By Kirsty James Learning to write is a broad theme, covering such diverse topics as forming letters, learning correct grammar and syntax, and essay writing. This article is just a starting point, and illustrates not only some of the ways in which different families have approached these tasks, but also the variety of possibilities. In general, home educated students do less physical writing than
By Sarah Botting Lola is eight years old and Elena is six years old, and we have been home educating for a year now. We follow a very play-based, self-led approach, along with some printed curriculum based on current interests and some textbooks. I find some weeks the girls are driven to learn from the books, and happily ask to do more or choose
Jane Berry One of our roles as a parent is to help our children develop the necessary skills to function well as an adult in today’s society. In raising children who are world changers, hubby and I are trying to become intentional in how our children learn these skills and what those skills are. We are also trying to be intentional with raising our
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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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
[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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
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
