it’s not a good way for any child to learn.  We’ve known this for a long time, and school leaders, teachers and parents have been yearning for a shift from teaching to the middle to teaching the individual child.” Finding the ways to individualise learning has been a passion for Anderson since his early days of teaching.  Technology has been a key to unlocking how one education system can individualise learning for many.  “We’ve finally solved the dilemma of teaching to the middle, where some are frustrated and bored, and others are frustrated and confused,” he says.  At Koa Academy, a high engagement online school, learners in close-knit Pods are working at their own pace on personalised pathways and engaging with content that is delivered optimally for them. Their progress is tracked and measured against targets that each individual child has set under the guidance of their teacher.   When the US Air Force finally introduced adaptable features in their cockpits and each pilot could fit optimally, crashes due to ‘human error’ became very rare.  In the same way, no child gets left behind, or gets left unattended out ahead, because their learning path is highly adaptable to their unique learning needs. Discover Koa Academy here

November 10, 2021
SAHomeschoolers

The time is ripe for home education

The past 2 years have brought about a growing interest in home education. The disruption caused by the pandemic along with health concerns and the periodic closure of schools have caused many parents to re-think the education of their children. Crisis-schooling with its flood of worksheets, WhatsApp messages with homework assignments, Zoom lessons, unmotivated learners and parents having to juggle their work responsibilities and school-at-home was exhausting and frustrating. Many parents longed for schools to re-open, but others started looking at educational alternatives. Home education offers up-to-date methods of education that support learning from home, is cost-effective, child-centred, and flexible. Due to the increased demand for alternatives to the standard school-going norm, the home education expo organizers SAHomeschoolers and KragDag created an online home education expo platform www.homeschoolexpo.africa in 2020 as an alternative to the physical expos. It showcases multiple educational options, with workshops and talks. Fortunately, it is possible to again host an in-person expo this year on 6 November in Durbanville, Cape Town. The expo will be held in conjunction with Cape Home Educators (CHE), a volunteer association that promotes home education and supports home educators in the Western Cape. The upcoming Cape Home Education Expo will give parents the opportunity to explore educational solutions and network with other families who are doing the same. Visitors can listen to well-known speakers such as Adv Andre Williams from the Pestalozzi Trust, veteran homeschool moms Linnie Luus and Wendy Young from Footprints on our land, and online providers of the CAPS and Cambridge curriculums like Brainline, Evolve and Wingu academy. Topics ranging from teaching toddlers to matric alternatives will be discussed. More and more families are exploring alternatives and they find support structures that best fit their children’s education irrespective of whether families choose online schooling, a mix-and-match approach, a textbook approach, or natural learning. Home education is about providing one’s child with an education that is flexible and easily adapts to new methods, tools, and approaches as necessary, rather than getting stuck in a one-size-that-doesn’t-fit-all approach. For more info on the upcoming Cape Town Home Education Expo and to book a ticket visit the homeschoolexpo.co.za website. We look forward to seeing you there and helping you find answers to your questions.

November 4, 2021
Koa Academy

HOW YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR CHILD KEEPS THEM SAFER ONLINE


When our children were little, we bought them their first bicycle.  We bought a helmet too.  We didn’t just spend hours training them on how to ride their bike, we told them about the rules of the road, the risks of the road and how to ride safely.  We made our own family rules about when and where they could ride, supervised and unsupervised.  We balanced giving them opportunities to enjoy their freedom on their bike and mitigating the risks.  It was easy, because most of us went through exactly the same thing with our parents when they gave us our first bike. When it comes to our children’s use of social media, online gaming and the Internet, we’re understandably less assured because for most of today’s parents, we have no experience of being a child or a teen immersed in the digital world.  Our experience of the internet, social media and online gaming is rooted in our adulthood; so, we are guessing and assuming when it comes to our children’s reality.  For some parents, this makes us back-off from what we can’t know; for others, it makes us double-down with severe limits and a pervasive atmosphere of distrust and overbearing monitoring.  Both of these tactics make our children more vulnerable to the risks of their inevitable online activity. At a recent Koa Academy webinar, Mark Anderson, CEO and Principal of the high-engagement online school brought together ICT law specialist, attorney Arinda Truter and parent, Rachelle Best who is the founder of FYI Play It Safe, a non-intrusive, consensual family monitoring app. The conversation centres on how critical the parent-child relationship is to ensure that our children’s online interactions are safe and happy. Just like we were the first to teach our small children to look left, right and left again before crossing the road, we need to be the informed and authoritative voice when it comes to rules that govern our children’s forging of a lifelong digital footprint.  As parents, we cannot ignore or avoid that the digital world is as visceral as the physical world.  Like road use, there are laws and consequences if those laws are broken.  Like road use, it is an essential aspect of life with risks and advantages.  If we are to guide and protect our kids effectively, we need to know and understand the digital world as well as we know the road. Luckily for us, there are advanced tools and free access to trustworthy content that does enable parents to leapfrog the disadvantages of not having experienced a childhood in the Digital Age.  We can get up to speed and be empowered.  We can use tech innovations that support our daily mission to safely raise our children.  We can learn the global rules and country laws that govern digital spaces.  We can be agile enough to help our children become not just productive citizens in their geographical space but also positive citizens in a digital world.  At the root of all this, is the quality of our relationship with our children.  Anderson says, “Open engagement and ongoing conversations in the family are the bedrock of keeping children and teens safe online.  Know the risks, know the rules and talk about what’s happening online every day, because it is constantly changing.  Our children are growing up in a world where most people’s work will happen online in the near future.  We need to be raising children who are adept and competent at being positive digital citizens, and from education to family security, there is so much available to support parents.” Watch the Online Safety Webinar with Koa Academy, FYI play it safe and DML inc here

November 4, 2021
Koa Academy

Bringing School 2.0 to Life at Koa Academy

Koa Academy embraces a high-contact philosophy where children belong to an 8-person Pod guided by a dedicated teacher.  While timetables are individual and terms are flexible for each family, the Pod gathers together each school day providing opportunities to develop collaboration, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and communication skills.  The Academy is a provider of the South African IEB curriculum and lesson content is sourced from top educational resources worldwide.  Age-appropriate feedback and assessment is embedded in the learning experience so that children can adapt in dynamic ways on the pathway to mastery. “There are options opening up for parents that have just never existed when it comes to educating their children,” says Koa Academy Principal, Mark Anderson.  “It’s becoming easier to truly align your family values with a school community because you are no longer limited to the institution available in your physical neighbourhood.  At Koa Academy we prioritise engagement in small group settings so that real relationships are built and maintained more easily than in larger classes where it is often challenging to connect meaningfully with peers and your teacher.  Parents are directly connected to their child’s teacher, in tune with their child’s school activities and more empowered when it comes to their child’s learning, social and emotional development and their progression through school grades.” The pandemic disruption has made us all question priorities, values and how we can better shape our lives to be in alignment with what really matters to us.  “There’s a new openness to doing life differently, to do life better,” says Mark.  “For families, educating our children well for a productive and fulfilling future is a critical concern.  On the one hand, the new choices emerging in education are inevitable as we all know that transformation in education is long overdue.  However, the pandemic has accelerated this and that is a positive consequence.  From education providers and teachers to parents and children, there’s a welcoming when it comes to having more choices, and better choices.” To find out more about Koa Academy, click here. 

October 28, 2021
Koa Academy

RAISING DIGITALLY SAFE ONLINE SCHOOLERS.

Koa Academy to host free parent webinar The global pandemic has emphasized how important our digital world is to modern life as we pivoted out of necessity to remote working, at-home schooling and online shopping.  Many millions of us got our first experiences of certain digital platforms and applications that have now become part of day-to-day life.  Trends such as online education have been greatly accelerated as many families experienced the benefits of remote learning and noted how successfully their children and teens adapted to learning through well-conceived digital platforms.   This has opened up the opportunities to think about schooling and tertiary studies differently and to take advantage of the greater flexibility and vast choice of high-quality educational programmes that can be accessed online.  As a result, many thousands of South African families have not returned to brick and mortar schools and colleges.  New and better online schools have emerged, and many tertiary institutions have invested in enhancing and expanding their online campuses. If there’s one question that concerns parents more than any other about online education, it’s about the online safety of their children.  While we are adept at identifying threats in the physical world and helping our children reduce those risks, online dangers can be more opaque to parents, and they may worry that more time online might lead to increased vulnerability.  However, CEO and Principal of Koa Academy, Mark Anderson points out that a high-engagement online education platform is specifically designed with safe online spaces which enhance your child’s digital citizenship equipping them to navigate the internet confidently, responsibly and wisely.  This development of digital citizenship is increasingly regarded as a key 21st Century skill for the 4iR world. Parents who want to deepen their understanding of how to keep their kids safe online can join the free one-hour Koa Academy webinar on Tuesday, 2 November from 18h00.  The panel is hosted by Mark Anderson and also features Rachelle Best, founder of FYI play it safe, a non-intrusive, consensual monitoring app that helps parents by adding a layer of security to their child’s online interactions.  They are joined by ICT law specialist, attorney Arinda Truter, an associate at law firm, Dingley Marshall Lewin Inc.  In addition to the presentations there will be a Q&A session enabling parents to present their burning questions to the experts. Across the board, the presenters agree that parent-child communication based on trust is at heart of keeping children safe online.  Just as the issue of safety and awareness of threats in the physical world is an ongoing conversation in families, this needs to happen too in regard to our children’s online interactions.   Best says, “Parents need so see online safety as a holistic concept. Setting up screentime and the relevant age and content restrictions on applications are not enough. Parents need to understand threats and risks in a world where new apps are made available every day, and tech is ever-changing. So, there’s a need for parents to be aware and knowledgeable so that they make good decisions when it comes to keeping their children safe online.  At FYI play it safe, we also believe that keeping your children safer online starts with the relationship with your child. We empower parents with the right level of information to know when their children may need their help. This creates an opportunity to open up conversations with the right information and at exactly the right time.” Attorney, Arinda Truter emphasises that children attending online schools do not face different risks than any other child making use of the internet and engaging with others over social media.  She says, “It’s important for all parents to be aware of the risks presented by online gaming, apps and social media.  It is just part of the modern parenting experience to have knowledge of issues such as cyberbullying, hate speech and sexting, to be aware of privacy concerns and digital footprint, and to understand the law when it comes to the chain of online publishing.” Anderson also points out that positive experiences offered by online schooling give your child the opportunity to build their skills as a literate, responsible digital citizen.  He says, “Koa has thoughtfully designed the online school experience to not only maximise safety but leverage the advantages of being online.  The high engagement of our small Pods with a maximum of eight learners and their teacher gives the kids the perfect environment for healthy relationship-building and online social connection. There is high accountability where people can be themselves and quickly get to know others well. The teacher is also very much in touch with each individual in the Pod.  Parents are encouraged to get to know their child’s teacher and school leadership. We like to keep the channels of communication wide open so that everyone is in the loop.  Live Dashboards show academic progress which keeps the kids accountable to their daily work rhythms and targets, ensuring that they are keeping busy during their school time.  Our SACE- registered teachers undergo regular training and have significant experience in the online space, which is an asset both to the kids and their parents.  Koa has a strong focus on teaching digital literacy which is fed into all of our academic courses, Pod Connect sessions and even online socials. We intentionally teach online socio-emotional skills as well as practical tools for handling potentially unwanted online experiences or content.” Parents who want to learn more about online safety for families, and how to support their children as they gain vital digital literacy and citizenship skills can join the free Koa Academy webinar: Date: Tuesday 2 November Time: 18:00-19:00 Platform: Zoom Host: Koa Academy Panelists from Koa Academy, FYI Play It Safe, Dingley Marshall Lewin Inc To book your spot for this webinar, register here.

