Sue Dicke Private tutor and homeschooling tutor

As the end of year approaches, and Facebook is flooded with pictures of children holding trophies and certificates, I want to acknowledge the parents of the children who are not the ones being recognised.

In a system that measure success by A’s and first team appointments, number of goals scored, provincial colours, and scrolls on blazers, please remember that there are unrecognised achievements that bring an equal, if not greater sense of pride, and I want to acknowledge those.

So this is a shout out to the kids who struggled every day to get to where they got to by the end of their year.

To the girl who dug deep each day to find the courage to get up and face a school where she was bullied, or surrounded by peers who found her weird and teased her, but managed to get there every day, congratulations to you!

To the boy who, no matter how many extra lessons, how many hours of perseverance, or how many E’s on their test papers, managed to achieve a hard-earned C and was super thrilled with that, bravo.

To the teen who is struggling with body image, but put on a brave face every day and smiled through the uncertainty, you’re amazing.

To the artist who creates amazing work, yet crashes and burns on their maths exams – you have talent that can’t be measured by a standard test and we are in awe.

To the musical prodigy who can’t learn and recall when the war started, who was president when, and what the capital of Nepal is, your musical ability makes our hearts sing.

To the ADD student whose brain functions so fast that writing a coherent essay is just not your thing, you will change the world and we are grateful for minds like yours.
To the linguist who can master language and pronunciation, can speak in many languages, but can’t spell to save his life – you have a gift and will find your place in the world.

To the child who can never go to a sleep over because they are afraid of wetting their bed and ashamed their peers may discover their secret, it will end, your time will come and you are brave.

To the dancer whose body understands music and seems to take on a life of its own, but takes forever to read and needs extra time for tests, you are mesmerising.
To the child who has to bravely get up and go to a separate venue to write tests, while everyone else sits in the same room, but does so with your head held high, we salute your courage.

To the child who did not pass the year, and has to valiantly watch your peers go up a grade while you face the embarrassment of having to stay back a year – you will be fine and you will thrive.

To the child who freezes and feels physically ill when forced to stand up and speak in front of the class, yet has the most amazing empathy, you will always be loved because people feel better for having you in their world.

To all of you who face challenges that mean you will probably never be recognised by traditional measures, remember to hold yourself to a different standard. Remember that the talents you do have, are unique and amazing, and you should feel proud with or without a certificate or award.

Remember that school is possibly not where you will shine, but shine you can.
Remember that these tests and exams will measure you on one level, but that they cannot tell us everything about you.

And to their parents, as you sit there and maybe feel a little sadness or envy that it is never your child on stage, celebrate their uniqueness. No one has ever asked me in ‘real life’ if I got a certificate for diligence, or a scroll for academics, or where I placed in the grade.

No one has ever said, “When I grow up I want to be the kid who had the most certificates and awards when I was at school.” And no one, ever, has been remembered for a piece of paper that tells us how amazing they are.

In the real world, we are measured by different standards, and all of us can succeed in our own ways.

So whatever your child achieves, celebrate them, but more than that, teach them to celebrate themselves by their own standards. If they are the dux scholar, let them be proud of their own work ethic, not the certificate.

If they do win sportsman/ woman of the year, ensure they are proud that they did their best, not that they beat everyone else.
If they scraped through when no one was sure that they would, be sure that they see that as the accomplishment it is because of the work they put in.

The world can be judgemental enough without feeling like they aren’t good enough because they are holding themselves up to ‘traditional’ measures.

Instil in them a sense of intrinsic self-worth and motivation, and it won’t matter if they stand on that stage or not, get a medal or scroll or an honours blazer or not, because they will always be honest with themselves about their own efforts and successes, and their sense of value will come from within.
Congratulations. All of you.

This! 👇👇👇

Vacancies for afternoon tutoring clients from Grade 1 to Grade 4 in Somerset West. (English, Maths and Art)

Homeschooling outings 2014- 2016

some moments captured from our homeschooling outings

some activities that were purposed for my homeschooling toddlers

Welcome to my Private Tutoring and Homeschooling page!

