Homeschool Australia

Books versus DVDs - creating a home library for posterity

Beverley Paine — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 05:17:00 +0000

If, like me, you're contemplating creating a DVD library of your favourite movies and documentaries, you need to read this article by Sue Lowe (Sydney Morning Herald, 1/2/03): A bad case of DVD rot eats into movie collections. I think I might go back to my old idea of collecting books and set aside a room for that library I've been promising myself...

Books last forever, if stored appropriately. The Diamond Sutra, which bears the date 868 AD, and thought to be the oldest surviving printed book in the world, was recently displayed at the British Library. Then there is an Etruscan book, made of gold and thought to be over 2,500 years old. The Derveni papyrus, the oldest surviving Greek papyrus from the fourth-century B.C. and badly charred in an ancient funeral pyre, has now had the unreadable chapters revealed with the aid of technology. The oldest known copy of the Bible (complete Bible) is the Codex Sinaiticus, dating from the 3rd or 4th century A.D.

One of my young homeschooling friends, aged six at the time, was passionate about the Roman Empire. His mother read accounts of Roman life written by Julius Caesar. The preservation of information in book form has lasted the test of time. I suspect that DVDs will soon go the way of video and audio tapes, or microfiche...

Give me a book, full of colour plate pictures and lots of juicy information. It may take scholars a dozen or so years to decode the symbols in a thousand years time, but the images will convey their meaning just as well as they do today. In my collection of National Geographic magazines I have two copies well over 50 years old. The articles are interesting in more ways than one, but it's the adverts that fascinate me, offering a window on the everyday life of folk at the time.

In the meantime I'll continue to borrow DVDs from the local video shop. I could always subscribe to pay TV for those documentaries I always seem to miss on free to air TV, or I could buy them and then pass them on to friends and family - before they succumb to DVD-rot or inconvenient technology upgrades.

© Beverley Paine 2006

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Is Regulation of Homeschooling Necessary?

Beverley Paine — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 23:23:00 +0000

My take on the 'registration' discussion is that it should not be forced on families and we ought to do anything we can do to prevent legislation and regulations forcing any particular educational regime on Australian families.

Homeschoolers need to realise is that governments don't give a hoot about individuals - they have their own agendas which pander to very strong and vocal lobbies. Historically, mass compulsory education has always been a socialist movement - homeschooling flies in the face of this.

No educational authority in Australia will willingly undermine the public school system - it would be then end of the department if they did. That's one compelling reason why government education authorities should not be the regulating body for homeschooling. Unfortunately this is the case in several Australian states. This presents is a clear conflict of interest, especially fiscal interest.

Most politicians would be very reluctant to champion the homeschooling cause - things get nasty enough around election time when the old 'public versus private school' debate hots up. Homeschoolers represent a tiny, vulnerable minority. The only thing we have in our favour is that we can argue our cases in court if necessary. They know that and that's why we don't see too many court cases...

In Australia state educational authorities each have their own curriculum guidelines. They are keen to force these on homeschooling families if they can and they are implementing this by stealth and by blatantly pushing through legislation, usually ignoring parliamentary debate and discussion and public consultation.

The majority of homeschooling families would probably agree that the state curriculum guidelines generally sound reasonable and sensible (once you learn how to read the jargon). But if you find yourself unable to teach various aspects of the curriculum because of your faith or family values - and you need that you are legally bound to 'register' - then everything can quickly turn sour. And it's not just faith and family values.

The bigger question that each of us as individuals need to answer is WHO determines how we parent and educate our children - strangers or people who have invested considerable time, energy and love into getting to know the needs of these individual children? What resources should be used in the educational program - something determined by a committee, perhaps even several years ago, or by someone intimately involved in the day to day existence of the child?

Instead of regulating homeschooling to the eyeballs and spending a fortune on checking up on us the politicians and their public departments need to study the efficacy of homeschooling in Australia and learn a thing or two about how children really learn best.

