Single Home-Schooling mother duplicates to wholesome families

By Martie du Plessis-Dynamis Institute – February 2021

Many years ago, I became a single parent and responded to two years of begging by my 10-year-old daughter to be educated at home.

I was a trained remedial teacher and quite confident about the home educational journey, but I soon found out that not any curriculum was suitable, and I made a thorough study of all curriculums then available. www.christian-unschooling.com ,www.homeschooling-curriculum-guide.com

I decided to go for a more informal approach to suit my more random, daughter’s needs. In the end she matriculated through Cambridge, got a degree in Early Childhood Development, got married and is doing Uncapped Education with her seven children.  My daughter (36) calls it Designer Education.

I have been doing the work of Dynamis, now Dynamis Institute, for 22 years,  assisting home educating families. (www.dynamislearning.co.za).

We travelled throughout South Africa, visited the people in need of information about home education and supported home educating families.  My daughter Chamonix helped me in this work as part of her home education and character growth. We built a solid relationship with each other and with the people where we stayed.  When we started with the work, we showed people the various curriculum options, but later explained that the parent is the first and the best curriculum, which forms the ethos of the home.

In 2004 I had a very clear vision that the freedom of home educators will be challenged at some point and since then I have been guiding families to create a safe place of learning in their homes. Also, to celebrate the raw material of the child instead of just tolerating it and for young people to be self-working by the age of 14 -16 years.

In 2013 I realised that all families are not able to do home education and that more children need to be unbound from the expectations of a one-size-fits-all curriculum.  I realised that the vision to bring about freedom in education to the masses (a Nation) would just be too much of a task and I let it go.

However, in 2017 the name Uncapped Education set aflame my passion of many years to set adults and children free from restrictions in learning.

Dynamis changed to the Dynamis Institute with a new drive to duplicate my work and vision and the training of more families to support home educators in South Africa.  A nation is healed as families take up their sacred role.

  The emphasis of Uncapped is to remove the veil over the educator as well as the child, so that the child can reach its true potential in a spiritual sense too. The Uncapped Biomatrix is a tool for parents to advocate for themselves about what education is all about and what is in the interest of the child.  The Uncapped application is meant to give feedback on evidence of learning and in this way confirm that the child has learnt, and growth and skill development have taken place.

During the lockdown since March 2020, God stirred my heart not to give up on the big vision to bring hope in education to a wider community.  Therefore, I had to duplicate, and trained 20 Rooted families from March 2020 to March 2021.  I stayed with these families over the years when I travelled around South Africa to present seminars about homeschooling. They are families, anchored (rooted) in their identity in Christ, using educational principles that have been proven to be successful over many years.  (Research www.nheri.org)

These Rooted families are like Lighthouses, bringing direction, preventing families from stumbling and showing the way.  In 2021 twenty or more Rooted families will be trained. It will mainly happen online.  The existing Rooted families will mentor the new ones.

• These Rooted families help other families to protect the interest of the children. “The right to education is the right to develop all aspects of the human personality to its fullest extent”. www.right-to-education.org, www.pestalozzi.org.
• They help parents to protect the vulnerability of the child.
• They help parents to grow grit and resilience in their children.
• They support growth and network in different areas in the country.

A supporting system was put into place for families that are in need of assistance regarding the homeschooling of their children.  First both parents must attend an online seminar which is held monthly.  The father and mother need to understand the principles of true education.  Thereafter, families can book a personal consultation with a Rooted Family to get guidance on which approach will be most suitable for them.  Profile assessments are done for the whole family to determine the raw material.

Funds that are raised by online seminars are used to support marketing action, administration processes and the administrative personnel.   The rooted families receive their remuneration through consultation fees.  Rooted families also receive continuous support from management and other rooted families.  After a consultation, the families become part of support groups and homeschooling communities to give them further guidance.

Education should lead to fruitfulness, so the mission is even to address the 35,313% of unemployment in South Africa: this is called the Step-Up programme.  The same Uncapped principles will be used for youth and adult development.

The hope we have for Uncapped Education is to unite a critical mass of like-minded people who indicate that they are using a more informal, self-directed approach of learning. With this mass of evidence, we will, create an awareness to Government authorities that children do learn, though, not so restrictedly. Standardised testing should not be the only indicator of success.  Uncapped Education should be accepted as an alternative choice of education.

The LIGHTHOUSE vision advocates that home education principles have been effective over many years overseas and also in South Africa, but we cannot keep the lamp under the bucket.  The freedom of this revolutionised way of learning should be shared and can even rebuild a nation where hope and despair are evident.  The COVID-19 pandemic has added to poverty and insecurity in education and day to day survival.

Parents must pursue true learning, for example learning around the kitchen table, learning in nature or self-directed learning.  The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new understanding for this kind of learning with the realization that every child can learn, and all learning should lead to success.

Education must have a positive futuristic effect.

Jeremiah 29:11 says: “For I know the plan I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” 

“For the Lord is good and his love endures forever, his faithfulness continues through all generations” (Psalm 100:5)

Invest in such a way that your children’s children will benefit from your actions.