Hobart mother-of-nine describes the trials and triumphs of homeschooling

Homeschooling has been a “nightmare” at times for a local mother-of-nine, but she says it also comes with its fair share of heartwarming experiences.

Homeschooling has been a “nightmare” at times for mother-of-nine Elisabete Lincoln, but she says it also comes with its fair share of heartwarming experiences.

The Clarendon Vale mum did the odd bit of homeschooling four years ago, but decided to commit to it full-time because of the Covid pandemic.

Four-year-old Olivia was due to start Kindergarten and 9-year-old Gabrielle was due to return to Clarendon Vale Primary School, but Covid made her think twice.

“Covid started getting worse and worse, so it made us quite iffy about sending them back, especially since the younger one has a vulnerable immune system,” Mrs Lincoln said.

“There were other kids at the school who were coughing and sick, so I thought – if Covid is coming, how do I know whether my kids are safe?”

Elisabete Lincoln of Hobart with children Olivia 4 due to start kinder and Gabrielle 9 due to start grade 4. Elisabete will most likely home school the girls in 2022 as covid numbers increase in Tasmania. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Currently she is homeschooling four out of her nine children, all of whom have different grades and different learning requirements.

She said it was a steep learning curve, especially since four of her children have autism, two have ADHD, and one has dyslexia.

Mrs Lincoln had to teach herself sign-language before she could pass on that skill to one of her non-verbal children.

She’s added several other skills to her mum-made syllabus, including cooking, handicrafts, handling money, and Portuguese – her mother tongue.

“When I went to school there were quite a lot of things I wanted to be able to know, but we were only taught maths, English, the usual classes,” Mrs Lincoln said.

“When I went to the real world I thought – how do I cook, pay bills, survive? I want to prepare my kids for the real world.”

- Kenji Sato

Tassie’s home school enrolments tipped to rise amid Covid surge

Home schooling enrolments are tipped to rise in Tasmania ahead of term one, with the spread of Covid across the state showing no sign of abating.

There are currently 1250 students registered for home schooling – 92 more than there were at the end of June last year.

As of Monday, about 45,000 Tasmanian children aged 5-11 became eligible to receive their first special paediatric dose of the Pfizer vaccine – but kids will have to wait eight weeks between doses, meaning none will be fully vaccinated by the time term one begins on February 9.

And it appears some parents are no longer willing to send their children to school as Omicron rages in Tasmania.

A spokeswoman for the Office of the Education Registrar said current term one registration numbers weren’t exceeding expectations “at this point in time”.

“The OER have been very conscious of making sure that parents understand that home education means that the parent is responsible for creating their own program in accordance with the 10 Standards … ” she said.

“Parents need to do the research, create the program, evaluate the program and ensure that their children are progressing each year.”

Home Education Association president Karen Chegwidden said she was seeing a “steady” increase in Tasmanian enquiries about home schooling.

“It hasn’t been as wildly surging as the rest of the country, especially the eastern states, where Covid’s really been a driving force,” she said. “But my suspicion is that will change over the next couple of months.”

“On a per capita basis, Tassie has got one of the highest rates of home schooling in the country and always has had.”

Education and Training Minister Sarah Courtney.

On Sunday, Education Minister Sarah Courtney signalled that students as young as 5 may be asked to wear masks at school.

Ms Courtney said the state government was looking at implementing air purifiers and changing recess times in a bid to ward off the spread of Covid, adding that extra cleaning of facilities would be done, and increased hand washing and social distancing would continue to be encouraged.

Australian Education Union Tasmanian branch state manager Brian Wightman said the wearing of masks by all students and teachers was “preferable”, and that teachers had concerns about the lack of ventilation in some classrooms.

“Educators have questions that require answers, and we look forward to the Department of Education providing further information regarding the plan for term one,” he said.

- Rob Inglis

Follow @rg_inglis