Nelson: "Outcomes Based Education System a Form of Cancer"

Beverley Paine — Sat, 13 Aug 2005 23:02:00 +0000

In the West Australian newspaper today, Brendan Nelson, Federal Minister for Education, is quoted as saying, "Bring back the 3Rs" and that "the controversial outcomes based education system was a "form of cancer" that had taken hold of the education establishment and would take "considerable time" to treat."

Miranda Devine, in the Thursday 11, 2005 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald states that last year's HSC Advanced English exam required just a 63 word answer for one 40 minute exam essay question, in order to obtain a borderline pass. She also went on to complain about the selection of "texts" such as Ginger Meggs and other material which included an Alicia Silverstone movie. She also quotes some of Dr Nelson's recent comments.

I've long felt that public education is a monolith which I fear is doomed to fail. From what I've read there doesn't seem to have been a time in history that the 'outcomes' weren't criticised. The more recent 'dumbing down' of the curriculum that has occured over the last three-four decades relects, I believe, the lack of real opportunities for high school graduates. This is a point someone made this morning on the radio when the discussion turned to the 'drinking binge' of young people sweeping across the UK... once upon a time most young people were in apprenticeships of one kind of another, including motherhood and home duties. Young people were confident that life had a purpose and weren't obsessed with self-gratification - the line that marketeers and profit hungry corporations (busy gobbling up small businesses and the family farm for decades) have relentlessly peddled.

Give young people back their dignity! From an early age reassure them that there is meaningful, community building work at the end of childhood. Instead of eroding the cultural and community value of universities, turning them into vocational training colleges, bring back the emphasis on a liberal education that celebrates culture, history, diversity, tolerance and inquisitiveness. Let those that want and need to specialise do so earlier, in technical colleges and apprenticeships, as they once did. Arrange the economy so that employing young people is not a burden on small business. Give incentives to big business to keep their manufacturing base local, rather than setting up off-shore...

We've dumbed the curriculum down to meet the enforced laziness of our youth. Children don't chose to be selfish and lazy - they are encouraged by the apathetic lifestyle our nation has adopted. When all that matters is the economic bottom line, intelligence is usually sacrificed.

© Beverley Paine

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Kick Start a Home Based Business to Supplement Your Income

Beverley Paine — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 07:08:00 +0000

Do you like to write?

Are you a budding author keen to earn money from your writing but don't know where to start?

Do you want to turn those millions of words into cash?

Tired of competing against hundreds of thousands of other emergent writers, waiting in cue for that magic moment when a publisher finally says “yes”…

Jump-start your writing career! Join the millions of writers whose words are read every day online. Start earning that writer's income now!

Hesitant? I was. Like you, I'd read the hype about making money on the 'net and figured it all sounded too good to be true. You're right to be wary. There are a lot of scams out there that promise the world for little or no effort. Believe me, making money by publishing on the internet definitely isn't a ‘get rich quick' scheme. But although you won't take the literary world by storm overnight, it is possible to make making a reasonable income in next-to-no-time at all. You can – and will – succeed!

They say practice makes perfect and the perfect place to practice your writing craft is on the internet. Are you interested in a steady income? One that builds while you sleep? It's the kind of income I like… and my bank account is finally looking the way I want it to!

Like me, you can let internet business guru Jim Daniels help you get started on your internet writing career, by downloading his free e-book ‘Work at Home Plan – Internet Based Financial Independence in 10 Simple Steps'. I'm continually astounded by Jim's generosity with his accumulated knowledge and experience. Time and again I revisit his website for yet more timely tips on how to improve my income generating capacity.

This e-book will help you to unlock proven strategies for business success, with step-by-step information anyone can start with and build on. The ‘Work at Home Plan – Internet Based Financial Independence in 10 Simple Steps' gives you what you need in plain English – what works and what doesn't when considering or starting an Internet business.

What I personally like about Jim Daniels's e-book is that it doesn't skimp on the important details, such as how any successful internet business always involves a lot of hard work and commitment. He doesn't avoid the truth: it takes real effort to make real profit. And he knows you're up to the task, which is why his e-book is full of tried and tested tips and short-cuts that can boost your income right now. Even though you may have the best e-book in the world, if you don't target the right audience your e-book will not sell. Jim helps you take the trial and error our of internet marketing, saving you valuable time and resources.

