Smart Minds Learning Centre

Smart Minds Learning Centre updated their phone number.

Smart Minds Learning Centre updated their phone number.

What is a typical day in a small homeschool class?

What is a typical day in a small homeschool class? I decided to write this post for all of those parents that are confused as to what a typical day must look like. Most parents think that every day should be the same. Spoiler alert... IT IS NOT!!!

5 Steps to help you choose the best homeschool program for your child

5 Steps to help you choose the best homeschool program for your child First of all, I hope all of you guys had a wonderful holiday and my wish for you is a fantastic new year. Embrace all the opportunities that come your way and make the best of it!! I get a lot of enquiries from parents that don’t know how to choose a homeschool program. So, I came up with 5 steps ...

The importance of reading to your child.

The importance of reading to your child. My love for books started at a very young age. I could read at grade two level by the time I was five years old. And it is all thanks to my Granny who stuck a children’s Bible in my hands to keep me busy. She would read to me…

School Anxiety

School Anxiety “I don’t want to go to school. My tummy hurts.” What parent have not heard this many a morning before school? Even I played that card many times. But now some studies have shown that it could be a sign that something is amiss at/with school. I will try and…

Is homework a waste of time?

Is homework a waste of time? Every parent knows the feeling. Despair, hopelessness, stress, it creeps up on you as the school-day nears its end. And the cause of these feeling? HOMEWORK! And sometimes you as parent also feel like you are too dumb to help your little student. I know I have! Then you ask…

CAPS: More Harm than Help?

Often, as Learning Centres and Tutors, we get parents telling us how worried they are about their child’s progress. It is then expected of us to make miracles happen on the dawn of exams. Most of the problems can be placed on the doorstep of our current education curriculum. Here are a couple of reasons why we think CAPS is harming your child:

CAPS: More Harm than Help? Often, as Learning Centres and Tutors, we get parents telling us how worried they are about their child’s progress. It is then expected of us to make miracles happen on the dawn of exams. Most of the problems can be placed on the doorstep of our current education curriculum. Here…

Private tutor to help with Afrikaans, English and Maths for grade 1 -7. Contact us on 0825911137 today to make an appointment or for more information. Based in Brakpan.
Privaat onderig om te help met Afrikaans, Engels en Wiskunde vir graad 1 -7. Kontak 0825911137 om vandag nog 'n afspraak te maak of vir meer inligting. Geleë in Brakpan.

Pros & Cons of Homeschooling

The idea of homeschooling is not a new concept. But it has become an increasing trend since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the academic year of 2020/2021 many a student lost precious time spent in school, ending up with students feeling anxious, scared and stressed out. That, combined with inadequate curricula, has left so many gaps in the learning system of today. So, you might find yourself asking if homeschooling is the way to go for you and your child. Here is a few pros and cons to help you take the next step.

https://smartmindslc.co.za/pros-cons-of-homeschooling/

Pros & Cons of Homeschooling The idea of homeschooling is not a new concept. But it has become an increasing trend since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the academic year of 2020/2021 many a student lost precious time spent in school, ending up with students feeling anxious, scared and stressed out. That, combined…

Private tutor to help with Afrikaans, English and Maths for grade 1 -7. Contact us on 0825911137 today to make an appointment or for more information. Based in Brakpan.
Privaat onderig om te help met Afrikaans, Engels en Wiskunde vir graad 1 -7. Kontak 0825911137 om vandag nog 'n afspraak te maak of vir meer inligting. Geleë in Brakpan.

Smart Minds Learning Centre updated their website address.

Smart Minds Learning Centre updated their website address.

In the 11th century, a Japanese woman known as Murasaki Shikibu wrote “The Tale of Genji,” a 54-chapter story of courtly seduction believed to be the world’s first novel.
Nearly 2,000 years later, people the world over are still engrossed by novels — even in an era where stories appear on handheld screens and disappear 24 hours later.
What exactly do human beings get from reading books? Is it just a matter of pleasure, or are there benefits beyond enjoyment? The scientific answer is a resounding “yes.”

https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-reading-books#_noHeaderPrefixedContent

Very often, people think they understand a foreign culture when all they know are the basic do’s and don’ts, such as how to bow or when to hand over a business card. Much more important is the ability to recognize how the culture views right and wrong, what basic values people have, and how other people might interpret events in fundamentally different ways.

https://bized.aacsb.edu/articles/2020/march/learning-other-cultures

For a lot of people, making art can be nerve-wracking. What are you going to make? What kind of materials should you use? What if you can't execute it? What if it ... sucks? Studies show that despite those fears, "engaging in any sort of visual expression results in the reward pathway in the brain being activated," says Kaimal. "Which means that you feel good and it's perceived as a pleasurable experience."

