By Clare Dunstan This year I thought I had it all together… Yes I know, how foolish of me! In my mind the kids could just continue on with the work they were doing from last year, it had been going well, nothing needed changing. How wonderful not to start the year with the typical scramble for new books. Or so I thought. The first week back, my son and I hit a wall. My eclectic way of home educating wasn’t suiting him. He needed the assurance of a program with a strict schedule where he could track how much work he needed to do each day, each term, each year. You can imagine, my heart sank. It ..read more

By Shweta S Every new home educator (and non-home educator) is always concerned about the social life of the home educated child. I think the concern is valid, especially from those adults who had an active social life at school and still enjoy life-long close friendships with their childhood friends. For many families, a school gives an out-of-the-box community that you can plug into. Children get an opportunity to form long-term connections because they meet the same people year after year. They also interact with diverse adults and children without parental involvement. This can be perceive ..read more

Nicole B Sunday: Used jack hammer, crow bars and cement saw to smash up concrete with dad and friends—part of our home renovation project. Watched anime series in between. Swam at the beach. Watched Labyrinth film with the whole family. Monday: Guitar practice Prepared breakfast and lunch to take out for the day. Went to the hairdresser and got pink highlights as a celebration for his 13th birthday this week. Watched an anime series. Discussed savings (reading Barefoot Investor together at present). Went to a friend’s house and played video games together. Gym session 1 hour—with mum and a PT ..read more

Annie Regan I love the deep, lasting friendships that my kids make, the sense of community and inclusivity, getting to know other parents and kids, having lots of time to relax, exploring new places with friends, eating ice cream, going back to the same places and developing traditions, or going to new places and discovering new things – every camp we’ve been on has had some or all of those elements and has been an amazing experience.  It took me a while to go to our first home ed camp. I’d heard about them, and occasionally people told me how great they were – that the kids spend all day ..read more

By Pamela Ueckerman One of the most frequent questions I get about our journey through home education now that my boys are a tween and a teen—aside, of course, from the inevitable and soul-wearying question about socialisation—is, “Will you home school through high school?” It’s a valid question and my answer is always, “If that’s what they want,” which is usually met with more curiosity, because high school is a huge deal, right? What if they want to learn something I know nothing about? Do they need an ATAR? How will they get into university, if that’s what they want? This hesitation abo ..read more

After ‘How do I register’, ‘Should I use (insert the name of any well advertised homeschool product here)’, is the question I see most in different Facebook groups these days.  It’s most commonly asked by parents who are moving to home education from school because of a precipitating event, School Can’t or because their child is disengaged. When compared to home education, schools are very much ‘one size fits all’, so parents asking the question tend to give the child’s age or grade, but seldom provide much background about the child’s interests, learning style, level of engagement or ..read more

Am I a Bad Dad? By Ash B I’m a pretty simple, average dad, no expert, but like so many of you, I want the best for my family. The hassles of school had caused me to consider home educating on many occasions prior to beginning our family’s journey. One of my main objections to home educating was personal, it suited me too much and felt like it was probably more for me than the kids: we could go away whenever it suited me, it fit with my flexible work, education, lifestyle and so on. We’re in a win-lose world right? Don’t I have to lose for my kids to win? I didn’t want to be irresponsible and r ..read more

By Pavlina McMaster A note about the language used: we believe that children who struggle with school attendance are genuinely unable to attend school without outward difficulties, rather than it being a willful choice. For this reason, the term ‘School Can’t’ is used in place of ‘School Refusal’ throughout this article. Going to school is an expectation that society puts on children and parents. Most children cope with this expectation, but some cannot. ‘School refusal’ (School Can’t) is a common precursor to families choosing to home educate their children. This often comes after years of p ..read more

HEN surveys provide the best Australian data on the Who, How and Why of home education. Since 2015, this data has proven enormously useful in accurately representing our community both to government and in the media e.g. by exploding a myth of widespread non-registration. Download as a .PDF ..read more

Our life is anything but Instagram worthy. I read the amazingly post-able blogs of home educating families, that must have fifty times the energy of my family, with mixed feelings of inspiration (at what’s possible), insecurity (I’m not capable of that), and a touch of cynicism (tell us the downside)!  We’ve got 11, 9, and 5 year olds. Our week consists of a flexible routine. None of us are morning people so our bleary eyed breakfast is normally around 8.30am followed by a Bible devotion. Our kids do English, maths and reading daily, plus science, word building and social studies once a w ..read more