A quick guide to The Educating Parent

My name is Beverley Paine and I began homeschooling my children in 1986. Wow! It often feels like a life time ago and then suddenly those days come back in my mind, fresh, wonderful, full of joy - and - full of worry. Worry that I didn't know what I was doing, or worry that I had no right to 'experiment' with my children's education like this, or worry that I wasn't doing enough...

Now that my children are adults, making their own way in the world I feel as confident as any parent can be... We're very proud of the adults our children have become and know that we, and the unusual education choices we offered them, are responsible. It's a good feeling.

Home educating them has been the most wonderful journey. It really does work!

About a decade ago I launched my first web site and have been hooked ever since.

You have at your fingertips on the Homeschool Australia site hundreds of articles in our Library:

In addition, there are hundreds more subject specific articles on our Curriculum Library.

Are you looking for resources, support groups and local contacts? Browse the entries on our Resource Directory page. Don't forget to download our Aussie Home Educators Blogs Directory - reading these is the easiest way to find out how other people learn at home with their children.

Can't find what you are looking for? Join our The Educating Parents Homeschooling and Unschooling online support group.

For the children there is Kids' Pages, pages wehre they can publish online their stories, poetry, drawings, projects and a whole lot more!

My book, Getting Started with Homeschooling Practical Considerations for Parents of School Aged Children is a manual that will take you through the steps needed to write your own tailor-made curriculum for your children. Hundreds of Australian families have purchased this book and used it to help them teach their children at home. Nothing is as successful as working out your own learning programs for your children, to suit their individual learning styles and needs, as well as your unique family situation. Totally personalise your children's education with the information and guidance of this book!

At our Always Learning Books online bookstore you'll also find other book and booklets I've written on home educating children over the last decade and a half, including inexpensive booklets on helping your children learn how to read and write, as well what to say to people who ask you why your children aren't in school...

If you'd like ongoing support from myself and like-minded others please join any of my online support groups:

Don't forget, my online support group mentioned above focuses on friendly, 'on-topic' support. Any one can ask a question and there's a good chance they'll get up to half a dozen different replies, all of them from homeschoolers who are experiencing or have experienced the same issue. We don't spend time debating or pushing particular dogmas - this is a practical and helpful forum for sharing home education information, tips, resources, etc.

Learning Naturally is a group for families that want to explore living and learning simply. It's support group for families willing to learn to let go of the need to educate their children to fit into niches society create for them, and allow them to develop their unique abilities and talents and grow in a natural, healthy way.

Like and follow The Educating Parent page for links to recent articles and items I find interesting on the internet.

The Support Groups Resource Directory also lists groups set up to support, connect and inform Australian homeschooling families interested in going on camping treks together. We don't have to go as one group, we can go in small groups, on big or small treks, even to local places. The aim of this group is to facilitate communication between those of us with 'wanderlust'!

Robin and I have 'retired' to concentrate on creating our property, Bungala Ridge Permaculture Gardens, into a sustainable haven for us and our family for generations to come. It's a wonderful project begun when our children were small - an integral part of their education. It the base from which I continue to write and publish articles and books about home education and the learning process.

"What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are really meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us." Julia Cameron