A List of the School Subjects

by Beverley Paine

Although most of our home educating life was spent unschooling I saw myself as an educator, on par with school teachers even though I didn't have a piece of paper that pronounced my qualifications bestowed upon me by an educational institution. In our first year of home educating I wrote out our own curriculum - a learning plan which included a statement of our beliefs about education and was a rough map of how our long and short term educational aims would be met. I've written about how I went about that process elswhere, most notably in my book Getting Started with Home School Practical Considerations.

Our home educating curriculum covered the eight nationally recognised school subjects. As an unschooler I'd review these areas mentally, making sure that our live included opportunities for learning to occur across these subject areas. My children didn't study these subjects - they simply got on with living, learning as they worked, played, laughed, explored and investigated and responded to their world.

Understanding how each of the main subject areas could be broken down into different areas helped me feel confident as a home educator. I've shared my list here - perhaps it will help you too. Some have changed names since we home educated our children. Although all of the states and territories have agreed to implement the national Australian Curriculum, some states have decided to incorporate it into the state syllabus. You can adapt this list to reflect what your state prefers you to use.

Language

• Creating and Responding to texts
• Strategies for language use
• Reading
• Writing
• Listening
• Speaking
• Grammar
• Language structure and conventions
• Spelling
• Researching
• Library skills
• Styles of communicating

Society & Environment

• History - knowing and understanding the past; how people and things change over time
• Features of places; geography, mapping skills; people and places
• Understanding interactions between human society and natural and built environments
• Cultural Diversity; multiculturalism, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders cultures
• Resources - use of resources
• Employment; people
• and work; management of people and other resources
• Information as a resource, Media
• Natural systems
• Political and legal systems
• Economic systems
• Community systems

Sciences

• Living Things; biodiversity, interdependence; inheritance (genetics & evolution), Biology, Botany, etc
• Energy and Matter; Chemical and Physical properties, structure and reactions and change, chemical interactions, uses of matter, resources, transferring energy, senders and receivers
• Changing Earth; processes of change, erosion, Geology, land form, water systems, features, natural catastrophe
• Atmosphere; water cycle, structure, catastrophe
• Space; astronomy, solar system, time cycles
• Planning and conducting investigations, processing data, evaluating findings, using science
• Scientists - history of scientific discovery

Technology

• Designing, Making and Appraising
• Using tools
• Instructions and information
• Modelling
• Simple and complex machines
• Inventions
• Systems, types and applications
• Computers
• Electronics, etc

Language Other Than English

• (Inter-Cultural Studies)
• Acquire communication skill in another language - listening, speaking, reading and writing, calculating and measuring
• Understanding of role of language and culture in everyday life, cultural diversity
• Learn about other cultures, in Australia and overseas
• Develop respect and tolerance for diversity

Mathematics

• Working mathematically - using mathematical language; investigating; hypothesizing; problem solving; applying and verifying; working in context.
• Space - spatial ideas; visualising; analysing; representing
• Number - count and order; number patterns; relationships; application; mental computation; written computation; calculators
• Algebra - expressing generalities; functions; relationship and inequalities
• Measurement; choosing units; estimating; time; measuring, using relationships
• Chance and Data - collecting, organising, displaying and summarising data, interpreting data; probability

The Arts

• Creating and presenting the Arts
• Living with and appreciating the Arts
• Visual
• Performing
• Craft
• Media Studies
• Music & Singing
• Creative movement and dance
• Design

Health & Personal Development

• Human relations - self and others
• Human health - individuals and populations
• Healthy lifestyles, work and recreation
• Safety and Protection
• People and food
• Physical activity
• Human development, growth and behaviour