Homeschooling is a journey of growth - not just for our kids but for us as parents and educators. Like any journey, it brings with it twists, turns, and unexpected leaps, and in my experience, the ability to adapt to these changes is as essential as any lesson plan. Today, I’d like to share some thoughts on adapting to change as a homeschooler and why flexibility, openness, and family-centered priorities are key.

Recognising the Need to Be Flexible

One of the greatest gifts homeschooling offers is flexibility. Unlike traditional schooling, where a rigid schedule dictates the pace, homeschooling allows us to pivot when needed. But it’s easy to get caught up in our own expectations - believing we have to “finish the curriculum” or “stick to the plan” no matter what. We must remember that plans are just that: a rough guide, not a rulebook. Life will throw curveballs, and learning to embrace them with grace and flexibility helps us model adaptability...

One of the most valuable skills you can nurture in your children is critical thinking and problem-solving. These skills are not only essential for academic success but also for navigating the challenges of everyday life. By developing these skills, you can empower your children to become independent learners and confident problem-solvers. There are several effective strategies and resources to promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills in your homeschooling journey.

One of the first steps in fostering critical thinking and problem-solving is to encourage open-ended discussions. Engage your children in meaningful conversations, where they can express their opinions and ideas freely. Encouraging them to think critically about various topics will enhance their analytical skills and expand their perspectives. Additionally, providing them with opportunities to ask questions and seek answers will stimulate their curiosity and boost their problem-solving abilities. One example...

In the journey of early childhood education, parents often find themselves at a crossroads, contemplating the best way to instill values, culture, and beliefs in their children. Homeschooling preschool emerges as a powerful option in this quest, offering a unique opportunity to incorporate family values into the educational experience and foster a deep sense of identity and belonging.

Homeschooling allows parents to customise the curriculum to align with their family's core values, cultural heritage, and beliefs. Whether it's teaching morals, traditions, or languages, parents can tailor lessons to reflect what matters most to their family. This approach creates an immersive educational environment where children not only learn about their heritage but also live it every day.

Home education promotes an open dialogue within the family, providing a platform for discussing values and beliefs openly and honestly. It helps children understand the "why" behind the family's customs,...

How does homeschooling encourage critical and lateral thinking, growth mindset, and other ways to view the world?

Flexible Curriculum: Homeschooling allows parents to choose materials and resources that promote problem-solving, analysis, and creativity.

Individualised Instruction: In a homeschooling environment, children receive the one-on-one or small-group instruction that is held up as the ultimate education setting in most educational theory taught to teaching students today. 

Emphasis on Depth over Breadth: Homeschooling doesn't have to adhere strictly to a fixed curriculum. Parents can delve deeper into subjects that interest their children.  In fact, many families focus only on the child or family's interests and all learning stems from there. This allows for a more profound understanding and encourages critical thinking by exploring topics in greater detail.

Encouraging Curiosity: Homeschooling often encourages a love of learning and a sense of curiosity. This...

“Children are being freed to learn as nature intended” – just one comment I will always remember from my 2002 research into why Australian parents were home educating their children.  I was curious as to why so many were taking the plunge into home based learning in Australia.  Recently, isolation-schooling during the pandemic has exposed the option to all families as a possibility.  Here, I explain why  a steadily-increasing number of families been home educating in Australia over the past few decades.

Some parents actively choose to home educate.  They make the decision sometime – whether when their children are infants (and even unborn), or when they feel dissatisfied with their children’s schooling for any reason.  Some parents feel that there was no other choice.  Perhaps they have exceptional or neurodiverse children, their children are sick or injured, they may be simply unable to cope with the stress...

Childcare is a matter that greatly affects parents and employers – the main cogs in our societal moneymaking machine.  Childcare benefits and tax deductions are offered as enticements but rarely are the needs of children considered by policymakers.  A focus on numbers, timeframes and dollars motivate the big decisions. Childcare is big business and is currently influencing almost all childhoods in Australia.  The Australian Bureau of Statistics tells us that 90 percent of children under five currently use some form of childcare.  Tens of thousands of Australian children are in formal childcare for more than 45 hours a week.

Natural parenting is an ideology, not a dogma.  It is about instinctively raising our young, and making informed decisions.  Does childcare compromise or compliment our conscious parenting ideals?  Are those who perceive theirs to be a natural parenting style more protective than most other parents? ...

Many articles have been written before on the socialisation of home educated children. Still, the question arises more often than most others. To many home educators it’s the most ironic question of all. I mean – what about it? Socialisation is the main reason some families choose home based learning. They don’t see school as an opportunity to learn positive social skills, but more as a place to experience negative socialisation. It seems surprising that those in the school community bother to ask about the home educated’s socialisation – can’t they see what is going on in their classrooms and playgrounds?

“This depends on the kind of sociability you prefer – positive and altruistic or negative and self-centred. Many parents confuse peer orientation and dependence with sociability when instead true sociality thrives on secure, independent thought.” Raymond and Dorothy Moore

Many parents of previously schooled children have...

The Philosophy of Education

I first heard of John Holt when our eldest child was around 4 years old. There was a bookstore closing down in Sydney, and I bought a few titles at a bargain price and immersed myself in his wisdom. As often occurs when we are trying to absorb new information, it wasn’t the best timing and I made excuses for why Holt’s ideas were not for us.  My background studying primary teaching may have influenced my initial reaction to John Holt's message!

As we trialed different methods of home education, I was more able to grasp Holt’s philiosophy of respect and freedom. Re-reading books such as Learning All the Time and Teach Your Own every few years has allowed me to continue to trust my children’s capacity for learning and creating. 

There is room for John Holt’s philosophies in any home school, it's not just inspiration for unschoolers. We are eclectic learners – using some...

The Philosphy of Education

Learning is Natural.  School is Optional.

Grace Llewellyn is an unschooling advocate, and highly esteemed author. She wrote her book, The Teenage Liberation Handbook, in 1991 at 26 years of age. I first read it before my older children were teenagers.  

Grace Llewellyn taught public school for a year. It was more than long enough to show her that something was wrong with the system. She then took a year off to travel and figure out what it was she wanted to do – since teaching was all she was qualified for. During that year she discovered the work of John Holt. Like so many who read his work, a few pages was all it took to convince her, but she went on to read most of his books.

Refreshed and with hope that she could make a difference Grace spent the next two years teaching at a very small private school, where she had complete control over the curriculum. Of this time she says, “The fact remained: they weren’t that...

The Philosophy of Education

'At the pass we've come to historically, and after 26 years of teaching, I must conclude that one of the only alternatives on the horizon for most  families is to teach their own children at home.' John Taylor Gatto

John Taylor Gatto wrote Dumbing Us Down nearly 30 years ago. It sold over 200,000 copies and subsequent editions have been printed with additions. I first heard about Gatto in discussions on home ed. email lists. I followed a link and read some of his essays and became a fan! I read Dumbing Us Down when John Taylor Gatto was coming to Australia where I was excited to see him as the keynote speaker for the National Home Education Conference in 2007.

Gatto was New York City and State Teacher of the Year at various times in his career. He taught at a school where students everyone else had given up on were sent, and he did a good job with them ­ but in a creative and unorthodox way. He let them out of school,...