Anytime from about six months after you receive your Exemption you may be phoned by someone from the Education Review Office (ERO), so that they can arrange a time to visit you. The visit will take about 2 hours. She will talk to your child, see his/her work, and talk to you. She wants to see that you are committed to the education of your child, that you “do schoolwork” almost every day and that your child has opportunities for “socialization.” – Don’t panic (-most people “pass”) – but DO PREPARE (- if the ERO officer “fails” you, your child may have to return to school). {NOTE: Regular ERO reviews are no longer happening.}

2. DIFFERENT HOMESCHOOLING METHODS
There are MANY different homeschooling methods, and which one you choose will depend on your own family’s reasons for homeschooling and the ages of your children. Eg my 7 year old son does only about half of what my (almost) 13 year old son does. And I may use a “unit study” approach for teaching Science to my 7 year old, but the teenager follows textbooks.

Many people choose to buy a “complete curriculum” (eg ACE). There are advantages and disadvantages of this choice. The advantages:
a. The Govt departments are happy because they know that you CAN’T leave out an essential subject eg Maths.
b. You don’t need to do much planning. (When Joey finishes this lot of work, you just buy him the next level up.)
c. You don’t need to “know everything.” Either the books clearly teach it, or you have a Teacher’s Manual.
The disadvantages:
a. You may not want to cover every topic in the course, or to the same depth.
b. Cost.

I follow an “eclectic” approach, which means that I choose textbooks etc from different curriculums – as they suit our needs. Eg One child may use Alpha Omega Lifepacs for learning English, Saxon for Maths, and ABeka for Science.

To find out about the many homeschooling methods, the following books are available from some public libraries:
a. “Survivor’s Guide to Homeschooling” by Luanne Shackelford and Susan White. (My favourite.)
b. “The Big Book of Home Learning” by Mary Pride. Esp “Volume 1: Getting Started.”
c. “For the Children’s Sake” by Susan Schaeffer Macauley. (& “Teaching Children” by Diane Lopez.) Charlotte Mason method.
d. “Well-trained Mind” by Jesse Wise. The Classical method. Comprehensive & thorough.

3. WHERE TO GET RESOURCES?
If you choose a complete curriculum, you will get it all from that particular supplier, but if you wish to make up your own programme, here are some of the local suppliers:
a. Erena Fussell of LearnEx. Ph 269 3532 She sells high quality homeschooling resources such as Jolly Phonics, How Great Thou Art (art programme), Math-U-See & Apologia Science. www.learnex.co.nz
b. Christian Education Services. Ph 4103933 They sell from many different major publishers, eg ABeka (Christian textbooks), Saxon (secular, Maths, Physics, Phonics). www.cesbooks.co.nz
c. Brenda Hill Ph 266 5389 She sells various books eg Christian Liberty Press books. http://www.homeschools.org/
d. Mr Horton sells Bob Jones University Press books. (Christian, high quality, Maths used in many NZ Christian schools.) Phone 5358420 to make an appointment. www.bjup.com

NOTE:
American grades: “Kindergarten” for 5 year olds, “Grade 1″ for 6 year olds, “Grade 2″ for 7 year olds, etc

Or from the internet:
www.christianbook.com , www.bjup.com , www.abeka.com

4. OTHER

a. “Why do you want to homeschool?” My reasons include passing on my faith to my children, building strong family relationships, and making sure that the children get a solid education. Your own reasons will give you the motivation to keep on homeschooling day after day. (Our family has been homeschooling for 16 years – so far.) {UPDATE: we have just passed the 20 year mark.}

b. “What should I do with my 5 year old?” I like to use the Christian Liberty Adventure in Phonics book & readers (Brenda Hill Ph 266 5389), and a Maths workbook (eg BJUP or ABeka Math K). (You could use any other materials you prefer.) It takes only about 30 to 60 minutes a day, of 1 to 1 instruction, if you have a clear programme to follow. Besides that, I would read aloud a lot.

b. Tertiary study. My family’s preferred method of getting university entrance is enrolling the child with the NZ Correspondence School http://www.correspondence.school.nz/ for one year (for Year 13). When the child is over 16 years old, they are counted as an “adult”, & so it is currently free. (Before that age, it would cost us about $1000 per subject.) I recommend going to the Careers Expo in Greenlane (July/August?) & the Open Days of the various Polytechs & universities, so that your teenager can find out what he/she wants to do – and what he/she will need to do to get in.

c. Auckland Home Educators Inc (ph 302 2866)

http://www.ahe.org.nz/

d. “How do they turn out?” Here is one example from our family: Andrew (almost 13 yo) found out a little piece of info about a watch that he’s interested in buying – and he immediately phoned his Dad to tell him. – His Dad is his hero & best mate. Not many fathers have that with their teenaged son.

