Save time and simplify
your homeschooling life...
Learn from experienced
homeschoolers how to write your own curriculum.
It really is that easy!
Use this website with Beverley Paine's Getting Started with Home Schooling - Practical Considerations to help you develop your own educational curriculum to suit your family situation, beliefs and lifestyle. The checklists can help you identify your children's current educational skill level in each subject area, as well as find any 'gaps' in their learning, plan what they need to cover or keep track of what has been learned. As you can appreciate this website is continuously under development... It's our aim to add pages on a regular basis in all curriculum areas: check back frequently. Feedback and comments welcome. We hope you enjoy the articles and activities and find the links and recommended resources useful. Over the next year we will be working our way through each subject area and writing fresh, new content which will also be reproduced in a reasonably priced handy reference booklet from our Practical Homeschooling Series. |
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"Congratulations on a terrific website. It's a great resource." Steven "By sharing your experiences, we are into our third year of homeschooling and enjoying it thoroughly." Marina "Thank you so much for your wonderful website! I was getting quiet frustrated with finding appropriate information on homeschooling - thanks to your website we are now on the right track... Using your checklists for reassurance helped me to have the confidence to come up with my own programme that suits our needs." Rachael "I'm a frequent visitor to your website... I gain valuable knowledge from your website, luckily recommended in the very early stages of our homeschooling journey." Geradine "I checked out your website today and was incredibly impressed by it. I can tell it will be a great resource for our family for many years. THANKS for all the hard work that has gone into making homeschooling easier and much less isolating for families like us." Cynthia |
Sample Homeschool Learning Programs
Robin and I spent two weeks carefully discussing and considering what education meant to us, both as individuals and as parents before we began home educating our children. It was important for us to work out what we wanted to achieve by educating our children at home. This meant teasing out a definition of education that we could build a solid foundation upon. This philosophy formed the basis of our core beliefs about education and it's purpose.
© Beverley Paine, 1997
(first published in Getting Started with Homeschooling Practical Considerations)
Paine Family Home Education Curriculum: Philosophy, Goals and Aims, 1986-2005
Philosophy
Children are naturally curious and eager to learn. Their love of learning and ability to think creatively will only be fostered when they are able to learn at their own pace and follow their own interests as much as possible.
Children learn most effectively in an environment that provides honesty, trust, love and security. In a safe, secure learning environment each child is able to make choices about themself and their learning with increasing skill and confidence.
Responsibility and self discipline are best learned by real experience and by emulation of good example.
Unhindered by social and peer pressure to conform and in the absence of unnecessary competition children are able to develop stronger and more positive characters.
Education is an integral part of life and learning is not to be seen as a separate task. Learning should occur in the real world as much as possible and be viewed as an on-going life long process. All learning should be relevant to each child so that it is seen to have purpose and interest to the child.
Awareness of self is learned first within the family unit, gaining confidence and a sense of responsibility, which can be gradually applied to the wider community and in a variety of social settings when the child shows as readiness for this.
Caring, sensitive, responsible parents know best their children's strengths, weaknesses, interests and sensitivities. If the parents are willing to take the responsibility, time and interest to facilitate the education of their own children then those children have available to them the opportunity to learn in the best possible way.
Aims
To develop self-awareness, self-confidence and self-worth; respect and consideration for others and the environment we share and live together in, both as a family and in social settings.
To develop an ability to work and play effectively and co-operatively with people, evolved out of an understanding of one's self and abilities.
To be able to confidently express and communicate thoughts, ideas and opinions clearly using different media.
To be able to formulate their own set of values and to be sensitive to the values of others.
To be able to act responsibly, independent of direction, with purpose in a confident and assertive manner.
To be able to draw on knowledge and skills gained in a range of areas; to ask critical and constructive questions and use imagination and reasoning in devising responses and developing plans for action; to apply ethical standards and judgements in assessing situations and taking action.
To understand there are many different ways of knowing and understanding the world, and to be tolerant and respectful of other perspective's, to develop cultural and personal awareness.
Statement on Socialisation
Socialisation is a natural development in the education of children given that the above philosophy and aims are enacted and pursued.
Children learn social values and skills by example from a wide cross-section of people - first in the home as personal values are built and secured, and then in the wider community.
In an environment where children are trusted and valued, children can discover their abilities and natural talents, and are able to challenge themselves, promoting growth and development according to their own time frames, adequately pacing their acquisition of social skills to suit their own developing personality.
As parents sensitive to the needs of our children, we see our role as facilitators of opportunities to allow our children to follow their own social learning programs, guided by observation of, and discussion with, them.
on this website is of a general
nature only and is not intended as
personal or professional advice.
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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 in 1986 and three years later started the
South Australian Home Based Learners
network. Beverley continues to write for homeschooling newsletters
and magazines as well as hosting several websites dedicated to promoting
and supporting home education in Australia. Her aim is to demystify the
education process and make it accessible to all parents. Enjoy Beverley's
wealth of practical knowledge, homeschooling and unschooling tips and
ideas through articles and books and online at
www.homeschoolaustralia.com.
Since the late 1990s Robin and Beverley have been building their home education
publishing business - Always Learning Books - from home with the help of their son Thomas.
"Education is not a preparation for life. Education is life itself." John Dewey
Please note that the opinions and articles included in the suite of Homeschool Australia websites are not necessarily those of Beverley and Robin Paine, nor do we endorse or necessarily recommend products (other than our own) listed in contributed articles, pages, or advertisements.
Please visit the following websites for information on homeschooling in Australia:
Homeschool Australia : SAHEN : Australian HS Curriculum : About the Paine Family
Text & Images on this site
Copyright © 1999-2008 Beverley Paine.
All rights reserved.
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