Home Education - Planning
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Resources We Are Using
Joining up once again for more talk about ‘not back to school‘ topics with fellow Aussie homeschool families. Hosted by Kylie from Our World Wide Classroom and this week we’re chatting about ‘Resources We Are Using.’ One of the attractions of home education is the freedom to choose which resources suit individual family’s beliefs, learning styles and lifestyle. We have for you this week a collection of unique approaches and quality resources reflecting the families using them. As a long term home educating family we have long settled on our approach and subsequently managed to narrow the plethora of resources available to some outstanding choices that have withstood the ‘test of time.’ Not…
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The Way We Learn
Joining up with fellow Aussie homeschool families once again to bring to you our unique perspectives about a variety of ‘not back to school‘ topics, hosted by Kylie from Our World Wide Classroom. This week we’re chatting about ‘The Way We School,’ talking about not only our philosophies but how this looks in the reality, what our home education routine really looks like. We have been home educating for nearly two decades now and our Home Education Journey has undergone many changes along the way. The dreams and visions we began with have either gained clarity along the way or been abandoned. Other areas we didn’t even consider of importance…
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Goals For Our Year Ahead
The new school year begins this month Australia wide. As in years past I’m joining up with a band of Aussie families for four weeks of ‘not back to school‘ blogging chat hosted Kylie at Our World Wide Classroom. Over the next few weeks we will chat about a variety of topics relating to the upcoming year, each family bringing their unique perspectives. Kicking off this year’s Not Back To School roundup with our ‘Hopes, Dreams and Goals for Our Year Ahead’. As a long term home educating family we have many goals for our children; personal and spiritual as well as academic, the holistic person. Academically our overarching goals never change, ultimately we’re…
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Australian Geography Unit
We’re rather excited to be ‘trekking around’ Australia with our Australian Geography Unit. Learning more about our nation and deepen our appreciation of this huge and diverse land we are blessed to live in. Over the past decade and a half we’ve embarked upon many unit studies, previously though our unit studies have centered around history, this time we’re focusing our studies from a geographical perspective. I’m sharing my plans with you in the hope that you may inspired to also explore Australia. I designed these plans to be a ‘template,’ wishing to re-use them for travelling to other continents/countries/states, only needing to give the plans a minor/localised tweaking. We will begin our studies with…
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Our Reading Basket: Reminisces & Plans
A constant of our home education journey is reading, over the years we’ve read, cried, laughed and devoured hundreds of books together, these ‘friends well met’ are now part of our family culture. Initially, when life was simpler we began our day with reading, as our dynamics changed this ‘time together’ shifted and continues to periodically as we seek the best way to meet our ever changing needs. It has also undergone name changes over the years, originally it was our ‘gather together time,’ eventually we called it our ‘reading basket time,’ another popular term for some is ‘morning basket.’ Regardless, we’re simply together; reading, discussing and memorising our way through…
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Planning Epiphany
After nearly two decades of planning for our home education journey I’m continually humbled as to how much I still have to learn.Two weeks ago I commenced my planning with the determination that this would be the term we’d correct all shortcomings. I began with the premise that our problems would all be solved by ‘raising our work standard.’ An assumption I continued with until my epiphany moment. Factors in Planning When planning, many factors come into play. Your teaching style, the children’s individual learning styles, family logistics, your educational philosophy, all have a role. Not only in how you home educate but what resources you select. My personal philosophy…
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Leaping into Literature
Next week our holidays draw to a close and we begin the final term of the year. As I contemplated what direction I wished our studies to take in the next 10 week block I knew I needed to be realistic, we have three indisputable factors that create a major impact. I am now in my final trimester with baby due two days before term ends (and babies have their own timetables), Advent begins in December bringing its own rhythm, and it is spring/summer which means extreme heat, distraction and pleas for more swimming time!! Yet I am determined that we conclude the year well, stretching abilities and learning deeply…
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Keeping Records
This month’s Homeschool High School Carnival is hosted by Creating With Wisdom and I’m chatting about …..Record Keeping In the early days of our home education journey I would buy a business diary every year with half an A4 page of blank lines for each day, however on a good week I only managed to write one or two entries. After a few years of feeling like a record keeping failure, I began buying blank notebooks and aimed to write one entry summation at the conclusion of each week. Whilst that didn’t always happen I no longer had blank days accusing me, mostly I managed to write at the end…
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Aussie NBTS – Our Plans & Resources
This week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop Kylie has us all chatting about our plans and resources for the upcoming year. We’ve been home educating for well over a decade now, we were drawn to home education from the beginning. Initially we were strongly influenced by John Holt (unschooling/Natural Learning) Raymond Moore and Maria Montessori, later Ruth Beechick and Valerie Bendt (unit studies) were added to the mix and then we met Charlotte Mason. All these, combined with our love of literature and our Catholic Faith created an eclectic concoction. We enjoy designing our own curriculum, with direct input from the children that considers teaching and learning styles, is tailored to meet individual needs,…
