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Curriculum Choices

© Belinda Moore

When starting with home based learning, many parents ask about curriculum. Each family's style of homeschool will dictate which, if any, items they'll need to purchase. Families range from using a complete packaged curriculum, to a mix-and-match of resources deemed as suitable, to entirely home-grown lessons or natural learning (aka unschooling). Some families may swing between all or any of those choices, dependant on their current lifestyle and children's needs.

If you would prefer to design your own curriculum, some great ideas can be gleaned from: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~beverleyp... Homeschool Today - the website offers great ideas and Beverley's 'Getting Started...' book is fantastic for beginners.

Singapore Syllabus - http://www1.moe.edu.sg/syllabuses/defaul...

North Carolina Course of Study - http://www.learnnc.org/learnnc/scos.nsf/...

World Book Typical Course of Study - http://www1.moe.edu.sg/syllabuses/defaul...

Mathematics Standards Kindergarten to Geometry - http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages...

Unfortunately there's no list of "what to teach when" for Australia, but the above guides can still be useful for homeschoolers, who often don't follow the pace or content of state schools' syllabus anyhow.

There are an increasing number of suppliers of materials suitable for home education in Australia. Some are obvious contacts, but resources have been discovered in surprising places too.

FREE:

Television - free-to-air and pay TV both offer a variety of programs suitable for families. Many children enjoy the schools programs on ABC TV. The programming guide can be downloaded from the Internet at this site: http://www.abc.net.au/schoolstv/monthpri...

Radio - often a long-forgotten source of education and entertainment in many modern homes is the radio. One station with some fantastic programming is Radio National. For transcripts and program information go to: http://www.abc.net.au/rn

A great Aussie site that is growing each month is http://www.my-ed.com. There is a Freebies section there with many resources tried and tested by appreciative homeschoolers. Have a look around at the other great sections of the site too!

There are a lot of free printable resources online. Some of my favourite sites to download worksheets from are:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com

http://www.sunshine.aust.com

http://www.freeworksheets.com

http://www.learningpage.com

http://www.schoolexpress.com

http://www.worksheetfactory.com

Also check out: the library, cultural resource centres, tourist or community information centres, local industry offices, local newspapers and messageboards such as those in supermarkets and community places.

USED:

There is an online messageboard to sell, swap or buy listings of mostly used resources. It is: Aussie Homeschool Resources Messageboard at: http://members4/boardhost.com/aushsresou...

PHE Swap Shop is a Perth-based mailing list to sell, swap and buy resources too. To read listings on the web go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PHESwapSho... There is also info there at yahoogroups on joining the list.

There is an educational books section at http://www.ebay.com.au - which is an Australian auction site. There may be similar listings at: http://www.sold.com.au.