|
Homeschool Australia!
Teach your children at home!
|
Have a homeschooling question?
Join our free support group |
| Home educate the easy way... simplify and save time... |
|||||
| "Thank you... The information you supply is real and generous - fantastic reading. I am so inspired... Your honesty is rare. Most books do not really explain 'how' as well as you do." Tracy "I cannot seem to get enough of your writings on the whole home ed subject! You portray a lot of wisdom, knowledge and experience..." Marie "A fabulous source of information and inspiration. I am very pleased to have some of your titles on my bookshelf... providing me with wonderful, detailed information and resources." Faye |
"Every time I read your writing it feels like a pat on the shoulder, and that feels really good...Thanks!" Maaike
|
||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Home | About | Magazine | Quick Guide | Articles Index | Blog | Bookstore | Site Map |State Info | Resources | Donate
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Telling Other People You Are Homeschooling © Beverley Paine The following question recently came up on the Homeschool Australia FAQ group. How have people found reactions to the decision to hs from friends who already have their kids in school or plan to send them? We all feel the need to enthuse about our new passion in life. I remember my best friend waxing lyrical about the joys of single parenting after a not-so amicable split from her ex, especially when she fell in love with a tall, handsome fella... Robin and I found it all too much and began avoiding her company. We'd only been married four or five years and were very much in love. I used to ear-bash my friends about anti-nuclear stuff when a member for People for Peace, tried to convince everyone to become Trees For Life members, wouldn't eat anything unless it was organic and dairy free (I was a real pain to cater for at dinner parties!). Homeschooling, however, was something I didn't tell many people about. It was too 'out there'. Most people assumed we were feral hippies when they found out, or totally ignored the fact and kept asking the kids about school... I think some of them thought that we were doing school at home, as in correspondence lessons. In a small country town dependent on student enrollments for school staff positions you don't talk about homeschooling - it's considered anti-community. It wasn't uncommon for people to feel that my lifestyle was a criticism of their's. These meant a defensive reaction whereas they may have been open to the idea. I learned to preface conversations about homeschooling with "in my experience only weird parents homeschool - we're a bunch of overprotective paranoid parents who are totally besotted with their kids and love spending every minute of every day with them". That convinced them we were weird, not normal and pretty well summed up the whole homeschooling thing at the same time. They were mostly relieved that they didn't have to homeschool to prove that they were adequate parents. Another line I used to give was "I went to school and I'm okay, I just want to try something different with my kids. If it doesn't work out they'll go to school." That always seemed to reassure and shut up the more antagonist, argumentative friends, family and strangers. If someone asks me "why?" and I tell them I don't agree with school, forced learning etc... aren't I indirectly critizing them? We generally don't talk politics or football with people: homeschooling is another one of those topics. People can get fired about education, especially those that lean to the left and believe fervently in the role of public education as a socialising mechanism in society. I wouldn't debate the finer points of rugby union in an AFL dominated room! Besides, you're not directly criticising them - they are taking what you say as criticism. There's a difference. But if you go on and on, then you'll be seen to pushing your point too far, and that begins to look like you disapprove of their choices. It's not about approving or disapproving; it's about validating that everyone has the responsibility to work out what's best for them and their family situation. On one hand I want to tell everyone I'm going to homeschool, so I dont' have to listen to all the agonizing conversations about preparations for school, but am also a bit wary of offending people somehow? Join in the conversations. Chat about YOUR preparations for homeschool. Talk about the excursions and camps you're planning on going on, the projects you'll be helping your kids with, how you're organising their portfolios, music and karate lessons and so on. You won't be hanging out at the canteen but you're talking to your children about them helping out with you when you volunteer as a Meals on Wheels driver... Talk about shopping for text books, stationery, telescopes... Ace 'em!
Was this article helpful? Was it worth $1.00 to you? |
SEARCH this site: Since 1989 Beverley Paine has
Be the first to find out about new Beverley's LATEST book
was LAUNCHED at the Unschooling Conference!
|
Spend a WEEK Consciously Parenting and Natural Learning Conference 
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
 |
Please join one of my Yahoo Groups
if you want to know more
about home education or have a question. |
|
education in Australia. State and Territory governments are responsible for regulating home education and have different requirements, however home educating families are able to develop curriculum and learning programs to suit the individual needs of their children.
Questions about homeschooling or wondering
what to teach?
See the Site Map for our
full list of articles.
Interested in homeschooling, but still not sure?
Read All You Need Is...'
Without revenue from Google Ads we
could not continue to provide over 700 pages of information to home educators.
Thank you for visiting!
Pioneering members of the home education movement in Australia, Beverley and Robin Paine are passionate advocates of true educational choice for families. They began homeschooling their children in 1986 and three years later started the South Australian Home Based Learners network.
Beverley wrote Getting Started with Homeschooling in 1995-97 and since then continues to write books and booklets on home education. She balances spending time helping home educators with working in her garden and renovating her home, as well as continuing to build her collection of writing on a variety of homeschooling subjects. Beverley maintains an extensive collection of websites as well as several Yahoo groups supporting families teaching their children at home.
In 2007 Beverley joined the HEA and was a committee member for three years during which time she edited and produced the HEA Newsletter, Stepping Stones for Home Educators magazine, annual Resource Directory and other HEA publications.
If you'd like to keep in touch with what Beverley is up to her in her life, sign up for the Homeschool Australia Newsletter or visit her Homeschool Australia Facebook page.nor do they endorse or recommend products (other than their own) listed in contributed articles, pages, or advertisements.