October 26, 2021
Wingu Academy

Wingu Academy – challenging expectations about schooling from home through excellence and innovation.

Due to the global pandemic and the subsequent disruptions in the traditional schooling environment, home-schooling, and specifically online schooling, has seen a significant rise. With the concern for their children’s health, coupled with the flexibility and convenience that online home-schooling offers, it has become a viable option for many parents. Wingu Academy arguably has the most advanced distance and blended learning platform in the online space in Africa. Our platform gives educational support to home-schoolers all over Africa between the ages of 5 – 19 years. Live classes and tutorials are presented along with interactive online content. The platform aims to enrich learners with 4th industrial revolution (4IR) skills such as critical thinking, creativity, complex problem solving and online collaboration. Housed at TuksNovation (University of Pretoria’s High Tech Business Accelerator), it has been developed by teachers, UP alumni, and postgraduate students who are experts in their respective fields with additional collaboration with researchers from the Wits School of Education. The ever-evolving Wingu platform provides the internationally recognised British curricula and as of January 2022 Wingu Academy will extend their high-school offering to include the South African CAPS curriculum.  Enrolments are now open for the January 2022 intake! Wingu Academy focuses on a blended learning approach that includes asynchronous (self-paced, student-led) and synchronous (interactive live classes) learning, enriched with animations, video content, infographics, gamification and simulations to cater for the major types of learning styles (visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinaesthetic learning styles)  and implementing constructive feedback in continuous assessments providing a wide variety of choices to support individual learning at home. The learners are exposed to computation thinking from as early as grade 1, and the coding and robotics courses culminate into industry relevant software development certificates for the high school learners, increasing their employability and readiness for the Future of Work. Wingu is also very proud to announce the launch of WinguNet. “The launch of WinguNet has been much anticipated and serves to address the need of stable, high-speed internet in areas where there is poor or no coverage,” says Ian Strydom, Wingu Academy Managing Director. The introduction of WinguNet to the range of services delivered by Wingu Academy further indicates how in tune we are with the needs of parents and students. “This will be introduced to the existing parents and students first on the platform who struggle with connectivity, thereafter being rolled out with the mission of connecting and educating students in difficult-to-reach, isolated areas. This satellite initiative is the first of its kind – just another way that Wingu stays true to their principles of advancing education and enabling excellence,” Strydom concludes. The platform is well suited for full-time learners, global citizens that travel frequently, star athletes that need to focus on training but still want an internationally recognised education, and students that would like to obtain entrance to university degrees either locally or abroad. ‘’We decided to homeschool four years ago when we were wanting to relocate. Although we did not relocate we continued with homeschooling because of the freedom it gave us. The cost and distance of “good” private schools were extremely high and exhausting. With homeschooling we didn’t have to leave home early and spend hours in traffic, the money we saved on school fees, travel expenses and uniforms were spent on extracurricular activities and family outings”, says Melissa Dhunraj, a Wingu parent. Many parents may be worried that their children will miss out on social interaction, but they still get to meet friends and even form study groups as they are not bound by geographical borders.  In fact, Wingu also offers a variety of Clubs varying from fitness, chess to photography and parents have the opportunity to become involved too. “We have been home schooling for a few years and decided to go a more formal route with our children this year. We have been pleasantly surprised with the support and structure that Wingu Academy has offered us, whilst still allowing us the flexibility of being able to travel, to continue our homeschooling friendships and still allow our kids the time to follow their passions. Our children enjoy the social events offered by the school, the staff who make every effort to ensure lessons are fun and interactive, and the new friends that they are making,” says Marlene van der Colf, another happy Wingu Parent. But what do our students say? “My favourite part about Wingu is that we can do school anywhere and we don’t have to wear a mask. I like the homework and announcements so I can be ready before class,” says Ariana age 8, Stage 3. “I enjoy the fact that we can learn online with less pressure and no unnecessary subjects and inapplicable projects.  It gives me more flexi time during the day,” says Conrad, age 13, Stage 8. Student well-being, particularly mental health, is at the heart of Wingu’s core foundation. Our Wellness Hub is expanding to offer professional guidance to both students and parents in areas of concern, as well as leadership initiatives for the learners. Another addition to the Wingu offering is the establishment of Learning Centres. We have identified that there are certain towns, rural or lower-income areas where there is a need for learning centres. The aim is thus to assist these learning centres with developing and growing their business into small independent schools or becoming registered Cambridge Assessments International Education schools. We do so with a special Incubation Programme which offers business development, management and operational support. Wingu Academy’s innovative strategy is at the forefront of equipping students for the 4IR with a forward-thinking strategy of anywhere, anytime, staying connected and offering the future classroom today! Enrolments to start schooling in January 2022 are officially open. There is limited space, so reach out soon. Go to https://wingu-academy.com/book-now/ to book a FREE consultation now!

October 25, 2021
Koa Academy

Meet Koa Academy Principal, Mark Anderson

For Mark Anderson, Co-founder and Principal of Koa Academy, the journey as an innovator in the education sector has been deeply rooted in actual teaching experience and brought to life through a visionary drive for better.   A long-time educator who has worked in both South Africa and Zimbabwe, Mark spent years reflecting on a new schooling system for today’s world. His vision, which he tagged as School 2.0, has become the framework for the co-creation of Koa Academy, a unique, highly engaging online school with a focus on the future.  Some aspects are common to learning, no matter where you live, or when you live. Others are contextual and need to be adaptive.  But transformation in the traditionally slow-moving education sector can be painstakingly slow.  In the 21st Century, with its breath-taking pace of innovation, that lack of progress in education can be deeply frustrating to educators, parents and children. Mark says, “I started years ago with a School 2.0 folder on my computer filled with policy-like documents outlining how a better and more relevant school would operate – better staffing structures, flexible timetables, meaningful assessments, and so on.  I let my imagination run beyond the politics, economics and standardisation dogma to create a ‘gold standard’ which I actively used as an educator and school leader to steer my decisions at every possible chance.  I got seriously excited about what kind of transformations became possible as the online space was changing what and how we learn.” In 2020, the global pandemic presented a disruption to education that truly was unprecedented for this traditionally conservative sector.  COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of digital platforms and tools across many aspects of our lives, and education felt that impact with force.  While some parents, teachers and students discovered that simply ‘dumping’ school online was inadequate, the pandemic education experience has opened eyes and minds to the limitless potential of online learning platforms.  Over the past year, there are families who have shifted decisively to home-school, cottage school, digital-tutor hybrids and online schools rather than return to brick and mortar institutions. “Done well, online school gives you global access to the best educational resources and methods available,” says Mark.  “Free from your geography, free from the imposition of others’ time restrictions; your child can learn in their own way, at their own pace and at your family’s convenience.  They can learn in tune with real life, becoming prepared for the actual world of future work.” As an educator, Mark is also excited about what this means for teachers.  “Teachers are no longer merely content experts drumming out facts for rote learners,” he says.  “Instead, they can be learning experts, adept at identifying the diverse needs of children and guiding them as they develop 21st Century skills on their unique learning journeys.  This means they can coach each child as they develop mastery, rather than teach into a middle ground where some get left behind and others feel unchallenged.” To find out more about Koa Academy, click here. 

October 15, 2021
Koa Academy

Why GenZ and GenAlpha need to do school differently

School is rooted in tradition, and all too often we, as parents, look to nurture our connection with our growing and increasingly independent children through them having a similar educational experience to us.  This might have worked for past generations.  However, the seismic changes in our world accelerated by relentless tech innovation over the recent decades have fundamentally disrupted this particular flow of tradition.   It’s forced us back to basics where we acknowledge that the purpose of education is to prepare our children for their working and civic future, not to provide us with more sought-after parental touchpoints.  The world of work has fundamentally changed.  So much so that we are educating our children today for jobs that don’t yet exist, and they need to be educated in different ways.   Mark Anderson, Principal of Koa Academy, a uniquely high-touch digital school, says, “Content memorisation, with the teacher as the sole content expert, is an outdated notion for our current young generations who live in a world where all content is just a click away.  Top marks should not just be given for memorising the facts.  Instead, being able to evaluate and think critically about an abundance of facts, and the sources of those facts, is one of the vital 21st Century skills.  It’s no longer relevant to remember a one right answer enshrined in one textbook; the next generations need to be able to access a world of information and apply it to real world problems, effectively communicating their ideas to others. ”   For our GenZ and GenAlpha children, understanding how they learn has become more significant than what content they can retain in their memories.  The teacher has transformed from a content provider in front of the class to a learning expert able to coach the students at their side along their unique learning pathways.  The so-called ‘soft skills’ that nobody paid much attention to in a mechanistic, industrial past have now become the top information-age capabilities.  Those who know how to think critically, how to communicate, how to collaborate and how to innovate lead the way.  Literacy has expanded to include media, information, civic and technological literacies.  Qualities such as resilience, emotional intelligence and flexibility help our children win the day.  What this means is that as parents, we should be worried if our child’s educational environment today looks and seems a lot like the one that we experienced. Your kids are – but are you ready for School 2.0? Mark believes it is time for parents to find out more about School 2.0.  He says, “It’s really exciting that parents have more options than ever before when it comes to education. But we also know that it is harder than ever for parents to really understand the different options.  At Koa Academy, our advice is for parents to start by thinking through what you really want for your child. And, I don’t mean which schooling system. I mean, what do you value when it comes to your child’s education? Then, as you investigate the growing number of options, keep an eye out for the schools which are prioritising those same values.” The Koa Academy education model prioritises individualised learning with children grouped in small 8-person pods working every day with a dedicated, specialist teacher who has not only mastered online pedagogy but understands the needs of each child in their Pod.  The platform is registered as a South African IEB curriculum provider leveraging educational resources from all around the world.  With the flexibility that only an online platform can provide, academic progress is mastery based enabling children to speed up or slow down as needed and for families to schedule timetables and terms in ways that suit them best.   Mark says, “Our aim is to prepare children for the real world.  Learning is rooted in real-world issues; tasks give children options, and age-appropriate feedback is ongoing so that children can adapt and grow in dynamic ways as they learn.  In this way assessment is embedded in the learning process, and not a disconnected result that they can’t actually learn from.  Our passionate teachers are curating and facilitating content at the child’s pace. Each child progresses when they have mastered the learning which is the only real way to ensure that no one is left behind.” Like everything else in life, traditional education has been disrupted over the past pandemic months.  Through months of stay-at-home restrictions, parents have had new and different insights into their child’s learning and their schooling system. As we look to a post-pandemic future, there’s more open thinking about what really works for our families, and what doesn’t.  Our GenZ and GenAlpha children face a future that is differently shaped from anything we have known.  If there’s a silver lining to the COVID clouds, it’s the idea that we can create a better reality for our families, community and country.  School 2.0 has become a serious option in how we choose to educate our children for a fast-evolving future that will make different demands on them.

