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Allow Time to Deschool

© Beverley Paine

In addition, there's a good chance that the child has had her natural desire to learn, as well as her creativity and imagination quashed. She will need time to detox, take a vacation, have some down time - or all three!

The parent needs to deschool as well. For most of us the only educational approach we've known is some kind of school - institutionalised learning. We're used to the idea that education is a passive 'they teach and we learn' kind of thing. Educators, even in schools, know this is only a tiny part of what really happens. We need to update our notions about constitutes an education. The easiest way to do this is to talk to other homeschooling families, hang out with them, and see for ourselves how children learn outside of a school setting.

Some of the myths about education we must dispel are:

• It cannot take place without a university trained and qualified educator
• It has to take place in a classroom or classroom environment, with desks, texts or workbooks
• It takes place Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• It stops when we graduate from high school
• Children must learn certain concepts in a predetermined manner
• Children must learn certain concepts at a specified age
• Children cannot learn without a qualified educator to hold their hand and guide them through the learning process

See Deschooling Defined for more information.

Some books I recommend for parents are:

• Challenging Assumptions in Education
• Dumbing us Down
• Self University
• Creating Learning Communities
• Punished by Rewards

Back to Deschooling

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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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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

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'.

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