THEN Newsletter Term 2 2012

Thank You Violet Even though Violet is mentioned in the coor-dinators report, I would like to take this op-portunity again to thank her for all the news-letters she has put together over the years. All the lovely quotes, articles and editorials gave a refreshing outlook on homeschooling. I just hope that she makes a speedy recov-ery.

Hi everyone, Hope your Easter holidays are going well and that by the end of these two weeks you will be keen to get stuck into more homeschool adventures. I know we say that learning never stops but we also know that there are some things we set out to learn on purpose rather than by accident. On page 10 you can read what one person thinks Education really is. I have really enjoyed my homeschooling years, learnt a huge amount on the way and there are still a few years ahead yet. I started this adventure in 1991 with my now grown children who have children of their own now. I have a completely new set of students now with my youngest being nearly 10. The best learning times have been unit studies, but using a particular math text has been a sanity saver. I did one year of ACE and that really helped me to get an idea of what is really expect-able from my children. A little bit like Leanne experienced through a school experience. You can read her interesting observations on pages 4&5. We have a wonderful resource in our library books. Sheena and Veronica are organising times for it to be available at the delightful home of Parents Place on Boundary Road. They have plans and you can check them out on page 3. Just recently I have found that I have a wheat intolerance so I am looking for recipes to replace normal bread. The Banana Bread recipe, page 9, is just delicious. I viewed a 90 y.o. lady making the bread on �‘youtube�’. I have to adjust the recipe a little by changing the sugar to raw sugar and the wheat flour for rice flour & cornflour but it was still really delicious. All you good cooks out there will already know that. There are some interesting variations out in �‘google-land�’. I might try it with sour cream in it and perhaps a dusting of cinnamon/raw sugar on top. Lara Kenney is our resident internet whizz. Check out the websites she has recommended if you have time. You will probably go to one and just check other stuff from there and never get to the rest. We did a bit of a �‘youtube�’ study and looked at some of the crazy/hilarious things on video. They all enjoyed watching helicopters crash and ships in huge seas. I found out that coffee is not a bean but a cherry. We were really investigating how to cure a sheepskin! The activity pages are packed with interesting things for your family to do. In fact there is probably too much for you to be able to do it all. We are so fortunate to have Denise organising these and putting it all together for us. Keep enjoying and loving your children no matter what. Editor: Marietta Smith

THE HOME EDUCATORS NETWORK www.thehomeeducatorsnetwork.org.nz

P.O. Box 275, Hamilton Editor for this issue: Marietta Smith

Term Two, April - June 2012

CONTENTS Editorial p 1 Coordinators Report p 2 Librarians Report p 3 Are Teenagers Just Lazy? p 3 Our School Experience p.4 THEN Contact Details p 5 Geography activities for kids p 6 Workings Of A Car p 7 You Tube p.7 Egg Facts p 8 Learning Links p 8 Banana Bread Recipe p 9 Craft Recipes p 9 What is Education p.10 Home Grown Education p 11 Keep It Simple - Nature Walking p 12 Activities Pages Term 2 Calendar

THEN Newsletter Term 2 2012

2

Coordinators Annual Report The Home Educators Network AGM

Tuesday 20th March 2012

Thank you all for showing your support for The Home Educators Network by coming along tonight. I'm still trying to find my feet as coordinator and I hope you won't judge me too harshly on the mistakes I've made. I do apologise for the late notice and date change for the AGM, unfortunately that was outside my control as the venue was double booked.

THEN has had another busy year with many activities well attended. A big thank you to Leanne Davidson for organising swimsafe the last two years. She has done a fantastic job with maintaining a great relationship with Hamilton City Coun-cil. Even though the price of swimsafe will double in 2012, it still remains a very economical way for our families to access high standard swimming lessons.

Family Day at Playcentre continues to be well attended. Sarah Walsh became a playcentre member so we can continue to use their facility. At the end of last year we cleaned all the wooden blocks at family day as part of Sarah's responsibil-ity as a playcentre member. It's not such a big job if all help. There seems to be a regular group of teenagers at family day and lately some younger members were included in their play. It's great to see children with a wide age range working/playing together. As Family Day is a weekly social out-ing and meeting point for homeschoolers, children, mothers and fathers can build friendships in a supportive environment.

