HOME SCHOOLING CAN BE CHOSEN BY ANYONE, WHETHER FOR MEDICAL, PRACTICAL OR PHILOSOPHICAL REASONS. ITS SUPPORTERS SAY HOME SCHOOLING HAS NUMEROUS BENEFITS FOR CHILDREN.
A family usually chooses home schooling “because the child has some kind of additional needs that schools aren't able to meet,” Home Education Network assistant coordinator Kirsty James says.
Those extra needs can take many different forms.
“Across the spectrum — from kids who might have an intellectual disability, might have a physical disability or learning difficulty like dyslexia — all the way up to kids who are gifted,” Kirsty said.
“Sometimes the kids’ needs are very complex, and there's quite a large number of children who don't qualify for special schooling, but who are also going to struggle massively in mainstream schooling.
“It’s a lot for a school to cater for.”
Moira Home Education Network Facebook group administrator Angela Joy said one of the parents in her Home Education Network pulled her child out of mainstream schooling because the school wasn’t meeting the needs of her child.
“The school kept telling her what her child needed to do to fit in. And I thought ‘no, that's wrong’,” she said.
“The school needs to make adaptations to suit the needs of the child, and if that's not happening, home schooling is an absolutely valid alternative.”
Angela is a mum from Mundoona who is one of the 80 members of the Moira Home Education Network and is currently home schooling her eight-year-old daughter Verity Joy-Watson.
She loves home schooling her daughter because she can specialise her education to best suit how she learns and spend quality time with her.
According to the Home Education Network’s survey of home educators, the main reason they choose to home school their kids is for a “happy family”.
“Parents getting to spend lots of time with their kids, getting to pursue and enjoy things rather than having to try and cram all of that in on the weekend,” Kirsty said.
“It's quite a relaxed pace of life generally.”
The members of the Moira Home Education Network come together for educational activities like outings and camps for their kids to learn in a social environment.
The most recent one saw River Connect staff run educational activities teaching the kids about native wildlife.
As well as home schooling duties, Angela works part-time with deaf children. She is also a PhD candidate developing a thesis on teaching deaf children.
Her education and career experience make Angela uniquely suited to home schooling her daughter, but she says any parent can do it.
“I hear parents sometimes say ‘I don't know if I can do that, I'm not smart enough’,” she said.
“You don't have to have a university education to educate your own kids. To me, it's an extension of parenting.
“And if you don't know the answers you find out together.”
Angela said she would continue to home school Verity until her daughter expresses the desire to go to a mainstream school.