Sue Wight - Home Education Network

September 3, 2015

Educating Dyslexics

Dyslexia exists in the home educated population just as it exists in the school population. If your child doesn’t seem to be picking up reading, give some thought to whether this is a problem. Late reading is actually common in home education (see our Learning to Read section for details). If the child is learning in other ways, perhaps sit back and wait a […]

September 3, 2015

Dealing with Opposition

This is never easy. As soon as you pull your children out of school, it seems as though your parents, your friends, your neighbours, even the local check-out operator suddenly have an opinion on how children should be educated and most of them won’t match with your concept of home education. Take a deep breath. There will be opposition; it is just a question […]

September 2, 2015

But What if my Child is Dyslexic?

For many home-educating families and prospective home-educators the fear of dyslexia is a significant problem. “It’s all very well to wait for spontaneous reading, but what if my children are dyslexic?” they might ask. “Won’t they be better off in school where they will get proper help?” Dyslexia is a type of specific learning difficulty in which the person has difficulties with language and […]

September 2, 2015

Home ed on a budget

By Sue Wight It doesn’t have to cost an arm and leg So you’ve decided to home educate, but now you are worried about how you will ever afford all of those flashy curriculum resources, especially if home education means living on one income as it does for most families. The good news is that home education does not have to be expensive. You […]

September 2, 2015

Grandparents You Too Can Enjoy Home Education

As grandparents, you naturally want the best for your grandchildren. You want them to be happy, well educated and to have every chance at a good life. You have no doubt worked long and hard to provide a good education for your own children and are therefore puzzled and afraid when you hear that your grandchildren will not be going to school. You are […]

September 2, 2015

Life’s Greatest Adventure

By Lyn Saint ‘How can I give my child a high level of education when I didn’t do very well at school myself?” is not only one of the most asked questions, but many adults today assume that, just because they failed or dropped out of school themselves, that they are uneducated. As a notorious school failure and drop-out, these were also my thoughts […]

September 2, 2015

Socialisation

By Sue Wight By far the most frequent question about home education is: But what about socialisation? In order to answer this question, it is important to look at what people mean when they ask about socialisation as the question can be taken in more than one way. Will the children have friends? Home educating families go out of their way to ensure their […]

September 2, 2015

University without VCE

By Jim Batt Yes it is possible, although not easy, to get into university without completing (or even starting) VCE. I have spent only a very insignificant amount of my time in high school but still wished to further my education at a university level. I began by undertaking the FAST course (Foundation Access Studies) at Ballarat University. This course is aimed at mature […]

September 2, 2015

Studying through Open University

By Sharee Cordes I think it all started for us when Jayden became interested in linguistics. I was searching on the internet for some way to help him find out more about linguistics when I came across the Open Universities Australia website. Unfortunately they don’t offer any undergraduate linguistics subjects, but there were so many other interesting sounding subjects on the list, so I […]

September 2, 2015

Postcards from Alumni

This is an excerpt from Otherways issue 128. It features a sample of former home educated students and details the pathways they took to university and other further education. Alumni Postcards

September 2, 2015

When Home Ed Kids Grow Up

By Katharina Russell-Head For those of us who went to school it is almost impossible to imagine what it must be like to grow up outside the system. The closest most of us get is to remember, or to observe, the experience of early childhood. Babies and small children do not take lessons in asking for food, or observe timetables in learning how to […]

September 2, 2015

Homeschooling Works

The past twenty years has seen a phenomenal rise in home education across the world and the general public’s familiarity with it has moved from almost complete ignorance to one of widespread, if largely uninformed, awareness. This change has been stimulated by, and reflected in, heightened media interest with feature articles on home education appearing in national magazines, newspapers and on television and radio. […]

September 2, 2015

A Summary of Australian Research

There has always been a percentage of Australian children educated at home. This was quite common in the nineteenth century with one historian stating that 19% of children were being taught at home in 1871. Summary of Australian and New Zealand Research on Home Education. maintained by Glenda Jackson B.Ed, MEdSt and PhD. Here we take a look at some of the major studies. […]

September 2, 2015

Home Education and Children with Disabilities and Diverse Learning Needs

By Susan Wight The research on home educating children with disabilities is very positive, showing advantages both academically and socially. An American study by Stephen Duvall is one of the most thorough to date. It concluded that home education offers more of the kind of education that children with disabilities need most and that they benefit greatly from the individualised attention that home education […]

September 2, 2015

Home education worries

What problems can arise? You are seriously considering home education but wondering, “There must be a downside that they aren’t telling me about.” Of course home education brings its own problems – but doesn’t parenting in general? Life is an inherently challenging process and we are not promising you a bed of roses! Home education will neither solve all your problems nor mean you […]

September 2, 2015

Worried about Socialisation

New home educators and those enquiring into home education often fear that socialisation will be a problem but it seldom is. Home educating does not have to mean your children are isolated – stuck at home all day with no contact with people outside their family. Joining HEN will get you ‘in the loop’ for home-ed events, camps, excursions and so on. Your kids […]

September 2, 2015

Decompression & Transition

When kids, especially teenagers, come out of school, there is a process they need to go through in order to work through the stress of school and to regain their love of learning. Many experienced home educators say to allow one month of recovery time for every year of schooling that the child has had. Leaving school can be a turbulent time. We […]

September 2, 2015

Hard times

By Susan Wight I rarely doubt that home education is a better way for children to learn, but I have to admit there are times when it all seems too hard. I guess this happens to all of us now and then. Some days I feel discouraged and dispirited with home education and I fear my children are just not becoming the kind of […]

September 2, 2015

Dealing with Doubts

Today my ten year old son made me proud. Not because he and his team had made it to the basketball grand final but because he acted in a way that showed he had character. When we entered the stadium, all the grand-final-hype was obvious, with streamers and screamers filling the air. Here and there, mascots paraded while banners called for victory. As we […]

September 2, 2015

Dealing with Burnout

By Carol Naigon Question: I’ve been homeschooling for 10 years now. I have five children ages 3-18 years. My question is, how do I effectively homeschool when I no longer have the heart for it? I am burnt out, tired and just plain bored of it. Yet, my conscience won’t allow me to imprison my precious children in the typical school setting. Burnout is […]