Violet Wild has done a great job with the newsletters in 2011. Unfortunately ill health meant that the first newsletter this year was very late and she's no longer available for this job. We wish her a speedy recovery. The newsletter makes for good reading and gives an overview of all the activities that THEN organises together with the activities of other homeschool groups.

Heather Taylor has done a great job with our website. Unfortunately it was down for some time as hackers got into our server. We needed to pay for professional help to get the website up and running again in time for the conference and the new year.

The library has a new home at Parents Place. Heather Taylor reorganised it all for us. Feel free to come and check it out. Check the newsletter for opening times or check with Heather.

In 2011 THEN subsidised Family Day, 4 Skill Centre sessions, First Aid course and 4 Le-gofests. Hopefully we can continue to subsidise such wonderful activities for our members.

As THEN is an incorporated society we can start applying for grants for these activities. (anyone willing to fill in application forms?)

Even though the conference wasn't in the last financial year I would still like to mention it as it was such a fantastic success.

Thanks to Gladys Billing, Mar-garet Evans, Heather Taylor and all those who made it all happen. There were many who attended outside of the Wai-kato, which was great to see. We seem to have the balance right in organising the conference every two years. This way we insure good attendance and the people who organise them don't burn out. I hope you all have a happy year home

THEN Newsletter Term 2 2012

3

Librarians Report

Hello to everyone from Sheena Harris and Veronica Garcia Gil, the new librarians for the THEN library. Heather has done a magnificent job with the library and the collection of books is awe-some. Have a look at the catalogue online or come and visit us the next opening day. We will try to find a system that allows for the opening dates to be remembered easily (even by ourselves). So we will try the system of opening on the first Monday of the month and two weeks after on a Thursday and see how it works. This gives two opening days a month and on different days to pro-vide for more options around people�’s timetables.

The library opening days for Term 2 will be as follow: Monday 7th of May from 2- 3pm, Thursday 24th of May from 2-3pm, Monday 11th June from 2-3pm (second Monday due to Queen�’s Birthday being on the first Monday), Thursday 21st of June from 2-3pm.

Our goal will be to try to make the THEN library more accessi-ble to all the members and hope that at some stage we will be able to open every week. That would be possible if we spread the load over more families. If we were a group of families tak-

ing turns with a roster to open the library, it means that we could open as well on the second and fourth week of the month. It is a way we can open more often without the volunteering becoming a burden. So if you are interested in helping with the library for one hour a month, please get in touch. Just a little bit of training and then you can make a difference. The person volunteering with the library only needs to help by opening one hour a month, and helping with issuing or re-turning the books being borrowed and returned. Our library system is very easy to learn and use. All other responsibilities will be done by the librarians.

If the library gets used more often we can apply for funding to add more books and DVDs to the collection. So come and enjoy the library (there are no overdue fees with us J, but we encourage you to return your books when you are done with them so other members can enjoy them).

Are teenagers just lazy? As I was waiting at Te Rapa New World to buy tickets for One Direc-tion I was reading through the free Coffee News. This one article sparked my interest. It was about Durfee High School in Conway, Massachusetts. Students who tend to be late for class get a pre-recorded wake-up call from their principal at 6:15 am! They are do-ing this to improve attendance because traditional methods, such as detention and enforced study hours, didn't work. Twenty percent of students receive this call. Even though the article stated that other schools have taken up this practice it didn't state whether it worked or not. I personally don't think it will. Why don't they just start school later? Some studies suggest that teenagers brains need 10 hours sleep, but that their brains don't slow down till late at night! No wonder teenagers spend the weekends catching up on sleep as during the week they only get 7-8 hours sleep. Some schools that have adopted late starting times have reported better attendance, better behaviour and higher grades! Why fight against nature? Food for thought. P.S. I didn't get any tickets even though we were second in line. Only the first girl walked out with

THEN Newsletter Term 2 2012

4

Our School Experience

By Leanne Nobilo

Our family went through a great learning experience last year which helped us to clarify what we love about homeschooling, so I thought I would share it with you all.

My oldest daughter has always wanted to go to school, and yet we chose to home school her as had been our plan (since we were en-gaged). We told her that she could go to school for a term when she was eight years old, based on the premise that children are better able to interpret things when they are over seven. We had hoped that she would be enjoying home schooling so much that she would not take us up on the offer, but NO! When she was seven she started to point out that she was allowed to go to school when she was eight!