Good websites:
www.home.school.nz
www.nchenz.org.nz
www.home-school.com

www.christianbook.com
www.bjup.com
www.abeka.com
www.apologia.com/
www.saxonpublishers.com

Research:

http://www.nchenz.org.nz/pdf/oergon_he_survey.pdf

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/comp2001/default.asp

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/rudner1999/default.asp

Homeschooling success stories:

http://www.home-school.com/news/act.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0525_050525_beechamp.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3209387.html

I hope that this has been of some help to you.
Kind regards,
Rosalind.

Joke:

Coming Downstairs

Teddy came thundering down the stairs, much to his father’s annoyance.
“Teddy,” he called, “how many more times do I have I to tell you to come
downstairs quietly? Now, go back upstairs and come down like a civilized
human being.”
There was a silence, and Teddy reappeared in the front room.
“That’s better,” said his father, “now in future will you always come down
stairs like that.”
“OK,” said Teddy. “I slid down the railing.”

I am co-ordinating  a TV Teach Video Course for Term 3 and 4 in Takanini, South Auckland.

There are 12 places only.

The TV Teach video production course is a unique opportunity for students to learn high level video production skills and techniques of how to get the best potential from their family Handycam which is bristling with technology.

They will be able to bless their family by recording precious memories in a professional way.

full details of the course are here:  TV Teach for south pdf format

or doc format TV Teach for south WORD version

Start Date: 19th July weekly on Mondays 1-2pm with the freedom to go longer especially in the 4th Term.

Venue: Takanini Church of Christ, 160 Great South Road ( 5 mins from Takanini Southern Motorway on/off ramp)

Ages: 12 years and up

Cost: $100 per person per term paid 2 weeks in advance before the start of each term.
There may be some small extra costs involved in term four due to an entry fee to a “short film” competition and maybe travel / props costs for production of the short film.
Bring: a camcorder
TV Teach do not supply cameras. They rely on the likelihood that a few students will be able to bring the family digital camera and share with another student for “hands on instruction” on the best way to use these video cameras.
The make and type of camera is not important.

Queries: tarnya@slingshot.co.nz

To secure your place. All payments must be received in full before Monday 5th July.

Regards,
Tarnya

I did take this advice   (found on the Practical Issues page.)
  ”No matter how wonderful your children are, and how much you love them, being stuck at home with young children day in, day out will test anyone – and their relationships with other adults. Fortunately this problem is usually much easier to deal with. Get with other adults regularly – especially other home educators who understand your pressures. If you can’t find local home edcuators, at least join one or more of the e-mail lists for Kiwi home educators.”

And that is what I did, I joined some online e-mail lists. There were local home educators, but it was just easier on-line.

Not that we stayed home all the time. I think that year we had an annual membership to the Zoo. So most Fridays we went to the Zoo with a picnic lunch. Going weekly met there was no hurry to get around the whole zoo. We went to see a few animals and then the children played on the playground, and then we took the toddlers home for afternoon naps. Later I would get out the library books and I read to them all. They drew pictures and those that could write, wrote something about the animals. The Auckland Zoo has a great website. Going to homeschool organised activities for one child with 4 preschoolers in tow didn’t seem something that would work well.

Most of the more “formal” schoolwork was done early in the morning. My oldest son was an early morning person and the house was quiet then. I appreciated feeling like I had done “school”, that all the needs of the day had not crowded out “school”.

What’s my point in writing that story- I think is that home education is very adaptable. That solutions can be found to make it work well for each family.

 Like a jazz piece, it can vary a great deal, all fit together and sound great. Find the instruments that work for you.