A Day in The Life of a Family Homeschooling Three Kids

After being flooded with calls from parents new to homeschooling, Complete Education Australia, one of Australia’s largest homeschool providers asked one of our vetern homeschooling families to document a day in their life to help give insight to parents

Ellen Brown, Director of Learning at Complete Education Australia, one of the largest homeschool providers in Australia says,

“We’ve been in the business for many years but we’ve never seen anything like this”.

“Although you would think it was mostly families wanting to keep their kids home due to the virus, when we speak to parents, the most common thing we hear is “we’ve been thinking about homeschooling for years”
“Enquiries have increased by almost 360% and even before COVID-19, 1 in 200 Australian children were registered for home-school”.”

“the most common thing we’ve been hearing from parents is ‘we’ve been thinking about homeschooling for years’”  

For parents thinking about homeschooling Ellen goes on to say

“Parents have been teaching their children successfully from the day they were born. Given the right tools it is only the subjects that change. No-one will love and nurture a child like a parent can, and since learning thrives in an accepting, loving environment, in many cases homeschooling is the perfect choice”.
“At the end of the day the most important thing is that they not only cover the full curriculum and have the evidence to show the Department of Education, but that kids actually enjoy their learning. We build this into our program to make it as simple as possible.”

“Try not to put too much pressure on yourself as a parent.”

“Kids are all individuals and they all have different ways of learning and in many cases the “one size fits all” model, does not work.”
Charlotte Smith a homeschool parent graciously documented a day in her family’s life homeschooling.

She hopes to give parents thinking about moving to online education, a better idea of what they do each day.
A Day in The Life – Homeschooling 3 Kids

Charlotte and David Smith first started homeschooling their son Brandon 3 years ago because he was not happy at their local school. They have recently taken the plunge and started homeschooling their other 2 children as well.
Charlotte Smith says of first starting out “For a long time, I wasn’t sure I was capable to teach homeschooling. I hadn’t been to college and didn’t have any teaching qualifications. With our oldest son being bullied in school so much, it forced our hand.
“We looked around and found out as much as we could on Homeschooling online, we found the Complete Education Australia Website. We took our son out of school and have never looked back. It was in fact quite easy to fit homeschooling into our everyday lives and as soon as we had a routine down, it just became part of everyday life.”

In the Morning

“Mornings usually start when the kids wake up at around 8.20. After breakfast, Dad heads off to work and the Homeschool workspace is prepared with each child’s subject for that morning. School work starts about 9am, otherwise they are still sleepy.”
“Each child has sections of the room or table from which to work on their own subject. They are given the option to choose what lesson they would like to do, as I find they get the best results for each subject because of the freedom of choice”.
“We tend not to go by a strict timetable, instead preferring to work depending on the child”.

“There are times when one of the kids isn’t feeling one particular subject, and when that happens, we can just shift a gear and jump to something else.”

“There is also an almost one to one basis with learning, where you can really help a child develop a skill or teach them something new, spending a little more time with them while the other two are doing well working independently”.
Brandon – Grade 8 

“Shortly after being homeschooled we discovered Brandon really loves Mathematics and History. Brandon’s biggest struggle is English and his handwriting as his public schooling wasn’t the best, but he has already come a long way in the subject and is doing great.”
“In History Brandon is studying Vikings, and had to research one of our ancestors, Rollo of Normandy. Then he had to make a wanted poster featuring the man himself!”

“Brandon also had to make viking bread as part of his history lesson. It was a dense, heavy type bread, but went great with honey!”

 

“Although the kids work on their own subjects independently, they still like to listen in or help answer topic relevant questions when one arises in a brother or sisters work which can sometimes lead to interesting and engaging discussion on the subject at hand. The Complete Education syllabus is very engaging and rather than being just ‘busy work’ it constantly gets the kids thinking and learning as they go. It’s very flexible too.”
Celestia – Grade 2 

“Celestia really enjoys reading and creative writing along with mathematics which she never seems to get enough of. She also loves languages and Japanese culture and has taken up learning Japanese. Celestia has no real struggles with school work as far as we can see. She just loves learning”.
“For Science Celestia had to read the Lorax, then write about how she would help our planet if she was the Lorax,…she also sprouted this moustache.”

“For art, she had to draw a polar bear, so naturally, she drew Ioryk Byrnison from the golden compass series. lol. Creative freedom!”

 

Breaks

“Every child is different and our kids are no different when it comes to breaks so we let them guide us. Brandon likes to work straight through from starting work at 9am and finishing around 2pm, only requiring a drink or a snack here or there. Haru and Celestia prefer to take more structured breaks at around 11am for 20 minutes or so before returning to their studies.”
Afternoon

“We review their work while they are working on it, and when it is finished, often asking questions to see how much they understand and how much they have retained. That aside, we also have curriculum assessments where we keep track of each subject, reviewing if they achieved a learning goal or whether they are still working towards that goal. These are great because they allow us to return to something one of the kids struggled with and work on it again at another point.”
Haru – Grade 5 

“Haru has a passion for art and video game creation, which he is learning in his free time from home with the dream of one day, working in that field. He is also the sporty member of the family and loves all sports and also using the trampoline when chance permits, having learnt how to flip and somersault on his own. Haru too has been overlooked while in public school in both English and Mathematics, so the key learning for him is to get him up to speed in these subjects, which again, is going well. He too struggles with his handwriting due to being taught how to hold a pencil incorrectly”.

“Haru was studying art and Health today. Here is his newspaper Dog along with his minion health display to accompany his report.”

Late Lunch

“We tend to take a late lunch when dad comes home for his lunch where we can all eat together as a family. Dad likes to quiz the kids over their day and what interesting things they learnt or discovered.”
The Rest of the Afternoon

“After lunch, when Dad has returned to work, the kids spend the rest of the afternoon doing activities they enjoy in everyday life, whether it be gaming, playing board games or creating art. These afternoons have also been taken up with watching history related TV programs such as Ancient Egypt, Shipwrecks, Draining the Oceans or other National Geographic type shows”.
“The records we keep for the department of education range from timetables and time spent on a subject and work assessments. As well as these, we also keep a facebook page dedicated to our kids called ‘Happy Homeschool’ with their progress and achievements, featuring work in progress shots, finished work and anything else they have learned and would like to share with other homeschooling families.”
How do you help each of them if they are struggling with something?

Charlotte says

“Patience and understanding go a long way as a child who is struggling can become frustrated very quickly. Most times, it’s a Mathematics issue but with resources like Complete Education’s well-structured learning program, which includes online resources like Mathletics, Skwirk and programs that explain things like youtube, it’s easy to resolve these bumps in the road.”  
“I would say the only struggle I have had is if I know one of the kids is going to need help with something, I wouldn’t set tasks or subjects for the other two knowing they too, would require help. It takes a little planning but once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s easy to stop being required in two places at once.”
Charlotte and David, what advice would you give to people thinking about making the switch to homeschooling?

“Don’t second guess your ability to teach your kids. We waited a long time wondering if we could teach our kids. Don’t make that mistake, you won’t know unless you try.” 

“The Complete Education Australia syllabus that we use is written for parents who aren’t teachers, enabling them to teach their children to a high standard and covers the whole Australian Curriculum.”