So off I went school shopping �– I likened it to having to buy a new car when you like the old one. I finally chose a country school that we could get into without a ballot and got set to start school term two 2011.

Boy was it an adjustment for us! Now at this point it is very tempting to start naming off all the negatives about school, to make us all feel better and justify why we are doing what we are do-ing. I am going to try to avoid doing that (though I must admit I have struggled).

So I shall start with some benefits that we got out of our time at school: We all learnt how to get moving in the morning! The younger children and I enjoyed some

fun times at the park first thing after school drop-off. Breana was introduced to some subjects she had not previously done regularly (Spanish, re-

corder, Maori, and lots of very cool art), mostly done by different teachers. Breana got to do a school cross-country. Because she had to do reading and writing regularly, and couldn�’t wriggle out of it, her read-

ing and writing improved a lot! Breana got to see how children should respect a teacher at school. I got to spend more time focussed on my younger children doing things more suited to them

and hearing what they were thinking which was wonderful. She got to practice some of the conflict resolution skills she had learnt at home. She got to be challenged about her beliefs (God, creation, fat vs sugar) and her tastes (books,

pencil case, food), and stand up for herself. She had more practice at choosing friends from a larger cross-section of society.

At first I felt quite intimidated by school. Here she was doing all these subjects, and training for the cross country as well. Her day was full and apparently productive, and she claimed to have lots of friends. I started to wonder what my objections had been. I was enjoying my time at home with my younger children and so all was well. Then slowly I started to realise that every system has its pros and cons. One thing I noticed especially was that while she was doing lots of subjects, she didn�’t always remember the details and I couldn�’t reinforce it (a benefit of homeschooling I had not previously fully appreciated). I then got over my intimidation and looked at what I could learn from what they did at school. We did end up sending her back to school for another term, and then brought her home for term 4 last year.

THEN Newsletter Term 2 2012

5

The things I now appreciate more about homeschooling: We can celebrate family events and occasions as we wish without justifying to anyone e.g.

On birthday mornings we can spend time opening presents together and �‘school�’ starts when it starts, and we can plan and prepare for the parties together.

We can go on holiday without having to justify to anyone, or wondering how many days off are acceptable.

We can choose to spend our time, energy and money on things that are important to us. We can reinforce learning because we have all been learning it together and we can build

year to year on what we�’ve been learning. We get to be TOGETHER (when she first came home I felt this one with much relief). We can have appointments during �‘school hours�’ which gives more flexibility and calm at

dinnertime e.g. hospital appointments, visiting a sick family member, music lessons. We save a lot of time by not having to reassess and get to know each other every year. I know my daughter �– there are a lot of things I take for granted e.g. when she broke her arm

while at school, the school didn�’t think it was broken, but all the symptoms were like the first time she broke her arm I knew to take her to A&E and push for an x-ray.

I can give healthcare, naps, or change my schedule according to the needs of my children and they don�’t necessarily miss �‘school�’ just because they have a sniffle or a sore tummy.

Our journeys to extra-curricular activities can incorporate other chores e.g. ballet is on the other side of town and I often do jobs in that part of town by leaving a little early, but when going from school we just had to race straight there.

My daughter�’s unique personality is intact and she is able to talk to people of all ages, and choose the things she wants to do based on what she likes, not on other�’s insecurities.

My physio thinks she is a �‘bright wee thing�’ even if the teachers never worked it out.

So that is some of my journey. The biggest change for me was being self-assured. I knew that I had changed when I prepared my exemption to get her back home. I was able to slash out large parts of my original exemption that I could now see were only there because of my insecuri-ties about whether I really knew what I was doing. After sending her to school I knew without a shadow of a doubt that home was the best place for her and for our family (I had moments of not being sure it was the best thing for me! J).

I realised that while �‘what and how�’ we learn is different than at school, we �‘live and learn�’ very well. My children are imaginative, love learning and are thriving, so I think we are doing well.

