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!
you may also find that once you take on the full responsibiblity for your childrens education you will begin to change the way you interact with them and answer questions and explain things to them. with me it was a subtle thing to begin with but it as greatly improved my relationship with my girls and their relationship with each other.... not that things werent fine before .... but now they are just heaps better!
Hi there Canberra mum - go for it and well done! I have been homeschooling for 11 years and love it. I chose curriculum by pestering every homeschooler I met to show me what they are using. Math-U-See it a good one for maths and is very hands on, you can get a free demo dvd by hooking onto their site. Alot of homeschoolers use this for maths, it is a little costly to set up but it is fantastic. I have just started using Learn to Read, Write and Spell by Valerie Marrot (available through Homeschool supplies). This is cost effective and covers everything - you can do a diagnostic test to see what level your children need. ACE is a complete christian based curriculum and is expensive but you can do a free diagnostic on thier website to see what level your children are at in all subjects - I find this handy!
Well all the best on your homeschooling journey and would love to hear how you are getting on.
I tried finding other homeschoolers here a while back a got no reply so I think we are it!!!
Now that its coming to the end of the year I am just finishing up my kids work that they needto have done. My 6yo finihed her english stuff in term 3 so is starting on her new books slowly but she has some maths to catch up on! My 4yo is busting to start work with the big kids and he is ready to start reading but I am just extending his pre-reading stuff and will start him fresh next year - I am not quite phsyced up to teach 5 yet!!
Perhaps we are all too busy and need a few hours (at midnight) to reply.
I really think that, given the interest shown here and in other forums, that a dedicated chat would be wonderful for home schooling!
BTW, the only reason I'm up so late is that I was watching 'Brides' on SBS. Anyone else? It was really moving and showed so much about circumstance, culture and politics, particularly from a womans point of view.
Canberramum - congrats and enjoy> I'm a teacher and looking at home schooling my son (autism) if yr 1-2 doesn't go well. I was lucky enough to spend some time teaching with school of the air or distance ed here in QLD and as well as the remote kids they also had some 'in town' homeschoolers. I have some info I can pm you if you would like
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