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

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

 

Free directory of Australian homeschooling and unschooling support groups organised by national, state and territories National and State
Support Groups

 

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
Yearly Planner, Diary & Report

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

Homeschool Course for Parents

this Always Learning Year 7 Plan is everything you need to get started a comprehensive collection of curriculum aligned resources and links to activities, lesson plans and unit studies for your year 7 homeschooling student
Homeschool Learning Plans
go back to The Educating Parent home page click here to learn more about what The Educating Parent offers to help you start and continue your awesome homeschooling or unschooling adventure click here to subscribe to Beverley's substack blog with new entries added every other day click here to join the largest Australian online homeschool community The Educating Parents Homeschooling and Unschooling Facebook group

Homeschooling and Feeling Lonely or Isolated?

© Beverley Paine

Often when homeschooling my children I would feel isolated and lonely. I was never alone - I had the company of my three wonderful children all the time and my husband most days. We were always busy, building and learning and gardening, looking to squeeze an extra hour or two from every day. Yet still the sense of isolation would creep into my life.

My loneliness and isolation stemmed from not being able to talk to people about worries and fears. I found that most of the issues that cropped up in daily life I solved, or didn't solve, on my own. I longed to talk things over with other people, to listen to their opinion without being ear-bashed about what I should or shouldn't do...

Often my issues or worries were so different from those of my friends that I couldn't talk to them. The same went for my parents and in-laws. If I looked like I was struggling with issues they'd advise me to put the children into school, like any other 'normal' family.

Like many, many other homeschoolers I searched for like-minded homeschooling families, hoping to find a niche of friends that could build a sharing network. Few families homeschooled back then and most of the time my friends lived 60 - 120 km from home, so visits were rare and STD rates meant casual chatting on the phone never happened either.

And then along came the internet and email and suddenly I could communicate cheaply whenever I needed or wanted to... But it's not the same as sitting in the garden on a sunny day with a close friend or group of friends, sharing time and helping each other find solutions.

I am ever so grateful for the wonderful network of good friends I belong to on the internet - even now when our homeschooling years are far behind us. We are all so busy and rarely write, but we know we care and share. And Facebook is beginning to change the way we communicate.

Homeschoolers are different and it can be hard to cope with feeling so different from our neighbours and peers. I found it hard to socialise with families whose children went to school as so often the discussion would leave me questioning my conviction to homeschool. Especially if my friend's daughter was doing something exciting and special at school, or was learning something I wish my children had access to...
And then there was the surreptitious testing of the children: a question here or there asked of them to assess their 'level'. Sometimes it became too draining and we wouldn't bother going out for a while.

I believe it is important for us to recognise these feelings of isolation and work out what we truly need to do about them. Sometimes I would need to simply accept them. Sometimes I would need to work on the communication in my marriage. Sometimes I would need to reach out and express an irrational fear to a close friend who would give me a hug (or a virtual hug). And sometimes I needed to change my routine, add a little variety, do something different, to help me change my perspective on life.

Browse our comprehensive library of articles!

keep up to date with new posts to this website daily by clicking here to subscribe

Support Groups: National SA VICWANSW 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

Need a ready made homeschool learning plan in a hurry for your homeschool registration? Try one of ours!

Need a ready made homeschool learning plan in a hurry for your homeschool registration? Try one of our Always Learning Books homeschool year level learning plans, packed with links to FREE lesson plans, unit studies and activities for each curriculum subject area, hundreds of suggestions, use what you want, only $18

Want to learn how to write your own education plans to suit your unique children's individual learning needs?

itap into Beverley's four decades of home educating experience and learn how to write your own homeschool curriculum and learning plans to suit your child's and your family's individual needs, a complete how to homeschool course for parents in 3 self paced workbooks each focusing on a different aspect of home educating, planning, recording, evaluating and creating lesson plans image shows 3 workbooks, plus samples of pages, and 3 children walking in bushland

The Educating Parent acknowledges Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present.

click here to become a Fearless Homeschool member giving you access to all past summit workshops as well as exciting new content and webinars, online discussion platform, and more

Twinkl downloadable Home education resources helping you teach confidently at home

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

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

go back to The Educating Parent home page click here to learn more about what The Educating Parent offers to help you start and continue your awesome homeschooling or unschooling adventure click here to subscribe to Beverley's substack blog with new entries added every other day click here to join the largest Australian online homeschool community The Educating Parents Homeschooling and Unschooling Facebook 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 opinions and articles included on this website are not necessarily those of Beverley Paine, The Educating Parent and April Jermey Always Learning Books, nor do they endorse or recommend products listed in contributed articles, pages, or advertisements on pages within this website.

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!

Affiliate links are used on this site that take you to products or services outside of this site. Beverley Paine The Educating Parent and April Jermey Always Learning Books assume no responsibility for those purchases or returns of products or services as a result of using these affiliate links. Please review products and services completely prior to purchasing through these links. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question before purchasing or signing up.

Text and images on this site © All Rights Reserved 1999-2025