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Getting Started with Home Schooling: Practical Considerations
 
 
Does Homeschooling Work?

© Beverley Paine

The number of research studies demonstrating the effectiveness of home learning for academic and social success increase each year. For many families the unintended outcomes far outweigh perceived academic benefits. These following homeschooling outcomes, combined from national and international research including John Peacock's major Australian study, The Why and How of Home Education in Australia , have been consistently listed:

  • closer family relationships, with children playing a more positive and significant role in family life, and an emphasis on family making skills;
  • parental personal fulfilment and increased learning opportunities for parents as well as children;
  • greater understanding of personal responsibility;
  • natural fostering of co-operative and team behaviours;
  • an empowering process for both parents and children;
  • greater freedom from arbitrary time limits such as terms and year levels to pursue educational activities and interests;
  • increased opportunity for one to one interaction with more skilled peers or parents, which lead to cognitive challenges and gains;
  • children are able to ask more questions, with more time allowed for answers to be found, leading to increased motivation for learning;
  • children and parents engage in more complex language in the home learning environment compared with classroom settings, and this improves the intellectual and language development of children;
  • children have been consistently shown to rate equal to or higher than average on standardised achievement tests in the USA;
  • home educated children's self concept has been shown to be significantly higher than schooled children, indicating that home education does not socially deprive children but produces socially well adjusted young people;
  • children are less peer oriented;
  • increased involvement in community activities;
  • greater attainment of independent learning skills, self-motivation and organisational abilities.

Schools promise of these outcomes but fail to guarantees achievement for all students. Schools continue to fail students, citing many excuses - family problems, individual learning difficulties, lack of adequate resourcing, under-financing by funding bodies. Homeschooling families find failure an unacceptable outcome. The drive to succeed in the homeschooling endeavour is very high, with parents continuously searching for better and more successful methods, resources and outcomes. Unlike teachers, parents are directly accountable to the homeschooled student, in an immediate way, every day. Problems with education are not left to fester indefinitely. Homeschooling allows considerable flexibility in delivering excellence in education - flexibility schools can't match.

See the following articles for additional information :

You may like to read a couple of frequently asked question responses Beverley wrote in reply to some emailed questions:

If you want to know more about how Beverley and Robin homeschooled their children their book, Learning in the Absence of Education (a title picked by their then ten year old son) contains many essays on how their children learned to read, write, spell, how the family managed daily life, dealt with socialisation issues, etc.


Click here for a full list of articles and pages on this website.

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Since 1989 Beverley Paine has
steadfastly promoted and supported
home education as an educational
choice for Australia families.
Her books and websites aim to
demystify education, gently deschooling families so that they may meet their children's individual and unique
educational and developmental needs.
Her honesty, insights and wealth of experience continues to bring hope, reassurance and confidence to families. Beverley publishes her recent articles,
tips and links to resources in
her quarterly magazine, Homeschool~Unschool~Australia!

If you like what you
read here, you can
order Beverley's books!

  Choosing Homeschool Curriculum
Getting Started - how to write your own learning programs
Natural Learning Answers
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
Sample Learning Programs
Stock Clearance

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Beverley's LATEST book
was LAUNCHED at the
Unschooling Conference!

 

Please note:
the information
on this website is of a
general nature only and is not intended as personal or professional advice.



Join the conversation with Beverley on Facebook:
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Conference/Workshops

Spend a WEEK
with Beverley Paine at the
Annual National Home Education CampFest
Workshops for parents, activities for children, time to relax and chat to us about our homeschooling experiences.
March 2013

Consciously Parenting and Natural Learning Conference
August 2012
Ballarat VIC 8-10th
Byron Bay NSW 11-13th


Camp With Wings for Teens

Life Learning Magazine link
Please join one of my Yahoo Groups if you want to know more
about home education or have a question.
Home education is a legal alternative to school
education in Australia. State and Territory governments are responsible for regulating home education and have different requirements, however home educating families are able to develop curriculum and learning programs to suit the individual needs of their children.

Questions about homeschooling or wondering
what to teach? See the Site Map for our
full list of articles.

Interested in homeschooling, but still not sure?
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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 was a committee member for three years during which time she edited and produced the HEA Newsletter, Stepping Stones for Home Educators magazine, 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 Homeschool Australia Facebook page.
The opinions and articles included in the suite of Homeschool Australia websites are not necessarily those of Beverley and Robin Paine,
nor do they endorse or recommend products (other than their own) listed in contributed articles, pages, or advertisements.
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