St Kilda Playground

Posted on January 24th, 2007 in Event Calendar
6 February 2007
12:30 amto1:30 pm

Cost: $2 per child to a maximum of $5 per family. Where: Between Eildon and Neptune St off Grey St St Kilda

For more details see the events section

 

Zoo Excursion

Posted on January 24th, 2007 in Event Calendar
8 February 2007

Thursday February 8th 2007 10.30am meet at the front of the zoo.

For more information, see the events section

Zoo Excursion

Posted on January 22nd, 2007 in Events

Thursday February 8th 2007 10.30am meet at the front of the zoo.

I have booked the Discovery Centre at the Melbourne Zoo. We will be
able to enter the Centre and have a 45 minute talk for the children
on Threatened Animals. We can then picnic at the Zoo and walk around
to look at some of the animals discussed - links to learning sheets
are included below.

At first there was a problem with booking the centre - we are not a
recognised school, and despite my information from a call to the zoo
last year, they were not going to have us there.

However, I persisted and did get a booking for 11.40am on Thursday
8th February at the Discovery Centre (BE there at 11.30)
We will learn about animals that are nearing
extinction/threatened…. “All But Lost”

There are rules: No children 4 or under (Sorry)

If there are older children in a family that are comfortable coming
into the centre while Mum/Dad is walking around outside with the
littlies, let me know and we will include them also - it would only
be for the 45 minute Discovery session - everything else would be all
together.

I will put links here for VELS (Level 3) that will be covered,
teacher notes and a student trail.

Student Trail (pdf)

Teacher Notes (pdf)

VELS Table level 3 (pdf)

We can have a maximum class size of 30 children - so I will need to
limit the excursion on a ‘first in’ basis

Adults $16.50
Students $13.00

Can NOT use FOTZ membership to enter zoo for anyone participating in
the Discovery Centre - you CAN however, use FOTZ membership for a
littlie and parent walking around while the session is on.

Contact Jenni to book: ohana@aanet.com.au

ALL WELCOME

St Kilda Playground

Posted on January 22nd, 2007 in Events

As a joint venture between SEHE, other HS groups and Inner City
Homeschoolers and in an effort to meet new people. Let’s match some
faces to the names of regular posters on the Yahoo HS groups and try
to broaden the range of other children that our own children have
contact with!

I am cordially extending an invitation to ALL HSing families to come
along on Tuesday February 6th 2007 to the St Kilda Adventure
Playground.

Cost: $2 per child to a maximum of $5 per family.

Where: Between Eildon and Neptune St off Grey St St Kilda

The Inner City Homeschoolers meet here once a month, shutting the
gates and, being the only people at the playground, letting the
children explore to their hearts content!

A great opportunity to meet new homeschoolers and perhaps even find a
penpal or two among the groups!!

ALL WELCOME

Otherways - Issue 110 - November 2006 to January 2007

Posted on January 14th, 2007 in Otherways Magazine

Otherways Issue 110

In this issue:

  • Schooling, The Hidden Agenda - Self-avowed cultural critic, Daniel Quinn, looks at learning throughout history and in our own modern school culture.
  • Learning All the Time - Celestina Adams explains what she has learned through home educating her son.
  • Socialisation: The Hidden Agenda - John Peacock discusses primary and secondary socialisation in school and home education.
  • Home Education and Special Needs Research - Susan examines what the research has to say about educating special needs children.
  • Snow Camp - Sharee’s pictorial memento of this year’s snow camp.
  • Shedding the Adult Agenda - Barbara Frank reflects on a time when parents allowed children to get on with playing.
  • Declaration of Freedom
  • Building a Lab - Part 2 in John’s series on setting up your home laboratory.
  • How are they gonna learn anything when they are stuck in school all day?
  • Home-made Maths Games - By Kevin Lees

Plus our regular features.

Subscribe to Otherways

Socialisation - The Hidden Agenda

Posted on January 14th, 2007 in Otherways Magazine, Socialisation

For my friend Robert who died in loneliness and despair by the rope 2005 and François who died in hope by self-medication 2006
This is not their story but they, the brightest and the best, inspired it

It is the most boring of all the objections to home education and seemingly the most stupid since, on all the evidence, home educated children are the best socialised. So why do they do it and why do we buy into it?

Within 30 minutes of my taking my daughter out of school the usual ignorant bully from the education department, together with a social worker, was knocking on my door. I have a short way with departmental people but as they were leaving the social worker looked at my young son, who was still in nappies and playing on the floor and said, “If you home educate him he will grow up to be a homosexual”! This was in the homophobic countryside of Derbyshire in the 1970s. He must have known that such a statement was nonsense, so what was he trying to do? He was trying to frighten me into shutting up, sitting down and conforming to my socialisation.

Home Education and Special Needs Research

Posted on January 13th, 2007 in Otherways Magazine, Research, Special Needs

By Susan Wight

The research on home educating special needs children is very positive, showing advantages both academically and socially. An American study by Stephen Duvall is one of the most thorough to date. It concluded that home education offers more of the kind of education that special needs children need most and that they benefit greatly from the individualised attention that home education allows.

Reasons for home educating

In her Western Australian study, Lucy Reilly found that parents of special needs children typically begin home education for a combination of two of more reasons but that their reasons predominantly involve the negative socialisation encountered in schools. “Such parents feel individual children can easily get lost in a system set up to meet generalised needs.” All six of the families interviewed in this study referred to negative socialisation in one form or another. One mother stated that her daughter was …learning inappropriate behaviours and self-abusive behaviours within the school system. The remaining families all mentioned teasing, rejection or bullying experienced by their children in school and in each case this treatment was associated with the child’s disability. One mother commented, At times they were treated like second class citizens and on many occasions they were quite openly discriminated against. They were made to feel very different and very left out. This created significant stress as well as diverting attention away from learning (Reilly).

2007 Licola Wilderness - Home Education Retreat

Posted on August 22nd, 2006 in Event Calendar
25 January 2007
9:00 am

Thursday 25th January - Wednesday 31st January 2007

Come and spend a week with like minded friends in the idyllic setting of the Australian wilderness.

See the Camps category for more information.