schooling

articles

• Back to school checklist and parent-baby/toddler groups
• Your child’s ADHD, schools and teachers
• Our homeschooling journey
• Why I homeschool my child
• School’s out forever and a new phase begins in my son’s life
• Public vs private schooling
• Playschool and big boy beds
• Pre-school teachers needed
• When can kids miss school?
• Are we educating kids for the future?
• School projects
• Help me find a school for my son
• Surviving sport and school as a single mom

by Laura-kim, single mom, recently divorced with 2 kids and the author of the blog Harrased mom

When your child starts Gr 1 it’s a big deal. Actually it’s a huge deal.

It’s the end of an era. Your child is starting their 12 year school career. It’s the start of homework and school camps and tuck shop and projects.

I don’t remember projects in Gr 1. In fact I don’t remember them until like Gr 6 actually. So it was with great shock and horror that I opened my son’s homework book and saw the letter saying “PROJECT”! My mind immediately thought of something simple like “bake a cake” or find a nest! OH NO!

The project was BUILD A SHOE!

WHAT? The child is 7 and been in school for like 6 months. How the hell was he supposed to build a shoe? I am 31 and I have no idea how to build a shoe!

But what do you do? Your child needs to make a shoe, so make a shoe we must! And we did. With a little help from our friends. We made the shoe.

He was dead chuffed with it which really is all that matters. I will admit, I did at times, lots of times, have to stop myself from taking over. I forgot that he is only 7 and isn’t going to get it like I think it should be. While painting I kept taking the brush to make it “neater” but then realized it’s HIS project. HIS shoe. HE has to do it.

I have to say though; I am filled with fear for what the next project is going to be. Where do you go from building a shoe? I have no doubt that I will be letting you all know!

By Jana Kotze, mom or Luke & Sienna,  digital marketer, entrepeneur-at-heart

As the mom of 4 year old Luke, I find myself having to make one of the most important decisions yet.  As a mom, I want to find the right school for my son.  This is where he will make friends, learn about life, have fun and interact with kids from all walks of life. Now that I have to start the journey, where do I begin?  I have done research about a lot of schools online, but none of them give a clear indication of what it is really like.

Not many of our friends have kids older than 5 and every parent you talk to has a different opinion.  I find it funny that even friends without kids have strong opinions about the different schools.

Do you choose a private school or are government schools ok?  My concern with government schools are the class sizes.

Can anyone offer some advice?  We are based in Northcliff.

by Laura-kim from Harrassed Mom

When my kids were in pre-school – life was pretty simple! They did their extra activities during school hours.There were no weekend activities except for the occasional party.

Then we hit Grade one and all that changed!

Most of my son’s activities are done during after care. But the weekend sports have now started. And he is adamant he wants to do Bulletjies rugby now too which is on a Monday at 16h30 – which falls outside of aftercare and is at a different venue.

We have spent four hours at chess and have a 4 hour stint at soccer coming up.

Now the challenge lies in the fact that I am one parent and have two children.

I had no idea what to expect at the chess so took Kiara along but it was unfair to expect her to sit there for that long. But what do you do? I can’t leave Cameron there – he is still too small and it was the first one so we didn’t really know how it all worked! Same thing with the soccer. I can’t just leave him there but have no one to watch Kiara. So she has to come with.

Fortunately, this year she is still in pre-school so I am not juggling 2 kids schedules but next year is going to be fun when they are both doing different activities. I have support in my friends and family but I can’t be palming kids off every weekend – it’s not fair on anyone!

So what do I do? Hope that they manage to clone people in the next 6 months? It’s a constant juggling act. Trying to get it all done and keep everyone happy and get everyone where they are supposed to be on time. And some days it is not easy doing it all on my own.

Then there are the school activities that never coincide. This Friday is dress up for Cameron, next Thursday is baking day for Kiara. Cameron needs money on Wednesday for cake and candy. Kiara needs tuck money on Friday. Parents evening for Cameron at 16h15 on Tues and 17h00 for Kiara on Wednesday.

It never ends. Someone asked me the other day how organised am I. I smiled and thought “dude you have no idea just how organised I am”.