|
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
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Using 'Living Books' in Your Homeschool © Rebecca Williams, July 2006 You can use living books in conjunction with ordinary books really easily. For example, say you were studying The French Revolution. You could get an encyclopaedia or a high school text book and read about the basic facts: when it happened, why it happened, what parties were involved, how many died and who ruled France after it was over. Then you could read 'Tale of Two Cities' by Charles Dickens and 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' by Baroness Orczy and travel back through time and follow the story as the aristocrats fled for their lives, hid in wagons and beer barrels just to get to England to escape the guillotine; meet the brave heroes who saved them and the women who loved them... You could contrast this with the plight of the desperately poor as they suffered for so many years under the terrible cruelty of the French monarchy, bringing their children up in filth and watching unbelievable wealth flaunt itself on a daily basis with no grace or charity. In no time you would start to understand why this bloodthirsty revolution had to happen and the reason for the hatred behind the introduction of the dreaded guillotine. Living books help the topic of study come 'alive' for the student. Can you tell I really love living books? You could read these books to get the feeling of 'living the topic', whether its science or maths or history, etc., and use the reference books to help you understand the facts surrounding the events. Most' classics' would be living books. There are heaps of books, especially those produced by Dorling Kingsley, that are great resources for the homeschool. Don't let the internet take over the need for your reference/ encyclopaedia books. We have sat and searched for some things online for ages, then given up and gone to our books to find the answers. Children can't take the internet to bed with them like they can a wonderful book, and if your children are anything like mine then they will devour these reference books as they get older.
I have ones for younger years but I've found they don't get used nearly as much as these ones: the younger children don't seem to mind that they can't read all the words, they love the pictures anyway. The ones I've listed I plan to use as reference books throughout their high school years.
Rebecca Williams is a homeschooling mother living in South Australia.
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.