Hardly Ever Home-schooling

"I thought you had to be exceptional & special and then opportunities would come to you. I didn’t really understand that no, you just be open to opportunities or you look for them." Sarah's usual questions are turned on her by her 12yr old daughter.

“Most of my education has been post-school...I thought it would be great if we could skip that whole interlude of wasted time and just get to the important things.” Gardener, writer and father of four talks about life as a homeschooling Dad.

"They say “oh you know, you need to keep exposing him to these situations that make him uncomfortable so that he builds resilience.” But he’s just building this confidence by being allowed to be who he is." Mother of 2 & small business owner talks about work-life balance, homeschooling & attachment parenting.

“I was seriously thinking about going into year ten and then doing VCE...but at the same time I felt like it was almost a waste of time to do three extra years of school to get to university.” 18 year-old Bachelor of Business student, "history nerd" and McDonald's Store Manager, speaks about her school-free childhood and the transition to adulthood as a homeschooled teen.

"If you look at what a child is doing in school at the same year level it’s not as big or as overwhelming as it might seem at the start, so sometimes it can be encouraging to look and go “oh actually my child can already do lots of those things”" Mother of 2 and founder of the I Matter Foundation talks about her busy life of homeschooling and community building.

"It is good to balance out, just like a diet, if you do too much in the head then my opinion is that you have very smart people who can’t relate to anyone else". Father of 3 and Steiner educator talks about living a ‘head, hearts & hands’ approach to his work as a family day care facilitator and homeschooling parent.

“I can’t believe I ever thought that I would be unqualified to be a homeschooling mum. You’ve got it all there, and there’s no one better qualified, that knows your own children.” Small business owner and mother of 2 unexpectedly becomes a homeschooler (the ultimate DIY project).

“I really just want them to be okay with themselves, whatever that means. I want them to get to the end of their teens with as little trauma as possible. Hopefully still feeling positive about learning and not broken by the school system.” A single mother shares her story of starting out homeschooling but ultimately choosing school for her three autistic daughters.

“My husband and I were both doing really interesting work, we’ve often had jobs that are really flexible, where we spend time in different countries...I came into the space of having kids thinking life is really cool, life is really interesting, I just want to immerse them in all of that .” Recovering academic speaks about raising 3 bi-lingual, school-free girls in Australia & Indonesia.

“When I was at school and uni, or in the workforce that’s drummed into you that you’re a failure if you don’t meet expectations and come every day to all these things and with homeschooling we’ve really steered away from all that.” A Mum and Dad share insights into how they manage to homeschool their children while living with chronic illnesses.

Sarah and her kids talk about life in Australia while physically distancing from friends, everything being cancelled and how they're making it through each day of the pandemic.

With 24 years of homeschooling experience between them: Talia, Emily and Sarah share their insights to help parents survive school closures during the covid-19 pandemic.

“I went into it thinking: well, I’ve raised them to this point, I can just keep on raising them.” Massage therapist and mother of three shares her experience cultivating a school-free family lifestyle.

“The homeschooled children we met made a big impact on us, they were really interesting and interested and could talk to us as grown-ups, and confident, they made a big impression.” Mother of 3 and life-coach discusses emigration, stereotypes, self-care, acceptance and her Christian family’s experience of eclectic homeschooling.

"This is a problem for all mums, we're in a society that doesn't particularly want us to have needs, let alone care for them." Your host Sarah talks about what sustains her while homeschooling 5 children and offers self-care ideas for you to try.

“A little each day, consistency is the key to our success.” Suzuki violin educator discusses her play-based approach to her daughter’s learning as well as reflecting on her experience of being a homeschooled child who completed high school at 15.

“Initially I was disappointed because personally I was happy to keep on going with the full-time homeschooling. But I am led by my children’s needs.” Parenting influencer and mother of 2, enlightens listeners on how part-time homeschooling works for her family in Victoria, Australia.

"It's really fun and it's easier than you think it is, and you don't have to make your home a classroom." 11 year old unschooler shares her perspective on learning and speaks about her first-hand experience ofliving a school-free life.

“I started off thinking that I was going to have our days planned out, and we were doing certain subjects on certain days, at certain times and I really didn’t get very far with that at all and I’m really glad.” Mother of 5, including a son with a rare degenerative condition, shares her journey to homeschooling with an initially reluctant partner. Donate to http://fopaustralia.org

“We do exactly what every single family does with their children until their children hit the age of three or four, it’s just that we keep doing that without adding kinder to our lives.” Your host speaks about her unschooling-inspired life with 5 children.