Australian Homeschool Stories

"These are amazing schools and amazing teachers, but the overarching curriculum that is forced upon them gives them no space to breathe or be creative"

Kickstarting season three of the Australian Homeschool Stories podcast, is the owner of Fearless Homeschool, Micarlé. She homeschools her two children (aged 10 & 7) on the Surfcoast of Victoria where they are surrounded by national park, the beach and immersed in nature.
SUMMARY

• How Micarlé and her husband came to be living in Anglesea, her long standing connection to this small seaside town and wanting for her kids what both she and her husband had growing up in small country town communities
• Micarlé's education saw her throwing herself into everything and anything and milking school for the all extracurriculars on offer, in contrast to her husband's experience feeling disengaged from learning and not being reached by his teachers
• As a service orientated person she was drawn to the teaching profession and taught in a range of secondary schools before taking the leap into home educating her own children
• We discuss applied learning pathways for teens in high school, a space she worked in for many years under the VCAL/VCEVM program and how different schools have differing stigmas around these streams
• After 15 years teaching in the secondary space, she began questioning whether the mainstream school system would even work for her own children
• Micarlé recalls how the pandemic gave their family a glimpse into what homeschooling could be like and how they transitioned over the lock down years from remote learning and remote teaching to fully fledged homeschoolers
• Busting the myth “You're a teacher, it makes sense for you to homeschool" - deschooling for any parent is hard but deschooling for teachers is even harder
• Homeschooling has given their daughter time and space to rebuild her confidence and self-worth and for that reason alone it has been the best decision they ever made
• How Micarlé came to be the owner of Fearless Homeschool and what to expect from the 8th Australian Homeschooling Summit, that runs from the 4th-15th March 2024
• The summit includes 30+ online workshops such as how to afford homeschooling, curriculum comparisons, sustainable living, feeling empowered in unschooling, as well as teen, graduate, neurodiversity and tech panels. You can find out all the details and get your ticket here

INSPIRATION

Carol Dweck

Dr Dan Siegel

Brené Brown
CONNECT
@fearlesshomeschool
Australian Homeschooling Summit website
Fearless Homeschool website

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Connect with us:
Instagram - @australianhomeschoolstories
Substack - Australian Homeschool Stories
[email protected]
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

"Before we had kids, we were both adamant that we wouldn't put our kids in daycare. We wanted to raise our kids at home. We always knew we were aligned on that. So that's where it started. We were at home. We were together.”
The tables have turned and it’s me, your host Stephanie, in the hot seat. Helping me tell my story is the tech-side of this operation, my husband Daniel. For those who have listened to this podcast for some time you may have pieced parts of my story together over previous episodes, but I’m sitting down to share it all in what will be the final episode of Season Three.
SUMMARY:

• Our family live on the Mornington Peninsula, Bunurong Country, in a sleepy little country town beside the sea. We left our Melbourne roots when I turned 30 to pursue a slower, simpler life and to raise our kids immersed in the natural world.
• I had a fairly typical, carefree 90s childhood, spent running around the streets with the neighbourhood kids. At primary school my fondest and most vivid memories are of spending recess and lunch up trees with my friends, deep in imaginary play.
• Even though I hadn't come across the idea of homeschooling until after we had our daughter, the roots of homeschooling had naturally been embedded into our lives unknowingly as we were adamant we wanted to keep them close and at home whilst they were little.
• The irony of feeling pulled towards homeschooling whilst having our baby daughter on the waitlist for private high schools.
• Once the idea had taken hold in my heart, I began devouring anything and everything I could get my hands on to do with homeschooling. I spent years deschooling myself through book and podcasts because the vision of what our lives could look like if we followed this path was so clear.
• I had faith that if it meant enough to me, Dan would find his way to where I was too. But I knew it would take time, for him to even consider it, so I was patient but remained persistent.
• When setting up our lives to adopt a homeschooling lifestyle we moved houses to a more affordable area, we went from being a two car to a one car family, and these descision all aligned with the vision we had for our future.
• We have four tenets in our family that guide our days. They are art, music, books and nature. Community and food and are also hugely important. That's what I always come back to.
• The hardest thing about homeschooling is toddlers.

CONNECT

Substack - Splendid To Be

Instagram - @splendidtobe
NOTE: This is an abridged version of the show notes.
Follow the link below to find quotes, links and references to all Steph shares in this episode:
FULL SHOW NOTES HERE

Connect with us:
Instagram - @australianhomeschoolstories
Substack - Australian Homeschool Stories
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.

I can think of no better spokesperson for unschooling in Australia than Sara, whose four daughters (aged 15, 13, 10 and 8) have never been to school. This inspiring family of six who call sunny Queensland home, have collaboratively and creatively designed their lives. As well as unschooling, she is a passionate advocate for respectful parenting and children's rights.
SUMMARY

• Growing up on the Sunshine Coast, Sara went from being private schooled herself to zero percent school for her own children. Once she became a mother, admiring her curious, happy, carefree children, all she could think was that school would wreck this.
• If you had asked her as a child whether she enjoyed school herself she would have said she loved it, but looking back she can only remember the bad things, such as being overwhelmed and stressed by assessments and carrying everyday anxiety that she might get in trouble.
• The stereotype of teens being lazy is not her experience at all, they are on the go all the time, the have a million ideas and projects. They are not what people say.
• As a result of starting young and never sending her kids to school, they have grown up being in control of their own interests and learning for so long they are experts now.
• Sara defines adultism/childism and how this is perpetrated throughout modern day society. There is a way to do things better, where we can all be equal.
• We all have different responsibilities based on our age and our relationship to children but that doesn’t mean we have different rights.
• Unschooling is an extension of respectful parenting
• Deschooling never ends. There is always more that comes ups and every age your kid gets to there is something else.
• She and her husband got to a point where they had read too much and could not knowingly send their girls to school knowing what they knew. Once you’ve gone down the rabbit hole, there is no turning back.
• More people need to talk about homeschooling and unschooling, so more people know this in an option, because so many still don’t.
• The importance of having a community and feeling like you belong
• How her community has evolved over the years from early years to teens - book club, project fairs, talent show, markets, monthly excursions and lots of hanging out and playing.
• Why we need to stop using the word sacrifice when it comes to choosing home education.
• There is no end date to learning. Her own teenage daughter’s perspective is that nothing’s really going to change when she turns 18, they’ll just keep living like they are now and life will carry on as it always has.
• You have a lot of time. You don’t need to know what you’re doing, you can just start and work it out as you go along. All of us are making it up as we go along.
• No one is an expert. You can literally do whatever works for your family.

NOTE: This is an abridged version of the show notes.
Follow the link below to find quotes and references to all resources, books and inspiration Sara shares in this episode:
FULL SHOW NOTES HERE

Connect with us:
Instagram - @australianhomeschoolstories
Substack - Australian Homeschool Stories
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

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
[email protected]
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

“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 yourself in homeschooling, the ins and outs of building a community co-op and yearning for something outside of motherhood.
FULL SHOW NOTES HERE

Follow the link above to find the detailed show notes for this episode along with quotes, links and references to all Kacey shares.
CONNECT
Instagram - @homeschooling.our.wildflowers
Instagram - @wildlingshomeschool.collective

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This podcast was recorded on the land of the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respect to elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded. This always was, always will be aboriginal land.