Homeschooling Discussion & Experiences #1

[BellyBelly]

I thought we needed a place for this with what seems to be more people interested in and beginning homeschooling, which has many advantages. If you homeschool, feel free to introduce yourself and how what you do here. Likewise, if you're keen on looking into it, join in too! Enjoy!

[NewAgeRetroMum]

I'm really interested in learning more about others' experiences of homeschooling.

My little Daniel has just turned 2 and my husband & I aren't really enamoured with the current school system and so want to homeschool Daniel.

At first I thought homeschooling was about doing the regular school curriculum at a more leisurely pace at home, but in recent times I've read about "Unschooling" and following your childs' lead.

So I'm looking forward to hearing some first hand experiences.

[beckoes]

thats so wierd. DP and i were talking just this morning about homeschooling. I ve always wanted to homeschool but DP has alwasy said that the social side of school is too important. untill yesterday, not sure what changed his mind but he just came to me and asked me to find out more about homeschooling as he thinks it might be right for DD. So this will be great to find out about it!!!! BB saves the day again

[banshi]

Hi I'm currently homeschooling 3 of my four kids ( my little one is 11 months old).

There are so many versions of homeschooling - that can be very liberating!

I've met unschoolers, natural learners, formal learners, Buddhist homeschoolers, steiner, montessori, Charlotte Mason, Christian homeschoolers, Atheist/secular homeschoolers, wealthy homeschoolers (who take their children to the Louvre for an art excursion), homeschoolers who are doing it on the cheap (me usually), homeschooling parents with masters degrees and doctorates and homeschooling parents with a year 8 education - all kinds of people homeschool for all kinds of reasons - it's lots of fun. we all share a passion for our children and a love of learning as we go along! It's an educational/philosophical journey!

Some books I'd reccomend:

Getting Started with Homeschooling - by Beverly Paine (best practical Aus how to)

Dumbing Us Down - by John Gatto Taylor

and lots of people love books by John Holt (I find him a bit boring)

Unschooling: Make the world your child's classroom

The Teenage Liberation Handbook....

There are heaps of others..........can't think of any more off the top of my head!

I'm happy to answer any questions.

:-)
Banshi
xox

[lilprecious75]

Hi!
DH and I just recently made the firm decision to home school after meeting HEAPS of people who home school and being VERY impressed with how the children behave and carry themselves.
I am a trained primary school teacher and have worked in the schools both here in Australia and in the United States as well.
I am generally unimpressed with formal, public (and most private) education programs and feel that since I would be supplementing HEAPS I (and my children) would be much better off if I do it myself.

Banshi:
Thanks for your post - I have a feeling I will be picking your brain a lot in the months to come.
DS#1 is nearly 4.5 years old and I'm not planning to start anything formal until the year he turns six. For the time being I'm enjoying the fact that he is learning HEAPS just with our every day life. Already he knows all his numbers and letters, can recognize and spell his name, and is starting to ask me to read signs and directions to him. He can count to 100 with minimal help (usually at the 10's) and he does the rest. Already I know that he would be somewhat bored in a preschool program.
Thank you SO much for the list of books - I'm keen to start doing some REAL research and reading as I plan how and what I want to do. Can I find these books in my local library? Or will I need to buy them?

It is late (12:30am) and it has been a rough week with both the boys being very sick PLUS the torrential rain - so I need to make myself go to sleep but I wanted to get started in this thread before I forgot for another night!
I am keen to hear what other parents are doing and to get ideas and thoughts on how to get started when the time is right!
Specifically I'm interested in hearing who uses specific curriculum and what kinds they use...
how to home school on the cheap...
what kind of routine people follow for "school" each day...

I hope that gets things started and I'll look forward to hearing back from people!

Thanks,
Heidi

[banshi]

Hi liprecious,
It sounds like you are already on the right track with your LO. Learning really flows at that age, you just need to be there!

I've never found many homeschooling books in libraries - but I guess it depends on where you live. The only people I've ever met who use ready made curricula are a small number of Christian homeschoolers who follow ACE (accelerated christian education). Most people devise their own curriculum depending upon state requirements and the family's interests, most use some text books (commonly for maths) others devise their own programs.

