Travelling Australia and homeschooling?

Don't tell them about your trip - just that you will be home schooling - from home...

Hi Jacqui,

We're in Victoria and took our kids around for 6 months. They were 6 & 9 at the time. Their school said don't worry about it, they will learn more on the road than they ever will at school. We still took a mix of activity books for them to do, they wrote all the postcards we sent and we also had a timetables CD (sing them to music) that we played at the start of every long day in the car. By 3 months they both knew their timetables up to 12!!!
When we returned they were more confident kids and picked up where they left off at school.

My wife put together a website of our trip if you want to have a look.

Our website

Cheers,

Mark.

Hi Jacqui

In all seriousness why bother telling the authorities about the trip. Count that part as an extended geography lesson in their schooling. The basic educational curriculum is allegedly national now, so why not just take them on the trip, and you would have plenty of Internet access to materials.

Have a great trip, and teach them young ones good things about their country.

Cheers

Hi Jacqui,

How shocking! I think it's terrible that they can dictate that. I do know that different states do have different rules regarding it though, with Queensland being the strictest I believe. It's not too bad in SA and when we do our trip next year we are able to tick the 'Travel' box on the form, no dramas.

Will you be maintaining an address in NSW? If so, then I don't see why you can't just have them registered at your home address, and well, if you don't happen to get back from your short holiday in time then what business is it of theirs?

If you're completely selling up, you could always use a family members interstate address as your home address and register them there (a more lenient state where travel is allowed). Also, there are many homeschool families who do not believe in registration at all and choose not to register their children. I can't vouch for that as I don't know the consequences, I have just spoken to many who do it.

Best of luck. I'm sure all will work out fine. Enjoy your trip and maybe we'll see you on the road! (Leaving in Feb/March 2011 from Adelaide)

Hi Jacqui,


I remember seeing a school in the Eastern States featured on one of Pat Callinan's DVDs (Canning Stock Route). This school specialises in home schooling. As Pat's Kids are away from school while he's on the road for three months filming, they use this school. I can't remember the name, but sure if you send an email to marian@mr4x4.com.au they'd be able to tell you.


With the new Australia wide curriculum coming in, it may be easier for you to access a home schooling service offered in another state - the whole reason for the curriculum is because families move/travel/etc.

You may also like to have a look at: http://www.aussieeducator.org.au/education/specificareas/homeschooling.html

Remember, your Kids will learn heaps from what they see whilst travelling, but it'd be good to get some "proper" work to make life easier for them when the return to the classroom after. Hope you have some luck.


Happy Travels :-)


Nick

Hi Jacqui,

Is your 6 yo already 6 or will he turn 6 on the road. For example in SA it is not compulsory for children to attend school until they are 6.

If I were you I would go to the principal of your school and explain your predicament (a good one) and get them to find out how you could go about home schooling as they will have better inroads to the correct department and people to speak with.

I'd also ring again as there will be someone in the Dept who handles such requests. If you get the same rude response ask to speak with the person's superior. You can also ask for the way in which you can speak to the Head of that Department. In SA there is usually Director who is in final charge.

Another option would be to ring your Distict's/Region's Head Office and ask who you could speak with regarding home schooling.

By the way I am not speaking out of my hat as I am a retired (just) SA principal and I would do the above for one of my families.

Cheers,
Di

G'Day Jacqui,
We travelled Australia for 2 years & enrolled our girls in Distance education (Vic). Our girls were 7 & 10 when we left. The standard of work was great & our kids both integrated back into the school system easily when we finished our trip. They sent us schoolwork in 3 month lots to a convenient post office for us to collect on our travels.
We were expected to average 2 hrs a day of work but we just spent a couple of days full on to complete a block of work when we found a great camp spot then took a break from it for a while. Worked for us.
Hopefully NSW have a similar system for you to use.

Cheers
Stu

Hello, We live in Tasmania and have enrolled in distance ed for next year. Assuming each state is different, de looks ideal for our needs which are similar to yours.

Thankyou so much for all your replies, I really appreciate all the ideas.
We believe as parents we should have a say in how and where we educate our kids. What could be better than educating our kids while seeing and experiencing the beautiful country we live in.
We have decided to homeschool without being registered and see how we go.
I will also have a talk with his principal and see what he can suggest. He attends a fantastic small school at the moment and I'm sure all the teachers will be supportive.
We hope to meet other families on the road and share our experiences.

Thanks again
Jacqui

Did this last year with two eight year olds.
In NSW, to be approved for home schooling, somebody needs to come to your home to see where the children will be taught. A room needs to be specificaly set up as a class romm. The inspector needs to see what educational equipment you have, and what lessons you may have planned.


Distance education is easier. You need to supply the Education department an address of where you will be everything three months. They will then post work to you. In return you need to post back work that has been done.


Talk to teacher/principal. They can organize work for you. I took two boys from different schools (one mine the other a child in care). My sons teacher wanted a journal written every day. The other childs teacher said to make him read road signs. So I made him do a journal as well.
The principal informed me last week that if I plan on staying a week or two in the one place(I'm looking at another trip) you are allowed to enroll your childin a school for that time frame. This applies in any state. Comes in handy to allow kids to mix with other kids. This was for year 2 students.

Be warned about what is taught. I also had my two knowing their times tables up to 12. Apparently they are not to learn above 10 untill about year 5. Teacher was not happy.

Hi Petjac,
As a teacher I would be happy for any student of mine to go touring for 6 months to a year. they will learn heaps on the road, take their maths text book work through that if you feel you must write postcards back to his classmates as well as emails if you can uploading photos etc I wish i had taken my kids when they were younger. The skills they will learn far outweigh what they will miss.
Good luck and have fun and create memories for your family
barb

I watched Pat Cullen's 4x4 on tv a couple of days ago. They home schooled from a place in NSW. They said it was excellent. You may have spoke to the wrong person which seems to happen too often in everything we do these days. Don't give up. Grade 1 is so easy to do with the correct support.

I think you just found a particularly officious bureaurat! Actually Homeschooling is acquiring a poor reputation among many teachers and education depts because it is often an excuse to do not much or use various programmes from dubious (often based in USA) sources so you might have struck a fairly disillusioned person!
At your children's ages they need very little formal written work but you will want them to be happy in school when you return. I suggest you use Distance Ed with 3 momthly postal drops if you feel you need organised support. Otherwise talk to your current school principal who should be happy to give you a copy of the general program and recommend some useful books for you. Ensure your children keep a diary/scrapbook of the trip to show when they return. It will be a treasure for the future. Teach them to follow maps and enjoy tracing the trip. They can also send postcards etc to grandparents and classmates for writing pracice. They will learn heaps. Enjoy the trip and don't let schooling become a burden. When using Distance Ed for early primary school we found it took little time compared with a classroom where teachers are dealing with many pupils. Cheers Lynne