Steph - Toowoomba, QLD / Barunggam Country

Steph and her husband not only homeschool their two boys aged 10 and 6 but also welcome a number of other children into their home with their family day care Spirited Hearts in Toowoomba. 

We discuss trauma in relation to her own school wounds and her son's experience of moving in and out of the school system despite Steph knowing she wanted to homeschool before she became a mother.  

SUMMARY

• Practicing aware parenting so her children don't have to grow up and heal from their childhood
• Being aware of everyday stresses and focusing on the emotional wellbeing of children
• Helping children build strong emotional foundations and self awareness through her Natural Learning Haven
• Being labelled as "too quiet" and how this affected her experience at school
• Refusing to conform, feeling alienated and distrusting teachers
• How the system does not support teachers and this in turn affects children
• How the reading of Harry Potter cemented her confidence in homeschooling
• Learning to read when the child is ready to read
• Steph's eldest son requested to go to school at age 6 and the dilemma of wanting to homeschool but also respect her child's autonomy
• Feeling like a failure as a homeschooling mum because they want to go to school
• Her son's experience of deschooling and finding his way back to thriving in a thematic learning style at home 
• "We are lifelong learners. You don't have to learn everything in 18 years."
• Turning to books, nature and yoga as her way of recharging
• The needs of the parent are just as important as the childs

INSPIRATION
Free to Learn - Peter Gray
Unschooled - Kerry McDonald
The Call of the Wild + Free - Ainsley Arment
The Wild + Free Family - Ainsley Arment
Raising Critical Thinkers - Julie Bogart
(Consider asking your local library to purchase a copy if they don't currently have these books in their collection)

CONNECT
Spirited Hearts website
@spirited_hearts instagram
Spirited Hearts podcast

Have you for a story to tell?
Connect with us on instagram @australianhomeschoolstories or 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