Introduction to Home Education		National and State Support Groups		Yearly Planner, Diary & Report		Beverley's Original Home Ed Manual		Series of How To Parent Workbooks

Support Groups: National SA VIC NSW QLD TAS ACT NT
Registration Guides: VIC NSW QLD SA WA TAS ACT NT

Looking for support, reassurance and information?
Join Beverley's The Educating Parents Homeschooling and Unschooling Facebook online group.

Is Following a Child's Interests Enough?

By Beverley Paine

Aeron wrote: "When unschooling do you completely allow your children to follow their interests for learning throughout their whole childhood and teen years? So if the child never learns, for example, that calcium is an
element and occurs naturally in foods and is also present in the
ground and in our bones, is that ok?"

I personally don't describe natural learning as allowing a child to simply
follow their interests - life is way more complex than that.

For instance, if life hadn't intervened, would my children have played LEGO most days for 14 hours a day? No way.

They would get up, start playing LEGO, then get cold or hungry. This would
necessitate getting dressed and browsing for food. At this stage they'd come into my sphere and we'd start talking, making plans about what was going to happen during the day. I'd let them know if we were going out, what chores needed to be done, if I needed their help. They'd let me know if there was anything they wanted to do, or not do. We'd bumble along through the day, doing all the things that have to be done to live. If they were in the middle of some project or game I'd make time for that, but if not we'd do things that interested all of us.

I 'strew' stimulating things in their path all the time too. Plus we did lots of
interesting things in our lives, as parents, and the children naturally became
involved in those things.

Life is busy, it's full, it's amazingly complex. What we found is that most of
the obvious and noticeable learning - especially knowledge - was through
conversation. We talked a lot! The informal learning - background learning - that happened because we led busy, complex and interesting lives - is where most of the skills were learned.

Let's not worry about what our children will 'do' when they are grown up and
educate them into that role. Let's give them a liberal education that is far
ranging and interesting and covers all the basic survival skills well and then
let the future take care of itself.

Was this article helpful? Was it worth $1.00 to you? Your gift of $1 or more helps to keep this site operating offering encouragement and reassurance to families wanting better outcomes for their children.

Thank you for your gift contribution!

Option 1 $1.00 AUD Option 2 $5.00 AUD Option 3 $10.00 AUD Option 4 $20.00 AUD

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.

"You've been an inspiration to me, I love the way
you really listen to people." Vanessa

"Whenever I read your writing I always come away
with increased confidence in my ability to provide and
share a wonderful learning journey with my family!" Davina

"Your guidance, understanding, support and words of
wisdom changed our lives. We now offer support and
organise many homeschooling events for others." Lesley

"Thank you once again for your prompt and friendly service.
I am convinced that your books are going to add
quality and peace of mind to my journey of teaching my kids
at home! Just from studying your website, until almost
2am in the morning, I 've been encouraged!" Louisa

"Thank you for all your many,many reassuring words
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." Gythaa

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 #3 Recording and Evaluation Made Simple $10.00 each (includes postage) 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!
Tap into Beverley's experience through her books "Your books, your blogs helped me beyond words... they helped me to find comfort in knowing it is ok to choose exactly what is best for my family." Nisha "Your books and information are mind blowing and already I am feeling good about this new experience." Diane "Your guidance, understanding, support & words of wisdom changed our lives." Leslie "I feel specially inspired by Beverley's words and, the more I read her comments, the more inspired I feel, since my need for support, respect for different parenting styles, and information are fully met." Marijo
	Connect with Beverley and ask questions through her online The Educating Parents Homeschooling and Unschooling Facebook support group.

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.

Australia's premier online annual conferences, lifetime access to video and audio recordings, freebies, notes and associated resource guides.

EVERY SUMMIT IS UNIQUE!

$29 each 2023 2022 2021
$25 each 2020 2019 2017

"Biggest and best Aussie homeschool event of the year!"

Home education is a legal alternative
to school education in Australia.
State and Territory governments are responsible
for regulating home education and have different
requirements, however home educating families
are able to develop curriculum and learning programs
to suit the individual needs of their children.

Without revenue from advertising
by educational suppliers and Google Ads
we could not continue to provide information
to home educators. Please support us by letting
our advertisers know that you found them on
The Educating Parent. Thanks!