How to Begin Homeschooling

WHERE TO START:

1. Deciding: Educating your child at home is a huge decision and should be one that is made with your spouse.

However, I do NOT suggest asking friends and family to weigh in on the decision. You will need the support of your spouse throughout your journey in big and small ways. But this should not be voted on by others. Also, decide WHY you want to homeschool. Make a list, write it out or print it out and keep it handy.

Here is some questions to ask:

1. What was your typical day at school like?
2. What would your perfect day at school be like?
3. If there was one thing you could change about school what would that be?
4. What is your favorite subject in school?
5. Were there parts of school you didn't like?
6. Were there certain things about your teacher you liked?
7. Were there things about your teacher you didn't like?
8. What will be the thing you'll miss most about not going to school?
9. What do you think homeschool will be like?

*Will have more information soon* You’ll be glad you did when you hit a rough patch down the line.

2. Learn the Homeschool Laws For Your State: Be fully aware of the legal requirements before you begin and especially before you take a child out of public school.
Qld: http://aspergersasdconnect.blogspot.com/2011/09/queensland-home-education.html
NSW: http://aspergersasdconnect.blogspot.com/2011/09/homeschooling-in-nsw.html
TASMANIA: http://aspergersasdconnect.blogspot.com/2011/09/home-education-tasmania.html

3. Find Support: Meeting with other homeschoolers offers
encouragement as well as knowledge and assistance with your homeschool questions. There are many options.

Great to get lots of responses quickly and to hear from many different experiences, newbies, veterans, all styles, all ages.

4. Research Styles of Home Education: There is no single right way to educate your child at home; however, there are many differing philosophies you may want to consider. Don’t get overwhelemed. Most families are eclectic. They may use unschooling for science, textbook for math, classical for language arts, ect. You don’t have to follow one style. Find what works best for you and your child(ren) Also consider, if you are religious, if you want all subjects to be religion based and taught from a Biblical world view, or if you want secular subjects and teach Bible/religion separately.

Down Below is the list of Home Ed Styles

(We personally as a family are through),The Australian Christian College Moreton

Distance education is the educational practice where students are enrolled

in a registered distance education school and conduct their academic work

at home under the supervision of a parent.

The school provides the learning program and distance education teachers,

and the student has a study area allocated at home to work from.

It is schooling at a distance.

Distance education schooling is not limited to those in remote areas,

like correspondence schools used to be. Many distance education students

live in cities and large regional towns, including Brisbane, the Gold Coast,

Toowoomba, Townsville, Cairns and Rockhampton.

Also the Distance Education is provided in other states in Australia

as well with the main ACC colleges.

For more information click here: http://www.acc.edu.au/moreton/about/distance-education/

Just some more information for Australian Christian College - DE

Christian Education Ministries (CEM) is located in Brisbane, Queensland. CEM

operates the Australian Christian College (ACC) network of schools with

campuses in Queensland, New South Wales, and Western Australia,

and offers distance education throughout Australia and internationally.

Through the ACC network, CEM is the largest provider of K-12 distance

education in Australia. CEM partners with curriculum providers around the world

to provide quality educational outcomes with a Biblical worldview for the

Australian market.

Head Office for ACC : http://cem.org.au/

HomeEd Styles

Distance education

Distance education, also known as correspondence shooling is another method that some people use to home educate. This involves enrolling your child(ren) with a registered education institution that will set work and guidelines for you. This option will be regulated and determined according to the distance education provider that you register with.
Distance education is normally not officially classed as home educating (although this can be dependent on your state regulations).

 Religion based
Religion based home education, as it suggests, is home education based on the faith and belief of religion.

Natural Learning

Natural Learning, also known as Unschooling, is a range of educational philosophies and practices centred on allowing children to learn through their natural life experiences - including child directed play, game play, household responsibilities, work experience, and social interaction - rather than through a more traditional school curriculum. Unschooling encourages exploration of activities led by the children themselves, facilitated by the adults. Unschooling differs from conventional schooling principally in the thesis that standard curricula and conventional grading methods, as well as other features of traditional schooling, are counterproductive to the goal of maximising the education of each child.
The term "unschooling" was coined in the 1970s and used by educator John Holt, widely regarded as the "father" of unschooling. Popular critics of unschooling tend to view it as an extreme educational philosophy, with concerns that unschooled children will lack the social skills, structure, and motivation of their peers, especially in the job market, while proponents of unschooling say exactly the opposite is true: self-directed education in a natural environment makes a child more equipped to handle the "real world."
A fundamental premise of unschooling is that curiosity is innate and that children want to learn. From this an argument can be made that institutionalising children in a so-called "one size fits all" or "factory model" school is an inefficient use of the children's time, because it requires each child to learn a specific subject matter in a particular manner, at a particular pace, and at a particular time regardless of that individual's present or future needs, interests, goals, or any pre-existing knowledge he or she might have about the topic.
Many unschoolers also believe that opportunities for valuable hands-on, community-based, spontaneous, and real-world experiences are missed when educational opportunities are largely limited to those which can occur physically inside a school building.

Things to consider when choosing curriculum for homeschool

What is your child's/ children's learning style? (Hands on, Audio, Visual, Love to read, Love to listen, Busy doing, ect.)

What is your teaching style? (Love lesson plans, hate lesson plans, love to "wing it", Hands on, Love reading aloud, Hate reading aloud, need a textbook, hate textbooks, ect.)

Your budget

Christian vs. Secular curriculum

What type of supplements do you want?

Is your child ready for this particular curriculum. Just because your child is in a certain grade level, does not mean they can do any curriculum in that grade. Some companies tend to be harder than others. As a rule of thumb, Abeka, tends to be a bit challenging.

What subjects are you going to be teaching this year?