Feb. 11, 2006 - G'day...from the Land Down Under!
G'day,
It's great to be here! I'm going to enjoy this a lot. I love learning at home with my children; I love my beautiful country and I like to ramb...er , write!
By way of short introduction: I'm 30 year old Susan and have been married to John for 16 1/2 years. Together we have four children aged, 8, 10, 13 and 14yo. John has a 22yo son also.
John is in the army and so we move around a fair bit, which we think is a fantastic way to see this beautiful, varied country of ours. We started learning at home 'officially' in 1998 after Abigail had attended Kindergarten and Year One at a small, private Christian school. We started homeschooling using a traditional "school-at-home" approach to our learning. We had a school workbook for each and every subject and we started 'school' every day at the same time. Our schedule was very 'schooly'. The children did very well that year, academically speaking, but I was getting a little bored. I was wondering how I could keep this up for the next 10 or more years. I really thought that there had to be more to this homeschooling than I was experiencing.
Toward the end of that first year, we connected to the Internet.
I started hunting for ideas to teach more than one child at a time.
This led me to KONOS. I purchased KONOS and I really loved the idea of
it but thought it was a little too *hands-on* for me. So, then I tried
my hand at devising my own unit studies. This was great, I learnt heaps
but was also quite tired at the end of it all. Soon, I stumbled across
some websites about Charlotte Mason and started to implement some
changes that have not only changed our homeschool experience but
aspects of our life as well. Although I have learnt a lot from Charlotte Mason, I don't adhere to the methods strictly. I used to try, but ended up being confused and our home was not a harmonious one as I struggled to mold our family into shapes that were not us. Thankfully, God showed me a way out of this. I have also learnt a lot from other popular homeschool methods like 'natural learning' and unit studies and even 'school at home'. Yes, for a person as undisciplined and easily distracted as I am there is something I can glean from a traditional school-at-home approach. I guess I could describe our family as "eclectic, thematic, literature loving, natural learners who are trying to cultivate good study habits while pursuing our interests in a Spirit-led way".
There are some subjects where we will employ the use of textbooks and others where we simply read good, living books. We use textbooks for maths and science and sometimes, English, whereas we enjoy living books for history, geography, nature study and fine arts.
Anyway, that's enough about me...I have my own blog where I ramble on incessantly.
Speaking of Australia, ( stay on topic, Susan!) how about a few details:
Australia
is the continent between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean.
Australia is the world's smallest continent yet is the sixth largest
country.Some hazards that Aussies face are, cyclones along the coast,
severe droughts and forest fires. Some Aussies face environmental
issues like soil erosion from over-grazing of stock, soil salinity due
to poor water quality. The famous Great Barrier Reef, (think: Finding
Nemo) the world's largest coral reef, is threatened by an
increase in shipping and tourism.
Homeschooling in Australia.
Home education is a legal alternative to traditional school in all states of Australia. However, not all Australians choose to register or apply for an exemption of attendance from school. Some homeschooled graduates have gained and are continuing to gain entrance into Australian universities. There are as many different homeschooling philosophies and methods as there is anywhere else in the world and not one type of learning dominates.
We have an Aussie blog-ring as a way of bringing the Aussie home-school bloggers together. You might like to have a wander there and check out a few different blogs.
I guess that's about it from me...for now. I'm looking forward to being part of the International blogging team here at Around the World.
Cheers,
Susan <><
Comments
Feb. 11, 2006 - This is great Susan!
Posted by tn3jcarter
I hope many international homeschoolers will stop by to say hello and join in the fun. Great post!
Blessings,
Nancy
Feb. 12, 2006 - :-)
Posted by Phyllis
Nice to "meet" you!
Feb. 12, 2006 - P.S.
Posted by Phyllis
Where did you get that flag?
Feb. 12, 2006 - The flag?
Posted by HomeGrownKids
I had it saved in my files somewhere...I would have gotten in from a site that allowed the free use of graphics. You could do a google search for your flag + free graphic and see what comes up. Then, I saved it in my usual blog files and linked it from there. :-)
Cheers,
Susan <><
