Western Port Co-op Stephanie Garrood We live, learn and play on the Mornington Peninsula, Bunurong Country. It is the most biodiverse region in all of Victoria with 60+ Ecological Vegetation Classes (EVCs). Beauty abounds in a multitude of terrains where 70% of land is green wedge protected and includes national and state parks, Ramsar wetlands and beaches a-plenty. Home educating here, we are spoilt
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
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
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
Games for English Kirsty James In addition to the verbal games outlined in Pavlina’s article (In The Dark – Word Games for Home Education), there are many options for pen and pencil games, as well as card, board and online games for students of all ages. Some games focus on specific skills such as spelling or vocabulary, whilst others are broader and include soft
By Sarah As educators, the age-old adage ‘reading, writing, arithmetic’ either strikes a pleasant chord or strikes fear into our hearts. We want to make sure our children are capable, that goes without saying, and results show home educated children are very capable. But sometimes we feel the pressure and expectations on us as home educators. We may not like how we learned, or
By Kirsty James A couple of years ago I organised for a small group of 7- to 12-year-olds to come to our house and learn about Africa with my daughter. I’m a huge fan of picture books, and I knew there were some wonderful books about the continent that we could enjoy together. We met for a few hours once a week. About two-thirds
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
In schools, English is often taught in isolation: a series of disjointed exercises in writing, spelling and grammar. In real life, English is about communicating our thoughts and ideas, often relating to work, interests and information sharing. When we change our focus from the subject of English to the task of ensuring our children can communicate, it makes English less daunting. Most parents
Parents considering their options for the Languages key learning area (KLA) are often concerned that they will not be able to meet the requirements. Fortunately, there are a wide range of options, so even parents who have never studied another language can relax. Home ed language learning does not need to look like school for a number of reasons: You can choose your language
If your teen is interested in legal studies, why not start your own law club? Parents, or teens themselves, can organise groups, or even single activities, where the focus is on legal studies. Activities can include anything from an excursion to an activity held in a hired space weekly or fortnightly or monthly– the choice is yours. You may wish to hire a venue,
Gameschooling – or how to include games in your education Faye C When I was a shiny new home educator, I read an article by a teacher who had home educated her children and devised programs for others. She said that with a carefully curated collection of board, table and card games, you can pretty much take care of a child’s primary school curriculum.