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/11/795010044/feeling-artsy-heres-how-making-art-helps-your-brain

Often, people believe creativity is something an individual is born with and not something that can be taught. However, with the right encouragement and environment we can help kids develop their creative skills and express their imaginations. Creativity comes in many forms, from drawing and painting, writing and reading, dancing and acting, to arts and crafts and imaginative play. Not only do children with good creative thinking skills perform better at school but also have stronger executive functioning abilities. That’s why it’s important that we do what we can to nurture our children’s creativity and imagination.
https://www.tutordoctor.co.uk/blog/2019/december/10-ways-to-nurture-your-childs-creativity-and-im/

Kids are inborn innovators with vivid imagination and a unique manner of self-expression. From a very early age, children exercise the capacity to challenge, question and discover. In pursuit of new ideas, they keep their minds and hearts open, experiment with ideas and build connections. Kids have the ability see things in a new perspective, catch a problem that nobody can think it even exists and arrive at an unusual, yet effective decision to solve it.

http://kids-collective.com/blog/how-to-help-your-child-be-creative-the-importance-of-creativity-in-preschool-education/

Math is important and it’s important to help young children develop their mathematical thinking. A child’s math knowledge at the start of kindergarten predicts later academic achievement better than early reading or attention skills.

https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/things-know-about-math

At any age, crying is a normal response to being overwhelmed by strong feelings, like anger, fear, stress, or even happiness. Some children, however, cry more than others. Those same children may get angry more often, feel frustrated faster, and get overly excited compared to their peers too.
The ability to regulate big emotions is largely dependent on age and development. Experiencing things more intensely is also sometimes just part of who someone is.
Big emotions can make life a little bit more difficult for these kids unless they learn how to engage in emotion regulation. While this is naturally learned over time, there are ways you can help your child cultivate emotional awareness and adopt healthy coping skills.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/how-to-help-an-overly-emotional-child-4157594

Homeschooling is meant to be enjoyable, but sometimes it can get a little monotonous. I enjoy figuring out different ways to make homeschooling fun. I am always amazed at the different ways we can have fun while learning. Hands on learning is our favorite and finding tools that help our vision of providing a love for learning all day is very important for us. Let me introduce you to some of our ways to have fun while homeschooling.

https://www.naturalbeachliving.com/have-fun-while-homeschooling/

Any time homeschooling is brought up, there’s always one question in particular that always creeps its way into the conversation: “What about socialization?” For those who aren’t familiar with homeschooling, this is pretty much the be all-end all as to whether or not homeschooling can work. While most people asking the question have good intentions, their timing (when they ask the questions) is often so ironic! For instance, it’s not unusual to find yourself answering that question while you’re waiting for your daughter to finish her dance class or you’re at your son’s basketball game.

https://www.homeschool.com/articles/what-about-socialization

Homeschooling (which turned quickly into unschooling) would mean that our children could keep alive that beautiful passion for learning that had been there since birth. We could spend their childhood with them, instead of apart from them five days a week.

https://happinessishereblog.com/the-joy-of-homeschooling/

Research first diagnosed the fear of success a couple of decades ago. The findings, at the time, related to fear of success in women, and the results proved incredibly controversial. Since then, however, most scientists and psychologists agree that fear of success exists for both men and women. Fear of success is similar to the fear of failure. They have many of the same symptoms, and both fears hold you back from achieving your dreams and goals.

https://intinde.com/fear-holding-back-achieving-goals/

Is it hard for you to get motivated to study? Let’s face it… It’s so easy to watch just one more video or to scroll through your social media feed just one more time.
But your exams are approaching fast.
You have a rising sense of panic, but you don’t know where to begin. The more you panic, the harder it is to get to work.

https://www.daniel-wong.com/2018/04/23/get-motivated-to-study/

Who feeds our imagination in the modern age? We might not always like to admit it, but the media are one of the central ‘feeders’ of our imagination: how we imagine ourselves and others, how we think and feel about the world we live in, and about the lives we could have, or could have had.
https://politybooks.com/feeding-our-imagination-reflections-on-the-media-diet/

Private tutor to help with Afrikaans, English and Maths for grade 1 -7. Contact us on 0825911137 today to make an appointment or for more information. Based in Brakpan.
Privaat onderig om te help met Afrikaans, Engels en Wiskunde vir graad 1 -7. Kontak 0825911137 om vandag nog 'n afspraak te maak of vir meer inligting. Geleë in Brakpan.

