Mama's Musings

Five of our six older children did not attend highschool at all, and one attended for her final two years of formal learning at age 15.  By the time they were 15, all of our children were working part-time and enrolled in a certificate course, so we didn't really actively homeschool for the senior years.  It was a valuable time, however, to share life skills and learn how to become adults.  I am grateful (now) for the many, many hours spent driving and talking, and undertaking daily tasks with each of my six adult children throughout their teen and young adult years.  For the child who attended school, and also had various sport and work commitments, I feel like we missed some valuable connection and learning time that I enjoyed with the other children.

Some of our teens did study some traditional highschool subjects using textbooks and workbooks supplemented by online research, but mostly they were on their own paths by their mid-teen years and involved with...

I presented this weekend at the HEA's National Homeschool Conference online, and there were quite a few questions around learning for teens and pathways to further education.  

Our older children are now aged 18 to 28.  They had a lot of say in their education during their teen years, which was organised during a meeting with them 1:1 each January (at least).  We'd write down goals including social, travel, formal qualifications, other learning such as driving lessons, specific topics they wanted to dive deeper into, sport and recreation opportunities and more.   These wholistic plans represented our family culture of a rich learning environment, acknowledged that all learning is valuable, and did not focus only on formal education.  I typed them up in pretty colours and put them on their bedroom walls as a reminder!

As well as enrolling in a certificate course or starting an apprenticeship by around 16 years of age, our children, between them,...

Have you used Khan Academy?  Our teens have used it so much over the years (and still do), especially for Maths!

I used Khan Academy myself recently as I needed some further explanation on some Maths concepts for one of my university subjects.  The lessons complimented the uni content perfectly and filled in the gaps I had so I could proceed with my assignment.

And something for my readers who aren't Aussies - they have a great section on Personal Finances with US information and links.  So if you were a little let down by the Australian-centric info I shared here on Wednesday, check out Khan Academy!  it's FREE!

Recently, I shared a review of a printable resource to learn about Money from Teachers Pay Teachers (which also has heaps of cool freebies too, if you want to sample what's available).  Then I reviewed the Barefoot Investor for Families.  To continue with the money theme check out this collection of over 60 resources.  From this Australian government site families can learn about budgeting, charity, advertising, enterprise, sustainability, consumerism, investing, savings goals and more.   

If you do unit studies, or project-based homeschooling, Consider including practical topics like money in your home learning journey...  it's relatively easy to gather resources and children love to learn about real life.  Some other subjects we've covered in other 'real life' units include:

growing food
animals
kitchen skills
enterprise
sewing
building
cars

Rather than a rigid curriculum, the projects have been a conscious choice to include the...