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      AussieHomeschool Closing Down   11/14/2019

      All good things must come to an end and AussieHomeschool is no different. It is with much sadness yet even more necessity that this must be so.   As of Sunday evening, 17/11/2019 the Discussion Forums will close. The Classifieds, for now although not indeterminate, will continue as is.       Why is this happening now? In all honesty, it probably should have happened many years ago but I created this forum, which originally a homeschool classifieds forum for Aussies, about 20 years or so ago. I, along with others for whom I am gratefully indebted to, have spent many, many hours sweating, laughing, praying, crying, writing, apologising, pleading and speaking about this wonderful place. In this day and age of Social Media, along with our ages and therefore differernt stages of life, it is simply not viable in any way for it to continue. You may think differently and that's okay - you honestly have to have lived through some of the dramas and learning opportunities that we all have to truly appreciate why we have the standards that we do - they were borne out of necessity and not undertaken lightly. Much blood, sweat and tears have been spilt over this place. Even more friendships, learning, debate, love, prayer and great times have been had becuase of AussieHomeschool. No one could ever be more thankful for it than I.

      I understand you may feel frustration or even anger and for that I apologise, I feel you. But now it is YOUR time to go out and spread the word of home education and its benefits. Share YOUR story, tell those you know and don't know about homeschooling and what is has done for your family.   On behalf of John (my long suffering and patient husband), myself and the ENTIRE moderating team over the many years - I THANK YOU and WISH YOU ALL THE VERY BEST IN ALL YOUR ENDEAVOURS.   God Bless, Susan (HomeGrownKids /  AussieHomeschool)

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AH Blog: Homeschooling Expectations

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Homeschooling ExpectationsAussieHomeschool

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Expectations.  We all have them.  We have them for our marriage, our homemaking, parenting and our homeschooling.  Though the dictionary tells us that expectations are the things we hope for, or consider most likely to happen, I find that more often than not, expectations are uncommunicated hopes.  We hold to an idea, and yet because we don’t communicate it, it doesn’t come to fruition and our hopes are dashed.

For example, we can have expectations on our spouse.  From our perspective we expect something to happen, it seems to us the most likely thing to happen – and yet we don’t communicate that and our spouse is thinking differently.  What we expected to happen doesn’t and we feel let down.  We then call this false expectations – but I’m not sure that the expectation was false – it just wasn’t communicated.

This can happen to us with our homeschooling too.  We set our expectations based on

  • Our beliefs – I believe my kids should enjoy books.  I believe everyone has an opinion.  I believe in parental rights.  I believe everyone can learn.
  • Our experiences – I personally love books.  I have an opinion – people around me have an opinion.  Parents have always been the final say.  I have seen the light switch on for people when they learn something.  School is my experience.
  • Our dreams – I have read about people who love books, share opinions and learn together.  I have a picture of it in my head.  It is a dream, a goal for my family to be like that.
  • Other people’s expectations (beliefs, experiences, dreams) – other people may believe school is the best model for learning, they understand university learning, other people did it a certain way and see that as normal.

Expectations aren’t wrong – uncommunicated ones are.

At this time of year when we start to reflect back and consider our success as a homeschooler for 2012 and looking forward with our plans for 2013 it is a really good opportunity to consider our expectations.

 

Unmet expectations

will make us think we haven’t done too well throughout the year.

Uncommunicated (or thought through) expectations

will make us set unrealistic goals for next year.

 

Expectations need to not only be communicated, but broken down and turned into practical, doable goals.  If we leave an idea as an expectation without turning into a goal we will never achieve it – and yet, we will still judge ourselves by it.

For example:

  • I have the hope, dream, expectation that my kids will love learning.  This will never just happen.  I need to break it down and work towards that happening.  I need to make sure that learning is happening in my life, that our home environment is stimulating, and that I recognise individual bents and work with them not against them.
  • I have the hope, dream, expectation that my kids will learn to express their opinion.  This will never just happen – not with respect and tolerance unless we work on it.  I need to make sure that I bring topics to discuss to the table, and equally make sure that all my children get to express themselves and one child doesn’t hog the conversation.
  • I have the hope, dream, expectation that my kids will jump in and meet needs.  This will never happen because left to themselves kids are generally selfish in their focus.  So I need to make sure that I give them the skills to help others and help them develop a love for other people.  I can give them practice by pointing out needs and prompting them to meet them.
  • I have the hope, dream, expectation that my kids will read good books throughout the year and that they will learn from what they read.  This will never happen unless I help them choose good books and unless I give them the skill of reading to learn.

Before we set our plans for 2013, we need to give some serious thought to what are our expectations for homeschooling, what are our expectations for the coming year for each of our children and then let our plans be what we need to walk towards that.

There is the issue of false expectations we need to consider as well.  When you decided to homeschool what were your expectations?  What did you hope for, what did you consider likely to happen?

You may well have discovered that there were indeed some false expectations – they were built on false thinking and unrealistic dreams.  Have you replaced those ideas with something else or are you wafting in no-man’s land not sure of what to replace them with?  When we don’t have any expectations we stop being intentional – we waft and we are pushed around by everyone else’s expectations:  be it our spouse, our extended family, our friends, the homeschool community or the community at large.

Expectations – be false, met or unmet – will have a bit impact on how we assess our success for 2012 and how we plan for success in 2013.   We need to acknowledge our expectations to ourselves, discuss them with our spouse, pray over them, tweak them, and set goals toward meeting real honest true expectations – this way, our hopes and dreams may well show fruit in season.

~ Belinda

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