As a self-publisher I moved to e-books only recently. I love the way it's simplified my business. The time that used to be taken to print, bind and package my books is now spent writing, the work I'm truly passionate about and love to do.

Don't procrastinate any longer. Get the help you need to get started. Let internet business guru Jim Daniels give you the motivation and support you need right now!

regards,
Beverley

PS: You can get your free copy of ‘Work at Home Plan – Internet Based Financial Independence in 10 Simple Steps' by clicking the GOLD KEY at my new work-at-home site.

Funding for Home Education

Beverley Paine — Mon, 08 May 2006 04:03:00 +0000

Marina, a South Australian homeschooler, sent me this information which I found interesting...

"Sally Robbins [from the SA Ed Dept] said that there are approximately 715 'exempted' HSers in SA. This does not include children studying by distance education or via 'school of the air', etc, as they are viewed as adjuncts to mainstream education."

Marina went on to ask the question - "just how much money do we actually save the government" by homeschooling our children? Last year David Dewar, one of the other HS project officers, told Marina that if all the known exempted homeschooled children went back to school next week there wasn't room for them and that " at least three new schools would have to be built: land found and bought, buildings erected, equiped, staffed, administered and maintained, etc!

Like many of us Marina has friends who fervently beleive that we are taking money away from public schools because we don't send our children there. The opposite seems to be closer to reality - we are saving millions of tax payer dollars by home educating our children. Perhaps it is time to ask for some financial assistance. If New Zealand homeschoolers can enjoy funding each year then why can't we?

Marina pointed out that it is possible to claim some educational expenses, such as 8% of the cost of text books, back from the tax department every year. If you aren't keeping receipts perhaps you should be! Don't forget that excursions and consumable resources are also educational expenses. Talk to your accountant about getting a complete list of expenses for deduction purposes.

Planning and recording - valuable tools for building confidence as home educators

Beverley Paine — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 22:39:00 +0000

I'm a planner - in fact, I'm addicted to you it. Planning more is a great idea. One of the most effective tools I used as an educator was manipulating the environment so that what I wanted to happen would flow more easily - with less effort on my behalf. How to 'set up' the learning environment is something I've written about in my Learning Materials booklet and also Getting Started with Homeschooling.

It's not just the physical environment either - it's the emotional, and spiritual environment. An orderly environment is a calming environment, and I believe this is necessary to promote active creativity. Orderly doesn't have to mean forever tidy or minimalist. I'm a collector and my house can be very 'busy'. Because we are very busy people I need to keep activities orderly too - if I don't know what's happening when, with whom, and what do they need, beforehand then chaos usually reigns and the creative process starts to disappear. The result is an undermined confidence and an increasing sense of being overwhelmed. My kids despaired of my constant planning - as did other adults, often calling me a control freak. But they all admired just how much I was able to get done and appreciated the organisation!

There is a down side to planning and organising so efficiently however: although children learn by example, they, like many adults, can become too comfortable having life laid out for them all the time. This could lead to developing an avoidance of risk-taking and decision making. Control freaks usually suffer from unwarranted anxiety and stress and can feel guilty when things don't pan out as planned, or if a small detail wasn't remembered or considered. Most of my health issues stem from unnecessary stress. Finding a balance meant working out exactly what I was responsible for and what I needed to let others take responsibility for, and learning that delegation meant trusting that others can do the job as well as I could. This was particularly hard when it came to entrusting my children's care and well being to others - even their dad!

The other tool I developed for feeling more in control and less stressed about our homeschooling life was to have periodic bouts of recording. Often the act of recording each day would be a self-organising tool. Simply focussing on writing down what our plans were each day - for example, a list compiled at the breakfast table with each person stating their desires, needs, etc - would result in more getting accomplished. It's amazing how we all became more committed to our individual and group projects and activities, simply by verbalising them to each day. We've never been hung up on the need to finish everything we start. The learning process has always been the main focus in our homeschooling life. Because of that I've always been very flexible with my planning, knowing that situations can change in an instant, and plans need to be updated frequently. At times my 'flexibility' drove my family nuts! Being a meticulous planner allowed me great flexibility and gave rise to a high level of efficiency.

