Why we chose to homeschool

It feels like a big decision when faced with this question. Your child turns four and for the next year everyone says ‘oooh school next year!’.
Most children have no idea what school means unless they have visited or have siblings already there.

Before I had my son, I dreamed of being a stay at home mother, artist and home schooler. The lifestyle felt natural and wholesome but I wanted to make sure it would suit the personality of my son.
My only stoppers were what other people would think and did I feel ‘intelligent enough’ to take on the challenge! Both of these stories are ones I was happy to ditch for our dream lifestyle.

My son is incredibly sensitive - picks up on people and places, he takes a while to relax in a social setting and if asked what he would like to do each day he replies ‘I just love being home!’.
We live in a neighbourhood full of people invested in his life - neighbours who show him how to juice and make apple cider, how to spin yarn from wool, explain the geography of the area and which shell fossils he has found… It is magic.

We visited a local school to give him an idea of the setting, peeking in classrooms etc. He clutched my hand tightly and when we left he said ‘I don’t think I can relax there mummy, there is so much crazy energy’.
The following day we visited the homeschool group. This group has around 30 kids, age range 4-14.
Within 10 minutes he was off playing with a bunch of older kids. We ended up staying for 5 hours!
It was a no-brainer for me, especially since he is only five and has a huge pull to learning activities at home (sometimes he gets up at 6am, pops a head torch on and gets to work!).

We spend around 4 x 20 minute bursts during the day working on math and english. I incorporate as much learning as I can in to activities - on a nature walk we talk about the tree names, what it would have looked like before humans, count how many fantails we can spot etc. Learning can be fun, anytime!
I also keep a book of all his random questions which we use for projects.
While he is five, this is all working beautifully and although I don’t have as much time to work on my business, our happiness is my the most important!

If you have anymore homeschool questions, pop a comment below. I will answer as best I can!
xo Bec