HomeScope
Is your curriculum closest to RSA, USA or UK curriculum?
Love2Learn is an international curriculum. The scope and sequence of the curriculum in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada was researched and evaluated prior to the compilation of our curriculum. Love2Learn is truly international in flavour. However it culminates in Cambridge A-Levels (similar standard to the Advanced Placement in the USA) and considered to be of the finest school leaving qualification in the world today. Love2Learn also covers South African History and Geography as an additional module. We have Love2Learn families in over 19 countries
What Grades do you cover?
Love2Learn spans the years from kindergarten through lower primary, upper primary, lower high school and upper high school, culminating in Cambridge A-Levels. At this time we cater for children from the age of two to three years old through to O-Levels (referred to as IGCSE) equivalent to Grade 11. New registrations for As-Level, equivalent to Grade 12/Matric, will be accepted as of October 2009 for the January 2010 academic year
How does Love2Learn Curriculum compare with other Curricula available from overseas?
Ivana who is the author of Love2Learn Curriculum can share the following with you…
I wrote Love2Learn Home-schooling Curriculum many years back in order to “polyfilla” several holes I experienced home-schooling our own girls, and using a range of international curriculum materials. We do not wish to speak negatively of any curriculum out there, as we believe they all have their place and the Lord uses them all. So I will do my best to present to you the aspects of Love2Learn which you may find absent in other curricula, as fairly as possible.
Firstly, as far as we as a family (and curriculum provider) are concerned, home-schooling is not merely an educational alternative, but a ministry of discipleship to our children. We want to raise God-honouring children, who love and serve Him wholeheartedly, joyfully and passionately. Now, forgive the phrase, but a bible-story-a-day and a few Christian biographies scattered here and there was truly not my idea of a discipleship programme. I wanted a far more comprehensive tool with which to disciple our girls. So that was the first area I set about addressing. Then of course was my need for a comprehensive Character development programme. We believe that the development of Christian character is not something left to chance, but the careful, gentle and purposeful honing of positive character traits. I found this absent in the curriculum I used, and ensured that it formed a very important part of our bible programme. We offer daily reading of God’s Word, Inductive Bible Study Skills, Christian Biographies, Scripture memorisation set to music in some Cores, Prayer, Praise, Worship, Hands-On Bible Activities, Christian Character programme's, Faith development programme's and far more involved studies later on. We are not affiliated to any specific denomination. We believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of the Scriptures.
Secondly, my children knew more about the Rocky Mountains and George Washington than Mandela and the Drakensberg. J They were blissfully oblivious of the morphology, rivers, mountains, farming, settlement patterns etc of our own Country…and hey…who was Shaka or Mandela for that matter. As proud South Africans our heritage is important. But I didn’t want to fall off the other end of the see-saw and forget about International History. I believe in the chronological systematic teaching of history, complete with timelines and map work. And so our history programme consists of a comprehensive International History Programme covering all periods from Ancient through to 20th Century History as one component and South African History as another.
One of the things I enjoyed in one particular Curriculum was their literature. Love2Learn too offers a very extensive literature programme for each successive core. Sections of our literature dove-tail the history - as there is no better way to learn history than to “live it” through the literature. We also include award winning novels, twaddle-free wholesome literature, biographies, poetry and classics (both modern and old).
Next on the list was the need to satisfy my kinaesthetic younger daughter who couldn't’t sit still for a moment and our visual older daughter. If I could tally up all the hours I spent in the library, trying to research and tack on “hands-on” activities to one of the imported curriculums we used, it would amount to an absurd amount or time! Very few curricula (if any) cater for all three learning styles. (I couldn’t find one!) So I decided to create a curriculum that would simultaneously cater for Auditory, Visual and Kinaesthetic learners every lesson, every day for every Core subject. For example, a kinaesthetic learner is happy to learn about volcano’s, but they want to MAKE one. A visual learner wants to see a full colour picture of a volcano…and more than this, they want to see live footage of Mount St Helens erupting. An auditory learner wants to hear an interview with a person who was there at the time…or they want to hear themselves relate the incident (i.e. act out what they learned). So I proceeded to incorporate daily activities suiting all three learning styles into the lesson plans. This means that every day, Love2Learn families are learning out of full colour, living books, acting out, narrating, watching video clips or related internet material and making and doing with their hands.
