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
Indrani Perera I can’t believe that I have been writing articles for Otherways all this time without talking about books and reading. I’ve been a bookworm ever since I was a kid. I still try to read whenever I have a spare five minutes, and I love reading to Airlie (9) and Phoebe (5). Airlie is now old enough to read for herself and
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.
Diane Haynes We are about to start our seventh year of home education. It was certainly never something we planned when we first had kids but, as we progressed through kinder, the discussion of where to go to school became important. We had been exposed to quite a few home education families, but it was still something I didn’t feel capable of. At one
…and the Art of Piano Playing by Rod Hough, concert pianist This article is for home educating folk, particularly those who may not have a strong background in piano but would welcome some discussion. Any discussion must be prefaced by one’s position. The reader can and should assume that any vision of music and music learning is only an attempt at providing a perspective
Gnat Atherden In our family there hasn’t really been an attempt to learn ‘a’ language. One language would be a bit limiting. Having said that, I’ve always been keenest to learn German and it’s the language other than English (LOTE) I knew most of before I became a parent so, on reflection, it’s been a big part of our LOTE education. In this article
Kathleen Humble We’re a geeky kind of family. With me being a mathematician and my husband an engineer, it would be hard to not be geeky. We’re also not going to score high on the ‘doing things conventionally’ test, if one of those existed. But sometimes, just sometimes, the paths my kids take to learn are so unconventional that they leave me with
This video explains how to register in Victoria (12 minutes) Links mentioned are: Application form, learning plan templates and samples Legal page including partial enrolment Resources page Distance Education Materials Join HEN Attendance during the waiting period Our Getting Started Guide
By Annie Regan When I was a primary school teacher, one of my main philosophies was about helping all students learn to read. I still believe in the importance of reading, however, I now see it as a lifelong skill and not something that needs to be learnt by age six, and not a skill that needs to be actively taught. My three children
By Sue Wight Like Fanny Price, I have to admit to being an unabashed novel reader. A good novel is a type of madness for me, and I sometimes become so emotionally involved that wrenching myself away can be devastating. I was once on a plane which had the temerity to land when Jane Eyre had just left Thornfield. How could I abandon her
By Catherine Durant Art appreciation is a topic we love to explore in our house. Alannah (10), Max (8) and Eloise (3) always enjoy delving into the life of an artist. I have been amazed at how much the kids take in. There has been many a time that they have pointed to a print on a wall or in a book and told
