Amy's Homeschool Story

As a teacher, I am completely guilty of having full trust in my colleagues when it came to educating my children. I really didn’t know specifically what my children’s academic strengths and weakness were.

Report cards said they were ok and even above average in some subjects. As I said, they were doing fine. And they were doing fine. Mediocrely fine. In fact, life was fine. Good even.

I had my dream job as a teacher in a local school, the kids were doing ok socially and academically, my husband had a good stable job with flexibility, and we had just finished building our new home on three acres in a lovely neighbourhood. Then COVID hit.

We live in Australia where some of the toughest lockdowns in the world were implemented over the course of the pandemic.

Overnight, I was teaching from my laptop at home, with my children also set up for their online learning on the other side of the room. My husband was also home and so we were suddenly all together. All the time.

Prior to lockdown, there was one issue I must mention. My first child, my son, had started high school and during this time, we began to see a change in his behaviour.

He began to withdraw, walked with his eyes cast to the ground, lost his love of learning and he just seemed down.

We asked him if he was being bullied or if he was feeling anxious about school? Was there anything bothering him?

He would get frustrated and say that he was absolutely fine and that he had many friends and no one was bullying him.

He said he liked school. And so we quietly monitored him, wondering if his behaviour was a result of his journey through puberty.

Now that we were all stuck at home, I was suddenly able to be present during the learning experiences of my children. I was absolutely horrified to discover so many learning holes in my children’s knowledge.

For example, my 5th grade daughter couldn’t tell the time on an analogue clock despite this being a skill that should have been mastered years ago. I spent ten minutes with her to address this particular skill. And she grasped it right away.

It was not a learning problem. It had been an instructional problem. I began to feel a heavy sense of guilt that I had been investing my time teaching other people’s children while mine were not reaching their potential and I hadn’t even realised this because I was so busy with everything else.

But what if they could be more? It was clear to me that the school system was helping them get by but not excel.

Weeks into our lockdown, my children began to thrive beyond any of my expectations. My son was back to his old happy self and he was no longer withdrawn (this told me that his change in behaviour had nothing to do with puberty).

I also loved being part of my children’s learning journey and the closeness it was bringing our family.

My children would spend time with my husband learning to do things like build a hen house and they would cook with me and even with school work, they still had plenty of time to pursue their interests.

It seemed that this kind of lifestyle was good for their academic progress, extra curricular skills and overall health and well being.

When we finally came out of lockdown and were about to go back to school, we all felt a sense of dread. No one wanted to go back.

At the same time, COVID medical mandates came in for teachers and as a person with a heart condition, I was reluctant to receive something which listed heart issues as a side effect. My husband and I had to make a quick decision.

Take the medical risk and go back to the life we knew or sell the house and move somewhere more affordable and home school the children. My family were very concerned.

They said, “What about social interaction?” And, “homeschool children are often strange and not well adjusted to society” (they clearly haven’t met some of the children in schools!) as well as, “they might get behind academically”.

But then we began to reflect. My children’s social life at school wasn’t exactly doing them any favours. My son’s confidence had been at an all time low after just six months of high school and my daughter’s friendship group was often having issues.

Yet at home they felt so safe and free to be themselves. Our decision, though hard, was very easy.

Today I sit in our little fixer upper cottage on 500 acres. We have an orchard out the back, a milking cow waiting to be milked.

Our two mares have month old foals in the paddock and my son is out collecting the eggs for breakfast before he heads out to the shed to work on another project.

My daughter is planning to make a roast dinner and Portuguese tarts for dessert (at 13 she is a better cook than me when I first got married).

We have our weekly homeschool meet up tomorrow. And I use the word ‘weekly’ loosely because there are so many sleep overs and other interactions that happen along the week.

My children have more of a social life than ever before. And it is a positive social life. All the children are polite and welcoming.

They hang out, siblings and all, no matter what their ages. It did take some time, but my children have finally found their tribe and they have more confidence than ever and are so happy in themselves.

At our last family gathering, my family noticed these positive changes and were amazed at the skills my children have gained from homesteading. Things they (and my husband and I) could never do in our past life. And academically? They are doing just great!