I do hope this post isn't too dull but I've had a lot of people ask me about how it works down here in Oz with regards to homeschooling. So I wanted to cover the process of getting started and the legalities involved with home education in SA.
I know here in South Australia (and all of Australia) it is legal to home educate your children. But of course there's a process to it all. If your children are currently enrolled in school then you need to let the school's Principal know your intent to homeschool, verbally and in writing, to ensure sufficient documentation of your intent. Make sure to let the school's Principal know that you've already contacted DECS regarding home education.
You will have to register your children with the Department of Education and Children's Services (DECS). The Ministry of Education's Project Officer will mail you a packet of papers including the "Application for Exemption from Attendance at School." Once the forms are completed and mailed back to her she will then contact you to schedule an in-home interview to further discuss your application and how you'll go about homeschooling. Once permission is granted (which it usually is) then you have a 12 month exemption allowing you to legally homeschool.
However before the 12 months is up, in order to be approved for the next year, you will need to complete a review process to show samples of work and discuss how your children did during the year.
Technically children are suppose to remain in school until the entire process is complete however it is my understanding that once you've made contact with both DECS and your children's school regarding home education that DECS does not have any issues with you beginning to homeschool immediately.
Some people (so I've heard) simply skip registering their kids with the Dept. of Education. The idea of possible Gov't interference doesn't sit too well with some people. Not because they have something to hide, but because they simply don't want anyone telling them how to raise or educate their children.
As for us we're keeping all our ducks in a row and following the rules. I guess I really don't mind as I have found the process rather straight forward and easy. The Dept of Education seems to just want to make sure that as a homeschooler you will make sure to cover the 8 areas of the Australian Curriculum Standards with your children, which are:
English
Mathematics
Science
Design & Technology
Studies of Society and Environment
The Arts (Music, Art, Dance, Drama)
Health & Physical Education
Language Other than English
Honestly with keeping to those subjects, children will get a well rounded education. And as parents we can always add more if there is something else our children want to cover. You'd be surprised at what you can teach your children and yet it would still fall into the 8 subjects that must be covered often taking care of more then one subject at a time. Say for example you want to teach your kids a bit about the Human Body and Anatomy, that fits easily under both Health and Science. If you want your babies to learn a bit of French, well you can teach them about France with maps, history, and about the culture (that takes care of SOSE) then you can have them learn to speak some French with Rosetta Stone - a computer based total immersion Foreign Language program, they even have a homeschool version. That takes care of Technology and Language other then English.
Parents often get so overwhelmed once they start to see how many subjects must be covered during the school year. The idea is to keep it simple, keep it fun and keep them learning.
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