I found recording our goals, objectives, and outcomes (in other words: what we want to do, the steps involved and how we will know if we've succeeded) on paper, or simply talking about them with each other often, a vital part of planning. Without it I often felt 'lost': the recognition and celebration of successful outcomes would be smothered and hidden by the worry of never doing enough or the 'unfinished' projects.

My confidence in home education grew from a haphazard recording regime. The unfinished diaries, multitude of lists, the calendars, the photo albums, the scrapbooks, the learning programs and plans - all these scraps of paper are concrete reminders of our many successes as home educating parents. On days when I feel that I haven't been a good enough mum or homeschooling parent it's my scraps of paper that remind me that I did my best. That's why I keep recording... I've found it valuable tool for keeping me on track with what I want to achieve in my life.

Food Sensitivities or Total Stress Load? Factors that affect how children learn at home and at school.

Beverley Paine — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 21:53:00 +0000

I have noticed over the last decade or so many children who have problems coping with school and are labelled as ADHD or similar. When parents take these children out of school and change their diets they see a dramatic improvement in learning and social behaviour. I started modifying my diet over two decades ago, thinking that I was allergic or intolerant, but I now think it's the total stress load on my system, not simply diet or airborne particles, that give rise to the range of symptoms I experience. Adjusting the diet definitely offered relief, but was never the complete answer.

Salicylate intolerance is something I've played around with for decades. Some information I read a week or so ago basically said that there is increasing evidence that dietary salicylate is nowhere near the problem it was thought to be in NSAID intolerant people. Sorry I can't remember where as I've been doing heaps of researching on the net regarding health issues recently and this wasn't on topic so I didn't keep the reference. NSAID stands for non steriod anti inflammatory drugs; there's dozens of them, aspirin being the one that most people react to.

The main issue that many dieticians and immunologists have with a salicylate free diet (or one which is low in salicylate) is that it cuts out a lot of really good food, especially for children, and it becomes very hard to eat a fully balanced diet. This can produce it's own problems over time. My dietician recommended low allergy vitamin pills while on the low salicylate diet. I personally found that it wasn't the salicylate alone that caused my intolerances, but an inablitiy to adequately handle stress caused by many different factors - eating a diet loaded with salicylate over a couple of days exascerbated my problems and usually triggered asthma and other allergic symtoms. If I wasn't stressed physically or emotionally (eg from being cold, or a sudden change in temperature or barometric pressure, sitting an exam, visit to a new doctor, etc, or even simply hanging out with a group of friends) I could tolerate normal levels of salicylate in my diet.

I've been desensitised a couple of times (Royal Adelaide Hospital - the doctors mentioned in a previous post are all familiar with the desensitisations) - and that seemed to help settle the asthma and other obvious allergic symptoms. I think it helped, but lifestyle changes helped a LOT more. Ultimately I've found that I can eat almost anything - even foods high in salicylate - provided I manage my overall stress levels. This means low social activity, getting to bed before 10.30pm, exercise every day (usually only walking), avoiding stressful situations like deadlines, running late for appointments, etc. I watch intake of stimulants like caffeine. Anything that stresses the physical body in any way at all can trigger sensitivities to food and airborne particles...

For children with sensitivities to food or airborne particles (pollen, dust, mould, etc) I'd recommend closely monitoring their social activity as well what they eat, perhaps with a log similar to a food diary. My food diary included a space for comments about the weather, my moods, exercise, and social activity as well as what I was eating and which medications I took. This is how I discovered that it was the total stress load that was a better predictor of symtom severity than diet alone.

Embracing the Natural Learning Philosophy and How to Personalise Homeschooling

Beverley Paine — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 22:43:00 +0000

Annabelle wrote:
"Are there any other mums out there in a similar boat to me? ie: have a baby and don't need to 'formally' homeschool (meeting govt. education requirements because the child is of 'school age' ) but wish to embrace the philosophy at this tender age? I would like to have an opportunity to meet such parents and babes as a social outlet for me and my darling son."

