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Getting Started with Home Schooling: Practical Considerations

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© Beverley Paine

"I have just removed my children from school. I have found my local home eduacting group so feel we have sorted to the social side out, however I am overwhelmed by the choice of resources for home educators! Can you suggest some places to start?"

It can be really overwhelming. When I began homeschooling I had the completely opposite problem. There were no support groups or resources readily available. This meant I had to start from scratch, which although a considerable task actually is the very best place, even now. It helps to clarify the mind and instead of simply applying a
pre-made curriculum to your children's education in the same that schools do, you build a curriculum from the ground up that is individually tailored to your family's needs and to educational needs and learning styles of each of your children.

My book, which is available from my online bookstore http://alwayslearningbooks.com.au , Getting Started with Homeschooling is a manual that takes you through the steps required to build your own curriculum. It would probably take a week or two to go through the book, thinking about what you want and need for the education of your children.

I understand that you'll want to get your children studying at home as soon as possible. But it's not that essential and you have lots of options for keeping your children occupied while you take your time to look around and find educational resources and materials that suit each one of them.

If you children are still in the early childhood education ages and still learning to read and write you will find my Practical Home Education Language Series booklets full of ideas of how to teach these subjects at home. All too often 'fill-in-the-blank' student work books give something for the child to do, but don't teach parents or children much about the why and how of what they are learning. The same goes for maths books. I've co-written a small booklet about learning maths naturally - taking advantage of the
everyday opportunities such as cooking, etc that naturally teach your children maths.

While you are in this phase or working out what style of education you will adopt you can purchase some simple and inexpensive workbooks to help you feel confident that your children are learning at home (which will happen regardless of what method or resources you eventually chose - many families abandon the school style of learning altogether and their children still learn the equivalent, perhaps not in the same
sequence but after 12 years most if not more of the curriculum is covered this way). I'd start by looking in shops like your local newsagent and picking up a 'homework' or equivalent student workbook at your child's level. These usually cost less than $10 and will help your child feel that they are still doing 'school work'.

Pick a one or two topical themes - a subject in which each child is interested - and do unit studies on them. My booklet on Unit Studies explains how to put one together and has a few examples, but essentially unit studies are school projects.

Make sure your children are getting enough time to play with their toys, run around the garden and park, play outside games, sing and play board, dice and card games - all of these with and without your company. Add attention to chores and you have a naturally rounded curriculum that will help set the foundation for whatever method or style of home education you eventually adopt.

Document your daily homeschooling progress (you can use one of my prepared diaries which will guide you, or just jot notes in an exercise book or similar). When you need to present you homeschooling program to the educational authorities for registration purposes, even though you haven't settled on your preferred curriculum just yet, it
will show that you are teaching your children at home. The authorising officer may have some useful comments on different curriculum choices - don't forget to ask. You have plenty of time to sort this out. Most families aren't using the same method in six months after starting so spending a lot of money at this stage is unwise.

I have hundreds of articles on my Homeschool Australia website on many different aspects of homeschooling, drawn from my experience educating my own children, now aged 21 to 27. You are also most welcome to join our friendly homeschool online support group:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HomeschoolAustraliaFAQ

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If you like what you
read here, you can
order Beverley's books!

	Choosing Homeschool Curriculum
	Getting Started - how to write your own learning programs
	Natural Learning Answers
	Beverley's E-books
	Learning Without School - how 30 families homeschool
	The Homeschooling Trail - Christian unschooling life
	Learning in the Absence of Education - how we did it
	Practical Homeschooling Booklet Series - your questions answered!
	Educational Games Booklet Series - make learning fun!
	Practical Homeschooling Language Development Series
	Natural Learning Series
	Homeschool Diaries
	Ready to use Portfolios / Report Cards
	Sample Learning Programs
	Stock Clearance

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March 13th-18th 2012

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