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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. 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. |
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"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 |
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Inexpensive Gift Ideas
© Beverley Paine, Nov 1999
I can't remember a time when giving a small gift to a good friend hasn't filled me with incredible joy. There are many times a year when the giving of gifts has become a traditional and almost thoughtless procedure, done from duty more than a sense of thankfulness for the enduring friendship and company the person receiving the gift continually offers. Giving gifts was never a highlight in my upbringing, but receiving them was! As an adult I am slowly coming to undo this one sided and often selfish attitude, realising that the gift is rooted in the act of giving - more often the item or activity selected as a gift is a token, a symbol of friendship and love.
Some time ago I came across a list of wonderfully inexpensive gifts to make or find. Over the years I have found this list useful, especially for my younger friends. As I come across more ideas I add them to my list and keep it in my home educating folder, so that on the days when I am tired and unimaginative but still want to say thank you in a special way I can find just the right way of saying it! I hope you find the list useful, especially at this festive time of year!
- packet of seeds and small terracotta pot
- coloured pencils in a decorated recycled tin
- biscuit cutters, small rolling pin and playdough recipe
- basket or jar of small, similar sized pebbles from beach for counting
- small tin with sewing needs in
- balls of left over wool and crochet hook or knitting needles
- make a pack of cards (for matching, happy families type games)
- make dominoes either from plywood or stiff card - animal, clock, number
- pretty scrunchies from silky materials
- decorated container of all types of balloons with lid, or jar
- packet of sparklers
- personalised calico library or shopping bag
- origami instructions and coloured construction paper to suit
- small basket of interesting shells from beach (collect your own rather than buy harvested ones - that practice is causing extinctions on reefs around the world!)
- small teddies ($1 from Cheap as Chips) with homemade clothes
- fridge magnets made from pom poms, pipe cleaners, etc, or a boxed kit to make them
- finger puppets or a boxed kit to make them
- small squares of felt, cotton and odd bits of lace, etc, instructions to make finger puppets
- bunch of flowers, or small posy
- voucher for promised work to be done by person giving voucher!
- snakes and ladders game, other simply made board games
- home made paper and envelopes
- decorated art folder
- necklace or other jewellery made from seeds
- bead stringing kit - collect wooden beads and add thin plastic tubing, string or thread and embroidery needle
- a packet of material squares or useful oddments of material left over from sewing box for making dolls clothes and dressups from
- home made playdough, in various colours, in small recycled clear plastic containers
- a personalised stationary set using a desktop publishing program on the computer
- a personalised calendar using a desktop publishing program on the computer
- a photograph frame made from any materials, with or without photo
- home made soaps, gift wrapped in cellophane in a small box or basket
- a jar of home made or favourite sweets or biscuits tied with a ribbon
- home made preserves in a decorated jar or container with a personalised label
- a knitted scarf, or beanie or gloves in a neutral or favourite colour
- a small decorated box of small, inexpensive toys or items that is sure to bring your friend a lot of joy
- a dream catcher - decorated with leaves and feathers, small beads, etc
- a small rag doll
- a kit for making old fashioned clothes peg people, with every thing needed to complete them
- small worry dolls, or a worry doll hair clip
- a small 'treasures bag' made from exotic and luxurious material, with a drawstring
on this website is of a general
nature only and is not intended as
personal or professional advice.
Always Learnign Books
Beverley and Robin wish to thank everyone for their patience as they convert most of the Always Learning Book titles to e-book format. As each booklet becomes available it will be listed on this website.
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Text & Images on this site Copyright © 1999-2008 Beverley Paine. All rights reserved. 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, links, pages, or advertisements.