Here's a short bio about me:
I am a creative, unique, kind, caring, enthusiastic, fun, expressive, outside of the box, committed, loyal, loving, arty, fun, dedicated, diligent, mature woman. I love being a mom to a wonderful daughter who is a university student. I enjoy classical, Christian Contemporary and instrumental music. I love to draw, paint, and do a wide variety of crafts and hobbies.

I am a teacher by profession with 30+ years of experience in the formal education sector. I have tutored privately since 2013. I taught English to a foreign student for one year and thereafter I have individually tutored a number of primary school children ranging from Grade R to Grade 7 learners in the comfort of their own homes. I have also had the amazing experience of homeschool tutoring for two dynamic families in a full-time capacity.

I am passionate about teaching children! It is important to me to come alongside each child as a unique, wonderful, special being, to help them to grow in self confidence, courage and to nurture them along their journey of life. Enabling people to learn to read and improve their reading skills is important to me. I believe that readers are leaders. I have focussed on the strengths of each individual while encouraging and assisting them to improve on and gain mastery in areas of weakness. This is determined by establishing a partnership with the parent, the teachers and most importantly the child. While my expertise lies within the foundation phase and visual arts, I have successfully tutored primary school from Grade R to Grade 7 and language tutoring of Grade 8 & 9's. I am the first to admit that tutoring maths beyond grade 5 is best left to someone else.

Since 2014 I have homeschool tutored for two dynamic families in their homes. I was appointed to take primary responsibility for the education and growth of the children for the work-from-home moms so they could focus on building their businesses.

In my first homeschooling appointment I used my own eclectic curricular approach making use of a wide range of sources, including my own resources. We started from the level the children were functioning on and worked from there. The content of our curriculum included language (English and Afrikaans, reading, writing, spelling and grammar, handwriting (printing and cursive and typing preferences were used to determine individual needs and focus) For maths we used the Platinum Caps curriculum and Singapore maths. Science, geography, world history, arts and crafts, cookery, study skills, time organisational skills and a variety of co-curricular sport activities as well as specific interests the children made up the rest of our curriculum. The boys did golf, horseriding, gymnastics, soccer with outside instructors.

In my second and most recent appointment a variety of curriculums chosen by the parents of the children. After a morning walk I read Bible stories and we explored Christian Character Development lessons with discussions and application activities. The parents elected to follow the Classical model for educating their children. CLASSICAL CONVERSATIONS was the curriculum they selected which comprises of Timeline and World History, Science, Geography, English Grammar, Latin, Maths facts and the arts. To support this curriculum they used MathUSee and Singapore Maths and a variety of other maths resources. I used the municipal libraries to source reading material. I read stories to them and listened to them reading. They loved to write and illustrate their own stories. We did oral presentations, phonics and spelling rules, grammar, comprehensions and creative writing. The eldest child also followed a grammar and writing curruculum called Essentials and IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) which forms part of Classical Conversations curriculum. Arts and crafts formed a central part of our lessons. They attended classes in electronics, woodwork, choir, guitar lessons and fitness conditioning as additional activities in groups with other homeschoolers. We were very actively involved in our homeschooling community. The children had many socials where they played, learnt cool stuff, body surfed, built sandcastles, ate ice-cream, had picnics at the nature reserve and swam in the river, rode bicycles, and so much more. The biys were very sporty and played team cricket and rugby at a local primary school and club baseball. With the toddler I did fun art and craft activities, took him to toddler
storytime at a local municipal library, read stories and played with him. We all had loads of fun, and laughter. Most mornings we went walking around our neighbourhood before we started our homeschooling day. We had a structure and daily routine for most days. Some days we let the children direct their schedule where they pursued things they were interested in doing.

My homeschool tutoring hours were typically from 08:30 until 14:00 Mondays through to Thursdays. On Fridays we attended a community homeschooling day from 08:30 to 14:30. School and public holidays were for the most part observed unless otherwise discussed and decided by the parents and myself. I tutored school going children in the afternoons between 14:30 & 17:30.

Remuneration was privately discussed and contractually agreed upon by the homeschooling parents and myself. For individual private after school tutoring I charge R200/hour. For more than 1 child per family I charge a reduced fee of R170/hr per additional child.

I have my own reliable transport and a valid code EB driver's licence.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may still have.