Homeschooling Supplies Aust

We are All Australians

We used to have a strong national feeling of being Australian and proud of it. We seem to be losing that in the Government’s proud boast that we are “multi-cultural”. From time to time we have bursts of national feeling, e.g., at the Centenary in 2000.

One of the songs that was very popular at that time was “I am Australian,” or “We are Australian,” written in 1987 by Bruce Woodley of the Seekers and Dobe Newton of The Bushwackers. It started by acknowledging the aborigines as the first nation and then went on to outline some of our history and acknowledges all the migrants who arrived in Australia.

The chorus below acknowledges this:

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We'll share a dream and sing with one voice
"I am, you are, we are Australian."

Perhaps the reason we are losing our identity is that we are no longer teaching any real Australian history. What is taught, tells children we need to be ashamed of our nation, when in fact we should be proud of how much we have accomplished and how far we have come. Most migrants come to Australia looking for a good life, where they can live free, earn money and prosper.

The truth is that we live in the best country in the world, and we have many privileges people in other countries do not have. No other country provides its people with Medicare or NDIS for example. We have a free education system which is open to all. Compared to many countries in the world we are paid well, and this is due to the fact that we have strong unions. We have a strong Constitution that can not be easily changed and which governs what laws our politicians can make. We have the right to vote without intimidation, and we were one of the first nations in the world to grant women the right to vote.

While it would be easy to go on outlining the many benefits, it might be better to look at what happened to cause us to lose a great deal of our patriotism. I think the simple answer is we stopped teaching Australian geography and history to our children. It started in the 1980’s and has reached the point where many school children do not even know where many of the main common cities in Australia are found.

They do not know that a large part of the water away from the coast and further inland is from the Great Artesian Basin. It is a great underground water source covering 1.7 million square kilometres. In the 1960’s, and for many decades before, this was taught in grade 5 along with all the geographical features of Australia.

In highschool all children learnt some Australian history. I, personally, learnt about Australian history from year 2 until year 12 and then chose to do another year of Australian history in Teacher’s College.

So children can learn about Australia, the Australian Homeschooling Series of books has produced the following titles:

Succeeding in Social Studies 4, grades 4-8: Australian geography

Succeeding in Social Studies 5, grades 5-9: Aborigines, coming of Europeans, colonisation of each state, gold

Succeeding in Social Studies 6, grades 6-10: Federation, the Constitution, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia

Australian History 1901-1945, grades 7-11: Political Parties after Federation, Boer War, World War I, Great Depression, World War II

Australia 1946 Onwards, grades 8-12: the rise of South East Asia, Australia and Israel, wars 1949-1971, the rise of Trade Unions, Robert Menzies, Gough Whitlam, Immigration in Australia

Australia, Japan and China, grades 9-12: Agrarian development, Self-Government; Federation, What’s in the Constitution, an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament, Becoming a Republic, Bob Hawke, John Howard, Our Asian Trading Partners—Japan and China

Australian Government, grades 7-adult: Parliament and how it developed, Government in Australia—federal, state and local councils, Australian Constitution, High Court, Changing the Constitution, our responsibilities

Going to Work—What this Entails

I never thought I would have to write this type of article, but life and attitudes have changed after two generations of “child led learning”. I hear constant complaints from employers and complaints from other workers who are affected by the actions of their colleges. It appears that a talk with our children about how the rules change when we start working is needed. It might go something like this:

1. Before starting work you will be required to sign a contract. This is a legal document that will specify the terms and conditions under which you will work. It may include a probationary period during which you can quit or be let go by your employer. Both you and the employer are bound by this contract.

2. You will be required to provide your employer with a tax file number. If you wish to have your superannuation paid to someone other than that the employer uses, you will also need to provide these details. You will also need to present your birth certificate and any certificates that show your qualifications.

3. The contract will specify the hours, or the range of hours, e.g., between 6.30am until 6.30pm, you are expected to work. You don’t get to choose these hours. If there are hours or days you can not work make sure your employer knows this before you sign the contract.

4. You will also need to decide if you wish to join a union. Unions can offer protection at work and they negotiate for wage rises. The fee to join a union is tax deductable.

5. Arrive at work at least 10 minutes before you are due to start so you can be ready to begin on time.

6. Your employer is the boss. He/she will specify what work you are to do and where. You don’t get to decide what you will and will not do.

7. If you have a uniform you will be expected to wear it. Generally, you will be responsible for washing it. A set amount of money can be claimed for cleaning the uniform.

8. Not all the jobs you may be given are enjoyable, but they are probably necessary, e.g., changing nappies in a child care centre. Don’t complain or refuse, or you won’t be employed long.

9. If you don’t understand a job or an instruction, ask.

10. Do not use your phone at work for private viewing or calls. If you have a locker it is best left there.

11. If you are sick, you need to ring in and advise your employer as early as possible. Ringing in at the start of your shift is rude and unacceptable as the employer will be unable to find someone else to work your shift, and other employees will have to work longer and harder to get the work done. This will make you unpopular if it happens frequently.

12. You may need to provide a doctor’s certificate to prove you are sick. You are given a set number of sick days a year for which you are paid if you are employed full time. Any time taken after that will not be paid. Simply because “you do not feel like working” is not an excuse.

13. You are allowed a set number of days of holiday leave a year in you are employed full time. You generally accrue these as you work. If you want to use one or more of these days you need to give your employer notice. The day before is not acceptable. You should, except in emergencies, give at least several weeks. The longer the better; especially at Christmas. Some firms may have limited times when you can take holidays depending on the nature of the work, e.g., the building industry shuts for four weeks over Christmas and all holiday leave is taken then.

14. If an accident happens at work you will be covered by Workcare providing you report the accident as soon as it happens and document it.

15. You will only get paid for the hours you work. Tax will be taken out. Overtime might be paid or you may be given paid time off to compensate.

16. Check your pay slip each time you are paid. Report it straight away if you think there are any discrepancies. File your pay slips away in a folder along with any receipts for things you buy which may be tax deductable.

17. Politeness towards your fellow workers, your boss and any customers, no matter how difficult, is essential. If you are asked a question by a customer and don’t know the answer, simply say, “I am not sure, but I will find out for you,” and do so straight away or contact them the next day if this is not possible.

18. If you wish to leave the job you will be required to give notice. The amount of time will vary from job to job. Your boss may be asked by a future employer to give you a reference. Making sure you leave on good terms is therefore important. If you just leave without notice the days that should have been given can be taken from any holiday pay you are owed.

Slow Learners of School Age
Part 3 of 3

Working with autistic children can be exhausting. It often means repeating the same thing in different ways until it has been learnt. It seems sometimes that you take one step forward only to take two back. Persevere. Eventually you will succeed, and it will give you great joy.

If you allow these children to progress at their own rate as adults their abilities will amaze you and surpass what you thought possible.

My eldest grandson drives a car - with gears as it helps him concentrate; he purchased it, with help, maintains it and understands about registration and insurance; he takes post to the post office for me and can now cope easily with also buying satchels for the business and collecting the post; he drives for Uber Eats a couple of days a week; he is very kind when he takes his grandma to appointments, politely opening and shutting the car door for me and helping me in and out; he has travelled interstate, with his friends, on a plane and stayed at a B & B so they could go to a video game conference.

These are enormous steps for him. That he has reached this stage by 23 years old is due to the hard work his Mother put in for years and years, with some support from the family. I am sure he will continue to mature further over the years and learn to do more and more things. Remember, the work you put in when your child is younger will pay off later.

Slow Learners of School Age
Part 2 of 3

These are some common characteristics of autistic children. Every person will have some of these characteristics, but it does not mean they are autistic. For example, I like routine and order. It would not have been possible to look after eight people without it. I also do not like loud noises like Christmas crackers and some fireworks.

The characteristics below are in no particular order. They may not apply to all children. These characteristics are:

• They thrive on routine - it gives them a sense of security.
• Like all children they require discipline and simple rules that do not change.
• They don’t like loud noises.
• They can be fussy about food.
• They can get frustrated and have what is referred to as a “melt down.” It takes a lot of training over years to teach them how to respond in various situations. If you recognise the symptoms and can stop the melt down before it gets really going then you save both the child and yourself a great deal of pain. For example, one of my children had a melt down in the form of a crying fit. I found that if I spoke to her sharply and made her take a deep breath we often avoided an hour of crying.

People thought I was terrible, the child didn’t. With a grandchild it was a matter of removing him from a situation to a quiet place where he could regain his balance.
• They find constant changes in environment upsetting. This is why most don’t do well in secondary school.
• They do not understand social queues and have to be trained as to what behaviour is appropriate in a particular situation. A lot of repetition may be required until the correct behaviour becomes automatic.
• They are capable of learning to be polite although this may take longer for them to learn than other children.
• Teaching of any kind needs to be broken into very small bites.
• They see the world differently to others, however, as they grow older, they can be very perceptive although the way they word their comment may be different to normal.
• Most are very loving.
• They have a unique sense of humour—although they don’t always realise when they have made a joke.
• Many get on well with younger children. This may be because they are less mature.
• They mature much slower than the average person. This is fine. Many twenty and thirty year olds in the community are slow to mature and they have no excuse.

How can you help them? (Again, these are just a few suggestions.)

• Love them. Every child needs to know they are loved regardless of what they do.
• Give them security. Security could be love, family always there, rules consistent, no changes without explanation etc. If you move, set up their bedroom first so they have somewhere familiar to retreat to. Before moving, repeatedly remind them what is going to happen.
• Deal with only one problem at a time. This might be a learning goal, e.g., learning to add and subtract, for a slightly older child. Repeat the lesson until it is learnt before going on to the next goal.
• Decide what it is that is really important the child should know and what can be dispensed with.
• If you feel really exasperated and out of patience, leave your child in a safe place and remove yourself. My husband was in the RAAF in 1973 and was posted to a Remote Receiving station. We were miles from anywhere, had no car and two small children. Frank was at work during the day. When I got especially exasperated I would go and stand in the middle of the back garden by myself. My two small children would watch me from a large window and realise with only Mum there, they had better behave.
• Don’t compare your child to other children. Each child is unique. Don’t let others do so either.
• Take all the help you can get. You will need it.
• Rejoice in what he can do and not in what he can’t do.
• Expect your child to go on learning and maturing longer than other children.

Slow Learners of School Age
Part 1 of 3

Children are becoming commodities with labels and price tags stuck on them. First we label them, with help of educational psychologists and various tests, and then we apply for grants. There are disability grants for children who are struggling and also grants for gifted children. Then, having given them a tag, and having received the appropriate grants, we feel satisfied that we have accomplished something.

In fact, we have accomplished nothing, because that is often as far as it gets. Even if a child with a disability gets an aid at school, this aid is frequently shared with other children who are not eligible. We also provide high level achievers with a select learning programme. While courses may be designed for children in both categories, they are not individually designed, despite what parents are told.

Programmes are supposed to be prepared for each slow learner, but they are rarely of any use since the child is generally not given work at a low enough level to allow them to learn. Who wants to take a year 9 child back to grade 1 or 2? Yet if they can not read or comprehend properly this may be where they need to be. To be fair, teachers do not have the time to cater for several slow learners in their class as well as teaching the curriculum and completing the mounds of paper required by Education Departments.

Even if the child is taken back to grade 1 or 2 level there is little consistency; no lessons that will gradually take the child to the next level. As for the poor parent, they are given money and then expected to know how to spend it in a way that will help their child.

Homeschooling, if the right materials are used, can be of great benefit to all children. These days children have huge gaps in their education. Calculators and search engines have been used too much instead of brains and books. To enable children to learn successfully they need to be tested and taken back to where any gaps appear and then progress from that point.

I believe all children can learn unless they are severely brain damaged. Not all children will learn at the same rate or achieve as much. I have divided children’s learning ability into three categories - slow learner, average child, bright learner - to make it simpler to ensure all children can be given the attention they need. While a child’s knowledge may be different in different subjects, e.g., a child may love maths and do well in it, and hate english and find it harder, this guideline can be adapted to suit them.

In this article I will deal only with autistic children, a popular label used today. The label is so broad that it means nothing. That label only indicates the results of the tests given the child at that time. It does not indicate what that child will achieve in the next two, five, ten or twenty years. I have two grandsons who are autistic, both very different from each other; both developing at different rates; both as they become older - one is 16 and the other 23 - capable of far more than we could have dreamed of when they were small. One of the factors that has made a huge change are parents who have worked with them a little at a time on both their education and their social interactions. Having a large family has also helped a great deal.

Beginning Learning - 0-5years

Nothing should be more precious than our children. They are our future. They begin learning at birth and, if we train them correctly, they will go on learning for the rest of their life. To allow any child to reach year 10 or higher without them being able to read, write or add up properly is a sin. All children can learn. Some children learn slower than others, but this does not make them less valuable.

Learning starts as soon as a child is born. They learn to co-ordinate their body, and also start to talk. Unfortunately, these days children do not get spoken to as much as they used to. Too often from an early age an electronic device is thrust into a child’s hand whenever they make a noise, while the parent has one in their own hand. Neither aids speech.

Speak to your children at every opportunity, read to them frequently, sing nursery rhymes to them, play with them, allow them to feed themselves, even if they make a mess. Messes can be cleaned up. Eat at a table as a family, phones off, and gradually teach them to use a knife and fork. (Child size sets are available for as little as $8.)

Cook with them. Children love cooking. Yes, they finger the mixture and eat some of it. That’s the fun. If the child’s hands are washed first and then what you are cooking is baked, any germs will be killed.

If you think your child’s speech is delayed, seek help. Speech therapists see a child for a very small amount of time. It is up to the parent to spend the time in between visits going over and over what the child was taught in the lesson. Working with speech therapists I have sold Learn to Read, Write and Spell 1 and 2 to parents of 4-6 year old children to reinforce the sounds being taught. Don’t be afraid to correct your child’s language if they pronounce a word incorrectly, this is how they learn, and they will try and copy you.

If English is a second language in your home make sure that English is spoken just as frequently as the main language. That way when a child is ready for formal learning they will not be behind other children in vocabulary. Unfortunately, almost all teaching in Australia is in English.

For a child to be able to read and write there are certain skills they must have:

▪ Ability to understand English
▪ The knowledge that we start at the front of a book and read from left to right
▪ Understanding that the words they have seen in books have meaning
▪ Recognising like and dislike things - progressing to recognising letters that are the same, even if they do not know the letter’s name or sound
▪ Co-ordination: be able to draw small circles holding a pencil;
recognise colours
colour within the lines;
cut out along lines and curves;
copy and recognise patterns
(Movements on an iPad do not count as the movements are larger than on paper. Writing with pencil and paper needs to come before learning to type.)
▪ Count accurately to at least 10
▪ Follow simple instructions—children do not need to get everything right all the time. A lot of practice will help them perfect their skills.
▪ Tell someone else what a story they have heard is about.
▪ Sit still and concentrate for at least 15 minutes
(The last three points may seem strange but reading and writing require a child to listen to what is said and repeat and learn the sound; writing requires a child to concentrate and think about what they are doing.)

All these skills and more used to be taught in Kindergarten. Now children are allowed to choose what they want to do and are given few formal times.

We sell two sets of “Preschool Activities” that cover all these skills and more. There is also an art pack with the majority of the material needed to complete the pre-school activities. These take 5-10 minutes a day and are individual sheets so a child can not rush ahead through page after page, often getting the work wrong.

Order in Learning

We live in an era when people believe they can do as they want, obey the laws if they want or disobey them if they are inconvenient. Change their opinions whenever they chose. Put anything together in the way of curriculum and it will work.

This is not so. To be effective, learning must follow a logical sequence. Each step must be mastered before progressing to the next step.

English
English must be taught in a specific order to be effective. There are four parts to English –reading, comprehension, written expression and grammar and these gradually overlap, however everything starts with phonics.

Reading
Phonics—learning the sounds. There are over 100 of them and many of them have rules, e.g., a says o as in was, what or squash when it follows “w”, “wh”, or “qu”.
Spelling—children learn to spell the words they can sound so they can change the sequence e.g., if you have learnt the “at” sounds then you can spell cat, hat, mat etc.
Words—the sounds are then run together to make words.
Sentences—words are then connected to make sentences
These sentences combine to form reading passages.
Comprehension—comprehension is a different skill from reading. Comprehension is about understanding exactly what the author has said. It is never about guessing or interpreting.

Writing
Teaching writing is teaching students how to think, to order and synthesise their thoughts, and gives them the skills to demonstrate what they know.
Research shows writing skills are linked to reading comprehension, thinking and speaking
Writing words is the next logical step and this is generally mastered at the same time the child learns to read.
Writing sentences—a child starts with a single sentence and learns to build on it.
Writing paragraphs—progressing from a single sentence to three or more sentences on the same topic
Writing a story that is made up of paragraphs and contains a beginning, middle and end
Writing different genres

Grammar
Grammar provides the structure of a sentence. It allows you to put words together in such a way that the meaning will not be misunderstood.
A sentence must contain a noun and a verb, e.g., John ran.
It will generally have a subject and a predicate, e.g., in John ran fast, “John” is the subject and “ran fast” is the predicate.
The rules of grammar are gradually introduced so the complexity of the written work improves and the person is better able to communicate.
While a noun and a verb make a sentence, e.g., John ran, it gives you little information. If however you add an adverbial phrase, e.g., John ran to his uncle, you have doubled the information available to the reader. The sentence can be made more complex by adding an adverbial clause and adverbial phrase, e.g., John ran to his uncle because he was afraid of the dog. (“he was afraid” is the adverbial clause; “of the dog” is the adverbial phrase.)

Maths
Maths has its own order too. The second and third step listed below need to be learnt by heart so the child can progress to more advanced maths. The best calculator is your brain.
Writing and counting to 20
Adding and subtracting to first 10, then 20
Multiplication—learning the tables
Division
Fractions—these are vitally important to any further maths as much of later maths is based on fractions.
Decimals—at its most basic this is our currency, but few children in school have mastered this concept.
Percentages—if one is to use a credit card or take out a loan, or even want to invest money, this is an essential skill.

