Learning in the Absence of Education

Essays on Homeschooling

© Beverley Paine

Ideas for Helping Children with Writing
(continued)

Early in our home education odyssey I learned that the bulk of the record keeping necessary in maintaining a smooth flowing learning program can be done by the children - that we, as parents, don't have to take full responsibility. A lot of the record keeping, charts, diaries, lists, checklists, etc, offer enormous scope for learning skills that will be invaluable later - especially organising personal papers, etc. And it is great encouraging the children to come up with ideas for recording too.

One of the recording tools we use is a folder where I collect up all the stuff they draw or write, over a week or a month. This gets filed away, ready for pasting into scrapbooks, again blank exercise books, for each child. Most often I am in charge of pasting - the children usually aren't motivated enough to do this, but are happy when I do it. I have April's very first 'people' drawings in there, from many moons ago now! The children's scrapbooks are another treasure from childhood.

I used to follow the 'learning centre' approach at home, and had a writing centre set up, where all the different types of things we can write or draw with (including charcoal, chalk, food dyes, inks and paints) were next to boxes (recycled Lego boxes mostly!) of different surfaces to write on. We even put the carving tools in there for a while. Just having constant free access to all this stuff (my job was to keep it topped up and varied, and the pencils sharpened occasionally!) kept the kids actively exploring writing ....

The writing centre also had lots of examples to follow, and I'd regularly change the displays of writing exhibited. Whenever I'd come across something unusual, like a different font used somewhere, or texture, I'd show the children and we'd talk about it or have a go for ourselves. I mostly collected samples from ‘real’ life, or sometimes I would make them up myself, pasting them on card and storing them in a home made card file for easy access by the children.

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More than 60 essays covering a wide range of home schooling concerns and issues, such as late readers, value of play, socialisation, learning maths, part time school, and thoughts on testing. Learning in the Absence of Education is an intimate and honest look at day-to-day homeschooling life spanning several years. Includes articles on learning maths, reading and writing, spelling, socialisation, part time schooling, fathers and homeschooling, value of play, grading and testing, coping with stress and illness, and much more.

"These essays are the real life experiences of a long term home educator and activist and make inspiring reading... a valuable resource for all those interested in home education.... What I particularly appreciate are the personal day-to-day stories that are so specific in the incident or outcome These are essays written over time that reflect natural learning (read life) as it really happens.

I really enjoy Beverley's writing style in this book. It is very direct, sometimes even challenging the reader. She tries to be scrupulously honest always so we read of advantages and disadvantages of whatever topic she is discussing. She will also point out the ideal situation and how she thinks she falls short. Sometimes she is self-deprecating; sometimes she glows with enthusiasm for their successful lifestyle. There are touches of humour and sometimes wry cynicism.

Hopefully this book will answer many people's questions and fears about natural learning. It is all in here: how right it feels when natural learning is working well, what happens when we have insecurities ourselves, and the results so far. By presenting the natural learning case in this essay style, Beverley has been able to reflect the different moods, the ups and downs, that make the book a valuable resource for all those interested in home education, whatever their current style."
Janine Banks, home educator, Qld

ISBN 1876651016, 128 pages... $22.95

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Homeschool Australia SA HE Network Unschool~Kidz! About Beverley Paine

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