Home ed done properly: what does that mean?

  You might have had someone say to you that home education can be okay, as long as it’s done ‘properly’. But who defines what ‘properly’ means? Who gets to determine what a ‘proper’ education looks like for individual children? Why is one person’s ‘proper’ better than another, when children are unique? Home ed advocates will likely say that an ideal education is tailored

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Structure and Home Education

There are many reasons to incorporate structure in your home education life. Common reasons include: Children who need a framework in order to feel less anxious Parents new to home ed who need reassurance and an element of familiarity Children who need help with executive functioning skills Many people might think home ed structure would replicate school; timetables, set lesson times, scheduled breaks, but

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VHEAC Mark Bachman Otherways Issue 170, November 2021
HEN News

The Victorian Home Education Advisory Committee

[Image description: graphic showing text information about the article. Text reads VHEAC, Mark Bachman, Otherways issue 170, November 2021] Mark Bachman served as a home education representative on VHEAC from 2018 to 2021. In this article, Mark reflects on his time on the committee, and the significance of VHEAC for the Victorian home education community. For more information on VHEAC, please see HEN’s VHEAC

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HEN News

The Rise and Rise of Home Education

Nationally, the number of students registered for Home Education has more than doubled in the last ten years. HEN’s Kirsty James was interviewed on ABC radio about the rise on 2 February.  The annual reports of state regulatory bodies provide registration figures as at 30 June each year, and strong growth can be seen across each jurisdiction:   Students Registered for Home Education Date

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HEN News

Home Ed Survey Results 2021

HEN surveys provide the best Australian data on the Who, How and Why of home education. Since 2015, this data has proven enormously useful in accurately representing our community both to government and in the media e.g. by exploding a myth of widespread non-registration. One of the most interesting of this year’s results was that home educators become less structured over time. There has

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Concerns and Confidence

Home Education in the Digital Age

 Annie Regan Digital technology is one of the many tools we use for home education and it has made our life and learning easier, and expanded our world.  Finding Information: We often look up information on the phone or computer when we are wondering who, what, why, when, or how. Sometimes we have a discussion first and then search to find out more detail

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Home Ed Stories

Learning without judging

Annie Regan Last night I watched a Transformers movie.  Liam and Tony were watching it and I was half paying attention and half doing other things (which is the way I watch most TV), and I was getting tired and sat down for a few minutes and watched a bit of the movie without distraction. I really really loved it.  I had planned to

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Advice for Home Educators

Challenging Stereotypes

Kirsty James We like to laugh about the stereotypical home educated kid: those poor unsocialised darlings who will never get a job, make friends, or learn how to line up. However, I think the more dangerous stereotypes are the ones against which we measure ourselves.  When you read HE blogs or articles, it is easy to feel that everyone else is doing a better

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Concerns and Confidence

Why Begin Home Ed in High School?

Heidi McCormack Why? I guess the first thing most people want to know is why we started home educating, and why now? That’s an easy and a hard question to answer. Easy because once I knew this was right for us, it made perfect sense. Hard because it was quite a journey to get here. As I’ve aged, I’ve become more self aware and

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Concerns and Confidence

Six Months – What I Have Learnt So Far

Pamela Uckerman On the first day of the school year in 2019, when my boys were entering grades three and two, I dropped them at school, went home and cried. After six blissful weeks of summer, the complaints about school and the horrible mornings were back. They attended a beautiful Montessori school and we had made a lot of sacrifices to keep them there.

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Home Ed Stories

Unlearning…. A Journey

Lyndall Thomas So much of our homeschooling journey is about learning. But for me, it’s also about unlearning.  Unlearning is an academic concept about undoing the bonds of institutionalised learning. It’s a very close cousin to deschooling. You might have been engaging in unlearning without even knowing it. You might have chosen it with all of your free will behind you. Or, if you’re

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Home Ed Stories

What does your Day on the road look like?

Linda Ford On June 12, we were on Day 2 of our 1000km road trip to Armidale in northern NSW. Two of my older children are studying there at the University of New England, and I was taking my five youngest up to visit them.  The day started in a caravan park in Forbes. Isabelle announced that it was three weeks until she turned

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Advice for New Home Educators

Annie Regan Choosing to home educate can be a daunting decision. Whether you are doing it for philosophical or lifestyle reasons, or as a result of the school environment not working out, it is a choice that is outside the norm. You may have lots of home educating contacts already, or you may not know anyone who does it. Either way, you will be

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Advice for Home Educators

Starting Home Ed During the Pandemic

Welcome to all of those new families considering home education, or who have joined the community during the pandemic and have had little chance to see home education at its best. Normally when we join a new community, we have time to observe from the sidelines. It’s a chance to work out the dynamics and behavior expectations of the group. Many of you have

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Advice for Home Educators

Working Together

Catherine Durrant I recently watched a segment on The Project about Unschooling. Overall, it was very positive towards home education and the families in the segment were very articulate and inspiring.  However, towards the end an education expert, Adam Voigt, commented that home education is ‘missing the opportunity to learn cooperatively with other people, that in the future people need to work out significant

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Advice for Home Educators

I Will Never Homeschool

Mairi Girgis. I was never going to “homeschool” my kids myself. I didn’t research home education before I started. When I started I had a lot of misconceptions, I didn’t think I’d have the patience to teach my children, and I was looking forward to having all my children in school and going back to study and work.  I distinctly remember attending a school-parent

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Concerns and Confidence

Then and Now

Faye C Ahh, those early days of my family’s home education journey! I had our Happy Homeschool House all planned out about ten years ago— something along the lines of perfectly co-operative children who would happily sit down and complete ‘work’ without a problem. My two children were going to be the poster children for home ed and beautiful sibling relationships. Too easy! Of

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Advice for Home Educators

Reviews

2021 has seen a surge in Victorian registrations for home education, alongside significant challenges that have curtailed many of our activities and opportunities. As a result, it’s likely that some of those who receive a notice of review from the VRQA will be concerned about whether you will have enough content to pass a review. A few review facts: 10% of registered homeschoolers are

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Exploring Options for the English KLA

  In schools, English is often taught in isolation: a series of disjointed exercises in writing, spelling and grammar. In real life, English is about communicating our thoughts and ideas, often relating to work, interests and information sharing. When we change our focus from the subject of English to the task of ensuring our children can communicate, it makes English less daunting. Most parents

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