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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.

 

Save time and simplify your homeschooling life...
Learn from experienced homeschoolers how to write your own curriculum.
It really is that easy!

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Back in print for a limited time only! Beverley's manual on how to write your own homeschool curriculum! $25

Getting Started with
Home Schooling:
Practical Consideration

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

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Perth HBLN Home Education Seminar 2008

What We'd Do Differently if We Could Start Again...

[see event details below article]

We began homeschooling way back in 1986 when April turned six... of course we'd been educating her since her birth but we didn't know that then. Roger was four and Thomas a couple of weeks old.

Like most families we started off doing what we knew best, what we knew would work: school-at-home. Robin and I were classed as 'bright students' at school, who 'should do well'. Despite our brilliant start, he failed university and I failed Matriculation! This usually surprises people - most assume we're tertiary educated. Well, you have to be tertiary educated to even think about homeschooling your children, don't you? ... Anyone can teach their children. Everyone has something of value that they can teach anyone. But homeschooling isn't just about teaching. It's about learning. And that was the first lesson our very young teachers - our children - taught us, way back in 1986.

How we start homeschooling our children usually looks nothing like how we finish homeschooling our children. That's how it was with us. When our youngest was in his late teens I rather belatedly discovered the Charlotte Mason approach to education, and more recently think that Enki seems to blend the best of the Steiner and Montessori approaches. I'm envious of new homeschoolers - there is so much experience to draw on and so many curriculum resources available specifically written for homeschoolers. It would be so cool to be starting out now!

At the seminar we're going to talk about what we'd do differently knowing what we do now. It's a tough topic and in our usual style we're brutally honest about our journey. We're not an ideal family, we're a real family. We can't go back. We live with the consequences of our actions. Our children live with the consequences of our actions. How does it all turn out? Is it what we wanted or expected? For some families homeschooling is over once their children become adults. I'm still asking questions about the educational process.

Some people may know of me as a natural learning advocate. It's an interesting concept and I've got lots of ideas about learning naturally. I like to think I have evolved a different definition of natural learning, one that puts the parent in the centre of focus along with the child. I'm no 'delight-driven' 'child-centred' natural learning proponent! But I am a fan of John Holt's writing on the subject of education, and you'll find that blended with my particular brand of conservative parenting style.

We'd like to spend some time talking about the role of fathers in home educating families. For more than a decade we thought that Robin's role was peripheral to our home education experience. Even now Robin isn't convinced that he had much to do with the education of his children, despite the very real evidence!

I think that we tend to undervalue the people resources around us as we clamour to access bigger and better material resources. Once upon a time education was very people focussed: we learned through talking and doing together: through first-hand, hands-on, primary experiences. Little children still learn like that. Big children can too. So can adults. Homeschooling takes us back to real, effective learning.

I wrote before that we're a 'real' family. Homeschooling was easy: five of us living together under the one roof wasn't! When times got tough, as they often did, friends would urge us to take a break, put the children into school. My health let us down all the time. We lived frugally through necessity. We burned the candle at both ends. We didn't cope. For a long time we felt that we were blundering around in the dark with only a pin-point of light to reassure us. Would we ever get there intact? Would our children learn to hate us for homeschooling them? Hmmm. It's hard talking about our sense of failing, but it's real, it happened, you'll feel like that too, and it's not the end of the world and it's not the end of homeschooling either.

Twenty years is a long time to get something right, to make it work and work well. We'd like to share with you the things that worked well for us. The things that made homeschooling easy, such as how to create an environment where learning happens effortlessly, without anyone even realising learning is happening!

We've got a lot to say about homeschooling and a lot of experiences to share. But our way is simply one way - it's really only our way. Your way will be different. If you come away from chatting with us with a few tips and ideas you can use on your home educating journey, if we can help you solve a few nagging problems, it will make our day.

We probably won't get to talk to you all individually, but please come up and introduce yourselves - that way, when we email I can (hopefully) put a face to a name and then we'll truly be friends!

cheers
Beverley (and Robin) Paine
http://homeschoolaustralia.com

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.

 

SEARCH this site:

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

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

HOW TO ORDER

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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.