Welcome to The Educating Parent Beverley Paine's archive of articles about homeschooling and unschooling written over a period of 30 plus years

HomeAbout Blog Articles Curriculum Resource Directory Shop Kids Pages Facebook

Download our FREE The Educating Parent Resource Directories today! Plus... more FREE resources!

Free download a quick guide to getting started with homeschooling and unschooling by Beverley Paine The Educating Parent in this excellent Resource Directory

 

Free directory of Australian homeschooling and unschooling support groups organised by national, state and territories

 
Plan, record and report all in the one document! Always Learning Books planners available in each year level to suit your homeschooling needs, includes curriculum checklists
Australia's original homeschooling manual from veteran home educator Beverley Paine, how to write your own learning plan and curriculum to meet your child's needs
Let Beverley and friends help you design and write your own curriculum to suit your child's individual learning needs, learn how to prepare lessons, unit studies and more, record and evaluate your children's learning in this series of 3 parent workbooks developed on Beverley's popular homeschool manual Getting Started with Home School Practical Considerations
Introduction to
Home Education
  National and State
Support Groups
  Yearly Planner, Diary & Report Beverley's Original Home Ed Manual Series of How To
Parent Workbooks

Support Groups: National SA VIC NSW QLD TAS ACT NT
Registration Guides: VIC NSW QLD SA WA TAS ACT NT

Looking for support, reassurance and information?
Join Beverley's The Educating Parents Homeschooling and Unschooling Facebook online group.

 

Book Review by Beverley Paine

It Hasn't Shut Me Up

Wendy Priesnitz

"As it does for many women, motherhood was focussing my early political consciousness. It was helping me understand how the choices I make in my personal life are linked to those I make on a larger scale."

I suspect many women of my generation will identify with the many elements and themes running through Wendy's memoirs: I know I did. In places it was as though she was writing my life story, carefully pulling memories from my past and exploring my emotional wounds.

 

As a subscriber and occasional contributor to Life Learning and Natural Child , two of the excellent magazines she produces with her husband Rolf, I have known Wendy for more than a decade. For the past few years we've become friends, corresponding via email, sharing where we are at in our life journeys and comparing notes. Wendy is one of my mentors, one of my home education heroes. However, she's more than that; she is a trusted friend.

As I read Wendy's memoirs I am stunned at the profound wisdom rattling through the pages. It's brutally honest as all great memoirs ought to be, a process of critical self-reflection, someone looking for herself in the words of her poetry and in those that appear on the page as she writes, in the mirror that are the memories of her mother and her daughters. The sense of connected I feel as I read is immense. We are women connected by a common story: a story of motherhood.

With a few minor differences Wendy's mother could have been mine. Our childhood journeys resonate with similarities. I've found this echoed many times talking to other women, both younger and older. Few of us are able to disconnect from the need to blame the errors of others and identify and name the defensive reactions within ourselves to not only plot a different course but find the confidence to travel it. And feel and experience afresh again and again as though for the first time the many wounds we carry from our childhood, acknowledge their source, take ownership and move on. Wendy's level-headed analytical approach and attitude to life feed her strength and determination and gives this book its steadfastness. Or perhaps it is her stubbornness to right the wrongs of her upbringing? I find the same drive motivates me in the choices I make about parenting, lifestyle, supporting others and creating change. Our mother's errors, their insecurities and the way they dominated and plagued our emerging personalities as children, become a boon to their grandchildren as we seek alternative pathways and approaches to life. A gift, unwelcome then, possibly unwelcome now: I wish life had been different for me but I would not be who I am today without this particular start. I think Wendy feels the same.

Wendy and I share another thing in common, not only are we daughters but we have daughters who are now adults. Home educated adults. The first modern generation grown up without school. Are our daughters different in any way from their peers? Did home educating them make a difference? And most important of all, did it make a difference in our relationship. Women like Wendy and I are terrified of making the same mistakes as our mothers, or becoming like them. It Hasn't Shut Me Up is as much about Wendy's relationship with her daughters as it is her mother. Wendy offers an interesting explanation for this connection: "... we mothers likely have three generations of cells in our bodies - our own as well as some from our mothers and some from our children."

The deeply personal becomes the stimulus for examining the complexities of life on the broad canvas of community experience. Wendy's insights are born from thoughts that weave a connected web between the personal and communal: there are patterns in what happens in everyday life that tell wider stories with important lessons from which we can all learn. I love the quiet confidence in her writing, which is particularly strong in her poetry.

This is a book for mothers and daughters and grandmothers and women (for we are all daughters). It isn't a book which will make you feel good or reassured, or give you tips about what to do or not do, though there are plenty there if you want to read it that way. It is a deeply personal sharing of one woman's perception of her own life and how it has unfolded within the embrace of generations of women. But more than that, it is a story of motherhood and the important role it plays in our lives.

"Bringing a child into this world teaches us - perhaps in a way nothing else can - about the emotional, social, cultural, economic, educational and environmental responsibilities that are part of being human."

back to Book Reviews

Was this article helpful? Was it worth $1.00 to you? Your gift of $1 or more helps to keep this site operating offering encouragement and reassurance to families wanting better outcomes for their children.

Thank you for your gift contribution!

Beverley Paine with her children, and their home educated children, relaxing at home.

Together with the support of my family, my aim is to help parents educate their children in stress-free, nurturing environments. In addition to building and maintaing this website, I continue to create and manage local and national home educating networks, help to organise conferences and camps, as well as write for, edit and produce newsletters, resource directories and magazines. I am an active supporter of national, state, regional and local home education groups.

