Danika - Bunbury, WA / Wardandi Country

Danika's homeschooling story takes place on opposing sides of the country, beginning on the Gold Coast in Queensland, where she and her children (aged 6 and 3) were born and raised, up to where her family are currently based in Bunbury, Western Australia. Danika is speaking up and sharing her short but intense journey in the hopes that someone listening will hear her story and feel seen. 

SUMMARY

• As a loud, outgoing, social girl, Danika loved school, particularly the social side, and like most parents thought her own kids would follow in her footsteps
• When her eldest began school, she was looking forward to getting more time to herself, to be able to focus on her career, but a twisting, turning waterslide of a year lay ahead, one she could not have foreseen
• Her son's anxiety prompted her to undertake placement as a teachers aide and it was this experience which opened her eyes to what actually goes on in the classroom
• It quickly became clear to her that teachers are under resourced and time poor. They are all not being seen and heard and it’s the same thing, day in, day out.
• It took a trauma for Danika to come to homeschooling and that trauma had a massive effect on everyone in their family, but she is proof you can come out the other side 
• “I had to strip back what was expected of me from society, what was expected of me from our families, drown out all the noise and just listen to my child.”
• Deschooling meant recalibrating what she thought her life was going to look like and she believes they are all better versions of themselves having the time and space to be
• What lifeschooling looks like for their family of four now
• Neurodiverse kids in school are often brushed to the side and sent elsewhere, but they are going through traumatic feelings, and we as adults rush them along, not giving them the space they need. They get told to be quiet and sit still, but they are  trying to regulate their bodies so they can listen.
• If you are on the fence about homeschooling, ask yourself “What’s important to you?” You’ve really got to sit with that. Are you doing something just because you are expected to?
• Losing one whole income doesn't mean you can't still travel and adventure, it’s just not on such a grand scale. Microadventures are just as important and homeschoolers have the freedom to go wherever they want, whenever they want.
• “School works for some, it doesn’t work for others, the beauty of life is that we have a choice. I feel like we made the best choice for our family.”

INSPIRATION

Stark Raving Dad podcast
Her Homeschooling Era podcast

A Different Way to Learn - Dr Naomi Fisher
Changing Our Minds - Dr Naomi Fisher
Mothering Our Boys - Maggie Dent
Raising Boys - Steve Biddulph

AdaptEd - Neurodiversity Handbook

CONNECT

@danikajain

Connect with us:
Instagram - @australianhomeschoolstories
Substack - Australian Homeschool Stories
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 by Daniel Garrood @garroodcomposer
Listen on Spotify here