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Reflecting on How We Learn At Home
© Beverley Paine I once wrote about our delight the day our children cooked a wonderful feast for us on our wedding anniversary. We were amazed by the quality of the meal and the team effort. It is easy to see how scaffolding, situated learning, zone of proximity (gee, you can tell I've been reading John Peacock's thesis can't you?) helped to mould these wonderful cooks. I can also understand the gentle role Robin and I have had in setting the stage for values and attitudes, which help to produce such magnificent results. Maybe Thomas was right when he said "You know, Mum, we cook nice meals because you cook nice meals." But it still doesn't really take into account the unseen, unspoken, unprovoked background learning that just happens. I am fully convinced now that education is just so much hoo-haa, a distraction, something we do instead of getting on with the job of simply living... I never taught me children to cook, they simply absorbed it, and they picked up far more along the way, because the 'interference', the distraction of needing to know how to do these things for reasons other than plain and simple necessity, wasn't there. It seems to be a complete and huge combination of things, this learning process. I can't really look at one thing and say that it is responsible for the success we see in our children. And our children don't exhibit this success or their full complement of skills on a daily basis. Watching how my children learn, trying to pick out how it is happening, is very interesting. I rarely have much direct input into their lives now, as I sit and type just about all day long. A word here and word there, a look in on them, mostly to remind them I love them. The boys are truly self directed and self motivated. 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.
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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
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. ![]() 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 "Biggest and best Aussie homeschool event of the year!" Home education is a legal alternative Without revenue from advertising |
Beverley Paine, The Educating Parent
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