Take Heart - Home Education Network

September 2, 2015

Beginning Home Education

By Lyn Saint When the notion of home educating our children first enters our thoughts, most of us instantly dismiss the idea that we could ever do such a thing. After all, there is this huge infrastructure in place costing millions of dollars per year, employing thousands of highly-qualified people, using curricula designed by trained minds using the latest researched and up-to-date techniques. We […]

September 2, 2015

Home ed on a budget

By Sue Wight It doesn’t have to cost an arm and leg So you’ve decided to home educate, but now you are worried about how you will ever afford all of those flashy curriculum resources, especially if home education means living on one income as it does for most families. The good news is that home education does not have to be expensive. You […]

September 2, 2015

Life’s Greatest Adventure

By Lyn Saint ‘How can I give my child a high level of education when I didn’t do very well at school myself?” is not only one of the most asked questions, but many adults today assume that, just because they failed or dropped out of school themselves, that they are uneducated. As a notorious school failure and drop-out, these were also my thoughts […]

September 2, 2015

Socialisation

By Sue Wight By far the most frequent question about home education is: But what about socialisation? In order to answer this question, it is important to look at what people mean when they ask about socialisation as the question can be taken in more than one way. Will the children have friends? Home educating families go out of their way to ensure their […]

September 2, 2015

When Home Ed Kids Grow Up

By Katharina Russell-Head For those of us who went to school it is almost impossible to imagine what it must be like to grow up outside the system. The closest most of us get is to remember, or to observe, the experience of early childhood. Babies and small children do not take lessons in asking for food, or observe timetables in learning how to […]

September 2, 2015

Home education worries

What problems can arise? You are seriously considering home education but wondering, “There must be a downside that they aren’t telling me about.” Of course home education brings its own problems – but doesn’t parenting in general? Life is an inherently challenging process and we are not promising you a bed of roses! Home education will neither solve all your problems nor mean you […]

September 2, 2015

Decompression & Transition

When kids, especially teenagers, come out of school, there is a process they need to go through in order to work through the stress of school and to regain their love of learning. Many experienced home educators say to allow one month of recovery time for every year of schooling that the child has had. Leaving school can be a turbulent time. We […]

September 2, 2015

Hard times

By Susan Wight I rarely doubt that home education is a better way for children to learn, but I have to admit there are times when it all seems too hard. I guess this happens to all of us now and then. Some days I feel discouraged and dispirited with home education and I fear my children are just not becoming the kind of […]

September 2, 2015

Dealing with Doubts

Today my ten year old son made me proud. Not because he and his team had made it to the basketball grand final but because he acted in a way that showed he had character. When we entered the stadium, all the grand-final-hype was obvious, with streamers and screamers filling the air. Here and there, mascots paraded while banners called for victory. As we […]

September 2, 2015

Dealing with Burnout

By Carol Naigon Question: I’ve been homeschooling for 10 years now. I have five children ages 3-18 years. My question is, how do I effectively homeschool when I no longer have the heart for it? I am burnt out, tired and just plain bored of it. Yet, my conscience won’t allow me to imprison my precious children in the typical school setting. Burnout is […]

September 2, 2015

The Danger of Maternal Overload and Maternal Distress

Home education is not an easy option. It differs from classroom education and produces different results in the child, parents and in the family as a whole. Choosing to educate your child at home is making a long-term life-style decision that will affect every aspect of your family’s life. It is not a choice to be made lightly because it requires a great deal […]

August 28, 2015

Natural Learning in Action

By Susan Wight Natural Learning is not ‘Doing Nothing’ Confession time: Sometimes I get ‘the guilts’ and think I’m not really educating my children at all. This feeling usually creeps in following someone’s wide-eyed response when I tell them that I home educate. “Wow, I could never do that! You must be so organised!” The overawed responses vary but the words ‘busy’, ‘dedicated’ ‘organised’ […]