HOME SCHOOLING IS DIFFERENT TO WHAT IS HAPPENING IN SCHOOLING TODAY
During COVID lockdowns, most school children are doing their “learning-at-home”. For that reason, those who are unfamiliar with Home Schooling call this practice “home schooling” or “distance education”. School children who are “learning-at-home” are neither “home schooling” or doing “distance education”. I would like to clarify this matter.
Why Home Schooling is Different
Home Schoolers are different because:
You volunteered to educate your children at home. You were mentally, and financially prepared for home education. You set up your family, your lifestyle and your home for this massive change to your life.
Parents of school children did not volunteer or seek to do “learning at home”. It has been forced on them, without a choice. For many, it has delivered unexpected stress requiring sudden rearrangement of lifestyles.
You were prepared to home educate. (i) You purchased resources, (ii) did your training, (iii) commenced tried and tested procedures such as (iv) diagnosis of the child, (v) goal setting, (vi) using curriculum created and tested by curriculum experts over time, (vii) have regular testing etc.
You registered with your state or territory Education Department to home educate your children.
No family whose schooled children are doing “learning-at-home” have registered with their Education Department to do school at home. Schools that have their students “learning-at-home” are not registered to provide distance education. To be registered to provide distance education is a very technical process requiring the school to meet special criteria to provide distance education.
The point of this article is not to disparage what schools are doing with their various “learning-at-home” methods. Schools and their teachers are doing the best possible work to provide education, under pressure, in a way that they were not set up for. We at ACHS applaud them.
Some schools are doing it well, others are not. Some parents are doing it well, at home, whilst others are not.
The point of this article is to state that your home schooling is done voluntarily; it is well set up and it allows you to proceed with a stable educational model for your children. Whilst during COVID lockdowns, you are limited in your activities outside your home, the activities in and around your home are strong academically and give a consistency to your children’s education.
Keep on keeping on
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