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 |
Reading Costs Nothing
© Beverley Paine, 2004
Unlike a GameBoy or Playstation , which will entertain your child for hours but at considerable cost, reading is free. There are a thousand stories waiting to be devoured at the local library... If she hasn't already got one, give your child her own library card as a special present. Make a library bag together using material the child has picked: how about a leather library bag to excite a reluctant reader? You may need instructions to work the leather, but you'll find them in a book at - you guessed it - the library!
If you have never visited the library, or remember them as musty smelling places from your childhood, you're in for a treat. They've changed. And they're noisy now. No more tiptoeing around worrying about upsetting the librarian. Children are welcome and accommodated for. Most libraries have regular story telling or reading sessions, often with art and craft activities, as well as visits by authors and a program of exciting activities for young and old. There are tapes, videos, DVDs, CDs, and sometimes toys and games to borrow. You can access the Internet, type a letter and print it out, or send emails to your friends in other countries...
This is a place you will want to spend a few hours in every week. Don't trek down there by yourself: make weekly visits a ritual for the whole family. This reinforces the importance of reading by making it a habit the whole family can share and celebrate. Grab a handful of books, find yourself a comfy corner and sit and read to your children, or browse through their selections. Talk to the library staff. You'll be surprised by how much they know about books and authors and many other things besides. And don't forget to ask about special services, like computer instruction, access to the Internet, how to do inter-library loans, how to use the catalogue, if there are any author sessions coming up soon, how to join the Friends of the Library, if they have any regular activities for children, and so on!
If your children see you talking to the librarian and asking him questions about anything and everything they will soon emulate your example and begin to use the library as the powerful research tool it is. I can't think of a more powerful educational tool than a library brimming full of books and linked to the Internet!
After a family trip to the library, make a ritual of placing the books on a special library shelf at home. This way it's less likely that the books will be mislaid when it comes time to return them, and it let's everyone see what others are reading. That way you can share and swap stories about the books you've borrowed. This is a great way to help your children broaden and refine their taste in books.
on this website is of a general
nature only and is not intended as
personal or professional advice.
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Beverley and Robin Paine
PO Box 371 Yankalilla 5203
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
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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