September 30, 2021
Impaq

How to handle angry feelings

Once there was a red balloon that lived in a house with a family. Every day the red balloon got bigger and bigger without anyone noticing. One day the balloon popped with a loud bang and everyone in the house got a nasty fright.  Anger is often like the red balloon in that it builds up slowly over time until it explodes over a seemingly small incident/event. Aggressive behaviour is learned through the modelling of significant others. If you handle your anger like the red balloon, your children might learn that aggression is the best way to deal with uncomfortable emotions. Eventually these emotions could cause school difficulties, anxiety and relationship problems.  Emotional control, however, creates a feeling of security and peace within a family. It is thus important for us as parents to ensure that our emotions and our reactions in response to our emotions are equal. For example, when you are angry, you do not have to express that anger by yelling or throwing things. Feeling angry is not wrong, but the way you express it might be wrong.  As parents we have the responsibility to teach our children how to deal with their emotions in effective and appropriate ways. The following tools can help you manage your emotions more effectively: If you realise that there are often outbursts among family members, write down your emotions and thoughts. Keeping a journal will help you gain perspective. Humour can help you feel more in control over stressful circumstances. Take deep breaths. This will help to not only relieve some of the tension but will also give you a few moments to think more clearly. Focus all your attention on something in your environment or something on yourself, like the garden outside your window or the pattern on your dress or shirt. This technique can help you gain control over your emotions. Research has shown that there is a close link between a healthy marriage and successful parenting. It is therefore a good idea to invest in building a healthy relationship with your wife/husband. A good way to do this is by going away for a weekend or having planned date nights, to help you reconnect with your partner. Build your self-knowledge. Who am I? What is my personality like? Self-knowledge can help you gain insight into your own behaviour and emotions. Be mindful of external factors that could contribute to your emotions. For example, are you eating healthy foods, exercising, getting enough sleep? Are you stressed and worried? 

September 29, 2021
Wingu Academy

Wingu Academy – changing the face of online home schooling in South Africa

The on-going Covid pandemic has changed the schooling landscape in South Africa completely, especially the traditional schooling environment.  With very little notice, parents had to become teachers while still maintaining a full-time job. Learners’ routines were abrupted and remote learning became the “new normal”. This, however, also lead to homeschooling and especially online home schooling, becoming a contending alternative. Wingu Academy offers a distance, blended learning platform that provides educational support to home-schoolers all over Africa, offering live classes and tutorials along with interactive online content. It has been developed by teachers, UP alumni, and postgraduate students who are experts in their respective fields with additional collaboration with researchers from the Wits School of Education. Not only this, it is a by-product of collaboration between two innovative start-ups, TutCo Tuition and EduWingu Cloud Education Solutions. Their ever-evolving platform currently provides the internationally recognised British curriculum, but as of 2022 Wingu Academy will extend their high-school offering to include the South African CAPS curriculum.  Wingu focuses on student-led learning, utilising gamification and implementing constructive feedback providing a wide variety of choices to support individual learning at home along with alternative options through their tutoring centre. Mrs Becker who has both her children enrolled at Wingu Academy has the following to say about her experience as a “Wingu Parent” : “Wingu is passionate about learning. They saw what did not work, listened to parents and made the necessary changes. My children are happy. My oldest says, it is so nice to be able to ask a teacher a question when you don’t understand the work. If a student is shy, they have the option of asking in a classroom chat. The teachers don’t mention who asked, so the child is saved the potential embarrassment that would have prevented them asking in a traditional setting. The blended learning approach is fantastic. Teachers are available for consultations if students struggle. Teachers have a consultation session once a week in the afternoons and students can freely ask any questions. The students have experts in their fields as teachers. They hold Honours and Masters  degrees. There are even a few PhD candidates among the teachers. The feedback the students get on home work is very valuable. Mistakes become learning opportunities.” Many parents may be worried that their children will miss out on social interaction but they still get to meet friends and even form study groups as they are not bound by geographical borders.  In fact, Wingu also offers a variety of Club options to learners varying from fitness to chess to photography clubs and parents have the opportunity to become involved too. Furthermore, Wingu Academy’s flexible environment also caters for learners who would like to pursue their passions and professional aspirations in sports, music and other extra-curricular activities. Another “Wingu Parent”, Mrs du Preez says what she appreciates most about Wingu Academy is the positive and respectful attitude of support and patience. “They make the idea of home schooling worth it and a lot easier. If it was not for the Wingu platform, I would not have done it. Even more so with the help of the online coach to get them on track. My daughter had to catch up two terms in one and still managed to do very well.” Student well-being is at the heart of Wingu’s core foundation. Their Wellness Hub offers professional guidance to both learners and parents in areas of concern. Wingu’s innovative learning platform equips learners for the 4IR with a forward-thinking strategy of anywhere, anytime, staying connected and offering the future classroom today!

September 27, 2021
Wingu Academy

How can parents encourage entrepreneurship at home?

It has become increasingly important for children to hone their entrepreneurship skills, not just in the classroom, but especially at home.  It’s important for parents to encourage their children to succeed and by applying the following guidelines by Sue Scheff, author and parent advocate, it’s easier than you think! Kids earn an allowance for chores, not for existing: Instil a good work ethic in your children by requiring that they earn their allowance. Emptying the dishwasher, mowing the lawn, and washing the family dog are all ways that kids can learn how to earn money. Take it a step further by encouraging them to do similar tasks for neighbours as a way to earn additional money. Create a bank account for your child:  Lay the foundation for earning money by giving it a place to go. When your child earns money, have fun helping your kids do the math and figure out how much they’ve put away in the bank for all their hard work. Share opportunities for extra earning: Teach your children that going above and beyond leads to increased earning. Give them the opportunity to do more difficult chores that go above what they’re normally expected to do. Encourage good personal finance skills: Kids begging for items at the store might be annoying, but it’s a teachable moment. When your child asks for something that’s out of budget or not really necessary, make it a goal to earn enough money to buy it. Encourage your child to come up with ideas on how to buy it themselves. Encourage them to follow their ideas: Whether your kids want to start a blog or sell vegetables from your garden, give them your time and encouragement. Let them learn by doing, and find opportunities for lessons along the way. Ask them to consider how they’ll fund their start-up, where to get supplies, how much to charge, how to find their customers, and of course, what to do with the money they earn. You should of course set some limitations for time, legality, and safety, but be open to let your kids explore their own ideas. Allow them to fail, and turn failures into learning moments. Teach good teamwork: Rarely do entrepreneurs succeed completely independently. Even if they’re in business alone, they’re networking, getting others interested, and meeting with people that can help get their business off the ground. Learning how to work with others is essential for success, so be sure to encourage group work in school, in your home, and beyond. Encourage team sports: Team sports are a great way to teach kids to work with others, and they’re also great for learning business lessons. Chances are, they won’t win every game, but the setbacks and hard work that are a part of playing sports can teach kids how to work toward success. Be available: Every great entrepreneur needs a mentor, and for your kids, you are that person. Although you should encourage your child to operate independently, always be there to answer questions or offer helpful suggestions. If you don’t know how to solve a problem, learn how to do it together. Teach your kids to be self-starters: Doing what they’re told is easy for most kids. Asking them to complete certain chores is simple and straightforward. But if you want them to start thinking creatively, encourage their initiative. Ask them to come up with ideas for chores that need to be done, or encourage them to plan a meal and cook for the family once a week. Encourage adventure and observational skills: Some of the best entrepreneurs found success simply by filling a need that no one else even knew existed. The world is full of business opportunities, if only we could notice them. Parents can help their children learn to recognize these types of opportunities by developing observation and creativity. Walk around your neighbourhood with your kids and consider which needs are not being met. Do you have neighbours that need lawn care? Businesses that need a website? Teach kids to recognize and anticipate the needs of others. Teach problem-solving: Entrepreneurship can be a bumpy road full of obstacles and challenges to overcome, even for the best-laid plans. Show your children that problems are just solutions that have not been solved yet. Give them small challenges to overcome, and nudge them in the right direction to find a solution. Play business games: Many games exist to teach kids the basics of business. Make learning about entrepreneurship fun by engaging your children in these games. Read the full article here: http://www.suescheffblog.com/15-ways-parents-can-promote-entrepreneurship/

September 7, 2021
Syllabis Learning

Power Tips on Creating the Perfect Homeschool Environment

With the changes that we have all faced over the last seventeen months, now more than ever before, parents find themselves having to manage their children’s virtual and or home-based education. Despite the many benefits of homeschooling, at-home learning can be challenging for both parents and students. Challenges like creating order and structure in a home learning environment can lead to frustration and even cause students to fall behind on assignments or learning objectives. Your child’s curriculum has many moving parts—and if you have more than one child, that complexity only increases.  Teaching your children at home can be an immensely rewarding experience. One of the reasons that many parents choose to homeschool their kids is that they believe they can provide a better education for their children than a public or private school. To provide an outstanding education for your children, you will need to provide an environment that fosters learning. We can help you to keep your kids on track and successfully navigate the ins and outs of independent learning with the following tips. Create a designated learning space  While it can be tempting to set up shop at the dining room table or on the couch, these areas aren’t the most conducive to learning. Creating a dedicated learning space can make it easier for children to concentrate on schoolwork. Consider a room that is large and open that has natural light. This dedicated space should be used for schoolwork and no outside activities. It would be best if this room is used solely for schooling otherwise may find that your children lose focus if they have distractions around them. Not all kids like to sit in a chair all day, so perhaps offer different seating options in the room to make the space more comfortable for those who want to sit on the floor or a beanbag chair. You could also offer yoga balls for deskwork. Follow a daily schedule Homeschooling brings a wonderful level of flexibility and spontaneity to a child’s education. However, without a clear structure, it can be easy to get distracted and go off track. Kids thrive when they have a basic structure and routine. Creating a daily schedule will be hugely beneficial in giving your child direction and structure. You can always adapt this schedule as you go along. Pick a system that works for you. Your schedule can be as detailed or as relaxed as you want. The key is having some set routine and structure for you and your child to follow so you can both stay on track. Use Technology Technology plays a considerable role in education, and access to it will make homeschooling that much easier. It enables you to become more productive, efficient, and better communicate with other people. It is, therefore, essential to include the necessities in your homeschool environment. A computer, laptop or tablet, digital calendars, and task managers will be extremely helpful in managing time and progress. Time trackers and cloud-based folders like Dropbox or Google Drive will also be helpful. Information is at our fingertips with internet access so your child will have the ability to research topics and collect information with ease. Map out the school year ahead of time Map out your school year to track progress on your goals and plan out big projects. Breaking up big goals and projects into smaller steps makes them more manageable and you’re less likely to let details fall through the cracks. Setting goals and visualizing your plans can help you stay organized and see your progress at a glance, which makes targets more reachable and less overwhelming. Take learning beyond the classroom One of the best parts of homeschooling, and one of its greatest advantages, is the flexibility to learn outside a traditional classroom setting. Make time for these opportunities in your daily schedule and keep an open mind. Outdoor spaces are excellent learning places for exploring new skills, meeting new people, and experiencing through play. Always look for learning opportunities beyond the classroom and be open-minded about the benefit of learning through a practical example.  Collaborate with other homeschoolers It is important to know that you are not in this alone, there are rich and diverse homeschool communities all around the world. It is important and beneficial to connect with other homeschoolers in your area or online to collaborate and share resources. This will not only make the schooling process easier for you, but it will also enrich your child’s experience and expand their educational opportunities in and out of your home. Communicating with other homeschoolers also provides important social opportunities for your child. Leave Time for Breaks It is difficult to work for extended times without a break. When your kids start to get restless or hungry it is a good idea to schedule regular breaks. Morning snack breaks and afternoon exercise breaks allow your kids to get a good balance of work and chill time. scheduling them into your day. While some children might require frequent short breaks, others might like only one or two longer breaks. Read your children and let them help create your schedule in this matter. Learning need not be boring, and neither does your homeschool environment. Always consider what your kids like, who they are, and what are their interests, ideas, distractions, and sources of inspiration to come up with a suitable learning space.

