Homeschooling Neurodiverse Children

Education

Homeschooling Neurodiverse Children

Our online platform is specifically designed to embrace and enhance the strengths of neurodivergent learners, ensuring they thrive and achieve their full potential.

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Getting Started

Filling out a homeschool exemption application (New Zealand)

In this video, Francean shows you step-by-step how to fill out a home school exemption application.

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Getting Started

Homeschooling in South Africa

Homeschooling is a legally recognised alternative to formal education in South Africa. The South African Schools Act requires that parents register their child with the Head of Department of a Provincial Education Department should they wish to educate their child at home.

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Getting Started

Homeschooling in Canada

In recent times, an increasing number of Canadian families have turned to homeschooling as a preferred alternative to conventional schooling. This method of education empowers parents to customize their children's learning journeys, focusing on their unique needs and passions.

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Education

Homeschooling in the UK

In the UK, it is legal to teach your child at home, either full or part-time. This is called home education (sometimes ‘elective home education’ or ‘home schooling’).

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Getting Started

Homeschooling in the USA

Homeschooling or Home Education, is legal in all states of America, however each state has slightly different rules and regulations.

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Our Philosophy

Our Teaching Philosophy

Fracean McCall explains our teaching philosophy through 5 short videos:

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Education

Considering home schooling but your partner or parents aren’t too keen?

Preparing our children to attend school can be a daunting experience. It doesn’t matter if we are thinking of enrolling them in a local public school, a private school, an alternative school or considering keeping them in the home environment to school them. All learning environments come with their own challenges and successes. These days it’s more about shaping our children’s educational journey to meet our expectations rather than conforming to societies norms.

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Education

How does Functional Education reflect Montessori learning?

Montessori and Waldorf learning are closely aligned through the younger years. Each focuses on children learning with their heads, their hearts and their hands.

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Education

How does Functional Education reflect Waldorf learning?

At Functional Education we make an effort to reflect Waldorf, Montessori and Enquiry learning principles. Last week I wrote a post on how we reflect the 8 guiding principles of Montessori into our every day learning. This week I will outline how we incorporate that with the Waldorf aspects of our curriculum.

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Education

How does Functional Education reflect Enquiry learning?

Enquiry learning is the third piece of the puzzle that fits seamlessly together with Waldorf and Montessori to form our comprehensive education program.The role that Enquiry learning plays is to develop the children’s learning from the ‘Teacher Led’ end of the scale, through to the ‘Child Led’ end. How a child learns is incredibly important to how they approach life and learning opportunities later on in life.

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Getting Started

Thinking of Homeschooling?

Educating your children at home, as opposed to sending your children out to a school each day, can in either situation be the best thing that ever happened to them or the worst. There are some key aspects that need to be considered before you decide to homeschool your children if you are wanting it to be a successful endeavour.

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Getting Started

13 reasons why parents choose to homeschool

There are lots of reasons that families decide to homeschool their children. They may have perfectly good access to adequate public or private schools in their local area and still make the decision to educate their children at home.

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Getting Started

Do I need qualifications to homeschool?

There are no formal qualifications required to be able to home educate your child, but there are some important things you must know...

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Getting Started

What support is available if I choose to homeschool?

Homeschooling or home education is an extremely viable option today. It is becoming more popular and by Ministry statistics, there are now 41,000 students choosing be educated outside of a standard mainstream classroom environment here in NZ and Australia.

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Education

What are we training our kids for?

This excerpt is from the book ‘The Homeschooling Handbook’ by Lorilee Lippincott, 2014. It is an excellent reference for all things homeschooling, and contains lots of lovely case studies from families who have successfully embarked upon this journey.

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Getting Started

What are my legal obligations in NZ for homeschooling?

Find out all the legal obligations you need to know before choosing to homeschool your child in New Zealand

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Education

The power of observation in a school without walls

One of the greatest benefits of educating your children in a school without walls (at home or on the road), is the ability to spend a significant amount of time outdoors. There is no need to organise a massive field trip and fill out copious amounts of Health and Safety paperwork. Just open the door and go.

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Education

The importance and power of a quality home education 

It is a privilege to be able to educate your child at home in a school without walls. You have absolute say in how you would like your child to receive their learning in an environment you love.

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Getting Started

Resources for Home Education

Many resources can be homemade and cost practically nothing, particularly if fashioned from recycled materials. 

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Education

What's my child's learning style?

Is your child visual, auditory, or tactile?

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Getting Started

How much time does homeschooling take in a day?

How many hours do you and your child want to spend on learning? When you're homeschooling, you call the shots.

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Getting Started

Working out how long to Homeschool for.

The length of time you are planning on homeschooling needs to be carefully thought out and planned. 

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Getting Started

Government Allowances for Homeschoolers in New Zealand

How much money do you get given when you decide to homeschool in New Zealand?

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Getting Started

Meet the teacher

Hello, I’m Francean. Teacher, mother, wife, and principal at Functional Education. After years of study and a career in Hydrology and Coastal engineering at a large Hydro-Power company, I began my teaching journey as a Science teacher in a state school, then moved into the Waldorf Steiner field of education. It has been over a decade now that I have been privileged enough to spend my day in art and music and living in a world of storytelling and wonder.

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Our Philosophy

How we teach

Our approach takes the best of Waldorf Steiner, Montessori and enquiry teaching methods. Waldorf and Montessori schools have been around for over one hundred years. There are more than 2000 schools world-wide operating in over 200 countries.

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Education

Homeschooling for Travellers

Functional education can deliver a quality education anywhere you have an internet connection.

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Education

Homeschooling in Australia

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Education

Homeschooling in New Zealand

A child must be registered in a school from age six, so if a family wishes to homeschool, they need to go to the Ministry of Education website and complete the Home Education Application form before the child turns six.

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