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
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
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
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
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
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
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
What was the main reason you decided to start home educating? We had our 3 boys in an amazing Montessori school just out of Boston, MA. USA. They built confidence, skills and found drive to progress. We have not been able to find a school in Australia to provide the same environment for our kids. So they were each losing who they were, losing confidence
What advice would you give to someone home educating children under 12? Coffee. If anyone is looking for a fantastic program, we used the coach house. This program is Tailor made to suit your child. Teach them to make coffee. Homeschooled our kids taught my daughter to make cappuccino at the age of eight. Golden years. Get outside and explore as much as possible.
If your child has School Can’t, and you are looking at other options, then you are in the right place. HEN is here to support parents, to help you meet the needs of your individual child, and to help you find community. Nobody would suggest that home education alone will magically make everything better, but recent HEN surveys of School Can’t families showed that
Using Your Local Library By Saba Hakim Yesterday at our local library, Eassa, along with a group of other primary aged children, was writing instructions for a robot to make a jam sandwich. The robot was our library events presenter in disguise— wearing a cardboard costume. The session started with an explanation of the task, and direction to write instructions. Some children chose to
Week In The Life … By Janet W We kind of fell into home education quite by accident. We are parenting for the second time around after our tiny premature grandson arrived and it became obvious very quickly that we would be raising him. As the stay-at-home parent the education decision was mine, but I’m fully supported by my husband. Our boy Charlie is almost
By Jess D My homeschooling journey started in 1987 when we were living in the UK for 18 months. I was seven years old at the time, and my parents were considering taking a position in Africa. They didn’t like the idea of boarding school for us kids (I had two younger siblings at the time), but my dad was quite unsure/against homeschooling. After
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In The Dark – Word Games for Home Education Pavlina McMaster When my kids were little, we spent countless hours playing with language. Almost every time we were in a holding pattern – on public transport, waiting in a queue for an activity, in line at Centrelink – we played verbal games to pass the time. Even last week, in a quiet moment at
