Learning in the Absence of Education

Essays on Homeschooling

© Beverley Paine

Homeschooling Diary - A Week in November

A week can be a busy time, especially if your grandparents are staying with your family. Thomas's week began slowly, with lots of relaxing and conversation. His grandparents brought with them some leather working tools and scraps of leather. These quickly got converted into embossed pictures, some later painted, all worked with amazing dexterity and detail. Roger became busy making watch straps, knife scabbards, and then a belt. Interested in this practical application of leather work, Thomas made himself a belt, and a holster for his sword and tai chi stick, and then a strap for his quiver to hold his home made arrows. The boys then spent some time embossing and carving pictures onto their belts. Thomas spent well over an hour leafing through the instruction books, reading the information and finding pictures to trace and transfer onto leather. Not bad for a beginner reader!

A walk down the beach revealed thousands of dead pilchards washed up onto the fore dune, resulting in a conversation about the information heard on the news earlier in the week. The walk then turned into a Frisbee throwing game, with Beverley having to take an unplanned dip to rescue the Frisbee!

Table tennis occupied a fair bit of the week, with Thomas playing both his grandparents as well as other family members. In such a short time he has progressed really well, getting in some ace shots that are unbeatable. What looked like luck at first is now proving to be quite a skill. Even Beverley is beginning to lose some games! As usual Thomas mixes his competitive nature, strict adherence to rules and dedication to the game with a fair amount of fooling around and fun, making him a pleasure to play with.

The goslings have required a bit of attention, being let out of the cage under the house which they share with seven pigeons, about twenty guinea pigs and one orphaned chick. While free ranging they need to be watched over because of the crows, magpies, dogs, cats and foxes which may attack them during the day. Playing with the goslings was enhanced by watching a movie where a girl raises some orphan goslings, eventually training them to fly so they can migrate south for winter. Luckily our goslings will stay with us, although this will mean clipping their wings, something that was touched on in the movie. That raised some thoughtful discussion.

Granite Island is a great place to take interstate visitors, with its wooden causeway and horse drawn tram and resident fairy penguins. Whilst walking around the island Thomas found several nests and showed his grandparents the penguins. After the walk the family visited a retirement village and looked around some display homes. During their visit Thomas's grandparents discussed their plans to sell their house and move into a retirement village, as well as their will and other details relating to death. It was interesting watching Thomas quietly absorbing this information in his matter of fact way.

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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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