Are you aware of http://naturalparentingsa.no-ip.org/ "Natural Parenting SA is a small group of parents who got together because of similar parenting styles, philosphies and interests, which include attachment parenting, cloth nappies, baby wearing, elimination communication (natural infant hygiene), breastfeeding, co-sleeping, home birthing, natural birthing and homeschooling." Mailing list: http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/naturalparentingsa/join

Have you read Jan Hunt's book The Natural Child Parenting from the Heart, or Alfie Kohn's Unconditional Parenting? I stock both these books on my www.alwayslearningbooks.com.au website. It took me a couple of thorough readings to fully understand Alfie's principles in his Punished By Rewards book - in fact, the second time I took notes. I'm totally convinced of his approach to the subject of motivation. Most of us are brainwashed into believing we don't have time to observe, listen, focus, pay attention, and give time to our children (or our own needs) and lose touch with what's real in our lives. Often when I'm reading a book or an article I scan to get the instant solutions I seek - that's another way in which I've been brainwashed, both by school and by the media. I'm learning to slow down (yay to the Slow Food advocates for kickstarting this movement!). It's much more satisfying to seek to understand rather than look for quick and easy solutions.

Annabelle's question prompted me to consider a fundamental aspect of natural learning within the homeschool environment. So often on homeschooling forums I see questions about how and what to teach our children, together with requests for lesson plans. Years ago I didn't understand why other homeschooling mums needed so much input from outside of their homes - making up lesson plans and knowing what to teach my children came naturally to me - all too naturally! I fell into the trap of overloading them and me all too often, but that's another story for another time.

Friends would ask me to help them come up with activities and I usually resisted, but wasn't sure why I felt reluctant. Most of the time I can dream up a dozen activities off the top of my head, thinking first of what I would do in that situation with my children. After a few years of homeschooling I learned to look at the family that wanted the information instead, and gear my ideas and solutions to their particular needs and lifestyle. But there's no way I could know what those children needed to learn, or where they were at in their development, as thoroughly as I could my own children. Most of my suggestions were based on generalisations. That's what teachers and curriculum writers do in schools.

My wise old friend John Peacock kept insisting that we are the experts when it comes to homeschooling our children. I've been to a few conferences where he was a keynote speaker and he always slipped this in somewhere. We're 'at the coal face', he'd say. Our children, our family, our lifestyle, our needs: these are the things that determine how our children are educated, what they learn, when and how. The information and knowledge we seek about how to go about homeschooling is inside us all, just waiting to be voiced and validated. We simply need to ask ourselves the questions we ask others, and patiently wait for the answers to arise, as they always do, in our daily lives. It took me years to recognise some of the answers: they'd arrive in various guises time and again until I paid attention and noticed them for what they were: solutions to questions I'd asked long ago. I have faith in my ability to find solutions and that's why it's easy for me to brainstorm a dozen different activities to help my children learn just about anything. Sometimes it's a matter of working out where to look for more information - that's an activity in itself.

When we take time to 'be' with our children completely; when we pay attention to their needs, and cast out our conditioned need to satisfy distant and impersonal societal parenting objectives; when we base our decisions and solutions around the strengths and limitations of the individuals in our own family, taking into consideration the situation and circumstances of our family lifestyle, cocooned within a larger community; then we are empowered to give our children exactly what they, and we as parents, need in our homeschooling lives.

Most of us don't have the confidence to 'go it alone'. And shouldn't have to. Learning is a social game and it's a lot of fun, especially when we share what we've found out. Often, someone's suggestion, will trigger an avalanche of 'answers' of our own. I truly believe that we all stand on the shoulders of giants: that without the support and encouragement of others we'd get nowhere.

Learning Through Playing Games

Beverley Paine — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 22:05:00 +0000

The other night we played Rummikub, a game with tiles that are placed on the table. It seems to be a numerical cross between scrabble and the card game rummi. We had a great time once we got the hang of playing. With most new games we relax the rules until we've learned how to play. Playing games like this has always been more of a cooperative, friendly past-time rather than an emphasis on competitiveness.