The legal requirements vary state to state. I live in NSW so I must comply with their 'minimum curriculum requirements' package to gain registration. I usually get 2 years registration (during which time you are totally autonomous) - then an authorised person comes to your home to check what you are up to or you can re-register via documentation - basically by providing a portfolio for your child's learning. In NSW there are 6 Key Learning Areas you must include in your program to gain registration (not all homeschoolers choose to register - but most do because their can be legal trouble for unregistered HSers). The 6 KLAs for primary level are : 1 English; 2 Maths; 3 Science and Technology; 4 Human Society and Its Environmen; 5 Creative arts; 6 Personal development, Health, Physical Exercise.

How you show your child is learning in relation to each KLA is entirely up to you - many families focus on a child's interest in a particular thing, for eg, butterflies and then they will create a cross curricula unit: read stories about butterflies, count butterflies in the garden, identify species of butterfly, paint a picture of a butterfly etc......of course that is an example for a very young child!

Some people have a formal timetable, others, esp natural learners just allow everything to unfold - most people do something in between! I know I have had months where my children have learned very formally (it usually takes us only an hour or two to cover at least as much formal ed that they do in school in a day) - then other times when my children were turned off by 'book work' type stuff and they really want to do their own thing: during this natural learning time my eldest taught himself guitar (with the help of library books and you tube); my daughter who is 11 has written a 200 page story book (she has others on the way too); and my 6 year old son learned to read and write!

[banshi]

It's worth checking if there are any local homeschooling groups in your area: these are really worth finding as you will meet plently of people who've done it all before and are happy to discuss how they do it and also your kids will make friends.

A good place to find groups is at the HEA (Home Ed Australia) or HEN (home ed networks) websites. These sites also advertise for home ed functions ( a couple of years ago there was a conference in Sydney lots of good international speakers attended). They also have resources re getting started, the legalities etc.

[lilprecious75]

Banshi:

Thank you SO much for your reply!
I will be registering when we start school officially as I am one of those people who likes to stick to the rules. I'm known as the goody-two-shoes in my family!! *grin*
I have searched for homeschooling groups in my area online and found a bunch of people and had full intentions of trying to attend some groups and email some of the members but it has been a rough few months with my 10 month old teething furiously and really not sleeping and life has just seemed a tad difficult. It is on my To-Do list to get in touch with some of them and try to meet some new people.
So if I want some of these books on home schooling I guess I'll probably have to go searching for them in book stores! *grin* Will most mainstream book stores carry them or be able to order them for me?
Where is NSW are you located?

Thanks again for all your information - is gives me some things to think about and some stuff to get started on.

[banshi]

Hi again!
I understand the baby thing - I have an 11 month old daughter and this year has flown by!!

Well I'm not sure if you will find many HS books in shops - I haven't - but I live in regional NSW (Orange atm, Lismore previously). I've found them online and at HS conferences - perhaps your bookshop could order them in. This website is a good place to start: Always Learning Books Catalogue Getting Started with Homeschoolin.

I'm giving you a link to a great essay about school and homeschooling by John Gatto Taylor - it's interesting reading and succinct: The Odysseus Group People's Education Debate & Discussion Center

This Aus website seems to have a good collection of books too! (not sure if they sell!) Kids First Australia: Book List - Recommended Reading

Another fantastic book that I personally wish everyone would read is Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich - when reading this one must make allowances for the period in which it was written
(early 1960s - pre computer age) but it is truly remarkable and revolutionary !

This is an interesting article that I just found: Theresa Willingham, "The Humanism Behind Homeschooling," for the journal of the Friends of Religous Humanism

Hope I'm not overloading you!

Have fun!!!

Where are you?

[lilprecious75]

Hi Banshi
Thanks for all the information! Some night soon (I hope) my son will sleep at night so I can get some computer work done. As it is I'm typing this message one-handed while holding him in my other arm!
I am in the Sydney area!
May I ask how/why you decided to home school?
My friends and family are all asking why we are planning to home school and while I know the reasons in my heart and m head, I struggle to adequately communicate that to other people.