Now there was yet another hole I had to fill…that of lack of output. If an education official had to visit our home and say ‘what did you do all year?’ I would have to reply… “See all these lovely books we bought overseas…well I read them aloud to my children.” Just imagine the reply: “That’s lovely… and what exactly did they DO in response to these books?” Lack of output was always an issue for me. And more so the lack of age-differentiated output. So I was always adding on to the Instructor’s guide things for our children to do specifically in terms of written work…and then trying to make the written work age-appropriate. It just took so much TIME! So this was obviously an area addressed by Love2Learn. Every day, our Engine Room (Teacher’s Guide for each subject), will tell you what a Grade 3 child should do versus a Grade 5 child (for example.)
More than this, I personally was very taken with Charlotte Mason’s methodology; and made a full study of her six volume series, and read endlessly and voraciously every piece of material I could find…this research extended over some seven or eight years. I thus decided to ensure that Love2Learn incorporated Charlotte’s principles in as pure a form as possible, remaining true to her philosophy of education.
I simultaneously wanted to incorporate the rigor and thoroughness of a classical education. Fortunately there is a 90% overlap between Charlotte Mason principles and classical education. Love2Learn includes Latin studies from Grade 4 and Logic and Critical Thinking from Grade 0 through to high school, culminating in studies of Traditional and Material Logic. In additional formal courses in Aristotelian Rhetoric are undertaken in the upper high school years.
Then there was the fact that many subjects that we offer as stand-alone very comprehensive subjects were lumped together, not very satisfactorily, by other curricula. For example history and geography are grouped together by our competitors. We consider map-work to be but one facet of geography and consider it grossly insufficient to simply cover map work and consider ourselves to have completed geography. So we set about creating a very comprehensive Geography programme for every Core including astronomy, geology, physical geography, settlement and population geography etc.
While we also offer a number of historical novels as part of our literature programme, we also offer a more formal study of history, systematically, period by period and so History is a totally separate programme too. However the two interlink at the appropriate points of timelines and map work.
Then Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Anatomy were grouped together under the topic of science by international curriculum providers. We approach this differently and offer Physics, Chemistry, Technology, Botany, Zoology, Human Anatomy and Physiology as stand-alone subjects in the higher grades and Science, Biology, Technology and Anatomy as stand alone subjects in the lower grades. Where our competitors were prescribing only one book to cover ALL of this in the lower grades, we supply a fully comprehensive range of books (all full colour), together with the lesson plans and even software at times, sometimes involving five or six books for a subject. We do not believe in evolution and our lesson plans are built around beautiful Christian Resources wherever possible. (Apologia in the higher grades.)
Music and Art were considered subjects one tacks on as “enrichment” by the curriculum I originally used. At Love2Learn we offer these as a standard part of our Core as we believe they are very important to a well-rounded education, and in fact our students from Core 4 upwards are able to write UNISA exams for music. This is very much a Charlotte Mason and classical education principle.
But there were STILL issues. I had an issue with my children completing the final years of the imported curriculum and ending school without a recognised school-leaving certificate. In South Africa, a new law is being passed which stipulates that you may no longer gain access to a University via the avenue of an “Entrance Exam”. The principle being that you need to gain a recognised Matriculation pass which entitles you entrance to a University in South Africa. This is why Love2Learn offers Cambridge International Examinations in IGCSE and ultimately AS-Levels and right up to A-Levels. We offer a far more extensive, (and more beautiful, full-colour etc…) range of books for these senior levels than the colleges. We have a range of staff that are extensively qualified and have been teaching Cambridge specifically for years with enormous success even at A-Level standard. (In fact two of our staff members had students who were admitted directly into second year dentistry at Wits University this past year, second year psychology and second year literature respectively. In addition our laboratories and practical's run very differently from our competitors, who believe that a day or two’s crash course is sufficient in a lab. Students pay the price for this in examinations, particularly at A-Level standard. We offer weekly labs, or a crash course for our international students (we have students who study with us who reside abroad)… but our crash course is far more substantial than you will find elsewhere.
Our Cambridge courses include more (and if we may humbly say… better) books, assignments and tests marked externally by our lecturers, a phone-in help-line, laboratories and practical's, we begin our curriculum a year earlier, so this affords us several months of extra time (having already finished the syllabus a year early) to hone exam technique, read up on more case studies, and in general push for a distinction at the Extended Level. We also offer pre-exam classes which are attended in the north of Johannesburg, as well as weekly attendance at practical's if a student lives close by.
As far as tests and exams go, in the lower grades there are several (voluntary) tests to be taken. For example, in Grade 6 Maths there are 27 maths tests over a 36 week school year. There are module tests at the end of each section for subjects such as Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Economics, and Technology etc… From Core 8 onwards a Love2Learn student taking six subjects for IGCSE for example, would write over 72 tests and exams before they go near a Cambridge examination sitting! All of these are marked externally. In the early high-school years, tests are prescribed specifically for the sciences, and for mathematics, but the memorandum is also provided, so the parent is able to mark the paper with ease.