THEN CONTACT LIST Address: PO Box 275, HAMILTON Coordinator: Julia Dirks 824 6021 Treasurer Heather Taylor 859 0303 Membership: Sallyanne Visser 843 4225 Activities: Denise Styles 873 7756 Swimsafe: Leanne Davidson 839 4242 Playcentre: Christine Cave 839 5513 Library: Sheena & Heather 859 0303 Telescope Marietta Smith 849 9491 Microscope: Kirsty Swears 848 1878 Website: www.thehomeeducatorsnetwork.org.nz Email enquiries: thenmail@gmail.com THEN Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/THEN-Waikato/

Our School Experience by Leanne Nobilo (contnued)

THEN Newsletter Term 2 2012

6

Geography Activities for Kids By KellyWilliams There are many exciting ways to help kids explore and learn about the world. It is important to teach your children about the world around us, and it's never too early to start. There are activities you can start as early as 2 years old. If your children seem ready to grasp concepts at an early age, you should jump on the opportunity and go with it. There are teachable moments every day as you go about your usual routines. Take those and expand on them depending on the age of your chil-dren and their level of understanding.

Activities: Instead of jumping into latitude and longitude, start with a simple grid system. You could make a map of your neighbourhood, using simple drawings and adding a basic grid sys-tem. Label the bottom of the grid with letters, and the left side, or axis, with numbers. Then show your kids how the system works. For example, look on your map and see where your house is. If it falls in F2, show them how you match up the letters and numbers.

Ask your children what country they're inter-ested in. Then you can find a pen-pal for them

to communicate with. There are several pen-pal websites where you can monitor

their communication with each other. Make sure you have your parent's permission before joining one of the groups. One example is the following website http://www.studentsoftheworld.info/. Have the children colour each country of a blank map a different colour. Take a blank United States map, and try to locate the states and capitals.

Look at a globe, and discuss with your kids where they think the coldest and warmest places to live are. Ask them why they think this. Help guide them in their discovery.

Research different cultures from around the world. You could pick a different country or region each week and do research online or at the library by checking out books about your region. Cook meals that are common to the culture your kids picked out so the kids can get a feel of what that

culture is like. You could talk about the differences be-tween their country and yours. How do the people get around? Do they walk, ride a bike or take the bus? What do kids do for fun?

Have a discussion with your kids about where things come from. Ask your kids how they think the food and supplies get to the store.

Another discussion you could have with your children is about the mail system. Talk about what happens when you mail a letter. This could tie in to the pen pal activity.

Geography is all around us, so have fun discovering right along with your children.

Read more: Geography Activities for Kids | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/way_5263197_ geography-activities-kids.html#ixzz1osR5ebtN

Lara Kenney More sites to check out: http://4ofus.bravehost.com/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CelebrateJesus http://groups.yahoo.com/group/01PreschoolHmschool/

THEN Newsletter Term 2 2012

7

Workings Of A Car I was recently telling some other mums about the car theme study we did and one of the great resources I found, and Margaret Evans heard me. She encouraged me to share it with you, so here it is. We take a theme study approach for our schooling. My son(7 y.o.) desperately wanted to learn about cars, and we�’d still be going if he had his way. I was not in a place to get myself fully engrossed in this topic, but I gave him 2 weeks and we stumbled along (not one of my most well-planned topics I must admit!). Any-way, after a panicked e-mail to Maree we obtained Suzy�’s World �“Wheelies�” which gave us a very fun in-troduction to the workings of the car (we all loved it, I also have 2 girls, 9 y.o. and 5 y.o.). That whet our appetite for a little more and we went onto YouTube. Amongst all the car racing videos which we watched with great enthusiasm, we also found this great little number on the workings of a car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eame263N0WY It is a 4 part video so be sure to look out for the other parts, they should just pop-up. The blurb reads: �“This video was published by Firestone Corp. It's from the 1980's but it's very thorough, crystal clear, and applicable to today's cars. It covers all vehicle sys-tems. Great for automotive trade students or anyone who wants a clear introduction to the basics of how their car actually works.�” The man gets taken into a motor and a mechanic explains how all the parts of the car work together. It is very methodical, and he acts as a complete ignoramus, and so asks all those questions that we want to know and in a very simple way for the kids to understand. My son watched it twice, once was enough for us girls. However when my oldest girl was recently sitting in the front seat with me she was look-ing at all the pedals etc. and trying to work out everything that was going on, so it obviously stirred her curiosity.

