Homeschooling Program & Outline Approved
Had the homeschooling review a few days ago, passed the test well and we now have the go-ahead to proceed as we please for the next 2 years. While i have all subjects covered fairly well in the curriculum outline set by the government, it’s been a relief to know that we don’t need to strictly adhere every single item to-the-letter and have the freedom to custom-design the program in order to allow Aidan to maximise on his strengths.
I was somewhat stressed in preparing for this day of review because i couldn’t find any examples of what others did to see what was required to ‘pass the test’, unless it came with a ‘buy this book to learn how to do it’ request for which i did not have the luxury of time or money to invest in.
I was scared, because it was advised that we spend 3 months in advance before making an application to homeschool ~ when we had no such luxury with time. We had to pull our son out of school ASAP to prevent further trauma …and have had to spend a great deal of the last 7-8 weeks just recovering from it all, so i figured,
“Stuff that!” …to anyone who can’t see that what my family’s been through has been through som seriously rough shit.
My heart had no space to entertain or care for gaining the approval from someone else, especially when the minister for education thinks it’s perfectly OK to threaten sending parents to jail for not making their children attend school ~ or threatening families with a $2000 fine when the reasons for parents choosing to pull their kids out of school is because it’s just far too traumatic and the school is not capable of adequately dealing with the issues. I’m hardly the only parent in this situation.
So ~ the following things recquired to support my application that actually panned out to be more-than-enough for the task:
(a) A plan or outline (a ‘program’) of what you intend to teach your child (including past programs where relevant)?
How the hell am i supposed to write a program for an entire year covering everything in the guidelines in-advance, when my son is just not the kind of kid who responds well to people dictating how the day must proceed (and he must therefore cover all subjects laid onto him for the day)?! I figured,
“Stuff that!”
…to anyone who can’t see that it works better to let my son take the lead. I just started to gather everything i had and took notes of everything we’ve covered so far, fitting “The Program” onto a single A4 page.
There…that’s it. They’re just notes ~ and if anyone wants the details, just email me and i’ll fwd a copy. Standard subjects aside, it’s the “social” skills which have the greatest demand for attention over here. As for why this page is so grotty-looking now, it’s because i’m using it as a pad for my optical mouse on the workdesk. If anything, it was considered over-the-top that i even had this piece of paper ~ as it’s quite something else when you are dealing with a special-needs kind of a kid. For those who do more of the planning in their head instead of showing all the “working out” on paper as you would be recquired to do for a problem in maths, from this experience ~ it’s panned out to be OK if you do it that way 
(b) A method for recording learning activities completed by your child?
Here’s what i use:
A day-to-day journal which i use to record learning activities for the day, which keeps track of Aidan’s issues & strengths, along with keeping log of the amount of time spent.
A weekly system of review ~ where i tally the amount of time spent on various subjects, make a summary of the week, list Aidan’s strengths & weaknesses, and write a few notes on things we hope to take on in the following week. All of the week’s work on paper gets filed together with the summary sheet into the folder.
On of the pages in that week, where we’ve had to address issues with handwriting right from the very beginning …but it’s perfectly ok for me to back-off from it completely now. The woman who was reviewing said,
“It could take him a few years to get on top of that ~ don’t frustrate yourself if he doesn’t achieve it sooner. It’s hardly an important skill compared to something typing these days so it will be ok if it takes him a few years just to master the basics to get by with filling out things like forms.”
…oh yeah, no way we’re forcing the issue here at all but it was really good to get validation from someone else who “gets it”.
I’ve found the teaching guides over at Handwriting Without Tears to be really useful - some great ideas there. My son will not follow their specific directions in letter formation “exactly” but the exercises of teaching children to form the letters inside shaded squares was really good at making Aidan see the ‘concept’ of letter formation a whole lot better.
(c) A method for recording achievement and progress in each area of study?
Panned out that my extensive journalling work consisting of a 98K word count over at Newtown Mums was more than enough. I was writing about Aidan’s progress regarding the diagnosis & school since Dec 2005 and well, there’s a few more novel’s worth that’s been recording his progress since 2003 in the archives as well. I thought i was expected to create some kind of a ‘checkbox’ table similar to the school-reports - which never told me much about Aidan’s progress as much as the small paragraphs of personal commentary from Aidan’s teachers. I was really relieved to hear it was perfectly OK to use a system that adopts qualitative data over a more numeric-like method. We now have a formal space on Newtown Mums to discuss education, with separate departments for me to continue with journaling on individual subjects by also adding links & resources that will be of benefit to other families who don’t homeschool as well.
Lucky to have kept some of the work i did with Aidan when he was a toddler. An example out of his art book. I remember how fruitless it was for me to try and get him to draw “tangible objects” with art. I ended up opting for mixed-media and letting Aidan take the lead by appealing through his interests. Not bothered by abstract art over here, it was a great experience for his hands to get busy with other mediums instead.
(d) Access to sufficient resources and facilities to support the learning program?
A snapshot of what my living room looked like on the day of the review for the sake of explaining all the stuff we have access to within the home that doesn’t live on a computer. Most of this stuff is otherwise neatly stored in Aidan’s room. My mother used to be a teacher, so i have heaps of her old books and she continues to be an amazing pillar of support for me when it comes towards sourcing for new resources. Lots of other people-resources for this too, online homeschooling network which has a special-needs focus, yeah ~i won’t ramble. It’s all summarised on that A4 sheet.
(e) A suitable area for educational purposes in terms of light, ventilation and space?
A non-issue for us because these things are always the most important things for us when it comes towards choosing a home to rent. First comment of the day was regarding how wonderful the light in our living room was ~ oh yeah, we can’t live without it. Just keep it tidy without too much clutter and you will be fine.
~
I’m on top of it, i’ve got it all together and i can finally relax with no longer needing to worry about not meeting the standards of others. Maybe they can worry about not being able to deliver as well as i can “pro bono”? Honestly, i don’t care.
All up ~ things continue to go remarkably well for Aidan since we pulled him out. He’s doing great and managed to survive the huge crowds over at Kat’s 50th birthday party the other weekend remarkably well. We’ve made the right decision. Nuff said & GAME OVER 
Looking forward to the next chapter.
The most confronting question I faced during the day was probably,
“Why didn’t you choose to homeschool earlier?”
…because i didn’t know how at the time …and our son was freshly diagnosed with autism at the time, so the world was blaming our parenting and making it out as if sending our son to school would finally “cure” him…
Either way ~ a significant day in my life to finally overcome this obstacle and be granted the right to homeschool. For those currently in the motions of preparing for an application ~ HTH and feel free to buzz me via the comments.
