Anna - Rockingham, WA / Whadjuk Country
“I hope at the end of all this I’ll have raised two kids who love learning.”
If they are not home, chances are Anna and her kids (ages 9 & 4) can be found in their local library. So great is their love for this community haven of literature, living within walking distance of it strongly influenced where they chose to reside in Rockingham, Western Australia. Homeschoolers from day dot, this musical, book loving, nature appreciating family value time together and connection over curriculum.
This is Episode 27 of the Australian Homeschool Stories Podcast - Anna’s Story:
Summary:
Anna was born in Kalgoorlie but has lived in Perth since she was 6 years old. She met her husband on a trip to South Africa and convinced him to move to WA where they are now raising their family together.
Being the recipient of a high school music scholarship didn’t equate to Anna loving school. She would have loved to have been homeschooled herself.
Anna plays and teaches the violin and her husband is a self taught multi-instrumentalist. Even though music is a big part of their lives, their children aren’t interested in learning an instrument at present, but there is a lot of talking about, listening to and general appreciation of music.
Seeing the best and worst of kids lives, working in school chaplaincy prior to having kids herself, was a contributing factor to choosing to homeschool.
Homeschooling was always on her radar. It wasn’t a really ‘out there’ decision for them, which made the choice easy, and they also didn’t experience any negative reactions from friends, family or their larger community.
Anna loves the efficiency of homeschooling - particularly the one-on-one learning aspect of homeschooling, which schools aren’t able to replicate.
“The main reason we chose to homeschool was for the time. I didn’t want to be getting those few hours at the end of the day.”
Theirs is a literature based homeschool - books are at the centre of everything they do. Literature is the spine.
Letting the kids loose in the library can lead to tangents of learning they may follow for a week.
Being a one income family, the library is an incredible resource that she utilises to the utmost.
Nature Discovery is an Australian nature study curriculum she wrote because she couldn’t find a resource that addressed the things that her kids saw around them.
“We have so much beautiful flora and fauna here in Australia. I’d love to have something that addressed that in a fun way, that made nature study come alive for them and they could get excited about what’s here.”
Nature Discovery includes STEM experiments, recipes, art lessons, videos collated from YouTube and book recommendations. It’s a great way to build in and prioritise time in nature whilst learning scientific enquiry principles too. Geared for primary ages, it is sold online through her website as seasonal bundles or a full year purchase.
Because she didn’t love the format of school herself, Anna was very happy to look at alternatives and not have such a structured mentality of how they do school.
Connection drives all that they undertake and she loves being able to learn through experiences together. All life is learning.
Books are wonderful, but there is a big world to experience out there beyond the books too.
Her favourite thing about this lifestyle is getting to hang out with her kids and learn alongside them.
Learning does’t stop at the completion of grade 12. Homeschooling extends childhood and play, and you can keep playing as an adult too.
Wanting her kids to have a tree climbing childhood, pottering about in the garden and being part of the natural world.
Enjoy your kids.
“To have longevity in the journey you have to enjoy being together.”
Inspiration
The Brave Learner -
The Call of the Wild & Free - Ainsley Arment
Resources
Nature Discovery curriculum
The Brave Writer curriculum by
The Good and the Beautiful curriculum
Connect
Instagram - @naturediscoveryau
Facebook - Nature Discovery
Website - Nature Discovery
Food for thought
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