Finally, while we offer Cambridge qualifications, the Department of Education has vetted Love2Learn and has mentioned that our standard is a minimum of two years ahead of the SA School system (and more.) We have similarly received reports from Departments of Education internationally stating that Love2Learn is the most comprehensive curriculum they have seen in twenty years of assessing home-schooling resources.
What subjects do you offer in pre-school / kindergarten?
Love2Learn Curriculum offers a very broad, rich and varied curriculum via a comprehensive range of resources from Grade 00 – Cambridge level IGCSE (Grade 10 & 11) and ultimately As-levels (Grade 12) and A-levels (Grade 13).
Our pre-school offering covers from age 2 upwards and is a combination of books as well as games. For ease of reference, please refer to our Price List.
In Grade 00 we offer the following subjects:
- Foundational concepts
- Early Numeracy
- Early English, Phonics, Reading and handwriting
- Gross and Fine Motor Development
In Grade 0 we offer the following subjects:
- Foundational Concepts And Early Handwriting
- Mathematics
- Software
- Perception
- Phonics and Reading
In addition, in our range of Core 0 subjects (ages 2 – 7) we offer:
- Bible and Character
- History
- Geography
- Botany and Zoology
- Science and Technology
- Human Anatomy
- Arts & Crafts, Hands-On Activities
Which Core 0 subjects include Engine Rooms?
We offer Engine Rooms (lesson plans) for Core 0 History, Geography and Science only. When Ivana first developed Love2Learn Curriculum, there were no plans to offer Grade 00, Grade 0 and Core 0, because we felt that children of this age should be playing, rather than be subjected to “formal education” so-to-speak. Over time, many parents who had older children who were using the “older” Cores and Grades approached us and requested Ivana compile resources for the younger siblings. For some time Ivana resisted for the reasons already given, but eventually she decided to compile a list of resources across these ages, but again there was no intention of ever producing any Engine Rooms; rather the idea was that parents would be able to use these resources as and when their children showed any interest, as opposed to this being a formal education sitting. i.e. your child walks in carrying a grasshopper, you go to your Biology book on insects; a helicopter flies overhead, you go to your book on airplanes and helicopters etc. In time, parents again pressured with a request for Engine Rooms for the Core 0 subjects. To cut a long story short, Ivana agreed to develop Engine Rooms for the three Core 0 subjects already stated, only, whilst at the same time incorporating Arts and Crafts and Hand-on Activities with these subjects.
What is the difference between Grade subjects and Core subjects?
The Cores and Grades are very different. Grade Subjects is the term we’ve given to subjects like Mathematics, English, Afrikaans and Latin; and also to Learning to Read and Learning to Write for younger children. Core is the term we’ve given to the “content” subjects like Bible and Character Development, History, Geography, Botany and Zoology, Human Anatomy etc. Grade subjects need to be purchased per child, whereas Core subjects can be purchased for an entire family to share where there is not more than a three year age difference between the oldest and youngest sibling. For more information on how to choose a Core for your family, CLICK HERE.
To what extent is Love2Learn Curriculum available in Afrikaans?
Many of our Love2Learn families are Afrikaans speaking. Ivana originally wrote Love2Learn in English. When it became apparent that many South African families wanted an Afrikaans version, she set about trying to replace all the English books with the Afrikaans equivalents.
Firstly, we begin a careful search for a replacement title. The new, replacement book is subjected to much scrutiny! It must pass our test of being a “living book” – that is a book that makes you WANT to turn the page, that excites the imagination! If it passes this test, we know there is a good chance you and your children will love it. But this is not enough. It is then examined to ensure that it fits the scope-and-sequence of the affected subject. Next it has to meet National Curriculum Statement requirements. We examine the typeface and layout of the book and ensure that it is age-appropriate. We also endeavour to weigh the book against the Word of God as given to us in the Bible.
These are just a few of a whole host of other criteria that the new title has to meet. It is not a simple case of substituting ANY title! We take much love and care in selecting excellent material for this curriculum… and just as a chef lovingly selects the best ingredients for his recipe, and a good meal takes time to prepare, so the perfect substitute title may take a while to find!
