Getting Started with Homeschooling
Practical Considerations for Parents of School-Aged Children
© Beverley Paine
Index
Homeschool
Australia
Informing The Community
To obtain optimum learning opportunities for children, and to reduce the ignorance prevalent in the community about home schooling as a legal alternative to schooling, various things can be done to educate the community at several levels. It isn’t necessary to become personally involved in all of these, but every little effort helps, and increases awareness of the legitimacy and success of home schooling.
Staying positive is absolutely essential when discussing home schooling with people unfamiliar to the idea. Offering a working solution is much better than dissecting and endlessly discussing the problem! Staying positive doesn’t mean avoiding discussing the many problems that arise from time to time, but being realistic and positive about them. People respond more favourably if you talk honestly about the benefits you have experienced personally, rather than a continuous criticism of the school system. If you are determined to quote research, memorise facts you are sure you can quote confidently.
The following excellent ideas for spreading information about home schooling have been compiled from many sources spanning years. Each has been used successfully by different families intent on letting others know home schooling is a viable alternative for families.
- Purchasing or passing on books on home schooling to the library (after you’ve read them of course!), or start your own private or network circulation library.
- When finished with catalogues from specialist home education book stores, pass them onto your local community and school libraries.
- Write book reviews of home education titles for local newsletters, especially library newsletters, or produce a pamphlet your library can reproduce and offer to borrowers.
- Asking your local newsagent and book shop to stock home schooling books and magazines. Order your copy through them.
- Contacting your local newspaper for an interview, usually with photos. Be prepared for feedback - often television news crews look out for topical stories in local papers.
- Contacting your local radio or television station for an interview on home schooling (this often generates a LOT of interest, usually positive, from families wanting to home educate). Only experienced home educators should tackle this one - the media can be very tricky to deal with, and checking for any ‘hidden’ agendas of the interviewer and program is absolutely essential!
- Giving a gift subscription of a national or international home education journal to your local library, or convincing them to subscribe.
- Offer to give a talk with local social organisations, even schools, or a workshop or guest lecture on home schooling. J Becoming listed in the annual community information guide, and letting your civic authority know you are a contact person and available to give information to people inquiring about home education.
- Encourage your children to talk with others about their home schooling experience openly - this means showing them by example first!
- Set up attractive professional looking display posters and stalls about home education at community markets, fetes and local shows, with handouts giving reading lists, contacts and general information.
- When approaching businesses or community services for products and services get into the habit of introducing yourself as a home schooling family or parent.
- Contact your local play-groups, child-carers and preschools and provide them with information about the option of home education. Offer to give information evenings for pre-school parents. If you are keen you can even organise visits to your home by children about to ‘graduate’ to their first year at school with their parents and preschool teacher.
- Publish and distribute locally a pamphlet or brochure about home schooling, with local contact people noted.
- Let your local Council, State or federal Members of Parliament, education department, and local school know that you are willing to be a contact person in your area for home schooling.
- Wear clothing with slogans advertising home schooling - this really works and they are great fun to make!
- Seek out and publish recent research on the success of home education as an alternative to schooling. This will really boost your own confidence!
- Design and make a bumper or rear window sticker for your car.
You don’t have to engage in all of these activities, and definitely not all at once. One of the best ways of making an impression is to regularly bring attention to home schooling over time. Working as a group you can utilise the talents and abilities of individuals to best effect, and don’t forget to involve the children. Many of these activities are ‘real life’ learning opportunities. In time your whole community will understand home schooling is a legitimate and successful alternative to school. By helping others to understand home schooling is not a threat to existing educational choices, but is simply an alternative to school, you produce benefits to the whole community, by widening learning resources and opportunities.
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Excerpt from Getting Started with Homeschooling, Practical Considerations
© Beverley Paine, 1997
