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Homeschool Australia K-12 Curriculum
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Conversation Is Learning Too! © Beverley Paine 1997 All too often I forget where most of my children’s learning originates - in our everyday conversations! Most of the reading I have done over the last couple of months has reinforced this belief in me, and with the hindsight of twelve years of home based learning I know the truth of it. April, Roger and Thomas know a lot about the world they live in, not because they have read about it, or even seen it on the television, but because we talk about things a lot. Anything can spark a conversation, and conversations often lead to in-depth research, experiments and activities. Although quite often we already know the answers to many of our children's questions, there are times Robin and I have taken a topic much further for our own interest. The children get on what whatever they are doing, having had their curiosity sated, while we discover much more about the world than we knew before. I love this aspect of home education. Learning through conversation, with a little research thrown in when necessary, is fun and spontaneous. It certainly seems to cover all of the important things without the need to closely follow a prescribed curriculum. All too often reading, writing and arithmetic, the traditional ‘basics’, take precedence in our minds when we are thinking about education. I believe learning suffers as a result. 'Book work', because it leaves a tangible collection of records that can be looked at by anyone, and judged as evidence of learning, is usually considered more important than the everyday learning derived from conversation. How can anyone prove they have 'covered' a subject if all he or she has ever done is talk about it? Such demotion of conversation for the sake of 'evidence' is a sad fact of school education. Books have dominated learning for more than a century. That civilisation progressed before the advent of mass publication of texts is beyond refute. And it was able to do so because of a long tradition of story telling and passing on relevant life and community building skills by demonstration and conversation. Talk is still the primary method we learn by. It is sometimes very hard for home educating parents to put down the books and to get on with the real work of learning - simply enjoying the conversations as they flow in, around and out of, the interests of the family. Some of the ways in which I try to encourage conversation in our family are:
However, I know we don't talk enough in our house. Probably more than many others and about a lot of very interesting things. But not enough. I love a quiet house, and find it suits my own learning style as I am emotionally sensitive to noise. I can't stand conversation and music at the same time, and definitely not conversation with talk-back radio or television in the background. I know a quiet house has had an slight negative effect on my children's language development. I also recognise that my children also need more people to talk to in stress free situations, different types and ages of people for different purposes. For many reasons we have been unable to access a variety of suitable social situations, and this hasn't helped. Not that most people notice, just their fussy mum! Given that things could always improve I am still amazed at the amount of knowledge my children have accumulated through conversation alone. |
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"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.
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