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Interview With An Australian Home Educator by Belinda Moore |
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Tell us about your family...
My husband Greg and I have been home educating for the last eleven years. We have eight children aged sixteen years to fifteen months. At the moment five of them are doing formal lessons, and I’m also teaching my five year old basic reading skills etc. As a young mum, what made you choose home education for your first son? Neither Greg or I had very good school experiences. Greg had an especially bad time with one of his teachers in particular. The man enjoyed cuddling the little girls in his class, and being very cruel to the little boys. So we decided that we would rather no send our children to school. Also, at the time that our first son started school we were living in the outback, so sending him to school wasn’t an option anyway. Describe a typical day... A typical day for me is very hectic, since I have so many children to teach and a home to run as well. I hop up at 6am, so I can do a few things before lessons start, such as washing. We do lessons from 9am to 3pm, with an hour break for lunch. After lessons we go for a walk, and play a bit of sport in the park. For the rest of the afternoon and part of the evening, I’m busy cooking, cleaning, marking the day’s lessons, and preparing for the next day. In the evening, we usually do some sort of craft as well. Does your husband help with the children’s schooling? I do all the supervising of our children’s written lessons, however Greg teaches them quite a lot as well. He teaches them music, mechanics, crafts (such as woodwork and leatherwork), bush skills, Australian history (which is important, since our lessons are American), and other general knowledge. Can you combine lessons for children of different ages or does each child have a strict curriculum? Our children learn quite a few things together, however they also have their own individual lessons. Have any of your children ever expressed a strong desire to attend regular school? My children tell me that they’re happy not to have to go to a regular school, and that they’re sure they wouldn’t have as nice a teacher as me if they did. Their desire not to go to regular school is reinforced by their friends (who are schooled) telling them how lucky they are. Do you live far from regular schools? We have lived quite a distance from schools, and we’ve lived reasonably close. The beauty of home education is that we can travel a lot (learning geography first hand), and not disrupt the children by making them change schools regularly. Is home education expensive? I don’t believe that home education is expensive. The lessons that we use cost less than we believe school would cost us. The children’s workbooks have everything clearly set out in them, are in full colour, and the children write all their answers in them, so there’s no need to buy exercise books. Are 'extra-curricular' activities very important in your children’s education? Our aim is to educate our children for success in life in all areas. So the lessons we do during school hours are only a part of their education. We also sped a lot of time teaching them 'life' skills (cooking, sewing etc.), and we encourage them to take up meaningful hobbies and to keep fit and healthy too. At what age do the children sit in on lessons? When do you begin formal lessons? Here, children don’t legally have to start formal lessons until they are six, however, I start to teach my children how to read, write, etc., as soon as they show an interest to learn. My younger children usually learn quite a lot, just by being around the older ones while they are being taught. Academically, how do your children compare to others their age? We’ve been told by various people that our children are very bright, and they appear to have a lot more knowledge than their friends, who attend regular schools. One of the big pluses of home education is that the children are supervised very closely. So if they’re failing in any area, it’s picked up straight away and can be concentrated on. So they don’t end up with any learning gaps, which happens quite often at school, because they have to keep up with the rest of the class. Where does their curriculum come from? We’ve chosen to use a packaged curriculum, which is bible based, called LIFEPAC. It is approved by education authorities due to its high standard. It suits us, because it’s very simple to use and easily organised. Because everything in it is explained so clearly and fully, including step-by-step solutions to difficult maths problems. You don’t need a high level of education to supervise your children, and it goes from Year 1 to Year 12. The one down-side is that because it’s American you need to make a few changes to Australianise it. We did try doing state correspondence, though didn’t enjoy it. You can plan your own curriculum, though you may have to have it approved. Will the children all be home educated to the end of Year 12? Will this affect their entering further training or the workforce? We intend to home educate to the end of Year 12. We have a home education advisory council in our state, and we’ve been told by them that there isn’t any problem for home educated children going on to further training or entering the workforce. What sort of reaction do you get from your family and friends about your decision to home educate? We had a fair amount of negative reaction to begin with, however, once people saw how well educated our children were, they changed their opinions. We were told that our children wouldn’t be able to socialise if they didn’t go to school, however, we’ve found that our children socialise really well with people with all ages, because they don’t spend the majority of their time with children their own age. We’ve also found that our children aren’t rebellious at all, and they can wear whatever clothes they like, listen to whatever music they like, etc. an not feel that they have to conform. Which room in your house is the 'school room'? We always set aside a special schoolroom because we have quite a lot of books etc., and the children enjoy having a room where they can cover the walls with their artwork as well. The older children have desks in their rooms, though, so they can work where it’s quiet, while I’m teaching the younger ones. How many hours a day, days a week, weeks a year does your home school operate? And is this different for each child? We basically keep the same school hours, holidays etc. as the regular schools in our state. The younger children have the same school hours, though they usually spend a fair amount of time drawing, colouring, etc. as well as their regular lessons. Our of school hours, though, we still keep educating our children. When you home educate, you tend to take every opportunity to teach your children everything that you can. To home educate successfully, you need to be totally committed to it, because it is a full-time job. If you find that you’re looking forward to your little ones going to school, so you’ll have a little bit of peace and more time for yourself, then home education isn’t for you. On the other hand, if you enjoy having your children around and enjoy seeing them learn new things, and are dreading having to send them to school, then you should seriously consider home education. Even if you only teach them for the first year or two, you should have a lot of fun, and then you can send them to school when they’re more mature and more able to cope with the pressures of school life. Thank you Jan. Congratulations on your efforts to raise wonderful children! © 2002 Belinda Moore. All rights reserved. Re-printed with permission. Originally published on Suite 101. |
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Belinda Moore is a mother of four young children who loves family life, writing, cooking, sewing and growing organic vegetables. Belinda is happy to share her experiences with others on a home based learning journey and she welcomes any e-mail. | ||
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