QUICK GUIDE to teaching your children at home!

Interested in homeschooling, but still not sure? Read All You Need Is...'

The information in this guide can also be found in Beverley's comprehensive The Educating Parent Resource Directory, a free download.

• About Home Education
• Is it Legal? Registering
• Getting Ready: learning plans, environment and resources
• Assessment
• Keeping Records

Why Home Educate?

In 1985, as our first child turned five we wanted to continue being as involved with her education and, inspired by books and information published overseas, our family decided to live without school and teach our children from home, joining a small number of like-minded families across Australia.

Over the last couple of decades the internet has helped to spread the word and in 2012 an ABC journalist estimated 50,000 children were homeschooling. More recently educator Stuart Chapman calculated that 1% of school age children are registered as home educating students.

The reasons given are as diverse as the individual families choosing it. Parents often revise and add to their original reasons for home educating as the social, academic and developmental benefits accumulate over time.

Home educating parents enjoy experiencing greater influence and control over the direction and content of their children’s education. It is only in recent human history that the majority of parents have handed the responsibility of their children’s education to schools.

Home educating parents report that helping their children learn is a joyous, although at times challenging, task that brings rewards beyond academic education. Learning together as a family builds a wonderful sense of community: this is the foundation for the development of responsible citizenship and healthy, happy and cooperative societies.

The nature of home education allows for incredible flexibility and diversity: parents are able to teach their children to suit their family’s values and beliefs; they use resources and materials to suit their individual children’s learning needs and styles; and are able to explore and experiment with many different approaches to education. Families evolve their own educational philosophies to suit their own particular circumstances and needs.

Home education is a legal alternative to school education across Australia and support networks exist in all regions, providing information and sharing experiences among home educating families. Download a 3 page brochure you can print and share with extended family and others.

Read the next page of this guide: Home Education Defined