Advice for Home Educators

Homeschool Camps – Camps are possibly my favourite thing about home education

Annie Regan I love the deep, lasting friendships that my kids make, the sense of community and inclusivity, getting to know other parents and kids, having lots of time to relax, exploring new places with friends, eating ice cream, going back to the same places and developing traditions, or going to new places and discovering new things – every camp we’ve been on has

Read More »

Homeschool…Highschool?

By Pamela Ueckerman One of the most frequent questions I get about our journey through home education now that my boys are a tween and a teen—aside, of course, from the inevitable and soul-wearying question about socialisation—is, “Will you home school through high school?” It’s a valid question and my answer is always, “If that’s what they want,” which is usually met with more

Read More »

Thinking of buying an all in one curriculum? What you need to know.

After ‘How do I register’, ‘Should I use (insert the name of any well advertised homeschool product here)’, is the question I see most in different Facebook groups these days.  It’s most commonly asked by parents who are moving to home education from school because of a precipitating event, School Can’t or because their child is disengaged. When compared to home education, schools are

Read More »
Advice for Home Educators

Am I a Bad Dad?

Am I a Bad Dad? By Ash B I’m a pretty simple, average dad, no expert, but like so many of you, I want the best for my family. The hassles of school had caused me to consider home educating on many occasions prior to beginning our family’s journey. One of my main objections to home educating was personal, it suited me too much

Read More »
Advice for Home Educators

School Can’t – HEN and the Senate Inquiry

By Pavlina McMaster A note about the language used: we believe that children who struggle with school attendance are genuinely unable to attend school without outward difficulties, rather than it being a willful choice. For this reason, the term ‘School Can’t’ is used in place of ‘School Refusal’ throughout this article. Going to school is an expectation that society puts on children and parents.

Read More »

2022 HEN Survey Results

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.

Read More »
Advice for Home Educators

A Week in the Life of our home educating Family – Ash B

Our life is anything but Instagram worthy. I read the amazingly post-able blogs of home educating families, that must have fifty times the energy of my family, with mixed feelings of inspiration (at what’s possible), insecurity (I’m not capable of that), and a touch of cynicism (tell us the downside)!  We’ve got 11, 9, and 5 year olds. Our week consists of a flexible

Read More »
Advice for Home Educators

School ‘Refusal’ School Can’t 

School ‘Refusal’ School Can’t  By Pavlina McMaster  Going to school is a big expectation that society puts on children (and parents!). Most children cope with this expectation, and go along with it. But what if they can’t?  Dr Ross Greene has a philosophy that underpins all of his work – ‘Kids will do well if they can’. He means that all kids (and adults!)

Read More »
Higher Education and Careers

Spotlight on Home Ed Alumni – Jess Shepstone

Spotlight on Home Ed Alumni Jessica Shepstone Hi, my name is Jessica Shepstone. I graduated from home education in 2010. I am an art teacher who runs home-based art classes to children of all ages (primarily home-educated).  I started home education when I was 11 years old, having attended school from Prep to Year 5. I enjoyed school, had good friendships and great teachers.

Read More »
Advice for Home Educators

Infinite Sky

Infinite Sky By Pavlina McMaster Imagine, if you will, that you are a child. You are intensely curious about the world around you.  As you grow, you explore the world around you; you follow your parents and family around and learn about how the world works. You observe what happens when you drop things from your high chair, and experiment with different materials—do carrot

Read More »
Advice for Home Educators

Home Ed Groups – The Co-op of my dreams

Home Ed Groups – The Co-op of my dreams By Bridget Muhrer When my family started our first year of home education, I thought we had our co-op set up for the long term. We had a group of seven friends that were all starting at the same time, and we had had lots of meetings and made lots of plans. We knew what

Read More »
Home Ed Stories

A week in the life of our home educating family -S Miranda

A week in the life of our home educating family By S. Miranda Monday  Eiri (7) and Tal (4) play quietly (like elephants) downstairs before Mum and Dad get up. Dad works from home, so the kids get to have breakfast with him, while I go for a morning walk or sleep in. After helping clean up after breakfast, Eiri does a segment of

Read More »
Home Ed Stories

Discovering Learning Opportunities on Phillip Island

Discovering Learning Opportunities on Phillip Island By Pamela Ueckerman Phillip Island, Melbourne’s playground island, is well-known for its little penguins, Seal Rocks and the Phillip Island MotoGP. Having family who live on the island, we visit multiple times a year and love to see it in all its different guises, and over the years, we’ve found many other fabulous opportunities off the beaten track

Read More »
Advice for Home Educators

Math with Manipulatives

Math with Manipulatives Open-ended investigation has allowed my children to make a number of observations for themselves over the years. For example they learnt (and showed their siblings) that 1 litre of water has a mass of 1kg, so water can be used in a balance to establish the mass of other items, and discovered the commutative property of multiplication by playing with Cuisenaire

Read More »
Home Ed Stories

This Little Piggy went to Market

This Little Piggy went to Market Rachel Vautier If you had met my daughter years ago, and said hello, her answer would have been ‘oink’; pigs….and origami…..were two of her biggest loves. April’s love for origami, the overflow of that paper love all over our house, and her requests to sell something out the front of our house like she had read about in

Read More »
Home Ed Stories

The benefits of Peer Led learning

The benefits of Peer Led learning By Chelsea Reis Earlier this year, I came across a Facebook post promoting a nine week, online short-story writing course for home educated kids and teens. What surprised me was that the facilitator, Emilie Nyguen, was a 14 yo home educated teen herself! I was immediately drawn to the idea that my 8 and 11 year-old, life- long

Read More »
Advice for Home Educators

Responses and suggestions from other home educators – Games

Games are a great way to learn through fun. What are some of your families favourite board or card games? Monopoly Junior was a great first game for us to practice counting skills Uno is the favourite at the moment. 7 & 5 year old. Ticket to Ride for geography fun. Sleeping Queens & Kingdomino. Ludo My son is 5 and loves Guess Who

Read More »
Advice for Home Educators

Responses and suggestions from other home educators – Opposition

What advice would you give to someone who is facing opposition from friends and/or family because they home educate? I couldn’t actually tell you which of my friends and family approve or disapprove because I wouldn’t ever ask for their approval or opinion on something that is a decision for me, my husband and our daughter to make. I answer questions that come my

Read More »
Advice for Home Educators

Responses and suggestions from other home educators – Bad days

What advice do you have to get through the ‘bad ‘ days? A Bad Day At Home Is Still Better Than A Good Day At School.  This Too Shall Pass. Go Gently – that’s what my 13yo told me 2 weeks ago!!!! Make a cuppa, put on Netflix and relax. Have a bath. Tomorrow is a new day Take the day off and have

Read More »
Advice for Home Educators

Responses and suggestions from other home educators – Documentaries

What documentaries would you recommend to other families? Maddie’s do you know on iview. Someone on FB suggested My Octopus Teacher & it was amazing. It’s on Netflix. Also Youth v Gov, The Social Dilemma but it depends on age, mine are older & watch lots of educational documentaries that I wouldn’t say are for younger children. I like My Octopus Teacher too. It’s

Read More »
Share via
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap