“I have five children aged between 29 and 16 years who have all been homeschooled. I have learnt alongside my children.
My eldest daughter went to hairdressing school, got an apprenticeship and qualified as a hairdresser. She now lives on a dairy farm with her partner and is an amazing mother of three boys. She works from home doing the occasional haircuts for locals and family.
My second daughter worked for a few years and is now completing her second year at university. Since becoming a solo mum a few years ago she found her passion in life – to become a policy changer in government for minority groups, eg. children living in poverty. She is working at Treasury as an intern.
My son is now 22 years old and is a qualified builder. He works for someone building houses. He often is in charge of jobs and has people he has to supervise. He has recently bought his own home. He often worked alongside his dad growing up, who is a builder. He has the gift of dyslexia and has thrived being homeschooled. He always knew he wanted to be a builder and hopes to own his own business one day.
My next daughter went to polytech and did a Youth Guarantee Scheme course in cooking. The next year she did a further course in baking. She is currently working as a baker in a large camp. Her aim is to one day own her own restaurant to cater for special diets. Later this year she will be catering a wedding of 150 guests. She has asked us, her parents, and younger sister to help. As a family we have catered for weddings and camps before.
My youngest daughter is still currently homeschooled. She wants to be an Animal Care Attendant (not a vet). To reach this goal she will be doing a Trades Academy Course at polytech next year. This year she has been volunteering at a cat refuge center and hopes to continue there next year. Following next year’s course she is planning to go back to polytech and do a further six month course in animal care. Her aim is to work for an animal rescue place to help abandoned and hurt animals.
All my children have found areas they wanted to work in and then found ways to make it happen to enable them to reach their goals. As parents and educators we have encouraged our children to enter into areas that they enjoy.
Our homeschooling journey has included all aspects of life as learning, more the holistic approach, rather than the academic. We have taught our children the fundamentals – reading, writing, maths, being involved in the running of the home, being able to socialize with many different types of people and to have the skills to research as required. We have told them they can train to become whatever they want. And we have seen that if they want something that they are willing to work for it.”