Welcome

Welcome to our new blog "Home Sweet Homeschool". It is my wish that this blog will document our unique journey into the world of homeschooling and by sharing our experiences we may be able to help people considering homeschooling and help parents with children in school with fun resources and information.

We are a family of 4 Mum - Chandra, Dad - Brett, Son - Jake, Daughter - Mali, yes the typical family, except we aren't very typical, earlier this year we decided to unplug from our lives and travel around Australia in a caravan. We put our family home on the market and started to plan the kids education. Well the house is still on the market but the kids officially start homeschool 9 July.

I'm sure you are wondering why take them out of school before we sell and go for our trip? Well as I was planning their curriculum and they were attending school I started to notice the wheels falling off!

Jake has always been very academically smart, outgoing and nothing really phased him. Until the end of last year, he became bored with school and he decided it wasn't cool to be smart, basically he stopped trying. He noticed that the kids that played up in class were yelled at but the smart kids got nothing but a tick and maybe a smiley face. On top of his academic problems he was also separated from his friends at the start of 2012 and piled into a class of kids he didn't really know. It was then he befriended the 'jokers' of the class, that was ok until he became the joke, he began to withdraw, I noticed it, his Dad noticed it and so did his Grandparents. Basically that was it for me, I know people are concerned that my kids will suffer socially if they are homeschooled - well here is my answer to that - socially my Son is suffering at school, he sees these kids 5 days a week and basically has more one on one time with them, than he does with me - THEY are not raising the son I want him to be! I only get one chance with him and I choose to raise him with love, kindness and support.

Then there's Mali, she has only been at school for 18months and in general it suits her style. She enjoys the class environment and her 2 fabulous Teachers. However she had a pretty slow start with some not so positive influences during her Prep year, this has left her behind in year 1, but that doesn't bother Mali she knows she is awesome! However again in the playground she has had some friendship problems that mirror alot of my issues from Primary School which in fact have shaped my life - Mum helped me as best as she could but I still had to face it every day at school. Thankfully for Mali I have other choices and again my choice is to raise her in a supportive environment away from the 'I'm not your friend today!' girls. Mali also needs individual attention to get her back on track which I am honoured to provide.

So here we are on the edge of an amazing exciting journey. I know there will be some days when it all seems too much, but I look forward to the days when the sun is shining and we are out in the park looking at ants under a microscope, so bring it on!