ABOUT US

Hi there, thank you for popping in to visit and for finding out more about us. I'm Susan, my husband, John, and our two kids, Juliette-Marie, age 9, and StJohn (pronounced Sinjin), aged 6.

We have a Pyrenean Mountain Dog, Alex,a Jack Russell, Zack, and two Norwegian Forest Cats, Ruby and Poppy. We also have 5 chickens at the moment, and appear relatively sane, to most people, or so I thought... Since starting this site 2 years ago, and some of the responses we've got, it appears we might all be barking mad!Happy, but barking mad!

We live outside Cape Town in a semi-rural area in South Africa. We would one day like to be self-sufficient. So far we've been unable to supply our basic food needs, so as John put it last week...."If we had to be self-sufficent, right now we'd be dead." He has the ability to get right to the point, no beating about the bush.

We believe that all beings have the right to clean air, clean water, and unpolluted soil. But I'm not going to go into that here, I'll save it for another day!

We started homeschooling because our childrens needs were not being met at the Waldorf School they were enrolled at. Things went from bad to worse, from my daughters inability to recognise different letters by the middle of Grade 2, her fear of numbers, to the worst for me - Bullying. Nothing was done about it.

I was told by the school she had to learn to say, "No!" and that everything was "Fine". Well this was the last straw, I went ape (as my husband puts it). In other words, I lost it completely. I pulled my kids out of school. We went from an average school going family to a "no clue what to do now family", within 3 weeks.

A friend of mine was homeschooling, and she encouraged me to explore the possibility. It was scary. I'm not a teacher, I'm a normal Mom, that's always had a career and kids. I was asking myself so many life changing questions, "why did you have children?' "what do you want for them?" "what is the best possible thing for them?" "what do you want for yourself?"

So many people were actively aggresive towards us. They felt Homeschooling was a terrible thing especially the "socialization" problems. We took all of these issues into account. The answer to everything pointed in one direction only. I'd always wanted a family, a husband and as many children as possible. I never wanted a career. A friend of mine calls it the "white picket fence dream"... Cute house, lots of well behaved gorgeous children, little garden, neat and perfect, white picket fence, supper bubbling on the stove when darling husband comes home.

That's what I wanted, okay with a huge chunk of reality. The white picket fence is a 6ft wall that is in desperate need of a paint, the grass is often overgrown, the kids fight, the dogs chases the cats and chickens, dinner is sometimes burnt or non-existent (take-away days!). But that's okay. That's normal for us.

To have a teacher that cared for them like no other. Who only had their best interests at heart. Who cared for the whole child, not just their academic side. Who knew them as no other person on the planet knew them. What better person to teach them than their own mother?

So to cut a long story short, we threw caution to the wind. Full of fear and excitement, we made the commitment to Homeschool!

We've been homeschooling for nearly 3 years! I've never been happier, I feel fulfilled. My kids fight so much less. Their kindness to each other, is amazing. The love that is in our home now, is 10 times what it was before. It's certainly not always plain sailing, please don't get me wrong. I spend a lot of time completely exhausted. And a lot of time exhilarated. And the rest of the time, there's a comfortable middle ground.

I've learnt to relax my "perfect house" expectations (So what if the ironing is piled in the cupboard? No-one died from un-ironed clothes!). So what if a craft afternoon went on too long, because we were enjoying it too much to stop, and dinner is a batch of toasted sandwiches? I enjoy every day that I have with my two most precious blessings. Remember nothing that is worthwhile is ever easy, but wow it's rewarding and joyfilled!

May your homeschool be filled with love and joy,

Blessings, Susan

PS. 3 years later, I'm still waiting for my children to develop some "socialization" problem. They're doing so well, both psychologically and academically. I'm inclined to throw the cat amongst the pigeons and ask, "Could this socialization issue , be a way of scaring people into not homeschooling?" If so, my next question is "Why? What are these socialization maniacs afraid of?" mmmmhhhh, give it a think......

PPS. Take the socialization maniacs with a pinch of salt. Most of them can't give you any valid reason for their concern. They heard about poor socialization from someone, who heard it from someone else. An original thought would be good at this point!And why do any of us have to answer to anyone else anyway? Quite frankly it's no-one elses business whether we homeschool or decide to join the circus!