[banshi]

Hi,
Well, I began homeschooling as my son was bright and he was: a) not understood nor catered to at school, ie he wanted to read books in kindy, the class had to sing 'a is for apple a, a, a' - he was bored and the teacher complained that he was distracting himself.....
B) he was bullied by a group of year 6 boys who all ganged up on him and hit him with sticks and cricket bats - after I saw his face and the bruises - I never ever was going to send him back there! And this was at a private school with small class sizes and a 'zero tolerance' stance on bullying - it still happens, schools are unnatural, that many people confined together all day - it's too much. Few adults spend 6 hours per day with 30 people all the same age, all in one room, all at once in their working lives ( oh, I forgot, then they have to lunch with up to 1000 people in a yard at lunch breaks etc).

From my experiences with my children (they chose to go to school for a few months when my eldest was in yr 6 and my dd was in yr3 - they were curious and the school had a good rep so I let them - academically and socially they were fine - but the bureaucracy was annoying) schools really try, and some of them try harder than others, but in my opinion a 30:1 ratio (students:teachers) is just not good enough, nor is 20:1 - children thrive when learning at their own pace, whether that's faster or slower than 'normal'.

I no longer believe in institutional education - it obscures a child's talents by comsuming too much of their time with jumping through hoops to make themselves mediocre - which is what teacher prompted class tasks really do (everyone - draw a chicken - what if a child would rather be reading a book, running, making lunch, playing violin - is the chicken drawing exercise going to give the child a memorable experience? maybe one or two in the class - for the remainder of the class the poor kids' time is being wasted! Another example I saw in my dd's classroom: ' everyone here's a diagram of a heart, colour it in and label it like I have on the board' - this kind of stuff teaches in a shallow way that bores most of the kids most of the time and they switch off and think 'gee, science is boring' - when you are homeschooling you can go as deeply into a topic as your child wishes, allowing much greater experiential learnoing and if they are disinterested you can move on - minus the busywork filler).

In my ten years associating with homeschooled kids I've learned that every person, child and adult, has abilities and talents and these are best fostered out of the school system. Also, when I see homeschooled children playing together they never go off in neat age brackets, they mix in large loose groups, they never bully each other - they don't need to, I feel that they do not behave as bullies because they feel secure. Their parents never left them at school at 5 feeling lost, alone and scared. They feel happy about themselves, they do not have to compete with anyone - I just find homeschooling better on so many levels, emotionally, academically, socially - and the lifestyle is less stressful - that 8.30am deadline and 3.30 deadline are always in the back of your mind.

I also dislike the way in which school compartmentalises society: kids are at school, babies at daycare or at home with mum/dad, adults are at work, the elderly in homes - I dislike institutionalision of humanity - I feel it robs us of experiencing the fullness of life.

[lilprecious75]

Hi!
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and feelings as far as your decision to homeschool is concerned!
I feel much the same way about many of the points you made - I just can't seem to communicate it well when people ask me face-to-face why I'm planning to homeschool.
I'm already really sick and tired about people commenting on how I'm going to socialise my child and the newest one was a lady from my church who asked how my son is going to have friends if he doesn't go to school???
Excuse me?? He hasn't gone to school as yet, but he has friends already, from mother's group, playgroup, and children's church!! I should have been brave enough to say - by homeschooling I have the power to help my child choose quality friends - rather than being lumped with a HUGE group of children and be under the influence of people I don't want him to spend a bulk of his time with.
Before I had children I worked as a casual teacher in the public schools and the catholic schools and bullying was a big pet peeve of mine. I felt horrible reading that your kindy aged son was bullied so severely by year 6 boys. Did the school (try) to do anything about it? Or simply turn a blind eye?
My son is very bright and I do believe that he would find school boring and would act out and get in trouble. I also don't feel that schools teach boys in a way that is helpful to them so having two boys so far I would be really leery to put them in school. Right now he has a natural love of learning and I just KNOW that would be ripped out of him within weeks of entering school and that just breaks my heart.
I am enjoying chatting with you and I hope that you don't mind me continuing to ask you questions and run ideas past you as I prepare to embark on my homeschooling experience.
Do you (or have you) used a set curriculum at any time or do you (have you) created your own the entire time you have home schooled?
If you created your own curriculum how do you show that the child has mastered each KLA for their age? Do you make your own tests? Or create a portfolio to show what you have taught/they have learned over the year?
10 month awake for second time tonight - more later

[Antheia]

If anyone is interested, i have a huge list of books, websites and other recommendations for homeschooling. I have also made my own curriculum if anyone wants to take a looksee to see how you can cover each syllabus.

