Beverley Paine's Australian Home School Curriculum: Tips for Learning How to Read

We're All Readers

© Beverley Paine, 2004

My husband hasn't read a novel since his late teens, but he's a reader. My seventeen-year-old son hasn't ever read a novel, but he's a reader. Every day they read for information: magazine articles, newspapers, the television guide, recipe books, lists of ingredients, car manuals, official forms, the tiny print on bills and contracts, email, surf the web for information. Thomas once complained that reading is addictive - once you've learned how to read it's hard to ignore anything in print and you end up reading everything in sight, sometimes over and over, just because you can...

Schools undervalue informational reading. Schools place a heavy emphasis on reading story books in the learning to read process. Some children find this process tedious and meaningless. They are in danger of seeing reading as a difficult and unrewarding chore. I've met young adults who, besieged by the sheer volume of fiction they had to read and examine in depth in high school, gave up reading altogether, just when the information available to them would widen their worlds beyond their wildest expectations.

After 20 years of being a contact and support person Beverley no longer takes phone call or email inquiries. Please join one of her yahoo groups if you want to know more about homeschooling or have a question.

Pioneering members of the home education movement in Australia, Beverley and Robin Paine are passionate advocates of true educational choice for families. They began homeschooling their children in 1986 and three years later started the South Australian Home Based Learners network.
Beverley wrote Getting Started with Homeschooling in 1995-97 and since then continues to write books and booklets on home education. She balances spending time helping home educators with working in her garden and renovating her home, as well as continuing to build her collection of writing on a variety of homeschooling subjects. Beverley maintains an extensive collection of websites as well as several Yahoo groups supporting families teaching their children at home. In 2007 Beverley joined the HEA and became a committee member in 2008: she also edits and produce the HEA Newsletter, HEA magazine, Stepping Stones for Home Educators, annual Resource Directory and other HEA publications. If you'd like to keep in touch with what Beverley is up to her in her life, sign up for the Homeschool Australia Newsletter or visit her Facebook page.