© Beverley Paine, Nov 2007

Often we think we need to replicate school when considering home education as an option. We remember sitting in a classroom from 9am to 3.30pm and think that's what we'll have to do with our kids. The perception is that school kids get 5 hours of instruction five days a week and that's how homeschooling happens too.
My thoughts on this are what's really needed, what do we need to provide our child? 'Instruction' or 'learning opportunities'?
Five hours of instruction may seem onerous but five hours of learning opportunities is more than achievable. Most homeschools do that without much effort at all.
Don't forget that the five hours of instruction that a child receives in school also includes being instructed to take out her books, move from one area to another, go to lunch, play games, stop talking, etc. The learning opportunities embedded within this 'instructional time' is limited.
By comparison, consider how many opportunities exist for learning in a homeschooled child's life. He is given instructions throughout the day, all of them relevant and meaningful to his personal life, with immediate outcomes that he can further reflect and learn from.
From the minute he gets out of bed to the minute he climbs back in to go to sleep a homeschooled child encounters context rich learning opportunities.
Consider the daily chores and the necessary daily tasks your child must perform to stay healthy and happy - these are all essential parts of his education. It's worthwhile spending some time to analyse each to see what curriculum subjects - skills and content - are naturally and easily covered.
Feeding pets, walking the dog, cleaning out the pets' cages... there is a huge amount of health and science packed into these examples. Children don't need lessons, they need information, advice, simple achievable instructions, pertinent feedback and encouragement.
Personal hygiene - washing their hands and face, cleaning their teeth, dropping their dirty clothes in the laundry basket, brushing their hair, and applying sun-screen - are natural learning opportunities covered in the curriculum subject Health and Personal Development. We don't teach our children the importance of these everyday matters in discrete, planned out and structured lessons, they are learned gradually over time by reinforcement, patient explanation of reasons and growing responsibility and understanding.
Summer presents additional challenges for rural folk like us: we run through our bush fire plan every year and the poster on the wall was designed and made by my youngest son many years ago. The curriculum subjects naturally covered here include Health, Society and Environment, Technology, Science, and Language.
Everyday life at home is packed with moments of learning and instruction!
When asked what time my children started home educating every day I'd reply, "About 8am, usually before breakfast." What time did they finish? "Around 9pm, at about bedtime, often after watching a documentary or two on the telly, or having played a card or board game with their parents." That's about 13 hours of education a day.