Yesterday I woke up with a combined game and craft activity buzzing around my head. It's for younger children, but the craft activity could suit an older child. I called it Hickory Dickory A Clock & Counting Game.

When my children were young I loved making up games. Sometimes they'd pop into my head but most of the time I'd have a particular skill I wanted the children to learn and would create a game to suit. Games included ones like Hickory Dickory; dice, board or card games; role playing games; or games with toys. Playing games with my children was the easiest way to educate them!

If you have a game you like to play, or one that you've modified to suit your children, or one that you've made up and you'd like to share it with others on the Homeschool Australia website, please email me.

Defining Delight Directed Home Education

Beverley Paine — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 00:20:00 +0000

Gregg Harris's article on Delight-Direct Study had me wondering if he and I read the same John Holt... His acceptance of delight driven learning as legitimate, especially for Christian homeschooling families, and his dismissal of unschooling, defined and encourgaged by the late John Holt, as something completely different, puzzled me.

John Holt helped me to see the way in which my conditioning as a schooled student hindered the educational growth and development of my children. His example, the one that I followed, and one that is historically the approach taken by those that study child development, is to observe and reflect. As a school teacher, John observed not only the way in which children didn't learn in school, and the ways that they did, but also his successes and failures as a teacher. First and foremost John was a school reformer. We all know how frustrating it is dealing with schools! At some point it's time to stop banging our heads against the wall and implement easier and energy efficient solutions. This is how John came to support and encourage homeschooling. After all, it is a method that has worked for millenia! Like others he could see that literacy rates, among other educational measures, had dropped considerably since the advent of mass compulsory schooling in the USA and continued to decline, despite the billions of dollars spent on 'improving' the school system.

The way Gregg Harris describes John Holt's 'hand's off' approach to education is a far cry from how I interpreted and put into practice the ideas John's words birthed in my head.

I can't remember reading anything in any of John's books (and I think I've read at least half a dozen over the last twenty years - about half, I reckon) that encourages parents to abandon their children throughout the learning/educational process. John (or a parent) was always in the picture in his descriptions of children learning. What John discovered was that learning for learning sake is incredibly inefficient and sometimes a sad waste of time of resources, as the lessons are usually often forgotten. John advocated interest based learning - led naturally by the learner, but within an environment that supported and encouraged the child. All of the examples in his book showed dedicated and committed, caring and attentive, loving parents.

We waste a lot of time in homeschooling land mucking about with definitions, and when all is said and done, the tendency to do this is based on our own too well schooled conditioning. The desire to tease things apart, analyse them, label them, schedule them, and make them fit into tidy boxes - that's what school did to us. Some of us are naturally organised of course, but one of the roles of school is to get us to all think this way so we can be productive little cogs in someone else's big machinery...

More information on Delight Driven education can be found on the Home Hearts website.

Freedom, Choice and an Abundant Lifestyle

Beverley Paine — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 23:43:00 +0000

I believe an abundant joyful life isn't about only freedom of choice... it's about responsibility. I'm wary of the word freedom, and the word choice. I think both can be really misleading. And easily corrupted. So we have responsibilities. We base our philosophy around meeting our survival needs as simply as possible (something we frequently fail to do as life becomes unnecessarily complex each day!) - surviving means learning how to be responsible both as individuals and as community members.

Freedom and choice seem more like luxuries to me... we can afford them when the basic responsibilities of life are met. Therefore they aren't that essential... so we don't aim for them. I find it eliminates a lot of the issues people seem to have with other. Abundance happens when we learn to go with the flow - allow nature (our natures) to guide us. When we trust in the natural way of being. Joy is taking a breath and thinking, wow, I'm taking a breath. Cool eh?!

There are so many things that determine our path - we are never really 'free' to follow our self-determined path in a conscious way. Our subconscious seems to be much more in control of where we're going and what we're going to bump into! Learning to read the patterns allows us to consciously see the amazing synchronicity.. then we can build our own wisdom. Sometimes our head leads us around in circles and we wonder why we can't have what we desire... We fail to trust ourselves.

