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"I have most of your books Beverley... Thankyou for your unending support for homeschoolers ... by sharing your experiences,
we are into our third year of homeschooling and enjoying it thoroughly." Marina
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real and generous -
fantastic reading. I am so inspired... Your honesty is so rare. Most books do not really explain "how" as well as you do." Tracy
© Beverley Paine
It's great to see so many people interested in learning naturally. Many of us have a general idea of what natural learning is in a homeschooling environment... mine is a little different from most.
I'm much more family/parent oriented than most in my definition and believe that natural learning is a natural extension of simply living. Because we live in social groups - primarily that of the family - all learning is social in nature, and children's learning is strongly centred on the family experience. As the child grows his or her social circle also grows and learning becomes centred on family within community, and then community within world.
I've never ascribed to the view that natural learning is child-centred learning, although I firmly believe that the child is central to his or her learning process. I prefer to think of learning as a social activity - children desire above all else to belong within a social group. This is an instinctive, survival need. It's our role as parents and care-givers (friends, siblings, relatives, even strangers) to provide a suitable social and personally meaningful context for the learner. We provide the scaffold on which the learners - our children - make sense of the learning opportunities they to themselves. Our role is mentor, guide, facilitator, researcher, guardian... We're teachers - but not in a school sense: parents are natural teachers, thus natural learning occurs at home! It isn't something we contrive or create consciously, it's something that simply happens.
Unschooling is educating a child outside of a classroom parameter, in a way different from school, and thus encompasses the idea of natural learning. As an unschooler I deliberately placed learning opportunities my children would not have if they'd followed their own interests. Many of these opportunities were not related to any direct need or interest of their own, or related to what I now consider to be their individual natural development. As their parents we made judgements about what was important to learn. Often we were influenced by what other people thought. I now believe a natural learning curriculum grows primarily from basic human survival needs that are nestled within a social context (culture).
To sum up, natural learning for us is centred on human survival within a social context (culture). It isn't child centred. It isn't curriculum centred. It's family centred, because family is at the heart of human society. Families don't survive in isolation, therefore natural learning is community based learning.
Beverley Paine is a mother of three young adults and a prolific writer of homeschooling articles. More articles and essays can be found in her books, available from the Always Learning Books online bookstore.
Please note: the information
on this website is of a general
nature only and is not intended as
personal or professional advice.
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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 in 1986 and three years later started the
South Australian Home Based Learners
network. Beverley continues to write for homeschooling newsletters
and magazines as well as hosting several websites dedicated to promoting
and supporting home education in Australia. Her aim is to demystify the
education process and make it accessible to all parents. Enjoy Beverley's
wealth of practical knowledge, homeschooling and unschooling tips and
ideas through articles and books and online at
www.homeschoolaustralia.com.
Since the late 1990s Robin and Beverley have been building their home education
publishing business - Always Learning Books - from home with the help of their son Thomas.
Please note that the opinions and articles included in the suite of Homeschool Australia websites are not necessarily those of Beverley and Robin Paine, nor do we endorse or necessarily recommend products (other than our own) listed in contributed articles, pages, or advertisements.
Homeschool Australia : SAHEN : Australian HS Curriculum and Directory : About the Paine Family
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