Welcome to The Educating Parent Beverley Paine's archive of articles about homeschooling and unschooling written over a period of 30 plus years

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Plan, record and report all in the one document! Always Learning Books planners available in each year level to suit your homeschooling needs, includes curriculum checklists
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Introduction to
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Protect Your Posture

by Beverley Paine

Life isn't very comfortable with a couple of bulging disks in my back, pinching the nerve that runs down the outside of my thigh and making sleeping uncomfortable on my right side. This is an everday occurence for me and I'm much too young to be complaining about back problems! Carrying infants in an incorrect manner probably impacted on twelve years of sitting at a desk as a school student. During my years as an owner-builder I didn't take care to warm up my muscles or develop them adequately to do the heavy lifting and gardening I undertook almost daily. And now it is hard for me to do gardening - bending over hurts, sitting on the ground hurts and I definitely can't turn the compost heap or dig the spuds...

It's never too late to start looking after your back. Too many of us spend too many hours sitting at our computers, whether for study or leisure or simply catching up with friends on social networking sites. Preventing back problems in the first place makes good sense, especially when it is relatively easy to do by following a few simple tips. Instilling posture protecting habits in our children will reward them for the rest of their lives. Poor posture leads to aching muscles which can make it hard to be creative, concentrate or stay motivated.

Follow these five rules for working comfortably on a desktop computer:

  • Use a chair that supports your lower back and push your hips as far back as they can go in the chair.
  • Place your keyboard and mouse at elbow level.
  • Adjust your work surface and chair height to assume a comfortable position. Your shoulders should be relaxed and your wrists should be hovering over, not continually resting on, the desk or wrist-rest.
  • Position the top of the screen at eye level.
  • Use a footrest if your feet aren't resting comfortably on the floor.

Adjusting to working with your arms level with your elbows, sitting relatively upright with your back supported and your legs level with your hips, may feel uncomfortable in the beginning. Persevere with a few aches - they will soon go away and you'll feel much better and more energetic after working. Make sure that the top of your monitor is set at eye level - any lower or higher and you will get strain in your neck and shoulders.

Don't forget to take short one to five minute breaks every half hour. Get up and walk to the kitchen for a drink of water. Do a few stretches on your way back to your desk. While working, develop the habit of focussing on objects around the room or through a window or mirror to give your eyes a rest. Every couple of hours go outside for some fresh air and a walk around the garden. Help your children develop these habits by encouraging them to mix up their day, making sure sedentary activities are punctuated regularly by physically active ones.

Source: http://manuals.makeuseof.com.s3.amazonaws.com/MUO-productivity-guide.pdf

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Beverley Paine with her children, and their home educated children, relaxing at home.

Together with the support of my family, my aim is to help parents educate their children in stress-free, nurturing environments. In addition to building and maintaing this website, I continue to create and manage local and national home educating networks, help to organise conferences and camps, as well as write for, edit and produce newsletters, resource directories and magazines. I am an active supporter of national, state, regional and local home education groups.

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over many, many years. You probably don't know exactly how valuable you are to the Australian Home Education community. I've been reading your stuff for maybe 8 years or more now. And I'm very grateful."
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CLICK HERE if you want to learn
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Welcome to the World of Home Education
and Learning without School!

We began educating our children in 1985, when our eldest was five. In truth, we had helped them learn what they need to learn since they were born. I am a passionate advocate of allowing children to learn unhindered by unnecessary stress and competition, meeting developmental needs in ways that suit their individual learning styles and preferences. Ours was a homeschooling, unschooling and natural learning family! There are hundreds of articles on this site to help you build confidence as a home educating family. We hope that your home educating adventure is as satisfying as ours was! Beverley Paine

3 ESSENTIAL STEP BY STEP GUIDES

Getting Started with
Home Educating Series of

PARENT WORKBOOKS

#1 Create Your
Own Curriculum

#2 DIY Lesson Plans
& Unit Studies

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let experienced home educators Beverley, Tamara and April walk you through HOW to create a learning plan that builds on solid foundations that works for YOUR family AND ticks all the boxes for home educaton registration with part 1 of this getting started with home educating serioes of parent workbooks, Create Your Own Curriculum!
Let experienced home educators Beverley, Tamara and April walk you through HOW to create a learning plan that builds on solid foundations that works for YOUR family AND ticks all the boxes for home educaton registration!

To see the full range of Beverley Paine's books on homeschooling, unschooling and natural learning visit Always Learning Books

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The information on this website is of a general nature only and is not intended as personal or professional advice. This site merges and incorporates 'Homeschool Australia' and 'Unschool Australia'.

The Educating Parent acknowledges the Traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Owners, the Custodians of Australia, and pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people viewing this website.

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