Calendar of Dates

This is an updated calendar of dates after we decided to break earlier for Christmas and return earlier in January. The changes are highlighted in blue.

Early Bird Registration Starts 1st of April

No ... this is not an April Fool's joke - Early Bird registration for current Dreaming Spires students is opening on 1st April, to book places on courses that are due to start in September.

Don't be a fool! Sign up early!!

If you're not a current student, your Early Bird registration period begins the 15th of April and lasts only two weeks.

 Why sign up so early? Because April is the only month where you get two great deals:

1. Fees will be held over from 2016; after 30th of April, the prices WILL increase!
2. You are able to spread the cost over five months instead of paying the full price at once!

Pop on over to our Timetable tab and see all the courses we've got on offer this year: the oldies-but-goodies, four years of English with a composition option; our new star of 2016, Ancient History; and the new kids on the block, Spanish (2 courses) and Biology.

Go ahead and spread the word ... referral discounts are unlimited to the tune of 100% savings, so get out there and share!!!

Revision Crammer is giving away a FREE REVISION GUIDE

Hey, everybody -- if you have a student who is doing the CIE iGCSE 0500 English Language exam in the near future (that's the higher tier option), then you'll want to get on board the raffle for a free copy of my revision guide.

If you're not doing it, could you please share this giveaway on your social media? 

The link below will take you to the giveaway site and tell you what you need to do, or go to our Facebook page to enter it from there: 

https://www.facebook.com/dreamingspiresrevision/app/228910107186452/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Club Openings in American Lit

Early Bird Sign-Up for September Starts Today!

From the 18th of April until the 30th, Dreaming Spires is offering incentives to sign up early for next September's courses.

Dreaming Spires is an online provider of challenging courses in English and Classical Civilisation. Run by homeschooling moms who are specialists in their fields, we give you the personal touch because we are exactly where you are in terms of our own children's ages and college aspirations.

 Here's what you get if you sign up before April 30th:

1. the chance to reserve your place for only the £15 registration fee -- deadline for full payment is 1st September;
2. the chance to pay via monthly instalments, to help spread the costs of the course;
3. a 10% discount off the main course, even if you're already receiving the 50% sibling discount!

Current students have already been able to reserve their places for the previous weeks, so some of the courses are filling up fast -- don't delay in contacting us and getting your name down while space is still available!

Registration form is here.

Come visit us on 

• Facebook page = https://www.facebook.com/dreamingspireshomelearning
• Twitter = @dreaminspiresHL
• Instagram = dreaming_spires_home_learning

Hey, we're famous! The Examiner Publishes an Interview

Word is getting out about Dreaming Spires Home Learning, and the online news network, The Examiner, contacted us for an interview.

Here's the link, where you'll find out more about our background, our vision, and our future. Have a look, and find out why we're growing so fast while staying true to our Charlotte Mason roots!

http://www.examiner.com/article/about-dreaming-spires-home-learning

"Importance of Routine" -- Part 2 of Transitioning Your Teen to Secondary (Home)School

This is the second post in a series about transitioning your teens to secondary school. It is the first of two parts about teens and routine.

Your teen's transition to high-school level learning
can leave him feeling out of sorts.

In this first post about routines, I’m actually going to talk about life routines in general, rather than the specifics of a studying routine.

Life routines are those rhythms of your daily, weekly, even monthly lifestyle. As a home-educating family, it’s highly likely that your studies just fit among these routines anyway, and for that reason, I want to look at the whole picture before narrowing the focus to education.

Any new change or introduction to one’s family is disruptive to the current routine. A new baby, for example, requires a new pattern to your lifestyle. It’s also helpful to the baby to establish some kind of schedule for him or her.

We recently got a puppy. Our routine has changed, and we spend a lot more time in the back garden now, holding a little bucket and spade for quick clean-ups. We’ve also changed our read-aloud times to be those when the puppy is most likely to be curled up for a morning nap.

Transitions require new routines.

The transition to secondary school, too, is an important time in a family’s life to re-think patterns, priorities, and activities. Like babies, teenagers are going through a period of huge changes -- in their bodies, their emotions, their brains.

Their need for regular rhythms is crucial in a wide variety of ways, but two interesting ones are: routines help manage stress and thus, studies show, decrease incidence of illness, and they also help the brain increase in its executive function.

Executive function is about problem-solving, managing time, remembering details, communicating, and gaining the kind of maturity that’s needed for navigating the adult world. Repeating patterns, as you probably know, helps to strengthen the brain’s “wiring”, so having a regular routine will help a teenager lay down these important patterns in his brain.

For example, if my children know that they need to finish their morning chores before formal school-time starts at 10 am, then they have two choices: dawdle and potentially lose a privilege, or whiz through their work quickly and, with their spare time, do something enjoyable like listen to music. This is the same every day, and they can either get more efficient at the routine and have more fun, or suffer the consequences they’ve brought on themselves.

Let me encourage you, then, to look at the whole picture of your teen’s lifestyle right now. If you are ready to move toward a higher level of studies, then it may be time to find the routines that are already part of your day, and build on them.

For example, maybe you already spend some time in structured learning in the mornings. Building on that foundation, you could now add an extra hour in the afternoons for a bit more study. It may mean a re-shuffle or re-direction of afternoon activities, but within a short space of time, your teen will have formed a new habit of concentrating on books in the afternoon.

One final point: routines, as I’ve said, are a whole-life pattern, and for that reason, I encourage you to keep a regular rhythm going into the evenings. More importantly, I highly recommend that it is inclusive of the whole family, so instead of having teens drift off into their rooms for electronics or social media, keep everyone engaged together for some of the time.

Don't underestimate dinner-time talk.

Sally Clarkson, author of Educating the Wholehearted Child, has credited the success of her now-grown children to their regular discussions at the dinner table, more so than any books or exams or courses that they took. There is a huge advantage to your teen’s problem-solving skills in the habit of dinner-table chat – not to mention, strengthening the family – so I hope that you will build this into your teen’s new routine.

Finally, sleep. I probably needn’t remind you that a teen needs a lot more sleep than he/she typically gets. For that reason, keep in mind that a whole-life routine continues all the way until his or her head hits the pillow at night.

At a decent hour, of course!

They're growing! They need sleep!

Next week, this series of transitioning teens to secondary school will cover the topic of a routine for studies.