Following their Interests Annie Regan In a recent conversation with a schooling family, I was asked the usual question about how I know what to teach the kids, and I gave my usual answer along the lines of, ‘We just follow their interests and all the learning is covered as part of that’. While this is definitely true, I realised that the picture that
Home Education and Mum’s Chronic Illness Kylie Anderson Let me introduce myself. I am a home educating mother of five. We have been home educating for 13 years and my children are now 17, 15, 9, 7 and 4. I first had symptoms of myalgic encephalomyelitis/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) in my late teens while doing VCE. I’d have periods of fatigue so severe
By Martina McNeill We are newly registered home educators. Again! Our youngest son has had a stint at school for almost six years, but 2022 finds us home educating. Again. If you’ve ever spoken to a home educator who has been at it for more than five minutes, you might have heard them say, ‘It’s a lifestyle, not just an education’. Well, that describes
By Heidi Ryan It has often been argued that traditional or mainstream schooling is beneficial to autistic children due to the consistency and routine offered for those who do well with predictable routines. In fact, even specialist schools focus on the positives of conformity, meeting neuro- normative targets and ‘doing what everyone else is doing’. Success in school is viewed as meeting predictable milestones,
By Katy Pearce As home educators we can experience a lot of opposition. I found it wasn’t just family members but outspoken friends as well. As soon as we decided to home educate, that’s when we started receiving the comments. I think what hurt the most was the negative comments we received from our families and from people who I thought of as close
By Annie Regan As an unschooling family, our learning method hasn’t really changed over the years. They learn from the environment around them, making connections to things they already know, following their interests and using things they discover to branch out into new topics and activities to pursue, and not distinguishing life from learning. They have always learnt from playing games, reading books, watching
By Nabeela Wahid ‘I can do this, Mama! I just need to try harder.’ ‘I can’t believe I did this!’ ‘I love this challenge!’ These are not positive affirmations from a TikTok video, rehearsed and performed for an audience to amass followers and likes. These are the utterances of a child no older than ten. Behind these words lies a gargantuan shift of mindset,
Pamela Ueckerman A spine, as it’s referred to by home educators, is a book that acts as the backbone for a particular area of learning. A spine usually isn’t a full curriculum to be followed to the letter; some are read aloud to children while others provide education and examples to the parent but they are used as a central resource and supplemented from
What is a Home Ed Review Like? Both new and experienced home educators tend to find the idea of a review intimidating. The VRQA will be sending out letters soon, so it seems a good time to look at what to expect. First the facts: Every year 10% of registered home educators are selected for review. If your family is selected, you will receive
Changing Social Needs By Annie Regan As we’ve moved back into seeing our friends and doing activities this year, after the lockdown of 2020, I was feeling that things were different. At first, I thought it was just the weirdness of being able to go out and to see people again, then realised that it was more than that. We’ve moved into a new
A warm welcome to new home-schoolers 6 tips to help you as you begin your journey By Belinda Lee What an interesting year 2020 has become. If you have joined us this year, I would love to welcome you to our community and we hope that together, we can support you and make you feel part of our community. You may be thinking, ‘I’m
By Mary Every now and then someone asks how other home educators manage home ed and household tasks such as cleaning and cooking because they’re struggling to get on top of everything. This is especially true of families with younger children who are new to home ed, families who do not have any support nearby or families with an older child where the parent
Nabeela Fathima Wahid It was a chaotic start to the morning, a frenzy of activity dotted with the clatter and noise of each family member trying to cram in a multitude of chores into a single moment. The announcement of an unexpected visitor threw a spanner into the works and despite the dejection and frustration, we knew it was a matter of just getting
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
