Home Education
Our plans for 2009
A related page is my Teaching resources page which I started pre-motherhood. There you can find bits and pieces related to specific areas of learning. Here more general resources about homeschooling.
Homeschooling
Websites:
There are lots of web sites about homeschooling out there. Love2learn is a website of favourite resources for Catholic homeschoolers based in America. It is a good start for browsing the multitude of publishers and curriculum providers in the US.
Here in Australia we have the Home Education Association Inc., Australia. It provides public liability insurance for smaller groups who need insurance to hire halls and to hold certain activities. There's also Homeschool Australia Newsletter by Beverley Paine, a great work encouraging practical day to day learning.
There is a website called Catholic Homeschooling (Australia) but is more like one family's take on homeschooling than representing a national group.
Forums / Mailling Lists
Catholic Homeschoolers Forum A group of Australian homeschoolers, open to new members. A descendent of the Keeping In Touch newsletter.
Marium Regnum Familiae - a group of mostly mothers sharing their journey through homeschooling. They also set up an online forum.
Bookshops
Cardinal Newman Faith Resources is not specifically for Homeschoolers, but many find it an invaluable resource. There, under downloads, you'll find archives of Keeping in Touch - a quarterly newsletter edited by different homeschooling families around Australia (though mostly NSW)
Fidelity Books an offshoot of the J23 co-op. Lots of Catholic books.
Fountain Resources sells specifically Catholic homeschooling books, especially with a Charlotte Mason style.
St. Rita's Books Traditional Catholic bookshop.
Portico Books with a beautiful shop right near the historic St. Patrick's Church in Sydney. Many beautiful books too, as well as stationery.
Adnil Press A Classical Homeschooling publisher and bookshop supplying Australia and beyond. They have some home grown Australian history resources. Probably the best place for Australian history. Also stocking Latina Christiana and other language resources.
Blogs
Blogs are more personal websites that some families use to share day to day news and events. The mailing lists and forums listed above can be a great starting point for finding more of these websites.
On using the internet as a homeschooling resource.
The internet is very mixed. Sure, there are some great resources out there, but there is also a lot of junk, rubbish, lies, opportunists, get rich quick schemes, and malevolent material. Children need to be supervised if they are to browse the internet themselves.
Less time on the internet means more time for more important things like thinking, reading and talking.
Keeping a dial-up connexion can help limit time spent on the net. Broadband can be dangerous as well as pricey.
| Broadband | Dial up |
|---|---|
| Download large files quickly and easily. | May need to get someone else to download large files for you. |
| Spend as long as you like online, without tying up a phone line. | Need to regulate time spent online. Be frugal. |
| Your computer is at a greater risk of viruses, adware, malware, hacking, et cetera. | Risk to your computer is less as you use the internet less. |
| More distractions from internet attractions. | Internet games are slow or impracticable so not as attractive. |
A caching proxy can allow offline browsing -- a great advantage with a dial up system. This means that recent webpages are kept on your hard drive and can be searched and viewed without having to reconnect to the internet. Wwwoffle is what I use for this with Debian Linux. There seem to be no shortage of people on broadband plans who can download any large files that a dial up account won't allow. Some public libraries also have this facility. Even paying for these instances seems much cheaper and much safer than having a broadband account yourself.