August 23, 2021
Wingu Academy

Benefits and disadvantages of homeschooling

More and more families are starting to realize the numerous benefits associated with homeschooling. Homeschooling is no longer a stigmatized, isolated learning experience. Through the power of the internet and the rise of online curriculum service providers, homeschooling has evolved into a bespoke educational offering that merges the best elements of a traditional brick-and-mortar school system with the advantages that independent distance-based learning can allow. However, despite the great benefits of homeschooling, there are also certain disadvantages to this approach.  Let’s explore some of these pros and cons of a homeschooling approach. Disadvantages A possible disadvantage experienced by a homeschooling parent, is that the parent might become frustrated by having to take on the role of a teacher. Deciphering not only the coursework, but the curriculum outcomes as well, can create a lot of anxiety for parents. Parents might struggle to know whether they are “doing the right thing” or not. Especially in cases where students are older, parents might be intimidated by the difficulty of some of the coursework, as they are not subject experts themselves, but are now expected to teach their children mathematics or physics that they have done 20 odd years ago – or sometimes not at all! In cases like the aforementioned, parents often start to invest in expensive private tutors, which can lead to a high financial burden. However, by making use of an online curriculum service provider, these disadvantages can largely be mitigated. Through a reputable online curriculum service provider, students can have access to subject expert tutors, which eliminate the need for parents to act as teachers themselves. With this in mind, let’s focus on the benefits of homeschooling, and in particular the benefits of online schooling. Benefits 1.  Academic flexibility The traditional education system allows for very little flexibility in learning, when in reality, education is not a one-size fits all solution.  Some students are very strong auditory and visual learners. Other students might learn best through repetition. Some might prefer learning through practical application. Homeschooling affords an individual the opportunity to learn in a way that suits him/her best, especially if combined with a blended learning teaching strategy – which incorporates live classes and non-live learning elements, such as interactive lessons, quizzes and games, as well as practical project based learning. For students who are professional athletes, or who have globetrotting parents, the flexibility of a homeschooling system is particularly beneficial. Furthermore, in a traditional schooling context, with high student-to-teacher radios, a lot of time is often spent waiting for assistance. Students are often expected to partake in extracurricular school subjects which do not interest them. The flexibility of homeschooling allow students more time to focus on things that truly interest them. Students can progress according to their own ability and interest. 2.  Fosters independent learning skills Students who are homeschooled and allowed the freedom to learn in a way that suits him/her best, naturally also acquire the ability to learn more independently. In other words, these students don’t need someone to guide them through all elements of the learning material step-by-step. They are more confident in assimilating academic resources for themselves – a skill which they have honed during their years of homeschooling! This sense of autonomy is an invaluable ‘soft-skill’ that will aid students for years to come, whether at university or at work. Furthermore, students who homeschool with the help of an online curriculum service provider learn how to be adept at using technology, often from a young age. These students learn how to use cloud computing tools to collaborate remotely – an essential future of work skill, which is becoming even more important in an increasingly globalized and interconnected world. 3.  Mental health Students who struggle with anxiety, social anxiety or depression, or who were victims of bullying in a traditional school context, can study from the comfort and safety of their own homes. Students have the opportunity to focus on their mental and emotional wellbeing. In small amounts, stress can be good, but the incredible pressure that is placed on students to perform academically – or that they often place on themselves – can become debilitating. There is less pressure on students to conform or fit a traditionally expected mold, which is beneficial to a student’s self-esteem. Students with special needs or learning disabilities might feel especially marginalized in a traditional school setting, and their confidence can suffer. In a homeschooling environment, parents are better equipped to introduce certain interventional strategies to address learning challenges. 4.  Social development A fear that many parents who are considering homeschooling have, is the fear of social isolation. Parents fear that their children will not develop social skills or have no friends. However, due to the flexibility of homeschooling, students often have more time to engage in social extracurricular activities or community initiatives – such as joining a sports club, or volunteering at a local shelter – where they can still make friends and interact with peers. For students who make use of an online curriculum service provider, the shift from parent-led to facilitator-led education means there is an even greater opportunity to interact socially. In an online school environment – which essentially emulates some elements of a traditional school environment, such as live classes – students continually interact with classmates and tutors. 5.  Higher quality education In traditional classes with high student to teacher ratios, students do not get individualized attention. In a homeschooling context, students can receive more individualized attention, either from a parent or tutor. When making use of a reputable online curriculum service provider, students can have access to a highly qualified subject expert at the click of a button. Furthermore, some parents might want their children to be taught using a different curriculum than the one offered by traditional government schools. In reality though, many parents simply might not be able to afford the cost of a private school that offers such an alternative curriculum. For these parents, homeschooling provides a way to

August 18, 2021
Syllabis Learning

School for Real Life

Independent learning creates independent learners. Most of us have been raised in a traditional school system, where our learning was mainly from textbooks, workbooks, and the blackboard. We were bored and unmotivated most of the time, we wished we didn’t have to be stuck in the classroom listening to one person tell us about subjects chosen for us by educators in an era gone by. Most of us have lived full, successful lives without needing to know much of the information that we were forced to memorise and regurgitate in school. We are beginning to realise that that there are more fun, effective and creative ways for children to learn. Researchers are still studying how children learn best and about the problems they encounter in the school system but teaching children in traditional schools, is like learning about polar bears in a zoo…there is no room to navigate one’s preferred style of learning. After all, a child standing at the check-out counter with a ten Rand note in her hand will be far more motivated to do the maths calculation than one sitting at a desk with a workbook, and this applies to many other skills taught in school. Not only do children become independent thinkers and self-managed students but the environment of homeschooling promotes family bonding and improves learning outcomes. Attending school, in general, weakens the relationship between parents and children,  as family groups are not together for most of the day and parents are always struggling to keep up to date and be involved in what their children are learning about. Each child is unique and each child has different talents, abilities, and emotional needs at different ages and stages, this would suggest that any form of education that is designed for the masses cannot be in a particular child’s best interests. Since every child is one-of-a-kind, you need to understand their history, their physical, emotional and mental health, their developmental milestones, their talents, interests, and potential as well as other intimate family information. This personal information should be used to tailor-make the child’s education to suit him or her, education needs to be flexible. The school system can never provide this kind of customised education. Home education can! The school system fails learners in many ways – by focusing on policies, procedures, administrators, teachers, and controlling large groups of children, the needs of the individual child are overridden by the needs of the system. One of the goals of home education is to raise humans who will become self-disciplined and take responsibility for their own education and their own lives. Students can take ownership of their education and do what they need to do for their own reasons, not to conform to the requirements of a teacher or a school system. Home education means parents and their children can choose which learning materials they wish to use. They can study topics that interest them and use materials that are not in conflict with their values and beliefs. This allows for greater freedom and diversity, rather than a one-size-fits-all ideology. The school system forces children into age-segregated classrooms to facilitate mass-delivery of the learning material. Classroom interactions are limited to one age group, which is a false environment in which to learn social skills. As adults, we live in a multi-age community so while learning at home siblings of varying ages can enjoy building relationships and sharing their learning experiences. It is a big decision to abandon the traditional school system and take on home education, but if the school system is failing your child and you identify that the future is changing every moment why not embrace a pro-active, forward-thinking solution to the education of your child. The future needs rule-breakers and creative innovators, not robots with linear thinking. Enrol them in a schooling method that prepares them for real life.

August 16, 2021
Syllabis Learning

How mainstream schooling is dumbing down our kids and stifling their creativity.

Perhaps we can find a hidden blessing in the current pandemic crisis that we are all experiencing. Our schools have been shutting down for lengthy periods and have allowed many parents to consider alternate methods of education.  The problem with mainstream or traditional schooling is systemic: it is a system that, at best, is designed to dumb our children down; at worst, indoctrinate them. Dumbing down the population is, if you think about it, the main way you can control a population. You can control the cultural narrative because people who haven’t learned to practice the important art of questioning everything will be easily manipulated by the mainstream educational narratives. A study of the history of traditional schools quickly reveals that this “dumbing down” was the intention from the start. Public schools in the West were modeled after the worst aspects of the factory style of education developed in 19th century Prussia. “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth learning can be taught.” — Oscar Wilde Traditional education focuses on teaching, not learning. It incorrectly assumes that for every ounce of teaching there is an ounce of learning that happens by those who are taught. However, most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without its being taught to us. A child learns fundamental things as how to walk, talk, eat, dress without being taught these things. Adults learn most of what they use at work or leisure while at work or leisure. Most of what is taught in classroom settings is forgotten, and much of what is remembered is irrelevant. In most schools, memorization is mistaken for learning, and most of what is remembered is remembered only for a short time. Young children today are increasingly aware of the fact that most of what is expected of them in school can better be done by computers, recording machines, cameras, and so on. We should then ask ourselves a few questions. Do the schools that we have designed best suit the world we are entering into? Has the old industrial form of education that our current system is based upon become obsolete? How can schools be designed to prepare young people for a changing world with increasing needs for a future that will be very different from the industrial age of the past? The central argument here is that the way the schooling system is designed and enacted stifles the possibility of many individuals while reinforcing a broader system of control and teaching young people skills for an era of the past. In general, schools today have become places where we actively discourage thinking that is not predefined, approved, and stamped by the larger social system of the day. In the educational process, students should be offered a wide variety of ways to learn, among which they could choose or with which they could experiment. They do not have to learn different things the same way. They should learn at a very early stage of “schooling” that learning how to learn is largely their responsibility — with the help they seek but that is not imposed on them. Homeschooling provides for this offering to your child, as the responsibility to learn or not to learn, lies with the child. Homeschooling gives your child the opportunity to be their own teacher and it is in teaching themselves that they learn.  Subjects are not learned in isolation like they are forcibly taught in mainstream school, rather homeschooling is holistic in its approach, as so much is learned from applying one’s interest and skills to what is being learned. Entrepreneurial education like homeschooling or independent learning teaches the important skills of innovative and creative thinking, helping students develop a flexible “growth mindset” that can adapt to new problems. These kinds of skills are useful beyond the job market. They give students the tools to be active citizens in a complicated and fast-changing world If we want our children to be able to think critically and thrive in the marketplace, it starts with taking back our children’s education any way we can.

