Eight Children, One Very Long Road

What does raising and educating eight children look like when home is a sheep station in far western New South Wales and your nearest town is two hours away? For Sarah Harris, it's simply life. Sarah and her husband Rhys are raising their eight children in the outback. Three daughters are now at boarding school, three children are learning through Broken Hill School of the Air and two little boys are still at home. In this episode of Letters from Home, Sarah takes Amanda inside the extraordinary logistics of remote motherhood. They talk about the purpose-built schoolroom across the paddock, employing governesses, the realities of School of the Air and the term Sarah found herself back in the schoolroom with a newborn baby. Sarah also shares why she committed to driving into Mildura each week so her children could participate in sport and how that investment paid dividends years later when her daughters arrived at boarding school with confidence, sporting skills and an immediate way to connect. And then there is boarding itself. Sarah speaks candidly about how hard it was when her eldest daughter first left home, why it has felt different with the daughters who followed, and the confidence and independence she can now see growing in her girls. It's a warm and wonderfully understated conversation about the things remote mothers simply get on with, the opportunities they work incredibly hard to create and the complicated business of raising children to eventually leave you. LINKS The Boarding School Collective boardingschoolco.com.au Follow Sarah and her family's outback life on Instagram @6.little.wildflowers Broken Hill School of the Air @brokenhill_schooloftheair