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Home Learning - About
 
 
About Home Learning

Hi there. Thanks for checking out my Home Learning pages. I am using these pages to home learn our three boys. This is an ongoing project with new topics for learning being added all the time....well actually only on rainy days now that farming season has arrived. Please direct your thoughts, suggestions, constructive criticism, or simply say hi, using the Facebook commenting section at the bottom of any page. Thanks again for checking this out.

Return to the Home Learning main page
  • Parents of Home Learners....Please Read
  • Contact - a few ways to contact me.
  • Copyright - the basics for using the Home Learning content.
  • Resources - an explanation of resources used in Home Learning.
  • Thoughts - My personal thoughts about Home Learning.
Background

I removed myself from school as a teenager....full story on my personal blog (opens to a new window)....and have been a proponent of home learning ever since. Now I am living with my wife and our three sons on a small island called Tanegashima, which is located close to Kyushu, one of the four main islands of Japan. Our days are spent farming, being together, and of course....learning.

Why did I make Home Learning?

The decision to home learn our kids was already made while our oldest son was still an infant. As he got older, we began to focus on obtaining learning materials. We purchased a lot of books and even considered some of the online programs like K12....mostly to appease my wife who was still on the line about home learning. After several heated discussions, she realized programs like K12 were merely an extension of school without the physical location. There were still teachers and tests and grading and performance reports. Alas, the search for educational materials continued. I began scouring the Internet for public domain lessons and activities which could be used on my Fun Easy English website. As it turned out, the United States government had been producing a plethora of good lessons and activities for years. Agencies such as NOAA, USGS, and of course NASA, had wonderful kid sections on their sites. I began collecting links to these valuable pages of information which are now being transferred to the Home Learning pages. We can use these pages wherever we go, farming, fishing, and at the beach....our learning can happen anywhere.
Why did I call this Home Learning?

I was never a fan of the term "home schooling", which seems to be used most often by parents who are allowing their kids the benefits of home learning. Home schooling implies a set curriculum, same as school, which is simply being done at home. Then why not use home education? Well actually I was saying my kids were being home educated until recently when I realized the true meaning of the term.
  • Education - is knowledge which is gained through teaching, aka, an outside source. Often the quality of education will depend on the ability of the outside source, the teacher, in being able to convey information in a way which is beneficial to the learner.
  • Learning - is knowledge which is gained through experience. Learning is based on individual perception.
Think of it this way:
  • Education is the process of receiving knowledge while learning is the process of adopting knowledge.
  • Education needs to be acquired by individuals while learning is a basic instinct.
  • Education is something you get at a specific point in time while learning is an ongoing process.
  • Education is formal while learning is informal.
  • Education is knowledge only obtained though teaching while learning is obtained through experience.
  • Education comes from an outside source while learning comes from within.
Why are there COVID and "Fake News" pages?

Much of the knowledge imparted to my kids is through conversation. We talk a lot in this family. The topics are wide ranging which include the news and issues affecting the world. My kids know all about COVID, fake news, conspiracy theories, racism, and other important issues. I believe these things to be much more important than the Pythagorean Theorem. I want my kids to add to this world and only through unbiased information can this be accomplished. I want my kids to be creative thinkers and problem solvers and not simply storage banks for trivial information.
Why are the Home Learning pages in outline form?

I tend to be pretty anal at times and an outline was the only way I could process an infinite universe of knowledge without making myself crazy in the process. Throw in a mild case of OCD and it makes sense to make this whole thing as organized as possible. The outline is very general in nature and touches lightly on the subjects most likely studied through twelve years of formal education. While I believe much of what we learn in school to be unnecessary in the real world, I did not want to make the decision of what my kids should learn. I want them to be exposed to the full spectrum of knowledge the universe has to offer and then let them decide what piques their interest. As they get older, the outline will grow and new topics will be added when THEY determine they are ready. My kids are question askers and a new question means a new topic on the outline.

What is my ultimate goal for the Home Learning pages?

Hmmmm tough question but initially the goal was to provide my kids with a safe, secure, and consistent place where they can get answers to their numerous questions and hopefully on pages interesting enough to keep them on the road to actually enjoying learning. Another goal is to get together with other home learning families throughout the world. I found really fantastic websites and "home school" groups online over the years only to see them eventually disappear. I really feel the only way for home learning to be truly accepted by the general public is to form a cohesive group of home learners who are willing to commit long term. COVID changed the landscape of home learning for good as many parents and kids were forced to isolate and saw the benefits of learning at home. Now modern technology allows many of us to work at home making it easier to home learn our kids. Maybe, now more than ever, home learners can become a force towards revamping our present day institutionalized and archaic education system.
What is the best way to use the Home Learning pages?

The Home Learning pages are organized in outline form. Every effort was made to make an outline that makes sense. The outline is supposed to represent a general overview of what kids would normally learn through twelve years of formal education. The topics go from general to more specific. Keep in mind our family is really into science, especially the earth sciences, therefore Home Learning pages are heavily weighted towards those topics. This is an ongoing project with new topics being added all the time.

Each Home Learning page has a "links table" at the end of the page. The following is an explanation of the links in those tables.
 
  • If you see the following graphic, it means the links were used for the content of that page. These are external links which open up in new windows.
Kiddle: Content
Wikipedia: Content
 
  • If you see this graphic, it means the links are to Home Learning pages which go to the next level of the previous topic. These are internal links which open up in the same window.
 
  • If you see this graphic, it means the links are related to the page topic and provide additional learning. These are external links which open up in new windows.
Kiddle: Additional Learning
Wikipedia: Additional Learning
 
  • If you see this graphic, it means the links are related to the page topic and provide even more additional learning. These are external links which open up in new windows.
Kiddle: Even More Additional Learning
Wikipedia: Even More Additional Learning
 
Kiddle Caveat

I want to premise this by saying that I think the overall concept of Kiddle is fantastic. Basically a Wikipedia for kids with information in much simpler language. That said, realize this is definitely a case of "You get what you pay for".

There are a few things you should know before you begin using the Home Learning pages.
  • About 40% of the written content on the Home Learning pages comes from Kiddle.
  • About 40% is from Wikipedia which includes most of the graphics.
  • About 20% are my revisions to the content
  • Kiddle content is all written in British English. While there is obviously nothing wrong with that, you need to keep in mind that you will encounter many differences in spelling and possibly vocabulary when compared to American English. The following are a few examples:
  • American English color might be written as British English colour.
  • American English pretense might be written as British English pretence.
  • American English realize might be written as British English realise.
  • American English meter might be written as British English metre.
  • In addition, some words might be completely different but have the same meaning.
  • American English elevator might be replaced with British English lift.
  • Also note that Kiddle pages vary greatly in depth of information. For example, their page about entomology (the study of insects) has very little information. A bit of a disappointment for a topic which is usually of great interest to kids. Really depends on who wrote a particular page. When limited content was available from Kiddle, supplemental information was obtained from Wikipedia.
  • Kiddle has a lot of grammatical and syntax errors. Although all errors discovered are rewritten, a few might slip through the cracks.
Wikipedia Links

Most of the Home Learning pages have Wikipedia links relevant to the page topic. As with Kiddle, keep in mind that the information varies with whoever wrote a particular page. Wikipedia content can be very technical at times, but overall, the information is usually very accurate thanks to an extensive editing community. Additional links with even more in depth information are constantly being added.

Wrap Up

Hopefully those of you visiting these pages find them useful. Please feel free to use the content on these pages in any way you like. Looking forward to meeting all of you. Until then.

Howie Hayman

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