August 9, 2021
Syllabis Learning

The Wonderful New way of Learning

Traditional approaches to education are no longer relevant in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. With the pace of change accelerating in the 21st century, a key requirement to thrive is lifelong learning and the ability to acquire new skills quickly.  How can “learning to learn” and the ability to be continually reinventing oneself be fostered in children from a young age? It starts with recognizing that the world is changing faster than ever before. To prepare children for the future, parents need to be forward-looking and re-access the type of education that your child needs in this day and age. In today’s world of artificial intelligence, robotics, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, you must prepare children for uncertainty and promote agility and adaptability. This requires a reorientation from early childhood education through to university.  It means encouraging flexibility rather than specialization. Parents and children need to completely reimagine education. Instead of learning to memorize facts and figures, students need to “learn how to learn” and how to solve problems. They should be allowed to learn independently, which means that changes are needed at every level. We must infuse things like entrepreneurship into the curriculum because with the disruption we are experiencing in society, many individuals will need to be able to create their own jobs.  We may end up in a world in which people are more likely to be autonomous contractors rather than having a secure job that lasts for a lifetime as our parents and grandparents had. We need to completely reframe the system of education based on where the world is going, instead of repeating the same failing patterns that are no longer applicable in the new world we are living in.  Education has always been seen as merely the first twelve to fifteen years of your childhood, It needs to be re-identified as a lifelong opportunity, as we truly never stop learning. Working on projects for real organizations, going out into your community, and understanding real-life challenges that people are facing helps you to shape your learning into experiences that you will benefit from throughout your life. These experiences cannot be learned from a textbook but rather by looking at the world head-on. Education has historically been what one can call “Just in case education”, which gives you all kinds of facts and figures just in case it may become relevant to you. But today what we need is “just in time education,” which has three main characteristics:  It never stops. Education is lifelong, we always hold the opportunity to learn. It is focused on learning how to learn and learning how to solve problems. You learn independently outside of the traditional classroom, you learn from projects, from playing, from mentors, from experiments, and in a variety of other ways.  Instead of giving students a menu of academic disciplines, we should rather present them with a menu of problems and challenges that the world is facing. So, when we ask students to declare a mission and not a major, we are saying: “Pick a problem you want to solve and build your learning around that.” It is about giving a purpose to learning and not just learning for learning’s sake. It is about creating problem solvers because problem-solving will always be relevant even as the world changes. When a machine makes your job obsolete – if you are a problem solver, you will still have relevance in the world.  How can your child be his or her own teacher? From the moment a child is born, they have a raging desire to learn, and we believe that if you just follow their lead, provide them with a rich environment, give them the undivided time and attention of the people who care about them the most and encourage their efforts, they will not only learn but exceed all expectations Students have the capability of teaching themselves which makes teachers unnecessary for independent homeschooling.  Kids are born with a love of learning. And strategies like repeated testing and flaunting failure stifle a child’s desire to learn The secret to motivating your child is to always let them know that how great you believe they are and remind them that they have the potential to achieve anything.  At Syllabis Learning we strive to ensure each student has everything they need within their grasp, creating an environment that enables the child to reach their full potential. We provide all you need to give your child a safe and secure learning environment. We offer a guided program, a roadmap of studies to meet each child’s learning objectives. All our content is written and developed by qualified teachers and curriculum experts. Syllabis Learning offers a refreshing new choice to the learner of the digital age. 

August 3, 2021
Impaq

Choosing Mathematics & Mathematical Literacy – everything you need to know

In our blog series, we will be exploring the various subjects offered by Impaq in the FET Phase (Grades 10 – 12). We spoke to education specialists Lientjie Young and Kimberley Britz to learn more about Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy as subjects. Mathematics vs Mathematical Literacy While choosing subjects in Grade 9, many learners are unsure of the difference between Mathematics (MAM) and Mathematical Literacy (MAL). We asked Young and Britz to explain the differences between these two subjects below: Mathematics  “Mathematics deals with theories and abstract concepts that are not necessarily encountered in everyday life,” Young explains. “It is a study of numbers and shapes and the relationships between them,” she adds. Simply put, Mathematics is a language that attempts to describe the world in abstract terms that can be modified and, therefore, often simplified in this language. Topics include: Algebra Basic calculus Statistics Geometry Trigonometry Mathematical Literacy “In contrast to Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy deals with conventional real-world situations,” Britz says. “In short, it is an ‘everyday’ kind of Mathematics, as there is a direct connection between Mathematical Literacy and everyday life,” Britz adds. Topics include: Budgeting Interest calculations  Profit and losses Break-even points Data handling Divide and conquer In the FET Phase, Mathematics is a compulsory subject for South African learners. However, learners may choose between Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy when making their subject selections in Grade 9. Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of each subject: Mathematics  “Mathematics is one of the most important subjects [to consider taking] for university degree purposes,” Young explains. Many university degrees, particularly in the natural sciences and commerce, require Mathematics.  Mathematics can be very difficult for many learners, but it can also be very beneficial in many areas related to cognition, such as problem-solving. “As learners of Mathematics are provided with the opportunity to develop their [various cognitive skills], it can become challenging in a number of ways,” Young says. She adds that the need for additional assistance, such as a tutor, may be required to help the learner master the subject. Read more: How do I choose a tutor for my child? Mathematical Literacy “Mathematical Literacy enables learners to use numbers to solve real-world problems and equips them with the ability to interpret and critically analyse everyday situations,” Britz explains. She adds that depending on the career path chosen, it may be more challenging for learners who choose Mathematical Literacy to get accepted into specific university degree courses such as medicine or accounting. However, this does not mean that Mathematical Literacy is not a valid subject choice, particularly for learners who are more artistically or linguistically inclined. With Mathematical Literacy, learners are still very much able to pursue fruitful careers if traditional STEM fields are not right for them. Limit breakers So, how do you know which subject is right for you? Young and Britz provide a few factors to consider below: Consider your other subject choices “When making your subject selections in Grade 9 and deciding whether to choose Mathematics or Mathematical Literacy, consider your other subject choices,” Young advises. Mathematics is compulsory when taking Physical Sciences and highly recommended when selecting the following subjects: Accounting Agricultural Sciences  Information Technology Engineering Graphics and Design  Life Sciences  However, Mathematical Literacy is suitable for most arts and social sciences subjects such as Hospitality Studies and Visual Arts and often benefits learners who choose these types of subjects. Explore your study options  “Learners should also ensure that they know what the Mathematics requirements are for further study at tertiary institutions,” Young says. “As said earlier, taking Mathematics with Agricultural Sciences is not compulsory, but if a learner wants to study BSc Agricultural or Veterinary Sciences, Mathematics will be required,” she adds. However, Mathematics is not required for degrees such as an LLB (law) or BEd. (Bachelor of Education). Therefore, learners are encouraged to do their research about their chosen study field before selecting Mathematics or Mathematical Literacy in Grade 9.  Ensure that you understand what is expected of you  “It is vitally important for learners to understand what each subject entails before making their choice,” Britz says. “Both subjects require hard work, and learners should ensure that they have all the support they need to master the subject,” she adds. Learners are encouraged to talk to Impaq’s education specialists to see how their attitude towards mathematics and their previous marks in the subject will determine their choice and what additional support they may need. Also read: The importance of practice in your learning journey 2 ∞ & Beyond Your future career choice will undoubtedly affect your subject selections. Therefore, it is essential to explore career options in the different fields before making your choice. Mathematics  Mastering a subject such as Mathematics will allow you to apply your knowledge in many fields. Mathematics plays an important role in fields such as: Medicine Genetics Agriculture Engineering There are also many job options for individuals with a qualification in Mathematics. These include: Investment risk and performance analyst Supply and demand planner Teacher or lecturer Business analyst Research statistician Mathematical Literacy  Mathematical Literacy, on the other hand, will prepare you for real-life problem solving such as:  Budgeting Purchasing property and other assets, including bond repayment amounts, transfer fees and legal fees Calculating income tax Reading and interpreting statistics in everyday life These are valuable skills to master for your future financial life and to help you find solutions to everyday problems. With Mathematical Literacy learners can go on to specialise and succeed in a wide variety of fields that do not require ‘pure’ Mathematics, such as: Teaching, academia, and instructional design Advertising and marketing  Law and legal practice Writing and publishing TV, radio, and film Politics and advocacy  Choosing between Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy is a big decision, so ensure that you do your research and make the best choice for you! You might also want to consider completing an online career questionnaire to help you identify your interests and skills.

July 30, 2021
Syllabis Learning

Why Homeschool with Syllabis?

From the moment a child is born they have a raging desire to learn, and we believe that if you just follow their lead, provide them with a rich environment, give them the undivided time and attention of the people who care about them the most, and encourage their efforts, they will not only learn, but exceed all expectations. We are all a product of our schooling experiences and in teaching our children we sometimes unwittingly make the same mistakes schools make. Schools arrange for kids to fail. Do you remember how the teachers always caught your mistakes and rarely, if ever caught your successes?  And what about tests? Tests are given to reveal not how knowledgeable we are, but how ignorant we are. The school system is set up so that no matter what you do, you lose. Kids are born with a love of learning. And strategies like repeated testing and flaunting failure stifle a child’s desire to learn. If you want a kid to hate something – be sure to point out all the ways in which he doesn’t measure up. Don’t you agree that most of us avoid doing things that we don’t do well. On the other hand, when we do something well, people notice and give us praise. Our reaction to their praise is believing that we are good at it, and with this boost in confidence we are ready to do it over and over again. Success produces high motivation! The secret to motivating your kid is to always let them know that how great you believe they are and remind them that they have the potential to achieve anything. At Syllabis Learning we strive to ensure each student has everything they need within their grasp, creating an environment that enables the child to reach their potential. We provide all you need to give your child a safe and secure learning environment. We offer a guided program or roadmap of studies to meet each child’s learning objectives. All of our content is written and developed by qualified teachers and curriculum experts. Syllabis Home Education offers a refreshing new choice to the learner of the digital age. Our component based learning plans empower students of all ages  to successfully complete a home based education in a distance learning like environment. It is like having your own virtual school right in your hands. The curriculum consists of a blended mix between online lessons, textbooks, study plans and practical projects and assignments. We present study material to the learner in a simple, concise and understandable way and we provide tangible, creative and technological materials to enhance the learning experience. Our educational material is flexible and easy to use. Give your child the independence they crave, as they progress at their own pace, and because very little parental assistance is required, our curriculum works great if you’re homeschooling more than one child. Our curriculum gives the child the freedom to be flexible.  Self-paced means student-paced and Syllabis students have the ability to work as much as they want every day, which aligns perfectly for a successful homeschooling experience.  We provide everything you and your child need to make is easy to be and stay organized and on top of your learning objectives. Homeschooling is a most suitable way to raise and educate children. Trust the children. Trust yourselves. Embrace the magic, after all the magic is in the child.

