Australian Homeschool Stories

“Dream big. What do you want your homeschool to look like? What do you want your whole life to look like? Go after that.” Marieka, her husband and their five children aged 16, 11, 9, 7 and 1 have been homeschooling family style for the last 6 years in sunny Western Australia. As a teacher who’d become disillusioned with the classroom, she decided she would much rather teach her own and they haven’t looked back. I couldn’t have asked for a more inspirational guest to round out this season of ...

"Stepping back and letting kids learn is really what's at the heart of home education." Meet my friend, Nicola. We originally connected via substack and then in person whilst her family spent time down on the Peninsula. Our daughters, who are similar ages, hit it off instantaneously and in truth so did Nicola and I. This was prior to their move to the mid-north coast of New South Wales where they now call home, but Nicola’s story takes us on journey from Melbourne to Byron Bay, Vanuatu to Fa...

"I had this really strong feeling that she was just a number in this place and that's not good enough." Anna is a worm farmer, author and homesteading mother of three children aged 15, 7 and 2. In this episode she shares her journey from suburbia to living off the land and her eldest daughter's winding educational road to homeschooling. We also talk about permaculture, living life by design, managing chronic illness and her brilliant book Homegrown Healthy Living. This is episode 39 of Austr...

“I’m going to look back one day on this and think those were the glory years." Teacher by trade, Canadian by birth, Melanie is here to share how she wound up calling Newcastle home and why she and her partner chose home education for their two boys, aged 7 and 4. In this episode we talk about longing for community in the early years of motherhood, not being ‘ride or die’ homeschoolers, how play evolves as children mature, intentional living, why screens have become the new social playground ...

“If you can’t find your village or community - build one.” This is the story of Kacey’s blended family from Perth who have called themselves eclectic homeschoolers for the last three years. Her four children aged 19, 17, 6 and 4 have all had contrasting educational experiences, from thriving in the system, to never being able to catch up, to sidestepping school all together. In this honest and candid conversation, Kacey and I chat about school trauma, holistic, child-centred learning, finding...