How I Homeschool in South Africa with Grietjie Thorne

This week on the Homeschool Highschool Podcast: How I Homeschool in South Africa with Grietjie Thorne.

How I Homeschool in South Africa with Grietjie Thorne

As you know, all of us homeschooling moms are in this together! In fact, at 7SistersHomeschool, there are six of us 7Sisters: Vicki, Sabrina, Kym, Marilyn, Allison, and Sara. So who’s the 7th Sister? All of our friends around the world who are homeschooling moms. That’s why we are so excited to visit with one of our international friends, Grietjie Thorne from South Africa!

Today we are talk about Grietjie’s adventures in homeschooling and what it’s like homeschooling in South Africa.

Grietjie Thorne’s story

One of the beauties of homeschooling in this digital era, is that we can learn about geography and homeschool lifestyle from friends around the world. For instance, we learned a little weather geography when we recorded this episode. It was March springtime weather in the U.S. but it was full-on heat wave in South Africa (36 degrees Centigrade, which is 96 degrees Fahrenheit). Grietjie explains that March is their hottest month!

Grietjie’s inspiration for homeschooling

When she married an Australian who she met on a missions outreach in Kenya. (More geography: Kenya is in the other hemisphere of Africa.) The moved to South Africa and now have four children: three teenagers and an eleven-year-old.

When she was pregnant with my eldest daughter, Grietjie met a mother who became a very dear friend. She had eight children and was homeschooling them. In fact, she was really one of the homeschool pioneers in South Africa!

Grietjie saw the fruit of homeschooling in watching her friend’s children. She knew that she wanted this life for her own children. There was never been doubt in her mind about it! Now, that baby is a senior and will be graduating from homeschooling high school!

This is how Grietjie and her family describe their homeschool adventures:

It’s Been just a hoot! It’s been wonderful!

Homeschooling at Grietjie’s house

Homeschooling is a little different for each of Grietjie’s four children. This is influenced by the fact that three of children have severe dyslexia, while eldest is very much neurotypical and academically very strong.

All four of my children are extremely creative, but do not love math. They love to write stories, put on plays, make movies, and draw. So, Grietjie leans into building their strengths and interests while helping them develop the more challenging core subjects.

The key to homeschooling high school with four creative but very different-styled learners was:

I have had to learn to adapt and really get to know my children! (And stay on my knees constantly!)

Grietjie and her family’s needs change with the seasons, just like all of us! Now with a house full of teenagers, she has found more need community of mothers who understand what we are going through (you know: “the twenty-four hour day and the moods and everything that carries on”.) …We all know about that!

She has found that Lord just provides friends who are also in the thick of it to walk through the homeschooling adventures together! (Just like in the States, homeschooling in community is a blessing!)

Curriculum for different learning styles

Grietjie found that for some of her high schoolers with dyslexia that 7Sisters ELA Literature Bundles are perfect. He can listen to the audio version of the books while he works on his Legos. This fits his learning style best. He also enjoys completing the PDF study guides on his computer because they are in fillable format. Thus he does not need struggle with the writing while he is working on his inferential and literature analysis skills.

Her family chooses science curriculum that fits their interests and needs. For ideas on inspiring teens with learning differences check out these Homeschool Highschool Podcast episodes:

• How to Get Your Teens Interested in Science, with Kristin Moon
• Science Labs for Non-STEM Teens

Grietjie gives them plenty of time to build electives in their interest areas:

• They all love storytelling, so they have time to create stories
• One is seriously into handicrafts
• Another, at the time of our recording was out in the paddock building a radio control car track
• One is taking an online computer applications course through FundaFunda Academy (run by our friend and podcasting colleague from South Africa, Meryl van der Merwe. Meryl hosts Homeschooling with Technology podcast.)
• Grietjie created a homeschool co-op to work through Cinema Studies for Literature Learning together with fifteen teens
  • They are also working through Human Development, which is delightful with a group of adolescent males!

Homeschooling in South Africa

In the primary years, it was easy to eclectic route for homeschooling. (Kindergarten, called “Grade R” in South Africa, is mandatory.)

Their academic year runs from January to the beginning of December. The year is two semesters broken into four terms.

However, at high school level, teens must take a completion exam.

• Public school students take an exam to earn government metrics certificate at the end of their 12 years.
• Homeschoolers traditionally could look to private schools that offer three different exit exams:
  • One exam is from the Independent Exam Board, and
  • Then there’s also the British (Cambridge) System, which is popular in South Africa
• Or they can choose the option for a GED

Recently, South African homeschooling families were given  the opportunity to follow an American high school diploma, which is what Grietjie’s family has chosen.

Thus her family is pretty much doing what an American teen will be doing. In South Africa, the American high school diploma and the British System are recognized by universities.

Changes in homeschooling regulations

There are changes happening in South Africa’s homeschool regulations, so Grietjie is watching to see what will be unfolding. Currently, homeschooling families are required to register their children with the Department of Education through grade nine. There is friction between the homeschool community and the government as they are all trying to figure out what do they want from homeschooling families now. For example, the Department of Education has mentioned wanting to see report cards, which is not something many South African homeschooling families have ever done. Many have chosen a more organic, eclectic approach in the line of Charlotte Mason.

Currently, the homeschooling regulations are applied differently in each of the nine provinces in South Africa. For instance, in one of the provinces, the Department of Education is now demanding that homeschooling parents must be university graduates. However, in other provinces, that’s not something that is being asking for.

So, homeschooling families and the province governments are all trying to figure out how to apply regulations.

Grietjie’s advice to new homeschool moms

Grietjie loves to encourage new homeschooling moms. Here are some of her tips:

• First of all, you take them with you everywhere and you involve them in everything because the children and teens learn so much on the fly.
• Let them interact with adults whether you are at the grocery shop or whatever it is that you do.
• Get a library card because there is nothing that you cannot learn with a library card! Go regularly to the library.
• Be very open to the possibility that school does not have to look the way you thought it had to look or what you had experienced. Learning can happen anywhere, in any way.
• Let their interests guide their academics where possible.
• Remember: Real-life learning is just as important as book-learning.

Join Vicki and Grietje Thorne and learn about her family and homeschooling in South Africa!

Thank you to Seth Tillman for editing.

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