Elizabeth - Ballarat, VIC / Wadawurrung Country

Elizabeth describes herself as a lover of learning and confesses she was not a typical candidate to homeschool her children. In this honest conversation she eloquently shares how she went from counting down the days until her three kids (now 9, 7 and 6) were at school to questioning everything she had always taken for granted, and the wonder led life her family now lead that was born out of the tumble down the rabbit hole. 

SUMMARY

• Growing up with a 'socially acceptable amount of school trauma'
• How her leap from high school to university was a huge shock to her system 
• The honest reality of being a mother struggling at home with three kids under three
• How negative self talk and self criticism began to manifest in her eldest daughter from her experience at kinder in stark contrast to the positive mental health she and her husband had been consciously nurturing in their children from birth
• Jumping head first into home education despite the hundreds of horrifying fears that she would stuff it up and how this is a completely natural process of deschooling your own brain
• The first year of homeschooling is complete chaos and the biggest learning experience for the parent
• The surprising love her children have for workbooks despite consciously not wanting to replicate school at home
• The support and dynamic her husband brings to their homeschooling life
• Using 'nutritious' resources as a support network and safety net that allow for independent, self-directed learning
• The code of silence we fail to inform our teenagers about - the myriad of ways other than VCE to get into higher education
• Her hope for a joyful & positive childhood her grown adult children can reminisce about spent together as a family
• You don't have to be an avid reader or academic to homeschool!
• Motherhood is all consuming, but homeschool is not despite the reputation
• WhAt AbOuT sOcIaLiSaTiOn? The most ludicrous concern you'll encounter
• Comparison is the thief of joy - don't compare your home to school

RESOURCES
MEL Science kits
Cosmic Kids Yoga
Prodigies Music
KiwiCo STEM boxes

INSPIRATION
Free to Learn - Peter Gray
The Smartest Kids in the World - Amanda Ripley
Homeschooling Bravely - Jamie Erickson
Raising Critical Thinkers - Julie Bogart
How Children Learn - John Holt
Consider asking your local library to purchase a copy of these books if they don't already have them in their catalogue

CONNECT
@learninginourworld Instagram

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

This podcast is recorded on the lands 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 - Daniel Garrood @garroodcomposer
Listen on Spotify here