I once read: "The access to the things you desire comes when you focus on JOY in your present moment with the knowing that all your desires are on the way."

That's just it - I don't focus on 'desires' - I focus on meeting needs, not desires. And defining needs in a very basic way. Life becomes meaningful and my purpose becomes clear. Finding clarity and getting rid of the all the gumph we humans have attached to being alive brings the joy. Simplying our lives allows us to see the amazing abundance. The path becomes clear - joyful - easy. Fulfilled desires fall into my lap - not because I pursue them, but because that's what happens when one moves with consciousness in life...

Reasons to Keep Regular Homeschooling Records

Beverley Paine — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 06:13:00 +0000

I often hear parents commenting that they don't want to 'waste time' on recording their children's learning. I'm not sure that they are aware that most of their worries about home education and the legal issues arise, for the most part, from a lack of confidence in learning naturally. I've only ever met one or two parents who felt so confident that they could convince anyone of the efficacy of the approach without resorting to refering to their records - and I wasn't one of them!

Recording - whether by the delightful approach that a snap happy friend of mine does, by keeping her digital camera handy all day, or by jotting notes in a diary, writing anecdotal or explanatory notes on children's samples of work and building a portfolio (a joy to flip through forever) - gets us in touch with the processes at work: how our children learn. Because we have to pay attention and watch closely and think about what is going on when our child does this or that, or says something different, or behaves in a different manner, and reflect on that, we are better able to discern his or her preferred learning style. This in turn helps us to work out different ways to build on his strengths, or strengthen her weaknesses or expand his limitations. Some of us do this naturally: I know I did but I also acknowledge that I was prone to forgetfulness. Eventually I decided to keep records more often to help my less than perfect memory. With three children I also frequently fell prey to treating them as homogenous humans, ignoring that fact that they were individuals and had completely different ways of perceiving and learning about the world!

In the end, if you don't want to comply with local regulations, then you are, in effect, protesting against them. This is an ethical stand that living in Australia allows. How you protest is up to you. I always go for a low key, least stressful approach as that is the way I'm built. Keeping records allowed me to build a confidence in my role as home educator to the point I could easily hold my ground in a roomful of teachers. Thomas (19) was never 'registered' as a home schooler yet we were never approached to register by departmental officials. I knew that if we were challenged I could prove, using evidence from our record keeping regime, that he was progressing in all areas of child development. Being prepared meant that if such a situation ever arose I wouldn't find myself panicked and forced into rash actions which I might later regret.

Record keeping - in any form - is also a very useful skill to demonstrate. It's the cornerstone of scientific advancement. Businesses wouldn't prosper without keeping records. There are many different ways to record a project - and educating our children at home is a project - and all of these ways have instrinsic educational value. If we stop seeing record keeping as an onerous burden and begin to view it as simply another useful tool in our educational tool bag it is no longer a waste of time and energy.

Writing an Unschooling Learning Plan for the Year Ahead

Beverley Paine — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 06:08:00 +0000

I know a lot of unschoolers don't bother with writing out unschooling learning programs or a curriculum for the year ahead and tend to 'fly by the seat of their pants'. Some see writing learning plans a bit alien to the concept of learning naturally, but I never found it so. I was always a little paranoid and not very sure that learning naturally would get my kids to where I wanted them to be. Thus I went down the path of documenting the learning process - both as plans and as evaluation/anecdotal records. I put together an unschooling curriculum for Roger when he turned 13 to cover the next three years (developmental stage rather than age based). It was a comprehensive list that incidentally covered learning in all eight school based curriculum areas, together with a statement on philosophy, methodology and how we'd know he was learning. About five pages all up.

I did a similar learning program for April as a homeschooled Year 8 student - feeling worried that I'd need to justify our homeschooling as by then our exemption had lapsed and I figured they'd notice she was turning 13... They didn't. The plan we put together was largely unused. We found more interesting ways to learn what was needed and by the end of the year only a few things on the original plan had been touched on in the way we'd planned. Planning was good though - especially at the beginning of the year - as it helped focus my thoughts on our goals and the reasons we were home educating again.

