Lauren & Oberon - Hobart, TAS / Muwinina Country

Lauren & Oberon Carter not only homeschool their three girls aged between 12 & 19 on their suburban block just outside of Hobart, but also passionately advocate for waste free living, permaculture and climate action. They have most recently become record store owners too! We dive into all these topics in our conversation.

Here is a snapshot of Lauren & Oberon's story :

• Growing up in Melbourne and their different educational pathways before relocating to Tasmania 
• Lauren's 13th year of school and how this immersive art experience ended up being her most formative
• Oberon's experience of imposter syndrome at university
• Cloth nappies as the catalyst for choosing to do things differently
• Questioning the norm as big life decisions present themselves, eg. home birth
• Parenting without extended family support and learning to be self reliant and going with the flow
• The importance of being on the same page as a partnership
• Celebrating music by women - how Lauren's idea in the shower one day led to the whole family collaborating to bring Suffragette Records to life. 
• Embracing a permaculture lifestyle and its similarities to unschooling
• How a 2 week zero waste challenge changed their lives and led to the book A Family Guide to Waste-Free Living 
• Collaborating with their eldest daughter to create 52 Climate Solutions 
• How their garden evolved from one apricot tree into an abundant food forest and the joy in being able to produce a large amount of their own produce
• Lauren & Oberon's favourite nature spots in Tasmania 
• Care for the natural world underpinning all their choices
• Simple solutions to complex problems
• "The majority of homeschooling is relationships"
• Their eldest two daughters differing experiences with college 
• Flexibility and adaptability as the best way to approach home education
• Embracing analogue over digital in response to social media saturation

CONNECT:
Spiral Garden website
Suffragette Records website
@spiralgarden instragram
@suffragetterecords instagram

Have you got a story to tell?
Connect with us on instagram @australianhomeschoolstories or send me an email - australianhomeschoolstories@gmail.com

This podcast is recorded on the land of the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded. This always was, always will be aboriginal land.

Original Music - Hazel by Daniel Garrood @garroodcomposer
Listen on Spotify here