Well it's been just over two years since we first set up the Australian HS Events web group on Yahoo (December 2006) and, unfortunately, we've decided that it's something that we will have to let go.

It's been a big learning experience and a wonderful opportunity to 'virtually' meet HSers from around Australia, but I've not been able to give the group the time that it needs to keep it up to date and to make it truly useful and, as I need to do more to reduce my workload in order to recover my health more fully, I've decided to close the group.

Fortunately the Home Education Association, Inc (HEA) have a section on their web site which can potentially provide much of the information I had wanted to provide to the Australia-wide HS community.  Those sections of their web site are accessible to non-members as well as members.  The link to the HEA is:  http://www.hea.asn.au/ (look in the left-hand column under "need help?" and click on "support groups".

Some time further down the track John and I are hoping to do something more with our family's web site (once we actually learn how to do one properly!)  and I hope to put a number of purely HS pages on that (linking directly to various other informational/networking HS web sites in other states).  At the moment we've only got as far as the front page!:  http://www.wrightfamily.com.au/

Hi folks

Well, we finally 'bit the bullet' and decided to put together our very own Yahoo chat group (not that it's a high volume 'chat' group) specifically designed to promote HSing events around Australia, called Australian Homeschool Events:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AusHSevents/.

The web site is aimed at people who are new to HSing and trying to find groups and activities (e.g. workshops, camps, regular outings, etc) in their state and local area, as well as to help HSers planning travel around Australia so that they can see if there are any HS activities they can tap into where they are travelling to/through.  It is also hoped that the site can be useful to people moving interstate, or even from overseas, so that they can more easily find HSers in the area to which they are moving.

There's also a section where HSers can advertise their businesses - I know I like to use friends and aquaintances wherever possible in the first instance, so figured others would too.

It's only early days for the web site, as the only way it can grow in informational content is for members to contribute what they know of groups and events that are happening.  I think one of the tricks to making the site useful/successful is to do it in such a way that people can trust that their personal confidentiality is maintained, whilst at the same time providing enough information for legitimate HSers to be able to network with others across Australia.

What does one say in their very first web-blog entry ... but "hello"!

I am Marina (43), married to John (53) for a little over nine years (we met socially whilst learning ballroom dancing), and we now have three rambunctions sons:  David (8), James (7) and Blake (3), and one little angel already gone to God early pre-term (I named her Edith Anne).

Almost a year ago we moved from suburbia to a 5 acre block of land (http://www.wrightfamily.com.au/) situated on the cusp between the beautiful Adelaide Hills and the Barossa Valley.  It was something our family desperately needed after some very difficult years nursing my mother-in-law (who was a wonderful woman).

I am blessed to have my husband home with me through the days, which is such a boon with our journey in home educating our young sons.  This is an education option which we chose for three main reasons:

1.  to shelter them in their younger years from the frightening statistics of early drug and sexual expriences, as well as assault (schoolyard bullying);

 

2.  because so much research across the globe showed that both the academic and socialisation outcomes for homeschooled children were at least equivalent, but often superior, to that of mainstream schooled children; and

 

3.  to ensure that our children received a proper and thorough understanding of the faith in which they are to be raised.

Apart from the many challenges that any wife, mother and home-maker has, I also suffer from fibromyalgia (http://www.medicinenet.com/fibromyalgia/article.htm) - we have good days and bad days, but we have made much progress over the last year, thanks to the help of an alternative chiropractor and, more recently, a naturopath who specialises in nutritional therapy.

Long before I married and we had children, I was always very interested in herbal medicine and the toxins in our environment, so it was almost like a natural progression that we eventually found ourselves lead to become members of Neways (http://www.neways.com.au/), manufactures and sells non-toxic, cruelty free, and environmentally friendly, personal hygiene, nutritional supplementation and household products.  It is through the use of a number of these products that I have managed to regain some of my health, and also made the important contacts to the two therapists who have made such a difference in my fight back from the fatigue and pain of fibromyalgia.

Cheers  ~  Marina