When it comes to finding good English books, there is no shortage, but unfortunately the same does not apply to Afrikaans books. There are many Afrikaans books, but not all of them pass the test described above. When Ivana put together the Afrikaans curriculum she decided not to compromise on this. As an example, if a subject prescribes 5 English books (in the English Curriculum) and we could find only one or two or three good “living” Afrikaans books to put in their place, we did just that and have kept the balance of the books in English. Most of the English books do not have the exact Afrikaans translation. Our Afrikaans offering is thus a combination of some subjects that are “volledig Afrikaans” e.g. Afrikaans Eerste en Tweede Taal, Wiskunde, Lees, Lewensvaardighede, Ekonomiese en Bestuurwetenskap; some subjects that are a combination of Afrikaans and English resources, e.g. as already mentioned, a subject may be made up of five books –two of which are English and three Afrikaans etc. (this details is demarcated on the Afrikaans Price List – the key is at the top of the first page); and finally certain subjects may be entirely English due to the fact that we have not been able to find suitable Afrikaans title replacements for our English titles.
We do not currently have an Afrikaans Engine Room for the Afrikaans Curriculum – the Engine Room is still in English.
We do also cover this as part of our Terms and Conditions. For reference, here is the extract:
Note to Afrikaans Love2Learn Users:
Please note that certain subjects in each “Kern” contain a combination of both Afrikaans and English titles; and that the Engine Room currently refers to the English titles. Some of the English books referred to in the English Engine Room have been removed and replaced with Afrikaans titles. Page numbers in the Engine Room correlate with all the English Titles only. All Engine Rooms, unless otherwise stipulated, are currently only available in English.
Our website order Price List carries a “key” description to guide parents in the make-up of each of the Afrikaans subjects offered.
In regard to how to incorporate and schedule those Afrikaans books that are not included in the Engine Room, we would suggest that you take the number of pages in that book and divide it by the number of weeks you have in your Engine Room for that subject and then cover that many pages in that specific book, once a week during that subject.
One more important factor to bear in mind is that Love2Learn Curriculum eventually culminates in Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), viz. International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) for Grades 10 and 11; and then As-level for Grade 12 (recognised by every University in South Africa). All these subjects (aside from Afrikaans of course) need to be written in English. Consequently, if you plan to home-school right through to Cambridge IGSE’s and A-levels, then at some point you will need to make the switch to English in order to give your children adequate time to prepare and be comfortable in English.
What Afrikaans programme does Love2Learn use - is it one that you have written or is it from e.g. ACE, Mart Meij etc.
We use our own.
What School leaving certificate does Love2Learn offer?
Through Love2Learn Curriculum we offer the Cambridge University International Examination (CIE). We currently offer up to Cambridge As-levels (Grade 12) which affords a student a Matriculation Exemption that is recognised by every University in South Africa. We are investigating being able to extend this offering for certain subjects to Cambridge A-levels in 2010 (These qualifications are recognised in 150 countries worldwide.) Subjects currently offered up to As-Level are: Mathematics, English (First Language), Afrikaans (First and Second Language), History, Geography, Physics, Biology, Economics, Accounting and Computer Studies. CLICK HERE.
If my child wishes to do Computer Studies for the IGCSE years, would he need to complete Core 2, 3, and 4 in Computers?
No. Computer Studies can be started from scratch, with no prior experience in computers.
How long does a Core last - is it a year, or can it be utilised for longer?
All the Core subjects from Core 1 onwards (as well as Core 0 History, Geography and Science) are supplied together with what we call an Engine Room (Lesson plans) that guide you through essentially each page of each book for each lesson for each day for a total of 36 schooling weeks of the year. You may well take longer (or shorter) to complete it if required. This does not however apply to Disciplined Studies (Maths, English etc.) we encourage you to ensure that you complete these annually. For more information on how to choose a Core for your family, CLICK HERE.
What is the attraction of Love2Learn’s Core Subject offering?
Here is some general background to the terminology “CORE” and DISCIPLINED STUDIES (Grade 8, Grade 9 etc..) It all begins with the problem that many home-schooling families face…how to teach several children of different ages, all at the same time. Now I know this doesn't’t apply to your situation right now, but here is the background to help you understand these terms.
SCENE 1
Picture the scene: A mother is trying to teach history at the same time to her four children aged 4, 6, 8 and 10 years respectively.
To her four year old she says: “Today we are learning about old cars.”
To her six year old she says: “Today we are learning about the French Revolution.”
To her eight year old she says: “Today we are learning about World War II.”
To her ten year old she says: “Today we are learning about Ancient China.”
Imagine the chaos! The mother is trying to split herself into four pieces, trying to deliver a comprehensive lesson about four different aspects of history at the same time! She ends up feeling frazzled. Her children have learned nothing at all and everyone is frustrated and demoralized.
Enter the solution: The One Room Schoolhouse
SCENE 2
Picture the scene the One Room Schoolhouse way: A mother is teaches the science of light and lenses at the same time to her four children aged 4, 6, 8 and 10 years respectively.