July 29, 2021
Impaq

How to support your family during a crisis

What is a crisis? Crises are pronounced adverse life events typically accompanied by some type of loss. A crisis can include a death or accident in the family, a parent losing their job, or violent crime. Sometimes, even good things – like a new marriage or a pregnancy – can feel like a crisis because of the associated stress and how these events change a person’s life.  How children react to a crisis Children are very perceptive and will notice when there is something ‘wrong’ in the family. Depending on a child’s age, they may not be able to verbalise their feelings. Consequently, children may present with behaviours that are not standard for them. During a crisis, it is important to keep an eye out for behavioural oddities such as: Aversions to stimuli that previously did not bother them Disturbed sleep or nightmares Diminished interest in school and other activities Poor concentration Age regression (acting younger than they are) What parents can do for themselves As the saying goes, you cannot pour from an empty cup: parents cannot help their children unless they help themselves. Here are some tips on how you, as a parent, can look after yourself during a time of crisis: Focus on the most significant and pressing responsibilities. By concentrating on what is essential and paying less attention to less important things, you will not burn yourself out trying to ‘do it all’. Determine what you can and cannot control. By focusing on the things you can control, you will be able to reduce your stress. Practise self-care. Although self-care is something we should always be practising, it is imperative during a crisis. Take an hour to read your favourite book, have a luxurious bath, or treat yourself to a delicious snack. While self-care might feel unnecessarily indulgent, it is crucial for helping you keep calm and to keep your stress in check. Read more: Parental self-care  Make sure to reach out and connect with loved ones. Humans are inherently sociable creatures, and no man is an island. Keep in contact with friends and other family members, as they are a vital source of support during a crisis. Keep loved ones informed of the situation, and spend time with them when and where possible. Respect that people deal with crises differently. Some people are more openly emotional than others; some find it more challenging to cope with stressful situations – be mindful of the different personalities in your family. Do not expect everyone to recover at the same rate, and remember that healing is not linear: there will be ups and downs. Be easy on yourself and your family. Allow yourself to recognise and express your feelings. Ignoring them will not make them go away, and trying to repress your emotions will backfire in the long term. Give yourself the necessary time to grieve and heal. Acknowledging your fears and anxieties is good not only for your emotional wellbeing but also for your children’s wellbeing as they will see that it is okay and normal to have and talk about these feelings. What parents can do for their children Above all else, during a crisis, children need to feel safe and know that they have people in their life on whom they can rely. They will need reassurance, understanding, support, and acceptance. You can help do this for them by: Talking openly about the situation with your child. Share accurate but age-appropriate information about the problem, do not keep them in the dark. Use simple language and avoid sugar-coated metaphors. Answer their questions but refrain from giving them details they do not need. If you do not know the answer to a question, be honest and let them know you will try to find out. Being positive. While it is important to be honest and realistic, be optimistic and tell your children that you are dealing with the situation and expect things to get better. Reassure and encourage them, but do not make false promises. Listening to children. Too often, parents brush off or invalidate their children’s concerns, but you must tune in to their feelings and take them seriously. Take time to ask them how they are feeling and if they would like to talk about their feelings. If they are non-verbal or unsure how to verbalise their feelings, encourage them to draw, write, or use toys to ‘tell a story.’ Read more: Supporting your child’s emotional intelligence development Helping children socialise. As mentioned, parents need external support from loved ones, and so do children. Facilitate contact with people with whom you know your child likes spending time and feels comfortable, whether this is a best friend, an aunt, or anybody else! Read more: You’ve got a friend in me Spending extra time with children. Children might feel the need for extra attention from caregivers during a crisis, so be sure to give it to them if that is what they need. Do a fun activity together (like watching a family-friendly movie), or take some more time putting them to bed. Ask them what you can do for or with them that will make them feel better. Most importantly, for both parents and children, try to stick to your routine as much as possible. Predictable routines help children feel safe, and giving them – and yourself – things to do will give all of you a feeling of control. Make sure you and your children eat well, exercise, and get plenty of rest, where possible.  Read more: New normal, new routine  If you are concerned about your wellbeing or that of a family member, seek professional help. A general practitioner can refer you to a psychologist or counsellor specialised in trauma and distress. By Jacqui Smit

July 23, 2021
Impaq

Put a pin in using plastic this July

Plastic is part of our everyday lives. And while it is undoubtedly convenient, it is unfortunately very detrimental to the environment, as much of it is designed to be used briefly, but it lasts forever. While some plastic can be recycled, most ends up in landfills or in the ocean, where it takes hundreds of years to break down, if it ever does. Plastic has a terrible impact on marine life. It finds its way into the stomachs of fish and marine birds, and, now, even humans who eat seafood are ingesting small amounts of plastic as a result.  Plastic is not biodegradable, and, consequently, it clogs up the stomachs of animals who eat it and pollutes our waterways and land. If we don’t change our ways drastically, there could be more plastic, by weight, than fish in the sea by 2050. Luckily, there’s a growing movement to solve the world’s plastic problem, and you can be a part of it. In fact, this month, participants across the globe will be doing all they can to reduce their use of plastic, all in the name of Plastic Free July®! What is Plastic Free July®? Plastic Free July® is an annual global movement that encourages people to reduce their plastic consumption for an entire month. What started from humble beginnings in 2011 has since attracted the masses, with an estimated 326 million people joining in last year. The campaign, which aims to inspire people to consider their everyday plastic usage and make small lifestyle changes, shows how everybody can help to reduce the impact of plastic on our planet.  Getting started While the number of plastic items being produced these days is practically never-ending, there are four items that make up the bulk of our plastic consumption: plastic bags, water bottles, takeaway coffee cups, and plastic straws. By eliminating these items and replacing them with reusable versions, we can make a huge dent in our plastic use. That said, the thought of reducing plastic consumption can feel totally overwhelming because plastic is just about everywhere! The key is to start by focusing on one small change at a time. Take note of what plastics you are using on a daily basis, and slowly pick one at a time to substitute.  For example, commit to eliminating the use of one item – be it plastic water bottles, cling wrap, plastic shopping bags, Ziploc bags, single-use coffee cups, disposable makeup wipes, or straws – for a week. If it goes well, you can expand the number of items you do not use and increase that list throughout the month.  Even if you manage to reduce your plastic consumption by only a small amount this July, adopting any of these habits in your day-to-day life is an excellent step towards decreasing your plastic consumption. Plastic free during the third wave Some plastic use, such as personal protective equipment (PPE), is inevitable amid the pandemic. But there are steps every household can take to minimise the impact of these single-use plastics:  Disposable plastic face masks pose a huge environmental risk – it is estimated that they are produced on a similar scale to plastic bottles, approximately 43 billion per month. But, unlike plastic bottles (of which 25% are recycled), there is no official guidance on mask recycling, meaning masks will end up polluting our environment. So, switch to reusable fabric face masks to reduce plastic waste. The World Health Organization (WHO) advises that fabric masks can be used by the general public under the age of 60 and those who do not have underlying health conditions. Ditch the plastic gloves. The use of gloves by the public in public spaces is not a recommended or proven prevention measure, according to the WHO. Swap single-use hand wash for a bar of soap. Anything with a plastic pump mechanism is difficult to recycle, and it will either end up being burned or sent to a landfill. If you already have one, you can reuse it by buying liquid refill soap or simply swap it for a bar of soap. Get the kids involved Although many adults are taking action to leave behind a cleaner planet for the next generation, it is also important for children to get involved in these efforts. By teaching them the importance of eliminating plastic and seeking out other options early on, it will help them adopt new, more eco-friendly habits that they will carry into adulthood. Watch a documentary: an easy and effective way to teach children (and adults) what plastic is doing to our environment is to watch a documentary on the topic, as it helps people visualise and more fully understand the issue. (Some documentaries can upset sensitive viewers, so be sure to choose one that is age appropriate.) Host a clean-up: the environment is already full of plastic litter. So, why not get your children to host a clean-up in your area? They can meet up with their friends and see how many bags of litter they can pick up. It is a great way to reduce plastic in the environment and protect local wildlife. Make something from scratch: a big part of going plastic free is figuring out how to make homemade replacements for things you would normally buy in plastic packaging. There are a number of fun projects for children to try, such as baking their own bread or making yoghurt. Another great idea is to turn some seasonal fruit into jam.  Try beeswax wraps: beeswax wraps offer a reusable, compostable alternative to single-use plastic wraps. They can be bought or made at home, so get your children involved in turning a piece of their favourite fabric into a DIY beeswax wrap – there are great tutorials online.  Upcycle and save: upcycling is a fun and clever way of turning something old into something new. There are endless ways to upcycle plastic. A fun suggestion to help your children upcycle and save is to turn plastic

July 16, 2021
Syllabis Learning

10 Notable People Who Were homeschooled

In an age where more students are receiving an education and graduating than ever before it is interesting to take note that education is finally evolving into something far more exciting. Along with the education of teachers, learning tools and teaching techniques have also changed significantly with the digital revolution. There is finally a drive to incorporate technology, mobile devices, and independent learning into the student curriculum. If the thought of homeschooling concerns you then perhaps reading about 15 notable people who were homeschooled will begin to change your view on independent learning and this revolutionary method of schooling. Thomas Edison Thomas Edison is one of the most famous and productive inventors of all time with almost 1000 patents in his name, including the electric light bulb, phonograph, and motion picture camera. He became a self-made multimillionaire even though he was considered a difficult child at the school he attended so at the age of 7 his mother removed him from school and taught him at home. Alexander Graham Bell Bell was homeschooled until the age of 11 before enrolling in a traditional school. Despite his poor grades at school Bell went on to be a noted inventor and held more than a dozen patents. Albert Einstein Although he was named time magazine’s “Man of the Century,” Albert Einstein was not an “Einstein” in school. The Nobel Prize-winning physicist, famous for his theory of relativity and contributions to quantum theory and statistical mechanics, dropped out of high school at age 15 to continue his education independently. Teddy Roosevelt The 26th US president, leader of The Rough Riders and inspiration for the teddy bear, Teddy Roosevelt was born to a family of fourteen children. Roosevelt and his siblings suffered from a variety of physical ailments, and as a result, were home-schooled. The children were taught by their mother, aunt, and a French governess, who did a fantastic job: Teddy was admitted to Harvard in 1878. Abraham Lincoln The remarkable 16th President of the United States known for leading the nation during the civil war and abolishing slavery is a product of homeschooling. History books did not lie when they said he was raised in a poor household by loving but unfortunately illiterate parents. Unlike the parent or private tutor-led homeschool method we know today, Lincoln had to teach himself how to read and write while also supporting his family. Proof that independent learning does rely on someone else teaching you. Leonardo da Vinci The artist behind the legendary paintings Mona Lisa and The Last Supper was a homeschooler! Da Vinci went down in history not only as a great painter but also a polymath with extensive knowledge in various fields like biology, math, architecture, and engineering. This renaissance artist was taught English, writing, and math by his father. Agatha Christie This famous mystery novelist was homeschooled by her father. She taught herself to read at just 5 years old. She wrote some 75 novels, including 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections. Christie is perhaps the world’s most famous mystery writer and is one of the best-selling novelists of all time Maria Sharapova Although she was enrolled in a prestigious school at the age of 9, Maria Sharapova and her parents decided that home learning was the best choice for the athlete t continue her journey to becoming a famous tennis star. Sharapova is a brilliant example that independent learners can become well-rounded and emotionally intelligent people.  Emma Watson The bright and fearless Hermoine Granger in the Harry Potter series, as well as one of the highest-paid actresses of all time, Emma Watson was homeschooled for most of her adolescent years. Watson had to be educated by a private tutor on set along with her co-stars as she started acting professionally at age 10. Watson earned her degree in English Literature in 2014 from Brown University. Taylor Swift Singer-songwriter and ten-time Grammy award winner Taylor Swift was homeschooled from the age of 14. She chose to learn independently to accommodate her touring schedule. Homeschooling has become a popular option for numerous celebrities to allot more time to grow their showbiz careers Choosing to homeschool your kids might feel like an all-too-eccentric route to take, but you’d be surprised to find that your child is actually in good company if you choose to set him/her off on this specific path of alternative learning.