"You've been an inspiration to me, I love the way
you really listen to people."
Vanessa

"Whenever I read your writing I always come away
with increased confidence in my ability to provide and
share a wonderful learning journey with my family!"
Davina

"Your guidance, understanding, support and words of
wisdom changed our lives. We now offer support and
organise many homeschooling events for others."
Lesley

"Thank you once again for your prompt and friendly service.
I am convinced that your books are going to add
quality and peace of mind to my journey of teaching my kids
at home! Just from studying your website, until almost
2am in the morning, I 've been encouraged!"
Louisa

"Thank you for all your many,many reassuring words
over many, many years. You probably don't know exactly how valuable you are to the Australian Home Education community. I've been reading your stuff for maybe 8 years or more now. And I'm very grateful."
Gythaa


CLICK HERE if you want to learn
how to write your own education plans
to suit your unique children's individual learning needs?

Or you are looking for quality curriculum and teaching tips...

Welcome to the World of Home Education
and Learning without School!

We began educating our children in 1985, when our eldest was five. In truth, we had helped them learn what they need to learn since they were born. I am a passionate advocate of allowing children to learn unhindered by unnecessary stress and competition, meeting developmental needs in ways that suit their individual learning styles and preferences. Ours was a homeschooling, unschooling and natural learning family! There are hundreds of articles on this site to help you build confidence as a home educating family. We hope that your home educating adventure is as satisfying as ours was! Beverley Paine

3 ESSENTIAL STEP BY STEP GUIDES

Getting Started with
Home Educating Series of

PARENT WORKBOOKS

#1 Create Your
Own Curriculum

#2 DIY Lesson Plans
& Unit Studies

#3 Recording and Evaluation Made Simple

$10.00 each (includes postage)

let experienced home educators Beverley, Tamara and April walk you through HOW to create a learning plan that builds on solid foundations that works for YOUR family AND ticks all the boxes for home educaton registration with part 1 of this getting started with home educating serioes of parent workbooks, Create Your Own Curriculum!
Let experienced home educators Beverley, Tamara and April walk you through HOW to create a learning plan that builds on solid foundations that works for YOUR family AND ticks all the boxes for home educaton registration!

To see the full range of Beverley Paine's books on homeschooling, unschooling and natural learning visit Always Learning Books

Tap into Beverley's experience
through her books

"Your books, your blogs helped me beyond words... they helped me to find comfort in knowing it is ok to choose exactly what is best for my family." Nisha

"Your books and information are mind blowing and already I am feeling good about this new experience." Diane

"Your guidance, understanding, support & words of wisdom changed our lives." Leslie

"I feel specially inspired by Beverley's words and, the more I read her comments, the more inspired I feel, since my need for support, respect for different parenting styles, and information are fully met." Marijo
purchase Beverley's practical and common sense books on homeschooling and unschooling
Connect with Beverley and ask questions
through her online The Educating Parents Homeschooling and Unschooling Facebook support group
.

The information on this website is of a general nature only and is not intended as personal or professional advice. This site merges and incorporates 'Homeschool Australia' and 'Unschool Australia'.

The Educating Parent acknowledges the Traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Owners, the Custodians of Australia, and pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people viewing this website.

Advertise on this site.

say goodbye to home education registration stress with this ultimate rego bundle from Fearless Homeschool

complete comprehensive step by step program that teaches you how to craft your ultimate homeschool

make homeschooling a lot easier, zero to homeschool's excellent course is here to help

Australia's best home education consultant, let Tamara Kidd guide and help you prepare your home education registration application or review

Twinkl downloadable Home education resources helping you teach confidently at home

Online science lessons for primary school aged home educating children

30% discount for purchases from ReadyEd Publications when you use the code 'homeschool' at  the checkout

reset your mindset for homeschooling success with deschooling essentials a quick course to help build your confidence as an educating parent

200 pages of templates, planning pages, tables, prompts and record sheets to organise your whole year!

subscription video art lessons by Australian artist

Australia's premier online annual conferences, lifetime access to video and audio recordings, freebies, notes and associated resource guides.

EVERY SUMMIT IS UNIQUE!

$29 each 2023 2022 2021
$25 each 2020 2019 2017

"Biggest and best Aussie homeschool event of the year!"

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.

animated Australian flag

Without revenue from advertising
by educational suppliers and Google Ads
we could not continue to provide information
to home educators. Please support us by letting
our advertisers know that you found them on
The Educating Parent. Thanks!

Support Centre
Contact Us | Join a Support Group | Beverley's Books | Resource Directory | Blog | Donate

About The Educating Parent
Beverley Paine | April Jermey and Always Learning Books | Advertise with us

Sitemap

What is Home Education Why Home Educate Getting Started & Registering Different Ways to Home Educate
Life as a Home Educator Resources & Support Teens and Beyond Curriculum and Teaching Tips
Unschooling & Natural Learning Travelling & Home Educating Record Keeping Children's Pages

animated smiling face Thank you for visiting!

Beverley Paine, The Educating Parent
The opinions and articles included on this website are not necessarily those of Beverley and Robin Paine,
nor do they endorse or recommend products listed in contributed articles, pages, or advertisements.
This website uses browsing cookies and conducts other means to collect user information in order to display contextual ads.
Text and images on this site © All Rights Reserved 1999-2023.