So watch it for your kids, or for your own education, but either way it is a great resource. Leanne Nobilo

Did You Know ... YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos.[3] The company is based in San Bruno, Califor-nia, and uses Adobe Flash Video and HTML5[4] technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion, and now operates as a subsidiary of Google.

THEN Newsletter Term 2 2012

8

Egg Facts

Did you know that eggs are egg-cellent source of nutrition? Eggs contain the highest quality pro-tein you can buy. They also have thirteen essential vitamins and minerals and contain only about 75 calories and 5 grams of fat. Egg yolks are one of the few foods that naturally contain Vitamin D.

Here's some fun egg trivia: The month of May is declared "National Egg Month." Storing eggs in the carton helps keep them fresh. A mother hen turns over her egg about fifty times per day (so the yolk won't stick to the sides of the shell).

http://www.twigglemagazine.com/April-kids-activities.html Don�’t forget that �‘Easter�’ lasts for 40 days. Celebrate your heart out! Easter Links

Easter Colouring Pages and Crafts! http://easter-coloring.com/

Easter Resources http://www.teacherhelp.org/easter.htm http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/easter.html http://themes.atozteacherstuff.com/733/easter-activities-teaching-ideas-theme/

Easter Crafts http://www.craftbits.com/easter-crafts http://www.makingfriends.com/easter.htm http://crafts.kaboose.com/holidays/easter/ http://www.dltk-holidays.com/easter/crafts.html

Easter Recipes http://bgilley.tripod.com/RECIPES.HTM http://www.garvick.com/annual/easter/recipes.htm http://www.dltk-kids.com/recipesdb/viewbycourse.asp?cid=8

Other Links to check out: Lesson Plans, Left overs, Literacy and Learning

Literacy Matters: lesson plans and resources http://www.literacymatters.com/ Leftover Chef: Here you can not only browse our recipes, but you can search them with the ingre-dients you actually have on hand, not the ones you need to shop for! http://www.leftoverchef.com/ Kids Crosswords: print and complete a variety of Crossword puzzles. http://www.kidcrosswords.com/ Children's Literature Games & Puzzles: promotes literacy through innovative educational con-tent, resources, and fun games, puzzles, and quizzes. http://www.hoadworks.com/indexg.html Pre-school learning games http://www.preschoolexpress.com/game_station.shtml FREE E-Education Newsletter and printables (change monthly) http://www.evan-moor.com/Free/

Lara Kenney

THEN Newsletter Term 2 2012

9

Craft recipes Uncooked Play dough 1 cup cold water 1 cup salt 2 tsp. vegetable oil 3 cups flour 2 tbsps. cornstarch Tempera paint or food colouring

Mix water, salt, oil and enough paint to make bright colours. Gradually work flour and cornstarch to consistency of bread dough.

Oatmeal Play dough 1 part flour 1 part water 2 parts oatmeal

Mix all ingredients until smooth. Knead. Non-edible but not toxic if eaten by mistake.

Library Paste 1 cup flour 1 cup sugar 1 tsp. alum 4 cups water 30 drops Oil of cloves

Mix all ingredients in saucepan and cook until clear and thick. Add 30 drops of Oil of cloves and store covered. http://www.practicalkitchen.com/kids/rainyday.shtml

Banana Bread Rich in fibre, vitamin C and potassium, bananas can be consumed on their own or as an addition to desserts or baked goods. As a key ingredient in banana bread, ripe bananas provide a source of moisture and a subtle sweet flavour. For some, nothing beats a slice of banana bread fresh out of the oven, and there's more than one way to enjoy it. I want to share with you a recipe I tried for the first time when the Nobilo family came to our house for lunch one afternoon. Between the two families we went through two loaves during lunch. That is how good the recipe is. Have a go and �“Bon appétit�”.

