Elisa, Sydney - NSW / Dharug Country
“I've really had to slow down a lot and let go of worrying about what other people think.”
Elisa is a newly minted homeschooler. This is the episode you are going to want to listen to if you are on the precipice of taking the leap into homeschooling or you have found yourself deep in the trenches of deschooling your own children and yourself. The daughter of a teacher who became a teacher herself, Elisa is now a homeschooling mum to twin boys and a daughter (ages 6 and 3) bravely sharing how she’s navigating these new, unchartered waters.
This is Episode 30 of the Australian Homeschool Stories Podcast - Elisa’s Story:
Note: The first year of enrolment into primary school is known by different names in each Australian state. It is known as Prep (VIC, QLD, TAS), Kindergarten/Kindy (NSW, ACT), Pre-Primary (WA), Reception (SA) and Transition (NT).
Summary:
Elisa was the child who loved school and thrived academically, enjoying the accolades and recognition she received. She grew up in suburban Sydney only minutes from where she & her husband are now raising their own family, with grandparents close by for extra support.
Her mother was a teacher and despite discouragement, both she and her sister followed in mums footsteps and became teachers themselves.
Because school had been a huge part of her upbringing, teaching felt very natural. She loved being with kids right from the beginning but it wasn’t long before she started to burn out. Teachers put in a lot of time and effort behind the scenes and Elisa recalls being at school from 7:30am until 4:30pm, then working again from 8pm - 10pm. In addition to excessive planning, the emotional toll also started to creep in:
“I felt like my students were everything to me, because they were my children as well, but it was also really, really difficult.”
It wasn’t until her own boys started school at the same school she was working at, that her life changed dramatically.
“Probably the seeds were sown earlier because I almost left teaching partially because of the burnout but also we were doing all this assessment and data collection. I remember sitting in staff meetings just thinking this is just a waste of time.
This is such a waste of time.
We are spending all this time and the children are spending all this time doing data and preparing and all of that kind of thing. I just didn't agree with it. I could feel the joy being sucked out of teaching almost because of that.”
After she left teaching, she worked in a school readiness and tutoring centre, which in hindsight seems so far from where her family are now.
“With this school readiness and tutoring centre, I can see why it's necessary because from what I could see when I was in the classroom as I was doing kindergarten learning support originally before my children went to that school, there's just such a huge, huge gap in what the curriculum is requiring of students, what they're expected to do and where they're at developmentally and what they've left perhaps in most early childhood centres or care as well.”
We shouldn't be preparing kids for school, we should be preparing them for life.
“I can see why we have school readiness centres, but do I agree with it? No. I just think it's ridiculous what children are expected to do and how boring and dry the curriculum is.”
Her own boys really enjoyed school. It wasn't that they disliked the concept of school and they were quite happy to go. They just really didn't enjoy the period in the classroom. They were happy to be with friends outside. They loved going to the canteen. They loved playing soccer. But it became quite clear that they weren't quite coping or enjoying what they were expected to do, sitting at a desk or table.
“I had taught kindergarten 10 years before and knew the way that kindergarten or prep children were expected to behave and what they're expected to do. There was such a huge difference in that 10 years, like a massive shift.”
Her own boys announced in class one day that they were going to be homeschooled, which lead to a meeting being called with their teachers in which it became crystal clear to Elisa that this (school) wasn’t working for them.
“This isn't working for them and it's not just them, it's not working for a lot of children. But you know I kind of thought, well, we have another option. We're very fortunate that we have another option we can try to see if it's going to work better because I wanted my children not to, already in kindergarten, think that learning was boring. I don't want them already switching off. Basically their favourite part of school was lunch. I mean, that's most children, but I didn't want it to be six months into kindy and they're already saying that they just want to be outside. And that's what one of them said to me. He said ‘I just want to be outside.’ I’m like, well, of course you do.”
Elisa believes the seeds were sown early on because she had started to question school, but almost didn't know that homeschooling was an option.
“I was very much, you know, well, this is the path you go down, you go to school. I've never been out of school before. Really, you go to school and that's it. My family background is three of us are teachers, my mum, my sister and I. I didn't know that there was another path.”
Social media, podcasts and lockdowns gave Elisa the confidence to give homeschooling a shot.
“I started to listen to podcasts, podcasts like yours, and think, oh, these are normal people going about their normal life.”
On where their family are at right now at the very beginning of their homeschooling journey:
“I think at the moment, you know, there's ups and downs, because we're only new and that's a complete rollercoaster ride. It’s a shock to the system. I had to deschool, they had to deschool, they're very much so.”
“It's so much better being able to ease into the day and ease into things without that added pressure of living to someone else's timetable and schedule for no real reward.”
Overall her boys are enjoying being at home, they mostly enjoy learning. The challenge for Elisa has been to figure out how to teach without teaching or being a teacher. It’s a learning process for all of them.
“It's very interesting, trying to figure out how to lose that teacher side of me. But I almost think because I didn't necessarily agree with that side of things anyway, I probably have been deschooling for a little while without knowing it.”
Questioning school has prompted Elisa to look differently at other aspects of life, such as food choices, low-tox living and commercialisation. She wants her kids to know that the important, wonderful things in life are not a pair of Nike Air Jordans.
They have begun their first term of homeschooling by joining activities and taking part in things which she thinks her kids might like. She wants to give everything a try before intentionally pulling back so her boys can see what options are available, how they could learn in other ways and how homeschooling can be a completely different but wonderful option.
Elisa wants her kids to be kind and school as it is today isn’t the best environment to foster this.
“If you're questioning school, then you really should look into what your options are and what's available… if we didn't rip off the bandaid and make the decision, then we wouldn't know what's on the other side.”
Inspiration
Hunt Gather Parent - Michaeleen Doucleff
There’s No Such Things as Bad Weather - Linda Åkeson McGurk
A Matter of Principal - Mandy Davis
Connect
Instagram - @learning.beyond.four.walls
Food for thought
Looking for more homeschooling inspiration?
Here is a handpicked selection of previous episodes you may enjoy:
Emma - Brisbane, QLD / Turrbal Country
Sam & Christian - Perth, WA / Whadjuk Noongar Country
Paul - Bermagui, NSW / Yuin Country
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