|
Five hours a day of instruction?
© Beverley Paine, Nov 2007
Five hours a day of instruction?
My initial response to this requirement often asked of home educators by educational authorities is - what's really needed, 'instruction' or 'learning opportunities'?
Five hours of instruction may seem onerous but five hours of learning opportunities is more than achievable. Most homeschools do that without much effort at all.
Don't forget that the five hours of instruction that a child receives in school also includes being instructed to take out her books, move from one area to another, go to lunch, play games, stop talking, etc. Classroom management involves a great deal of instruction. The learning opportunities embedded within this instructional time is limited.
By comparison, consider how many opportunities exist for learning in a homeschooled child's life. He is given instructions throughout the day, all of them relevant and meaningful to his personal life, with immediate outcomes that he can further reflect and learn from.
From the minute he gets out of bed to the minute he climbs back in to go to sleep a homeschooled child encounters context rich learning opportunities.
Consider the daily chores and the necessary daily tasks your child must perform to stay healthy and happy - these are all essential parts of his education. It's worthwhile spending some time to analyse each to see what curriculum subjects - skills and content - are naturally and easily covered.
Feeding pets, walking the dog, cleaning out the pets' cages... there is a huge amount of health and science packed into these examples. Children don't need lessons, they need information, advice, simple achievable instructions, pertinent feedback and encouragement.
Personal hygiene - washing his hands and face, cleaning his teeth, dropping his dirty clothes in the laundry basekt, brushing his hair and applying sun-screen - are natural learning opportunities covered in the curriculum subject Health and Personal Development. We don't teach our children the importance of these everyday matters in discrete lessons, they are learned gradually over time by reinforcement, patient explanation of reasons and growing responsibility and understanding.
Summer presents additional challenges for rural folk like us: we run through
our bush fire plan every year and the poster on the wall was designed and made by my youngest son many years ago. The curriculum subjects naturally covered here include Health, Society and Enviroment, Technology, Science, and Language.
Everyday life at home is packed with moments of learning and instruction!
When asked what time my children started home educating every day I'd reply, "About 8am, usually before breakfast." What time did they finish? "Around 9pm, at about bedtime, often after watching a documentary or two on the telly, or having played a card or board game with their parents." That's about 13 hours of education a day.
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.
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
|
|
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
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!
|
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
|
 |
|
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!"
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.
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.
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!
|
About
Thank you for visiting!