Save time and simplify
your homeschooling life...
Learn from experienced
homeschoolers how to write your own curriculum.
It really is that easy!
Use this website with Beverley Paine's Getting Started with Home Schooling - Practical Considerations to help you develop your own educational curriculum to suit your family situation, beliefs and lifestyle. The checklists can help you identify your children's current educational skill level in each subject area, as well as find any 'gaps' in their learning, plan what they need to cover or keep track of what has been learned. As you can appreciate this website is continuously under development... It's our aim to add pages on a regular basis in all curriculum areas: check back frequently. We hope you enjoy the articles and activities and find the links and recommended resources useful. Over the next year we will be working our way through each subject area and writing fresh, new content. |
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"Thank you so much for your wonderful website! I was getting quiet frustrated with finding appropriate information on homeschooling - thanks to your website we are now on the right track... Using your checklists for reassurance helped me to have the confidence to come up with my own programme that suits our needs." Rachael "I'm a frequent visitor to your website... I gain valuable knowledge from your website, luckily recommended in the very early stages of our homeschooling journey." Geradine "I checked out your website today and was incredibly impressed by it. I can tell it will be a great resource for our family for many years. THANKS for all the hard work that has gone into making homeschooling easier and much less isolating for families like us." Cynthia |
Reading Isn't a Passive Activity
© Beverley Paine, 2004
Reading is a bit like watching television; it can be a passive or active activity. Nothing is worse than four or five zombies glued to their chairs in an eerily lit blue room... I love the TV remote control because I can mute the adverts and chat about what we're watching. We are critical viewers of television. Sometimes we do the same for the adverts, mute one but not another, so we can discuss the merits and effectiveness of the various elements used in promoting the product.
It's a good idea when reading aloud to pause if a child has a question, or looks puzzled, or if you want to clarify something in the text, or feel the need to discuss something. I've sat in on reading sessions where everyone has to be silent and listen, and watched children fall away, sneak off to play, or whose eyes have glazed over as they drift into a private fantasy... It seems such a waste. Involve the children. Let the children hear your own interest in the plot and character's predicaments. If the action is scary, sound scared. If the information is amazing sound amazed. Read with emotion and expression. Before you turn the page ask the children what they think will happen next. Get them to tell you about the pictures. It doesn't matter if the book is fairy story or an elaborate picture book on how cars work - you'll be amazed at how much a child can tell you. Let them exercise their imaginations, and then turn the page to see what the author thought.
Another invaluable tip for reading aloud is to make eye contact. You are a performer and your child is your audience. Hold his attention by making eye contact often. If you need to drag your finger along the line you are reading to keep place, do so. It will make the child feel okay about keeping place with his fingers too.
on this website is of a general
nature only and is not intended as
personal or professional advice.
BOOK SALE
Beverley's books will be available through her website Homeschool Australia until sold out. It is not anticipated at this stage that further editions or reprints of her books will be made.
Getting Started Manual
Unschooling Books
Educational Games
Natural Learning
Practical HS Booklet Series
Curriculum
Reports/Portfolios
Homeschool Diaries
Conference DVD
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