I used to read through our philosophy statements, etc, at least once a year, to help me remember what not to do, how not to teach, what was most important, and to let go of the need to emulate other homeschooling families' approaches/methods, or copy what the schools were doing. Reading through our self-designed curriculum helped to centre us.

Homeschooling Recording Made Easy Using Snapshots of Every Day Life Learning at Home

Beverley Paine — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 05:22:00 +0000

I'm a haphazard recorder, even though I write reams every day. My hard drive is a mess, according to Thomas, who wonders how I can find anything and asks if I ever access even a fraction of what I've stashed away. I do. I have boxes and folders on my desk and on shelves in my office too. It's one of the things I want to change and simplify in my life!

What I found very useful was bouts of concentrated recording: a snapshot of our life in a two to four week period, three or four times a year. This was something I could do. Keeping detailed records every day was something that would quickly fall by the wayside as life simply got in the way! Plus, in the early years, I'd work with one learning plan and recording system for two-three weeks and then abandon it. We did a lot of 'contracts' in those days, with checklists and the like. It looked terribly structured (for those few weeks anyway) but in reality the children still played most of the day, or did chores, or became involved in what we were doing, etc. The difference between those weeks and the other weeks was that I recorded, in educational jargon and in a structured way, what was happening. Back then I was also in the habit of asking the kids to do a page or three from workbooks for an hour or so three or four times a week - it all helped to build my confidence that they were learning even when they didn't use their work books.

I chatted to a homeschooler whose preferred mode of learning had nothing to do with paper or writing and she really didn't want to keep records, plus she wanted her children to learn nestled within their culture - which wasn't one that embraced recording and writing. It was challenging coming up with ways to record the natural learning process. The best I could think of was visually - through art and film, with audio recordings. Much of their learning activities were of the kind that left no trace - no concrete 'evidence' that learning has occured. And it's true to say that most of the education in a home learning environment occurs through conversation and doing things together. I settled on the idea of taking snapshots of development over the year - at least four separate 'weeks' spaced widely apart, captured on video perhaps, like a tv documentary. Or a scrapbook, done in much the same way. There is nothing to say that our records of our children's progress can't be a creative endeavour or a labour of love.

The end point is always the same: when we make the effort to record and reflect on our children's learning we learn so much about them, about their learning styles and needs, and this allows our confidence as home educators to grow and helps us determine where to go next and how to help them achieve their goals in a sympathetic and effect manner.

Homeschooling Helps Develop Empathy in Children

Beverley Paine — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 00:28:00 +0000

Caring how others feel is a bit of two-edged sword and that's why most people seem to shun developing empathy. When we care how others feel and want to help them meet their needs we find these often clash with what we want or need for ourselves. It's a moral minefield - for adults as well as children. I believe we start life with an instinct for justice but it's eroded by life's lessons. As parents we often justify selfishness to our children, sometimes without even being aware of it. A certain amount of 'self'ishness is necessary to develop a strong sense of self identity and to determine who 'I' am within the crowd, or we get lost to peer group pressure from an early age. I feel that is the relative social isolation of young homeschooled children that avoids this dilemma.

With my own children I tried to stick to the Golden Rule... I'd ask them to think about "how I would feel or think if someone acted that way toward me or if it happened to me, right now". I add the 'right now' because it made them place themselves in that other person's place immediately - it was a powerful exercise in imagination. It took time - this isn't something you can do in a moment. It takes longer than telling a child off, or threatening them, or bribing them ("if you be nice you'll be a nice person and people will like you") Sometimes I'd need to take half an hour out of our day to imagine what it would be like in someone else's position.

Where possible I'd include these little imaginative journeys any where in our lives - while going for a walk, driving in the car, playing games together, exploring our backyard or the local community. I felt it was important to develop this ability early.

Sometimes though we get hurt by others and we learn, little by little, to shut down our empathy, to protect ourselves. It takes a great effort to stay vulnerable. From what I've seen and learned though, it's those most willing to stay vulnerable that are the happiest folk in life.