July 12, 2021
Optimi Publishing

Grade R – 12 textbooks and teacher’s guides

Optimi Publishing provides lesson material and books to over 150 schools. Here’s how Optimi Publishing can help you save time and money. Our books include the outcomes for each lesson. Our teacher’s guides include the annual planning for the year. Our assessments have already been moderated and can be used as is. Our lesson material allows learners to complete the work in their workbooks, saving money on printing costs and buying extra workbooks. Optimi booksfor Grades R to 12 Optimi Publishing develops lesson material for the Optimi Group including study guides, workbooks, and additional aids, with thorough teacher’s guides to facilitate learning. Our range of books are suitable for use in school or at home and covers a wide range of CAPS-aligned subject content for the Foundation-, Intermediate-, and Senior Phases, as well as further education. Development Over the years, we have refined our development processes and learned what works best for our learners. Our benchmark study- and teacher’s guides are based on the latest insights from the learning sciences. A team of education specialists, teachers, moderators, editors, and designers ensures that every aspect of the learning journey is considered. Our material provides learners and teachers with individualised guidance and empowers them to achieve their learning goals. What makes our books unique? Year plans to guide and track individualised learning, which allow learners to work at their own pace Easy-to-each daily lessons for the whole year, with easy navigation through lessons Comprehensive explanations of concepts in simple language Strategic use of colour, pictures, and graphs to reduce cognitive load Relevant content with real-life examples Learning activities are aimed at making progress visible and mastering content Interactive and practical activities that make use of everyday objects to help learners master concepts Exercises to test learners’ knowledge application and reasoning Activities during and at the end of each lesson to prompt reflection and recall Activity types are mixed to include both recent and older subject matter Language subjects include texts for comprehension exercises, speeches, and reading The teacher’s guides for Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy include step-by-step calculations and answers Get in Touch with Optimi Publishing optimipublishing@optimi.co.za 087 405 2244

July 8, 2021
Parenting Hub

Impaq Stars: Shingai Mawire

As part of our Impaq Stars series, we chatted to medical student Shingai Mawire to learn more about his learning experience with Impaq and how Impaq has helped set him on the path to success. He also shares his advice for fellow Impaq learners.  Why did you and your parents decide to do home education with Optimi? We decided to make the switch to homeschooling because of the educational freedom and flexibility it allows. With homeschooling, I could work more quickly through assignments and subjects that I understood and spend more time on challenging subjects, such as Physical Sciences and my favourite subject, Life Sciences. Optimi Campus Lynnwood offers tutorial classes with facilitators for subjects with which learners might struggle. These classes would function as regular ‘school classes’, adding to the knowledge we had already acquired through self-study (homeschooling). I found these to be a beneficial addition to my learning career. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? Do you have any hobbies you particularly enjoy? Yes, I have many hobbies! Firstly, I’m a massive football fan. I love watching and playing the sport (I play as central defender). If anyone had asked me at five years old what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said, ‘I want to be John Terry or Frank Lampard’. Read more: Can homeschoolers take part in extracurricular activities? I also enjoy writing – I am a poet and an author. I wrote multiple poems throughout high school (FET Phase), and I have been writing a book about human behaviour due to the influence of past events. It explains how every human behaviour is a reaction to a person’s childhood and upbringing. Additionally, I enjoy volunteer work. During high school, I would volunteer at hospitals and old age (retirement) homes, including the Medifrail clinic in Equestria, Kalafong hospital in Pretoria West, and the Louis Trichardt old age home in Danville. During your learning journey, did you meet other homeschoolers?  Yes, I met a lot of other learners at Optimi Campus. It was easy to ‘click’ with these learners as we shared a similar and quite remarkable journey. Read more: You’ve got a friend in me What did you like most about Optimi Campus?  I particularly enjoyed how the Optimi Campus facilitators were always ready to help us during the lockdown. Online classes and Zoom sessions were organised, and these extra resources came in handy. I could email any of the facilitators, and they would organise additional classes where possible. I had more Zoom classes when and where possible with the Life Sciences facilitator in particular. The campus manager was also of enormous help, as she would listen to our concerns. How has Impaq helped you follow your dreams or career aspirations? Will you be studying at university? After completing matric, I was accepted into my first year of medical school at Dnipro Medical University in Ukraine in Europe. My course will begin in September this year. I think the most significant way Impaq has helped prepare me for university was how I learned to self-study and got a feel for the lecture structure due to the facilitator classes I attended at Optimi Campus.  Impaq and Optimi Campus also taught me how to be organised (the facilitators would stress the importance of managing our work).  Read more: Teaching kids how to plan Where do you see yourself in 10 years?  I see myself as a medical graduate studying further to specialise as a cardiothoracic surgeon. I envision myself being employed by the NHS (National Health Service) in the United Kingdom when I am fully qualified. Additionally, I hope to create a mobile clinic that offers medical advice to lower-income areas for free.  Do you have any tips for other homeschooling learners who would like to follow the same path as you? Yes: natural talent will help make you a good student but working hard will always take you the extra mile, so I recommend putting in the work! I also recommend homeschooling because the beauty of it is that it allows you to explore what you are really good at and what you love. So, focus on what you love, and you will achieve your goals and dreams!  For more information on Optimi Campus, go to https://optimicampus.co.za/.  By Jacqui Smit

July 2, 2021
Syllabis Learning

The Myths and Facts about socialisation and homeschooling

The socialisation myth was born out of a misconception of what it means to be homeschooled. Many critics, educators, and parents still believe that homeschoolers hit the books at 9 am do schoolwork until 4 pm, and spend the entire day alone and isolated from the rest of the world. This notion, of course, is quite uninformed! This topic of the effect homeschooling has on socialisation has been one of the most heavily researched issues for years now. People still have trouble conceiving how or if a child can develop optimal social and emotional skills when homeschooled. These concerns are almost always goodhearted but usually said from a position where people assume that the conventional way of schooling is the only way, and have done very little research on the subject. These assumptions arise from a variety of misconceptions and If you’re thinking about homeschooling, this article can help you understand the myths and facts about socialisation and homeschooling. Let us first understand the definition of socialisation. Socialization is (1) the activity of interacting with other people through which (2) the process of internalizing occurs. We internalize norms, rules, appropriate behaviors, values, ideologies, basic attitudes, self-image, and everything else that’s culturally dependent.  Children do not always respond well in large groups of 20 or 30, where peer pressure is high and kids feel the need to look and act the same way as their counterparts. Learners find themselves surrounded by rivalry, competition, and ridicule. Large groups of children become noisy and result in kids becoming nervous and over-excited. Learning becomes difficult and this is when behavioral problems develop. Does this sound like an environment for healthy socialisation? Dr. Raymond Moore, an author of over 60 books and articles on human development, who has done extensive research on homeschooling and socialisation says this in his book, The Hurried Child, “The idea that children need to be around many other youngsters to be ‘socialized, is perhaps the most dangerous and extravagant myth in education and child-rearing today.” After analyzing over 8,000 early childhood studies, Dr. Moore concluded that, contrary to popular belief, children are best socialized by parents – not other children. A homeschooler knows she is part of a family unit that needs, wants, and depends on her. She does not have to follow the crowd or continuously be compared to her peers. By interacting with her parents and siblings she has a greater opportunity to build confidence, self-respect, and self-worth. The result is an independent thinker who isn’t influenced by peers and is self-directed in her actions and thoughts. Children need time to dream and grow and find out what it is they love to do. This is something few children enjoy today as they spend the majority of their time at school trying to fit into the same mold as every other student, never given the freedom to be an individual with their own set of needs. They are never alone at school, and their after-school lives are packed full of activities, as well.  Homeschoolers have a wonderful opportunity to spend more time on the things that drive them and by joining sports clubs and group programs in their community they can enjoy all forms of socialisation. Socialization, like learning and life, takes place every day. How you interact with your kids – and how they watch you interact with the outside world – teaches them all the social skills they’ll need to know. Stop worrying about socialization. It’s a “problem” that never existed!

July 1, 2021
Impaq

Choosing Agricultural Sciences & Agricultural Management Practices – everything you need to know

In a brand-new blog series, we will be exploring the various subjects offered by Impaq in the FET Phase (Grades 10 – 12). We spoke to education specialist Janet Zandberg and Impaq alumnus Carla Botha to learn more about Agricultural Sciences and Agricultural Management Practices as subjects. Agricultural Sciences vs Agricultural Management Practices While choosing subjects in Grade 9, many learners are unsure of the difference between Agricultural Sciences and Agricultural Management Practices. We asked Zandberg to explain the differences between these two subjects below. Agricultural Sciences  “Agricultural Sciences (AGS) is a science,” Zandberg says. It is the study of the relationship between soils, plants, and animals in the production and processing of food, fibre, fuel, and other agricultural commodities with economic, aesthetic, and cultural value.  Zandberg says that Agricultural Sciences is a subject that can be used when a learner wants to go to university to study for a bachelor’s degree or a diploma. Agricultural Sciences contains content such as: soil sciences,  basic agricultural chemistry, animal nutrition,  animal reproduction, and genetics. Agricultural Management Practices  “Agricultural Management Practices (AMP) is a more practical subject,” Zandberg explains. It is the study and application of production, economic, and management principles used in the cultivation, transformation, and marketing of food and other agricultural products. Learners who take Agricultural Management Practices must complete a practical assessment task (PAT) on a farm for 40 hours in Grade 10, 11 and 12. Agricultural Management Practices contains content such as: crop production and management, animal management practices, plant reproduction, farm planning, and production management. “If a learner loves farming and animals, Agricultural Management Practices is a better choice,” Zandberg says.  farming is a possible career option, Agricultural Management Practices will be the best choice,” Zandberg says. “For further study, Agricultural Sciences will be the best choice,” she adds. Life is better on the farm Carla Botha, who has been studying through Impaq since Grade 1, says that she had no doubt about the subjects she wanted to choose when making subject choices in Grade 9. “For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a farmer,” Botha explains. When she learned that Impaq offered two agricultural subjects in the FET Phase, she was overjoyed. “When the time came to choose my subjects there was no doubt that I would take both,” she adds.  Completing her practical assessment tasks in Agricultural Management Practices was the highlight of Botha’s school year, three years in a row. “Getting to document every aspect of ‘my farm’ was so much fun. I had an excuse to take over 500 photos of everything farm related,” she explains. Botha also enjoyed the depth of the lesson material when it came to Agricultural Sciences. “The knowledge I obtained helps me in my everyday work,” she explains.  Also read: How to easily complete practical subjects through home education What you plant now, you will harvest later Both Agricultural Sciences and Agricultural Management Practices requires hard work to complete the subjects successfully. “In both subjects, learners will have to put in a lot of effort,” Zandberg says. Agricultural Sciences  Zandberg advises learners to only take Agricultural Sciences if they plan on going to a university or college for further training. “It is a challenging subject and must not be underestimated,” Zandberg says. Botha agrees and says that she had difficulty with the chemistry aspect of the subject in Grade 11. “This was my first encounter with chemistry, and I dreadfully struggled to master this part of the subject,” she explains. While taking Mathematics with Agricultural Sciences is not compulsory, Mathematics will be a requirement if a learner wants to study BSc Agricultural or Veterinary Sciences after completing Grade 12.  Top tip: Ensure that you know what the requirements are for further study at tertiary institutions. Also read: How to change a learner’s perception of difficulty to achieve success Agricultural Management Practices  Zandberg explains that if learners take Agricultural Management Practices, they will need access to a farm to complete their practical assessments tasks (PATs) successfully. “Learners must be part of the practical activities on a farm or an active production enterprise for at least 40 hours per year,” Zandberg says. A farmer or veterinarian must assess the PAT. If the assessor is a farmer, the farmer must have been operating the farming enterprise for at least five (5) years. If the assessor is a veterinarian, their qualification, practice number, and the number of years they have operated their practice must be submitted along with the PAT. Botha says that with Agricultural Management Practices, she did not struggle with the lesson material as it was her favourite subject. “There were a few of the assignments that were out of season for my area, Vanrhynsdorp in the Western Cape, and it brought forth a bit of a challenge but nevertheless it was fun,” Botha explains.  Top tip: Ensure that you have access to a farm when choosing Agricultural Management Practices as a subject. Leaders in the field Agricultural Sciences and Agricultural Management Practices prepares learners for entry into further studies for a possible career in a variety of fields (pun intended). Typical career paths for Agricultural Sciences include: a veterinarian or veterinarian assistant,  agricultural researcher,  soil researcher,  a career in animal or plant studies, and a biologist. Typical career paths for Agricultural Management Practices include practical work such as: farming,  farm management,  managing different plant crops, and  caring for farm animals. Working in acres, not in hours  Since Botha graduated as the top Impaq learner in Agricultural Sciences and Agricultural Management Practices in 2019, she has been working as a farm manager. “My focus has primarily been on animal health and reproduction,” Botha says. She, however, has ambitions to become a mega farmer.  Also read: Life after matric – guiding your child during this next chapter Her advice to other young aspiring farmers is to work hard every day. “Use as many previous papers as possible when studying and use more than one study method

