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

Scrapbooks

© Beverley Paine, 2004

When we first began homeschooling I had scrapbooks for each child in each subject area. Eventually we narrowed it down to just one book each, as well as one for family outings and homeschooling excursions. Holidays, usually camping trips, warranted a special scrapbook which we took with us.

In the scrapbooks we pasted anything the children had written or drawn, usually on the backs of letters we'd received in the post. I dated these entries and often wrote a small anecdote explaining the motive or origin, if it wasn't immediately apparent. The children never produced copious quantities of written work, but it was clear from the growing pages of entries that they were progressing steadily in their language development.

Alongside their work we'd paste anything of note that had happened. This included celebratory menus the children had put together, bus and tram tickets, movie tickets, photographs, brochures of special events or exhibitions, places we had explored, dozens of lists, and pasted-in or hand-drawn maps. Sometimes I'd coax the children into writing a paragraph or two; other times I would write a small explanatory caption. Scrapbooks are a great way to preserve family history.

Scrapbooks can be made on any topic or theme: you could capture your child's sports or music career; her love affair with a particular toy (our children have a fabulous record of their LEGO years); be a complete year-long unit study on the zoo; be a permanent record of your children's investigations into local weather patterns over time; a 'friendship book'; whatever. It's up to you and them.

photo of Beverley and Robin Paine 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 Homeschool AustraliaFacebook page.