When we were in New Zealand we had the option of enrolling our kids at the local school, but we opted not to. There were a few reasons for this:

We would only be there for two 3 month stints, broken by 3 months back in Oz (albeit in a different state). We felt it would be quite disruptive and unsettling for the children to have to start at a new school, and no sooner had they started to settle, to take them out again. Not only this, but it would be difficult to maintain continuity of work when we returned to Australia, but not in our home state. The children would be changing schools every 3 months. No, not really a good option for us.

Secondly, there were many other children whose parents were also doing the school that we were doing. All of these were non NZ /OZ citizens and so would not be attending the local school. We wanted our children not to be the only ones unable to join in the programs with these kids.

So, our kids embarked on the home schooling route after having only ever known Victorian Government schools. My eldest was in year 10, the next in year 8 and my primary schooler was in Grade 3, with the youngest still being in kindergarten.

It was a crazy time.

The oldest two were able to sign up with the Distance Education programme in our state. This really seemed the most logical alternative, as they were so advanced in their schooling and I was so UNadvanced with homeschooling. So the grade 3 girl copped the best and the worst of the experience. The youngest got to experience this during our second stint in NZ at the start of 2013 as she reached the age for Prep.

My attending full-time classes did not make the transition to homeschooling in any way easy. The first few months ended up being a very ad hoc affair with English and Maths being the main focus. Some days she got more done and other days little at all. Part of the difficulty was that the children were supervised by another adult while we were in class, so I had to set the work. I found this incredibly difficult having so little experience with it all and not being able to see how she was actually doing at the work, not to mention trying to keep up with my own homework.

In all, we were gone for a 9 month period before returning to Victoria for a few months. At the end of this time our middle daughter had got through about half the work I’d anticipated, and our youngest was about to start Prep in term 2 after 9 months away from any formal education (as in Kindergarten). As we would be in one place for a while before heading to Russia, we decided to put them (back) into the local school. Needless to say I was concerned about how they would fit back into the school system after my ad hoc effort at home schooling, but I needn’t have worried.

Both the girls loved school and thrived in it. I would never had known they’d been out of it. In fact, at first our youngest complained about there not being enough work and it all being too easy and fun! I realised that the time we’d had was so enriching in ways that textbooks could not have achieved. The chance they’d had to mingle with children from other cultures, languages and countries was priceless. They still have international friends we hope to visit before we’re too much older! They learnt how to be adaptable to different circumstances, how to interact in different situations, how to enquire about things that interested them. They learnt that different cultures do things in different ways and their understanding of geography broadened exponentially. They learnt that money can look different in another country, that flying is fast, but not as fast as the sun rising.

I can’t say that my less than organised approach would suit us long-term, but I now have an appreciation of the unschooling proponents. And one thing that I did learn was that people are RIGHT when they say no one size fits all when it comes to home schooling.

Frankly, I was glad of the reprieve when they went to the local school, I am not a teacher, and I don’t think I could ever be one. But I see that homeschooling is less about teaching and more about exploring together. I am also excited about the opportunity to shape their learning in a way that best fits them. We are learning together about what that is, and I’m not sure we’ll ever settle on one style of learning, but now I am not so afraid of not getting it right. The next stage of the adventure begins.

To Russia and beyond!