Skip to main content

Learning about Home Education and Homeschooling

What is home ed? How does homeschooling work? Will my kids be behind? How do I choose a curriculum? Will my kids have friends? and more are all questions that get asked when parents start looking into home education for their children. So where is the place to go to get all this information? Where is the best place to learn about the topic of homeschool?

My friend, there is not one place to go. There just isn't because home ed is as varied and individualized as the families that choose it. And even within families with multiple children, it varies. And that is one of the many, many benefits of home ed. So where to start?  And that, I can help you with. There are many, many resources for learning about home ed and they come in different media, so go with works for you, for where you are right now. And later, once you know a bit, then push yourself into something less comfortable.

FILMS
Class Dismissed - http://classdismissedmovie.com/
Self Taught - https://www.selftaughtmovie.com/

PODCASTS
Julie Bogart of Brave Writer - http://blog.bravewriter.com/category/podcasts/
Pam Laricchia - https://livingjoyfully.ca/deschooling/

YOUTUBE
Ken Robinson TED talk "Do schools kill creativity?" - https://youtu.be/iG9CE55wbtY
Ken Robinson TED talk "Bring on the learning revolution" - https://youtu.be/kFMZrEABdw4
Sal Khan TED talk "Let's teach for mastery" - https://youtu.be/-MTRxRO5SRA
Sal Khan TED talk "Let's use video to reinvent education" - https://youtu.be/nTFEUsudhfs
John Holt, advocate for homeschooling, founder of Growing Without Schooling - https://youtu.be/Ep5SkRUkoCg

BOOKS
Teach Your Own - John Holt
Learning All the Time - John Holt
Dumbing Us Down - John Taylor Gatto
Beyond Schooling - John Taylor Gatto
The Self-Propelled Advantage - Joanne Calderwood
Free to Learn - Pam Laricchia
Homeschooling Our Children Unschooling Ourselves - Alison McKee
The Well-Trained Mind - Susan Wise Bauer

GROUPS
I won't even begin to try to list groups because there are just so many. I would recommend if you're on facebook, doing a search for homeschool and/or home ed + your local community or state or council or local area and see what comes up. Then join them, yes all of them. And for as long as they allow, just be a fly on the wall, listening in on the chatter. See how the community supports each other. How often and where to they meet-up? Is it all learning-based or are there social meet-ups? Is there a heirarchy or is it more democratic?

These may or may not be your people, your tribe, your community. There will likely be a dating period when you go and try out each of the groups by attending a few of their meet-ups, chatting with the other members, watching your child(ren) interacting with their child(ren).

There is more, so much more. These are just some of the resources I tapped for my own deschooling. (Deschooling is that mind shift about how learning happens that adults who are going to successfully home educate their kids will go through. Generally though, deschooling is a term that is applied to children as they transition from public schooling to homeschooling.)

The resources I have included here won't actually point you in the direction of choosing a curriculum but they will make you much more knowledgable about the topic of home educating your children, how learning is innate, and how some families have incorporated it into their family's lifestyle.

I hope you find these resources helpful. Please let me know in the comments.
Ann


Labels:
Location: Melbourne VIC, Australia

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm in the pillowcase business!

Part of being a stay at home mom and making sustainable living choices is keeping expenses down, but the other part is to increase the income, too.  And working from home allows me to develop multiple small income avenues rather than just going after the one big avenue of income. With that in mind, I've been brainstorming, trying to come up with a project for the cold winter months.  I've kicked around various crochet ideas, but was truly inspired when I came across the idea of making custom pillowcases. Here are some photos of the one I whipped up this morning specifically so I could take photos to promote this new business venture. Isn't that a lovely pillowcase?  I can't wait to share with you all the pillowcases I have planned! Come spring, I'll add chickens, well eggs, as another avenue.  And of course the garden will go in which will reduce our food spending in a big way. What small avenues of income are you working on? ...
6 comments
Read more

Money

Money, the taboo topic.   We're taught, by our parents and the culture we live in, to not talk about money.  Don't talk about how much you make.  Don't talk about how much you spend.  Don't talk about the ins and outs of credit cards.  Don't talk about how much financing really costs. And if you're in a financial mess, don't talk about that either. So we're each alone in dealing with our finances.  Oh sure, you an ask your folks.  And get the lecture.  Or you can pay for a consultation with a financial advisor, and their sales pitch (usually).  But where can you just sit and talk about the basics? What if you just want to know you're not the only one who is bearing the consequences of a bad choice?  What if you just want to share ideas and hear other people's thoughts on what is working and not working? I propose that it starts here.  My sustainable living passion isn't just about the planet, environment, and being fruga...
4 comments
Read more

So Much Stuff

We live in a world of SO MUCH stuff. It's overwhelming just how much stuff there is in our world, at least in the US part of the world. Yesterday, I had a couple of hours to kill, and because my husband and I have decided we would prefer to furnish our home with antiques, I decided to take a walk through the local antiques mall. The antiques mall is in an old building downtown that used to be a JCPenney, so if you're familiar with the JCPenney stores of the 1970s and before, you'll know what I mean when I say it's big, really big, as in 3 floors of stalls of antiques. And the antiques range as far as they can from crochet-edged hankies to pyrex bowls to cast iron hand pumps to hoosier cupboards. Truly, if you're looking for a specific item, and you're willing to spend the time, you'll find it in this store. So much stuff.  Most of it just sits there, collecting dust. Like wall-hanging thread holder which I first spotted the first time I w...
7 comments
Read more