Time just flies along whether you are having fun or not. Its already March, and we are still working on the #@$% boat and living in the boat yard flat.
Jacob’s schooling is an interesting question. Education in Australia is funded by the federal government but delivered by the State governments.
It is the law in all states that children must attend school, but the definition of school includes home schooling. Each state takes a slightly different approach to what it regards as acceptable home schooling. In NSW we have to be registered with the Department of Education, but it is the location that is registered as a ‘school’, not the teachers or people involved in delivering the education. I have been told the reason for this is that federal funding is attached to schools, and schools must be located on one state or another.
This seems a bit arse about, and it creates a problem when we are travelling on a boat, because the boat wont always be in NSW waters so effectively we cant be registered for home schooling in NSW. The other states take a similar line. Living in a mobile home (a boat) we fall between the cracks.
We could do correspondence school, but this is unlikely to work in our case. It is too structured and rigid to take account of the flexible life style we must follow when travelling on a boat. It does not allow us to take advantage of the educational opportunities we will encounter along the way as we visit other countries and are exposed to other cultural influences.
Fortunately there is a solution. We source all our material from a home school supplier in Victoria. This is really good quality stuff, comprehensive and well written. We can take him through to year 10 using this material. He will probably then have to enter regular schooling to complete the last 2 years. I am still not sure what the best solution for this is going to be, but as a last resort we could do this via correspondence if we are still not settled in one location.