I have illustrated some of the early steps in learning. Miss any of these and later work will not make sense. These are the foundations we use to function within society and express ourselves.

Whether you are learning spelling, english, maths or science the subject needs to be learnt in a logical order. People cannot just pick and choose the pieces they like and ignore those they don’t. Gaps in learning lead to a lack of understanding at higher levels which becomes worse and worse as the child grows. Better to know a little well, than have an education that is like a sieve. (We all know how much stays in a sieve.)

You can find books that will help your child progress through all these stages at www.homeschooling.com.au. For ease of use click on “Curriculum Guide” and then choose from the list.
The Australian Homeschooling series we sell contains both instructions and answers in the same book. Each book follows on consecutively. We have grade guides that will guide you on which books to use and also tests for placement or to measure your child’s progress.

The Pendulum is Swinging Back

Between one third and one quarter of fifteen year olds are unable to read or comprehend properly, and one fifth of them are unable to make basic arithmetic calculations according to reports, including those from NAPLAN. Teachers are reported to be purchasing teaching material from Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.
(The Australian, October 17th 2022, “Lesson Lottery”) No wonder this has led to at least four prominent educational groups calling for a return to “explicit or direct instruction” with instructional material, e.g., textbooks and activities to be used in the classroom.

The method used at present is “child directed learning,” which is a method where a child decides how and what and how much to learn. It is also referred to as “inquiry base learning.” In a classroom this usually involves a series of questions or an open-ended project, e.g., Eureka Stockade where the child is required to find answers or do an open-ended project on the subject. Answers are generally found by searching Google or other similar search engines.

Explicit or direct instruction requires teachers to give step-by-step instructions and explanations for students to practise, and to verify that all students have mastered the content before moving to the next lesson. This generally requires repetition in some form. It is a method that is starting to catch on: Western Australia is set to recommend explicit instruction in a new set of guidelines to teachers next week, and the Catholic education system has boosted student results by incorporating it in 56 schools teaching 22,000 students in the ACT and Goulburn. (The Australian 22nd October 2022.)
This method has been used previously in a few aboriginal schools where the students have shown a marked increase in learning.

The Australian Homeschooling Series, which I sell, uses direct teaching. The books are in effect the teachers. The instructions impart knowledge and explain to the child or parent what and how some thing is being learnt. Answers are available for parents to correct the work. Knowledge builds on knowledge year after year, and a child does not proceed to the next level until they master the work. Some repetition is included because children need to work through things more than once to master a concept. Tests are available to show any gaps.

This series began twenty years ago and has been gradually expanded. The numbers on the books are levels because being in a particular grade does not guarantee knowledge relevant to that level has been mastered. Learning is an ordered process. Each step leads to the next as there is an order in learning. For example, before a child can read well he/she needs to master the sounds, and not just 30-40 of them. There are over 100 of them. As he/she learns the sounds he/she needs to master, running them together to make words, and then sounding out the words to make a sentence. With practice, as he/she progresses, his/her brain automatically runs these together for him/her. Comprehension then becomes possible as he/she can understand what has been written. Miss any of these steps and the child will become another one of those in our society who can not read or at least read well enough to comprehend properly. In the Australian Homeschooling Series, the Learn to Read, Write and Spell workbooks provide this step-by-step instruction.

The Australian Homeschooling Series meets all that was set out in the original National Curriculum, before it was cut back. It also includes some of the interesting things children used to learn and which they enjoyed. The standard is high and the levels do not always indicate the grade, as the level is high.

Parents and teachers can not be expected to teach children without a step by step guideline, especially as many of them will have grown up in the days of sight reading and other fancy ideas which were supposed to help children understand the concept, but generally didn’t.

Investigation encourages scanning not comprehension or in-depth thinking. Very soon scanning becomes much of what children do, instead of choosing an article and reading it thoroughly. Children therefore retain little information unless they are especially interested in the topic. Furthermore, children usually do not have the factual level necessary to judge any material they do read. With direct teaching the little researching a child is required to do is grounded in facts they have already learnt.

I have watched several generations who have homeschooled using the Australian Homeschooling Series through as many as ten years of homeschooling. There is no question that those who use the workbooks I sell using the direct teaching method are far ahead educationally of those who use the investigative method.

The time has come to return to the way your grandparents and great grandparents were taught—teacher and/or self-instructional workbooks—for they learnt far more than the children now do, and in far less time. To find the Australian Homeschooling Series go to the Homeschooling Supplies Australia website at: www.homeschooling.com.au. Click on “Curriculum Guide” and then choose the grade you want.