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

Hooked on Reading

© Beverley Paine, 2004

Series books are a great way to get hooked on reading. Take Harry Potter for example. Who could resist rushing out to buy or borrow book two, then three. Science fiction fantasy has taken the idea of book series to its extremities, capitalising on the fact that most readers never want to let the characters and worlds they inhabit go.

Perhaps you had a favourite series of books when you were a child - The Famous Five , Secret Seven , Biggles , Ann of Green Gables , Little House on the Prairie, The Babysitters' Club, The Dark Is Rising, Peter Rabbit. Perhaps you read anything you can lay your hands on that horses in it, or spy stories, or science fiction. If you child takes an interest in one area, feed that interest, while at the same time providing a rich and varied diet in other areas of their education. Read aloud a first-hand account of survival in the Antarctic while doing a unit-study on whales; share a news story about Greenpeace protests in the Pacific; read Moby Dick every night to the whole family. Let the child follow their passion for their series, knowing that it is laying the foundations of a life-long reading habit. Remember that they are learning much about the human condition from whatever books they read. Series books often transcend culture, time and environment. It is this universal nature that makes them so engaging for children.

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.