To her four year old she says: “Today we are learning about light and lenses.”
To her six year old she says: “Today we are learning about light and lenses.”
To her eight year old she says: “Today we are learning about light and lenses.”
To her ten year old she says: “Today we are learning about light and lenses.”
It looks better already, doesn’t it?
The mother would begin by reading aloud from the full colour Love2Learn Curriculum book on the subject of light and lenses. The children would look at the colourful pictures together and discuss their understanding of the topic. Next the whole family would make a pinhole camera together. Then they would log onto the internet and view a short movie on the topic.
Next each child would have the opportunity to do a verbal narration on the topic.
To her four year old she says: “you can play with the pinhole camera we made today.”
To her six year old she says: “draw a picture about what you learned today and write one good sentence about it.”
To her eight year old she says: “.Draw a picture about what you learned today and write a short essay explaining how light passes through a lens”
To her ten year old she says: “Draw a picture about what you learned today and write a comparative essay on the similarities and difference between the functioning of a pinhole camera, and the inversion of images on the retina of the human eye”
The whole family has completed the same lesson, but each child has interacted with the material at their age-appropriate level. The mother is sane and the children have each learned something. The younger children have benefited from the “trickle-down” effect due to the participation of their older siblings. Everyone is happy.
The one-room schoolhouse is not an invention of Love2Learn Home-schooling Curriculum, but has existed for years. This allows for effective, simultaneous multi-level teaching.
There are certain subjects that can be taught very effectively in the one-room schoolhouse style. These are Bible, History, Geography, Botany, Zoology, Science, Technology, Human Anatomy, Economics, Literature, Music, Art, Life Skills. However there are some subjects that cannot be taught this way because they are sequential. You cannot give Grade 5 maths to a Grade 1 child for example. The subjects that cannot be taught in the one-room schoolhouse manner are called DISCIPLINED STUDIES.
Love2Learn Curriculum is designed in the form of a wagon wheel. The hub of the wheel represents a single Core Curriculum used to teach your children, all at the same time subject to a maximum five year age difference!
The spokes of the wheel represent the individual Disciplined Studies selected for each child according to their grade level. Certain subjects simply cannot be taught to the entire family at the same time because they are linear and sequential in nature. These subjects are Mathematics, English, Afrikaans (if resident in South Africa), Learning to Read and Handwriting.
What do I do with a public holiday ? Do I insert the missed day so that Friday falls off the edge, and then Friday is always a week behind in the engine-room? Do you have a simple approach ? I need to cover the material in the year.
The minimum number of homeschooling weeks you are required to complete by law is 36. However, many homeschoolers do 40 weeks or more. This means that you can carry over public holidays, days when your children are ill, days when you decide to go on an educational outing etc. This allows you the flexibility. Allow us to share with you some of our own personal experience gained through home-schooling for more than a decade...
For me…
flexibility = life and joy
and
rigidity = burnout
in a homeschooling context.
We consider the 36 weeks as rungs of a stepladder. Each time we complete a week's worth of work we have climbed another step of the ladder. However, it isn't necessary to complete each week's worth of work on a Friday! We can complete it on a Tuesday or Wednesday for example. If you consider the weeks simply a gauge of where you are in the curriculum and how much further you have to go before you have completed a year's worth of work, you will find it far easier and far less stressful!
Alternatively, another family we know very well, chooses to double-up their work each time there is a public holiday. But this means they have to do school all day to catch up the missed day, and finish at 5pm, or they do school over the weekend. (Personally, we feel this is very over the top, as the work covered in our curriculum is way ahead of what is required anyway. The objective is that our children Love2Learn!)
Is a second language still a compulsory requirement for entrance into the South African Universities?
We would direct you to the Universities themselves as things are constantly changing and so unfortunately we cannot speak on behalf of the Universities. We would suggest that you simply “Google” the relevant faculty at your preferred University to see what their policy is.
Is Love2Learn SAQA accredited? Do you have to be?
The short answer is No, Love2Learn is not SAQA accredited and No, it is not a prerequisite. SAQA Accreditation applies to colleges and universities that issue qualifications. The only qualifications issued by Love2Learn are the final school leaving qualifications which are the Cambridge IGCSE and As-Level qualifications. As these are issued by Cambridge International Examinations Board, part of the University of Cambridge in England, accreditation requirements rest with them. Cambridge As-Levels are recognised by every single University in South Arica and full A-Levels in 150 countries worldwide! SAQA accreditation is thus irrelevant. If we were issuing Undergraduate or Postgraduate degrees, SAQA would apply.