June 24, 2021
Parenting Hub

How to cope with school closures amidst the third wave

As the number of COVID-19 cases continues its upward trend, more stringent lockdown regulations could follow, including the closure of schools and a return to more regular remote learning.  Several schools have already taken the step to start closing partially or fully amid community or localised outbreaks. In addition, many parents may be taking their children out of school in a bid to protect themselves. For many parents, especially homeschoolers, this is familiar territory by now, but for others, they may need some extra advice on how to cope with learning at home. We look at five tips on how to cope with school closures.   Talk about the current situation Firstly, have a conversation with your children to make sure that they are calm and understand what is going on regarding the current situation. By now, many children may have a better grip of this situation. However, it’s still important to try to reduce any possible anxiety while also communicating that learning will now occur at home for the next few weeks. Also read: How to help a child struggling with (coronavirus) anxiety  Supplement learning with e-learning  If your child’s school has handed out learning packs, make sure you have them on hand. If possible, look through the lesson material and search the internet to see if there are ways to supplement the learning topics with e-learning.  There are many providers out there who offer free e-books. One local South African example is this e-book library from Optimi Classroom, which consists of 45 000 free e-books Stay organised Being organised is critical. Make a schedule that you and your children agree to and stick to it. You don’t have to follow a strict timetable to complete academic work throughout this period, but having a plan does help.  If you need assistance with setting up a timetable, we have put together this simple daily schedule to guide you and your children with staying on track during school closures.  Bear in mind that you might not be able to stick to a timetable if someone in your household is sick, needs to return to work, or do other activities. Your child will then have to adapt the schedule and complete the academic work at another time. However, even loosely sticking to a timetable will help everyone know what is expected while ensuring that learning takes place. Also read: Ten tips to help you cope with school closures Exercise It’s also critical to ensure your children engage in physical activities such as playing in the garden or even going for walks. You can add playtime into your timetable as a reward for completing academic work.  Apart from this, you can also encourage your children to participate in hobbies or even certain extracurricular activities, where it is deemed safe from a social distancing perspective. Also read: Why exercise is important for good academic results Hire a tutor Finally, if you feel you need extra help and resources, look to credible homeschooling providers out there that follow the CAPS curriculum. Homeschooling providers, such as Impaq, can offer a structured approach to learning and guidance on what to teach and when. Learners can also continue their learning journey at home amidst school closures when registering with a home education provider. Plus, you do not have to do it alone. There are independent tutors across the country who can meet virtually to help guide you and your children during this time. Calling in a tutor is also a great option when you have children in multiple grades or at different levels; the tutor can work with one child while you help another. In addition, tutors are also a valuable resource for more challenging subjects, especially in the higher grades. by Louise Schoonwinkel, MD of Optimi Home

June 18, 2021
Syllabis Learning

30 Brilliant Reasons to Homeschool!

Thinking about homeschooling your kids? Or perhaps you have already made the decision to homeschool? This could be due to various reasons, some of which may include wanting to remove your kids from a negative school environment, to protect them from bullying or giving them the freedom to learn in a progressive way that may be more appropriate for them. An environment where creativity is nurtured and celebrated, a method of schooling that better prepares your child for his or her future. Here are 30 reasons you should consider homeschooling your child: Your child can learn at his or her own pace. Your child can create their own curriculum. Your child can learn a wider variety of subjects. Learning can happen anywhere and at any time. When they are done work for the day, they have free time to focus on things they enjoy. Your child will learn valuable life skills. Your child’s creativity can be nurtured and celebrated. Your child’s work is not done for mastery, not for a grade. It is easier to accommodate your child’s specific learning needs. Your child can learn in the way that suits them best. Your child won’t fall through the cracks. There will be less peer pressure to deal with. Children learn to challenge assumptions and think for themselves. Your kids will have more time to play. Homeschooled kids grow to become independent thinkers. You can limit the opportunity for your child to be bullied. You can ‘shelter’ your child from negative influences like drugs and sex for longer or until they are older and can handle things better. Your kids can relax and be themselves and be free of the pressure to conform to the masses. Children become empowered when their ideas are heard and validated. Family bonds become stronger as your family will spend more time together. Kids are able to learn in a safe and supported environment. School can be taken outside, or anywhere for that matter. Kids are more confident. Kids learn time management skills, a valuable skill to have. Your child will not have to wait for everyone to reach the same level before moving on. Children get to be themselves. Kids get to learn for the sake of learning – not to pass a test or mark a box on a list of set standards. Greater opportunities for kids to focus on hobbies. Kids can work with fewer distractions than there are in typical classroom settings. Your child will be able to set their own schedule as they get older. These are only a few of the amazing advantages to homeschooling, Syllabis Learning can help you achieve all of the above and more with our integrated and independent learning curriculum. Make the decision to give your child the best in education.

June 16, 2021
Impaq

Helpful tips for moving when homeschooling

Moving home is said to be one of the most stressful life events, ranking alongside divorce, loss of employment, and long-term illness. However, moving – whether to a neighbouring suburb, a different province, or abroad – can also present wonderful new opportunities, including new jobs, new friends, and new possibilities! While the period immediately before and after a move is stressful for any family, it can be doubly so for those educating their children at home as all the packing and preparation happens with your children around. Although moving takes up an incredible amount of time and energy, it does not mean that learning has to come to a halt when you are planning a move. In fact, the flexibility of home education becomes an added blessing during this potentially stressful time. Another great advantage of home education is that when you move, your children don’t have to change schools. While their surroundings may change, their approach to learning will largely stay the same. What may change are extracurricular activities, as you may have to find new places for your children to take art classes, play sport, or study music. This, however, is part and parcel of moving for all families.   Read more: Can homeschoolers take part in extracurricular activities? Moving tips Here are a few things to consider when moving: Teach creatively: look for alternate ways to engage your children while you are buried neck-deep in boxes. Helpful options include audiobooks, documentaries, educational content on the internet, or maybe even a ‘substitute teacher’ (ask a friend or family member to present a few lessons). Stick with the basics: do not try to do an entire day of subjects if it is going to stress everyone out. Focus on one or two subjects like Mathematics or English, then get packing. Pack like a pro: when you pack, clearly label your children’s books and lesson material. This will allow you to grab the required box at your new house easily when you are ready to start teaching. Involve your children: there are so many life skills involved in moving – organising, planning, etc. – making it a perfect opportunity to teach your children valuable life lessons. Take a farewell tour: visit any favourite playgrounds, museums, or other special places around town before the move, and enjoy a final meal at your favourite restaurant (remember to take plenty of photos). Learn about your new area: let your children do researchabout your new area. They can look at different communities, places to visit, and activities to try once you are settled. Bring a backpack: your children may feel stressed on the day of the move, so let them pack a few favourite items in a backpack that they can carry with them. Included items could be a blanket, toy, book – whatever brings them comfort. Also include items to help pass the travel time, such as materials for drawing or games. Read more:Benefits of playing games with kids Keep a watchful eye: moving is a big deal. Children who are home educated may have smoother transitions in some ways, but moving does represent a transformation in life. Even if your children are excited about the move, there are still plenty of emotions to work through: sadness about leaving friends and familiar places, anticipation about what is coming, and possibly apprehension, fear, and anxiety about the unknown. If your child displays unusual behaviour – sadness, moping, crying, yelling, defiance, hyperactivity, or inattentiveness – try to be understanding and supportive rather than punitive.    Read more: How to foster resilience in children Take a breather: flexibility is one of the keystones of homeschooling, so use it to your advantage during a stressful situation such as moving. Know that things will be different for a while, and that is perfectly fine. In fact, it is part of life. So, take a few days off to allow your children and yourself to adjust, explore, and get things unpacked. Learning to adjust and adapt to change is just as important as any academic subject. Home education allows your children the freedom and flexibility to learn these necessary life skills. It also gives your family time together to work through the emotions associated with change. So, try to be present and include your kids in the process because there is much to learn during a move! Read more: Supporting your child’s emotional intelligence development By Danielle Barfoot

June 11, 2021
Syllabis Learning

The Best Alternative to Public or Private Schooling

Researchers worldwide, forecast that home-schooling will balloon over the next decade as families discover that there are vastly better alternatives to public or private schooling such as home-schooling and more importantly as far as Syllabis is concerned, independent learning at home. The core idea of home-schooling is the idea that children need to learn at the speed, and in the style, most appropriate for them. Modern-day schooling is out of date. Young leaders, innovators, and creators are being turned into robotic machines that follow assignments to generate grades. The grade school years are meant to help students find who they are, but schools today are nothing more than a glorifiedholding facility for carbon copy education. At school, we are taught from day one to blindly follow directions or risk facing disciplinary consequences. The school system was built to match labour environments – eight hours a day with short breaks in a controlled setting to make it easier to push young adults into the workforce. Schools say they are preparing students for the future, but they are forcing them to obey commands that expunge all creativity, which is robbing students of the ability to pursue a successful future. Every student has his own set of strengths and weaknesses, and yet we find every student following the same exact academic agenda as their peers. It is almost like schools are asking all students to wear the same size shirt, despite the inevitable variety in body shapes and sizes. At Syllabis Learning we believe your children deserve the best in education and part of our offering includes: Our SCHOOL-ON-A-TABLET solution. Simply activate our 10,1-inch tablet, or If you prefer the curriculum can be downloaded directly onto the learner’s own device. A hardcopy textbook version is available for those learners who do not have access to the internet. Our curriculum is modern and progressive. It is specifically designed by leading educators for learners of the digital age. We offer a blended curriculum which is CAPS based but offers additional products and services. Our curriculum is easy to follow, and we provide endless topic-related videos. We offer a world class portal and monitoring system with study tips by grade, excellent support and access to over 4 000 online or in-home tutors and mentors, your child can find a Study Buddy within our network and specific topic related pre-recorded lessons. A Syllabis Learning we believe your child deserves the best in education. With public education systems deteriorating and private schools getting more expensive by the day, homeschooling is proving to be the best alternative. Hear from Syllabis clients:

June 9, 2021
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