A Class of Their Own
By Marilyn Rodrigues
This article appeared in Melbourne’s Child, April 06
© Marilyn Rodrigues, reproduced by permission
Ten-year-old Heather Johnston and her six-year-old sister, Emily, do similar things to other girls their age. They participate in Girl Guides, have swimming lessons at the local pool and play sport with their friends. Emily is learning to read and write and to do some simple maths. Both sisters have been learning about Antarctica and recently had the opportunity to meet someone who has travelled there, to see the climbing and camping equipment and to smash blocks of real Antarctic ice picks. Their parents have arranged a tutor to provide Spanish lessons in their home.
The difference between them and most other children their ages is that Heather hasn’t sat in a classroom for four years and Emily has never walked through a school gate. All their learning takes place within their family and a network of other home¬schooling families.
Their mother, Fiona, says it is a real joy to be so closely involved in her daughters’ learning. “Right now I’m teaching my little one to read and she’s so excited. There’s nothing better than that, just the joy of being part of it,” she says. “If your children go to school, as a parent you don’t experience those types of things.”
Fiona says she wasn’t unhappy with the school Heather was attending, but she believed that one-on-one learning in her home would mean her daughters learned concepts “more thoroughly”. “In school you can miss out if the class moves onto the next thing before you have actually grasped it,” she says. But she admits that it is daunting to take on sole responsibility for your children’s education. “It’s not for everybody,” she says. “You have to be very organised and very committed, because you often have your children with you for 24 hours a day. Financially it’s equivalent to a private school education once you add everything up.”