The recipe 110g butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup mashed ripe banana 2 eggs, beaten 11/2 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda pinch salt 2 tablespoons walnuts, chopped Method 1 Preheat oven to 180C/365F/ Gas mark 4. Lightly grease loaf pan. 2 Combine butter & sugar until creamy. Add mashed banana and eggs and mix until well combined. 3 Sift flour and baking soda into a bowl, add pinch salt, then combine with banana mixture. 4 Pour mixture into loaf pan, top with chopped walnuts and place into preheated oven. 5 Bake for 50 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. 6 Invert loaf onto a wire rack and allow cooling before serving. Now be inventive and next time you do French bread use the banana loaf as a base. Or, cut the slices, toast them and have it with a thin layer of butter or honey. Or what about heating the bread in the microwave for 15-20 seconds and setting the banana bread in a bowl topped with your choice of ice cream. The warmth causes the ice cream to slowly melt and soak into the bread, making it a rich, creamy dessert. Veronica

THEN Newsletter Term 2 2012

10

education (edu|ca¦tion) Pronunciation: / dj ke ( )n/ noun [mass noun]

the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or univer-sity: a course of education. the theory and practice of teaching: colleges of education.

[count noun] a body of knowledge acquired while being educated. information about or training in a particular subject.

What is Education?

Dictionary Definition:someone�’s experience of learning or being taught. educating, being edu-cated; systematic (course of) instruction; development of character or mental powers. From the word educe v.t. bring out, develop, from latent or potential existence; elicit, evoke; infer and from the word duct - lead Educate: v.t. give intellectual and moral training to; provide schooling for, train (physically, men-tally) Wikipedia: In its broadest sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next.

Ministry of Education Website: Welcome to New Zealand Education where you can learn more about how the New Zealand education sys- tem works, and the education agencies that are involved in supporting our education system, helping to deliver a world-

lead- ing education system that equips all New Zealanders with the knowledge, skills and values to be successful citizens in the 21st-century. Generally for Year 1-8 students, the school day runs from 9am until 3pm. During the school day, there will be short breaks as well as a longer lunchtime break so your child can

have something to eat and play. Schools may have policies about the kind of lunches and healthy snacks students can bring to school. Your child�’s teacher will be happy to answer any questions about this. It is also a good idea to provide a water bottle as many schools will encourage students to drink regularly during the school day. Education is constantly changing to ensure young people have the knowledge and skills to succeed in today�’s world. It is no longer enough to know facts and figures, students also have to know how to process information, relate to other people and make informed choices and decisions. The New Zealand Curriculum vision is that young people will be confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners. It includes values, key compe-tencies and learning areas.

The New Zealand Curriculum There are eight learning areas in The New Zealand Curriculum: English, The Arts, Health and Physical Education, Learning Languages, Mathematics and Statistics, Science, Social Sciences, and Technology. The key competencies which sit alongside these are designed to encourage enjoyment of learning, the ability to think critically, manage self, set goals overcome obstacles and get along with others �– the attributes they need to succeed as adults.

Within each curriculum area, students progress through eight levels. Most Year 1-8 students will be learning between levels 1-5. The level at which each child is learning will vary by age and curriculum subject. Your child will progress to the next level in a particular subject when they have mastered most of the skills, knowledge and understanding required at their current learning stage.

How your child's progress and achievement is assessed. The overall approach to assessing progress and achievement has changed considerably and most schools in New Zealand now use as-

sessment for learning

THEN Newsletter Term 2 2012

11

Home Grown Education

Marietta Smith In a recent Waikato Times article they focused on a �’garden to table�’ pro-gramme in primary schools. The programme aims to teach 7 to 12 year olds how

to grow, harvest, prepare and share seasonal food. The whole article described how the children will learn life skills in a healthy complete way as if this is exotic rather than normal. I find it par-ticularly entertaining watching schools try to imitate the home environment. On the previous page of this newsletter there are definitions and stated aims of edu-cation. But it all comes down to the fact that education is LIFE in every way. Being healthy enough to stay alive and being good to other people so they stay alive and don�’t want to stop you being alive. We do this by being productive in many different ways and being of use to other people (society) and being helped by others. We aren�’t designed to be totally self-sufficient so we need sets of skills, values and a knowledge base. The Times goes on to say �“Then there�’s all the subliminal spinoffs: the mathematics used to measure ingredients, the development of literacy skills through reading out ingredients and the en-gaged, open-air conversations about concepts like photosynthesis and sustainable resources.�” Okay! Homeschoolers have been saying this forever. The school even has a worm farm and chickens. Wow. The Ministry of Education website talks about school systems and broad subject areas and telling parents to be involved as much as possible but not a lot about the children are going to actually learn. Probably because it varies from teacher to teacher and it is covered in the curriculum syllabuses. Their tests have turned into assessments but there still remains the ranking of brightest and dullest students. These bright students get rewarded with cups and trophies. But every child has an important role to play in our society.