If you’re going to dream, and we all do, why not dream big? After all, if your dreams are very ordinary, your life will be very ordinary. So picture yourself in the home of your dreams, driving the car of your dreams, visiting other parts of the world, working at something you enjoy, having great success, or enjoying time with your family. Whatever it is you want in your life, dream big and set goals to make those dreams come true.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/318521

Having goals for things we want to do and working towards them is an important part of being human. The path towards our goals may not always run smoothly or be easy, but having goals, whether big or small, is part of what makes life good. It gives us a sense of meaning and purpose, points us in the direction we want to go and gets us interested and engaged, all of which are good for our overall happiness.
Over 2000 years ago, Aristotle said "Well begun is half done." And with regards to goals, he's right (as he seems to have been on a lot of things). Paying attention to how we set our goals makes us more like to achieve them and achieving them makes us feel good about ourselves and our lives.

https://www.actionforhappiness.org/take-action/set-your-goals-and-make-them-happen

Ever wanted to become a master at Excel? Or learn how to negotiate effectively? What about coding, or becoming a better writer, or learning how to edit photos?
Thanks to the internet, where there's a will, there's a way.
There's a whole lot you can teach yourself these days -- especially if you have access to an internet connection. You don't need to buy fancy equipment or sign up for expensive courses to learn skills that could be invaluable to your career and your personal life.

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/skills-teach-yourself-for-free

You may be wondering about unschooling vs deschooling and how they fit into the whole home school process and homeschooling learning experience?If you’ve been around the homeschool community (or doing homeschooling research), you may have heard the terms unschooling and deschooling. The two words deschooling and unschooling both fall under the umbrella of homeschooling, but they have distinct meanings.

https://homeschoolsuperfreak.com/unschooling-deschooling-homeschooling/

Boys and girls learn differently for a very simple biological reason – their brains are built differently. Given, their differences, boys and girls perform better provided different stimuli. Our current education system denies this fact and therefore denies the everyday results of these biological differences.

https://armyandnavyacademy.org/blog/brain-science-and-the-difference-between-boys-and-girls/

Private konsultasie met elke ouer om elke leerling se unieke situasie te assesseer en die optimale Kurrikulum te bepaal. Bekostigbare oplossings vir enige situasie. Maak seker dat u kind se opvoeding nie die volgende slagoffer is van COVID19 nie. Geleë in Brakpan.
Whatsapp 0825911137 om die afspraak te maak wat u kind se toekoms kan verseker
Private consultation with every parent to assess each student’s optimal curriculum. Affordable solutions whatever your current situation. Ensure that your child's education does not become a casualty of COVID19. Located in Brakpan.
Whatsapp 0825911137 to book the consultation that can ensure your child's future.

Not only is it impossible to achieve gender equality without education, but expanding education opportunities for all can help stimulate productivity and thereby also reduce the economic vulnerability of poor households.

https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/education-pathway-towards-gender-equality

Every parent wants their children to feel confident and capable. If you’ve noticed your child has low self-esteem or tends to be overly fearful, your heart likely breaks for them. Most of us have been there and felt that way at some point, and we can relate with our children. Thankfully, there are several ways you can help encourage your child to feel more confident and comfortable with their own abilities.

https://a2zhomeschooling.com/concerns_homeschooling/confidence-building-ideas-for-your-homeschooler/

People thinking about homeschooling, or already doing it, may wonder if their child will miss out on the quality of education provided by trained teachers at school. But the available research shows outcomes of homeschooled students are either the same, or better, than those of their traditionally educated peers.

https://theconversation.com/homeschooled-students-often-get-better-test-results-and-have-more-degrees-than-their-peers-111986

It’s true that homeschooling has some upfront costs not found in public school education. However, there are also many ways homeschooling can be cheaper than public school, especially when you look at just how expensive public school is.

https://www.moneycrashers.com/homeschool-child-budget/

Online curriculum programmes and services range in price from a few thousand to over R20 000 a year. Some services include workbooks and software such as Microsoft Office. You will need to compare a few to see what they offer, the price and what is included in the price, to find the one most suited to your children and your budget.

https://www.1life.co.za/blog/save-homeschooling

Throughout our lives we should always be "Pursuing a Brighter Future." With the passing of one third of this year already behind us, now is as good a time as ever to think about and plan on how to make tomorrow and the future months and years ahead better than the past.

https://ehappylife.com/life-lesson/pursuing-brighter-future