[banshi]

Regarding the bullying the school was useless: first, they kept ringing me saying 'your son keeps going out of bounds' -yep, that was because he was escaping from bullies, but HE got into trouble; secondly, they didn't notice the bullying or help him in any way until he was severely attacked, then they made excuses, such as, 'one of the yr 6 boys has a troubled past' - blah; thirdly, he wasn't telling me about it because the boys had threatened him and his friend with severely violent threats should they tell. So overall I feel the school handled it badly, the teacher once asked me if 'you even bother setting rules for your children?' - because he wanted to visit the library to read during recess - which was against the rules.

Regarding your comment: 'Right now he has a natural love of learning and I just KNOW that would be ripped out of him within weeks of entering school and that just breaks my heart.'
Going to school has permanantly altered the way my son views education - before school he saw it as exciting and he was proud of his acheivement, after school anything that could be neatly recognised as 'school work' he just hates - he still loves learning at 15, reading and playing guitar and he stays up late having in depth conversations re books we have both read/are reading, film, politics, spirituality, etc - but pull out text books and he switches off! Which is very sad - I wish he'd never gone! My younger two children will never go to school - it teaches children that learning is dull! When he went to school for a while in yr 6 he was 'identified as gifted and talented' which was the worst thing they could have done - everyone is g&t in some way and for him it just switched him off from formal learning all the more, like , 'i'm already smart, so why bother'

I have never used a set curriculum but I do use some textbooks sometimes - I'm happy to email you a copy of my 7 yr olds curriculum if you are interested!

Have a nice day!

[Cherished]

Hi girls, just poping in to subscribe and thank everyone for the info thus far I'd love to homeschool but not sure what our situation will be when the time comes. In the mean time I'll be learning as much as I can from you guys. In my ideal world I'd like to home school and have a social 'school day' once a week or something with a group of other home school kids, just to keep up that social aspect and to learn from other home school teachers/parents. Sounds like you are all doing a wonderful job with the arrangemtns you have. Thanks again

[banshi]

Hi, I've lived in Lismore/Ballina, Canberra, Blue Mountains/Penrith and Central West NSW and all those places have had a homeschooling group that meets once a week. You can find your local group through the board of studies, HEA or HEN. Getting together is lots of fun.

Have fun!

[Antheia]

With the social side of things, i think homeschool is better. Because at school they only interact with children their own age. Homeschooling lets them interact with all age gruops, which personally i think is better.

You can register them for a sporting team and most places have groups of homeschoolers who go on regular excursions to keep up with the kids social life.

[lilprecious75]

Banshi:
For some reason I can't PM you to give you my email address! Can you PM me with your email address and then I'll send you a message? I would love to see what you are doing with your 7 year old to give me ideas on how to create my own curriculum.

Antheia:
I PM'd you my email address as I would love to see what you have created as well!

Thanks to both of you lovely ladies for offering to share your hard work to give me ideas and a head start with my own planning.

One of the other reasons I don't want to put my children in school is because I don't like how teachers talk to them and treat them. Students are yelled at (even screamed at) and I'm quite sure that hampers the learning process.

I taught a LOT of preschool in the 3 years I worked as a casual (especially the last year as I was pregnant for most of it and my supervising teacher put me on infants so I could rest a bit more through the day) and I was disgusted at how they were spoken to. They are still babies at the tender age of 4 and yet they were being yelled at all the time.
Also, going back to a comment you made Banshi - it drove me crazy that EVERY child had to do EVERY activity during the "desk work" time whether they wanted to or not!

Okay, this message is random and I'm getting interrupted by both my boys so time to sign off and hopefully I'll get some time to work on the computer this afternoon or tonight. My 10 month old was VERY ill last week and although he is well now we are in a horrible pattern at night now. He was awake from 11:30pm until 2:30am and then woke (more or less for the day) again at 5:30am!