Wouldn�’t it be great if home education was recognised as a valid learning experience alongside school systems. Schools try so hard to imitate homes and the workplace yet find it incredible that a child can stay home with a mother who really loves them and learn anything of value. This week there was a meeting concerning the difficulties being experienced with MOE in the Hamilton Office. It seems that the staff here are probably trying really hard to do a really good job. Part of that job is to make sure that home edu-cated children are taught at least as regularly and well as at a regular school.

They are part of the culture that says �‘if you aren�’t qualified, or if it is home made or home-grown, it is sub-standard�’. I guess this is why it is so extraordinary that we can have real gardens in schools. How often have you been surprised by something done well at home. For example, hair cuts. If you know someone�’s hair was cut at home and it looks really good you will probably say some-thing like, �“Wow, that�’s really good.�” in a tone that infers that you weren�’t expecting it to be that good. How many times have you been disappointed with your own fruit and vegies because they are not all 1st grade? How many times have you overlooked the home grown and gone out and bought a �‘proper�’ one. Our homeschooling is changing society. Be patient as we educate the masses about the truth of learning and other home grown things. Eventually there will be no meaning to the saying �“Just like a bought one.�”

THEN Newsletter Term 2 2012

12

Keeping it simple - Nature walking Margaret Evans This is a Charlotte Mason concept, except that my parents had never heard of Charlotte Mason and they did it with me when I was growing up. So one wonders if Charlotte Mason was just us-ing her common sense and gets praise for writing up what she did when many people did it at the time - as my parents learnt it from their parents who learnt it from....their parents of course.

My mother did not drive so she regularly walked to the shop taking her pre-schoolers with her. Guess what - we talked about what we saw on the way. It was the same route to the dairy and one would think it would get boring always walking down the same stretch of road to the dairy, but it didn't because over night things had changed and as the seasons passed the gardens and houses we passed changed dramatically. Also we came to know the people who lived along the street and sometimes we stopped to chat as we passed. A walk to the shop was our treat at the end of the morning for letting mum get her housework done and it was something we looked forward to.

But it didn't stop there. In the school holidays she regularly walked with us to the rocky shore. Looking back I realise now that she had checked the tide times beforehand so that the tide would be well out so the we could explore rock pools. This was a fun free educational activity. We did not see it as educational at the time but when my year 6 teacher decided that we were to study the rocky shore, no-one in my class except me knew any-thing about it, and I actually found school quite boring as she turned what had been my family fun time into a study topic and formal learning of stuff I already knew from just having fun.

My father's contribution to this was always to take his children out on a Sunday afternoon to somewhere interesting. If there was a baby in the house mum stayed home with the baby and had peace and quiet for the afternoon while dad took us exploring something - the park, the river, beaches - even in winter - up a mountain; somewhere where we could burn off energy and that did not cost much money. And we always talked about where we'd been, what we'd done and what we'd seen. So that the little ones were learning off the big ones and there always seemed to be someone who'd go and find the answer somewhere if we needed to know more. We also brought home "treasure" in the form of interesting sticks, pretty leaves, smooth stones, or beautiful shells. Some of which hung around the house for years - and I know that when my fa-ther was growing up they were doing the same thing, as my elderly aunt had a patch in her garden where she always placed her shells after a trip to the beach. When I asked her about it she was just doing what her mum had done because you had to have somewhere to put your treasure so it didn't clutter up the house.

How does this apply in a homeschool situation. Easy! Go walking with your children. Bring back small treasure, draw it if you are inclined. Talk about what you see on the way. Answer their questions. You will be surprised how much you learn just from observing the regular changes in your local environment. If walking in your neighbourhood does not appeal to you choose a stretch of river or go for a walk around the lake once a week. Is this educational? Yes - it is phys-ed; it is health as it is teaching you children the need for regular exercise; it is encouraging the art of observation; it is teaching the children about simple pleasures; it is helping them realise that you can learn things from other places than in books or on the computer ; it is quality family time. It can also establish life long good habits.

I did this a great deal with all my children when they were growing up - when I visit them as adults what do they suggest we do - "Let's go for a walk mum."