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Homeschool Australia
Teach your children at home!


After 20 years of being a contact and support person
Beverley no longer takes phone call or email inquiries.
Please join one of her yahoo groups (see below) if you want
to know more about homeschooling or have a question.

 

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Getting Started with
Home Schooling:
Practical Consideration

 
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photos of children learning at home
photos of children learning at home
photos of children learning at home

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Deschooling Defined

© Beverley Paine

Deschooling specifically refers to that period of adjustment experienced by children removed from school settings. It also can include the process of deschooling parents; that is, the unlearning of concepts and beliefs about the nature and purpose of education. School based methods of instruction and thinking rarely translate directly into the homeschool, and where they are tried, often parents run into the same kinds of problems faced by teachers in schools! Children and parents need time to adjust to the new arrangement. Often this is best begun with a 'holiday' at home, a time to observe and record what naturally occurs in the child's life, and where additional resources are needed to introduce additional learning activities considered important and essential. It often takes many months, and sometimes even a year, for the process of deschooling to unfold. During this time it is a great idea to seek support from families who display a similar style of homeschooling to yourself.

Other Online Articles About Deschooling
Here are some other articles from around the web that discuss deschooling:

  • What is Deschooling ... by Pam, creator of the Living Joyfully website... "The day "deschooling ends" and "unschooling begins" won't be lit up in bright lights - there's no "magic moment". Life will just continue with the wonderful rhythm you've found, you'll see all the learning that's happening every day, and eventually you'll look back and realize "hey, I think we're unschooling!"
  • Deschooling For Parents by Sandra Dodd is a humourous and insightful piece about getting rid of our schoolish thoughts. At the bottom there are also more links to deschooling articles.
  • Deschooling: taking the school out of homeschool by Liza Sabater is a great article in which she looks in detail her family's deschooling process as well as discusses what she discovers along the way.
  • Disposable Checklists for Unschoolers by Sandra Dodd is a helpful article for those beginning unschoolers who are wondering how they will see progress without schedules to follow and lists to check-off and to whom the advice of "just hang out with your kids" seems far-fetched and somewhat frightening!
  • Rejecting a Pre-Packaged Life by Sandra Dodd is not about deschooling per se, but is about the paradigm shifts you are likely going through as you choose to start homeschooling. It was one of my first introductions to the idea of "joy" as a meaningful goal - even through our ups and downs the joy is always there and it is so powerful and uplifting - hence the name of my website!
  • Five Steps to Unschooling by Joyce Fetteroll again is not specifically about deschooling, but is a great article about the transition to unschooling. It details things you can be doing to help you progress through this exciting deschooling phase.
  • Deschooling by Pattie Donahue-Krueger. Excellent article which originally appeared in F.U.N. News in 1998
  • Deschooling , by Lee S. King That leads, also, to a page with lots of Christian unschooling links
  • Deschooling (author unidentified, but associated with *Kaleidoscapes*) Emphasis on "giftedness" and has an anti-Nintendo example, but still... if you're going to read lots, throw this one in there too.
  • Unschooling FAQ, by Amy Bell"People who have been in a traditional school situation often have to take a different approach to unschooling, especially initially. Traditional schooling can cause the loss of intrinsic motivation and joy of learning. The process of recovering those gifts is usually called "deschooling." It's the process of healing, learning to know oneself, and escaping the expectations and forms of traditional schools..."
  • Deschooling and Recovering from School
  • Deschooling

After 20 years of being a contact and support person Beverley no longer takes phone call or email inquiries. Please join one of her yahoo groups if you want to know more about homeschooling or have a question.

 

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Getting Started with Homeschooling - how to write your own learning programs
Beverley's E-books
Learning Without School - how 30 families homeschool
The Homeschooling Trail - Christian unschooling life
Learning in the Absence of Education - how we did it
Practical Homeschooling Booklet Series - your questions answered!
Educational Games Booklet Series - make learning fun!
Practical Homeschooling Language Development Series
Natural Learning Series
Homeschool Diaries
Ready to use Portfolios / Report Cards
Fridge Magnets - handy reminders!
Homeschool DVDs
Sample Learning Programs
Stock Clearance

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Home education is a legal alternative to school education in Australia.
State governments are responsible
for regulating home education.
Different states have different
requirements, however homeschooling
families are able to develop curriculum
and learning programs to suit the
individual needs of their children.
For more information:
Home Education Association


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photo of Beverley and Robin PainePioneering members of the home education movement in Australia, Beverley and Robin Paine are passionate advocates of true educational choice for families. They began homeschooling their children in 1986 and three years later started the South Australian Home Based Learners network.
Beverley wrote Getting Started with Homeschooling in 1995-97 and since then continues to write books and booklets on home education. She balances spending time helping home educators with working in her garden and renovating her home, as well as continuing to build her collection of writing on a variety of homeschooling subjects. Beverley maintains an extensive collection of websites as well as several Yahoo groups supporting families teaching their children at home. In 2007 Beverley joined the HEA and became a committee member in 2008: she also edits and produce the HEA Newsletter, HEA magazine, Stepping Stones for Home Educators, annual Resource Directory and other HEA publications. If you'd like to keep in touch with what Beverley is up to her in her life, sign up for the Homeschool Australia Newsletter or visit her Facebook page.