After researching and much deliberation and consultation, I have decided to home school my 9 and 6 yo.
Although excited by the prospect, I am also a bit nervous about it and was wondering if anyone else has any tips on getting started? A lot of the websites seem a bit 'airy fairy' and while that might be useful for people who are home school veterans, I'm finding it a little confusing.
Maybe I need to de-school or something!
Where do you get your resources from? What happens at the interview for Dept Education (or similar)? How do you make sure your children are receiving the education they need? I don't want religion included in my childrens' curriculum, but lots of the sites seem to lean that way. Are there other sites/associations that can provide some sort of check/curriculum to ensure my children are at the level they need to be?
I'm sure I'll have hundreds more questions, but if someone could point me in the right direction, that would be fantastic!!!!
Also, I know this is a different state but I quite like these KLA syllabus documents as I think it explains it well... ACT DET probably have the same thing but I haven't really looked... Key Learning Areas
Last edited by Indadhanu; November 5th, 2008 at 11:43 AM.
I too am considering homeschooling- although my bub and bubs to be have a while to wait yet!! I was googling the other day, and I came across 2 seemingly professional sites. We are not meant to add web addresses here- but I can tell you the names of the organisations;
HEA- Home Education Association Inc. (A support network for home school educators).
Homeschooling Supplies- Supplier of Australian & New Zealand Educational Material.
I'm sure there are others- but I haven't got that far in my investigations yet!!
Perhaps you could contact the HEA about the best sources of educational materials?
Best of luck! I think you are doing a wonderful thing.
Hey Sal. I have been HS my kids for a couple of yrs now. WE LOVE IT. It does all seem a bit daunting to begin with, but you will be ok!
You will need to 'de-school' yourself as you so accurately put it. Some say it takes a month for every yr you have had kids in school to 'de-school'
HEA can be very helpful! But it depends on your philosophy and how you intend to go about it. And believe me, how you choose to begin will alter quite a bit to how you finally settle in.
So. some anwers to your questions.... but i can only give you answers accurate to WA... sorry..
Religious ed is NOT compulsory.
To get started all you need to do is fill in some paperwork. and inform your current school in writing that your kids are leaving, and on what date.
Your first visit comes after 3 months of HS. For us this was basically the moderator giving US ideas and pointing us in the right direction. She asked a bit about how we intended to go about it, and if we had a schedule planned or anything and looked at what resources we had, and made sure we were aware or what was available to us in the community... but the first visit is NOT an assessment. RELAX.
12 months later they will come and check how you are going. we keep all our workbooks and portfolios and just pile them up for her to look thru. they also talk to the kids a lot to get an idea of how they are doing.
Our basic approach to begin with was to buy a textbook for each subject and then bring in other fun activities as we went along. We get together with other HS families for things like craft and sport and excursions to make it more fun and social.
We got the books from wooldridges (check out the website) and just got each subject at the age approriate level. They have heaps of good stuff.
Thats all Ive got for now, but anything else i can help with , just ask....
I have checked out the DET website and waded through a lot of the manual and the learning key areas, but it didn't really have a lot of suggestions re particular curriculum. But I may just have to rethink the way I am approaching it, as obviously, my children are not reaching their potential in a 'class room' situation.
I have checked out the HEA site as well, but to be honest, I got a bit bogged down with all the links and info. All a bit daunting to me!!!
Thank you for the info regarding age appropriate books. I think that's how I will approach it. We have excellent suppliers here and I will take the time to go and browse the selection of materials.
Good luck with home schooling your kids. I am a school teacher and dont know alot about home schooling but if you can get your hands on the syllabus for the year that your child is in (they are all online and in the DET website) then I think that would be a good start. Have a look at the outcomes for English, maths and whatever else you want to teach your children and go from there.
Try to give your kids as much hands on learnign as possible more so than text book learning.
Both your boys aged 6 and 9 would still need to learn through this way before they can learn in an abstract way (like textbooks). When thinking of resources dont jsut think about text books. Think about great games that you can get or make, paddlepop sticks for maths, etc.
Being in Canberra, the thing that excites me about home schooling is that we have the Ginninderra Wetlands literally a block away, we have the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve 20 mins away, we have the Tidbinbilla Space Tracking station 15 mins away, we have the National Museum, National Art Gallery, Questacon, the National Library, Old Parliament House, New Parliament House and the whole Parliament Triangle (including the National Mint and all sorts of institutions), not to mention the seaside and the Snowy's are less than 2 hours away!
Taking the home school plunge!
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