Marieka, her husband and their five children aged 16, 11, 9, 7 and 1 have been homeschooling family style for the last 6 years in sunny Western Australia. As a teacher who’d become disillusioned with the classroom, she decided she would much rather teach her own and they haven’t looked back. I couldn’t have asked for a more inspirational guest to round out this season of Australian Homeschool Stories. Enjoy all the gold Marieka has to share and stick around until the end to hear what 2025 has in store for this podcast.
This is episode 41 of Australian Homeschool Stories, Marieka’s Story.
Summary:
Marieka and her husband met as children and started dating as teenagers. Their family have lived in a number of different countries around the world, but she grew up in Western Australia, the same place they now call home.
Before she had children, Marieka was a primary school teacher specialising in early childhood education. She taught full time for 7 years, before switching to relief teaching after her kids were born. She stopped teaching altogether when she started homeschooling.
“I didn’t ever set out in my parenting journey to be a homeschooler.”
Her two eldest children went to school initially at the local Christian school, the same school she taught at when she was teaching, and that her mother taught at as well. Marieka’s husband is a pastor who works in the non-profit sector.
By the time her third and fourth children came along she had lost all desire to be in the classroom.
Her younger children came to them via foster care and they are permanently grafted into their family. She knew didn’t want them to go into daycare when they had only just joined their family.
“When children are in foster care, theres always a level of trauma they have experienced, even if they are an infant. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t go and put them into daycare.”
“I just didn’t like what our life was looking like having our children in school. I felt that school was getting the very best of my child and I was getting what was left over.”
Marieka felt that they didn’t have the time or the energy to do all the fun stuff in life with their kids. Weekends are so busy in their home, and they weren’t able to have quality time as a family.
“My children are going off to the museum and the ballet and having all this amazing time without me and I just felt robbed. I felt robbed of this experience and this childhood and of family time, that school was getting all of that. This doesn’t feel right. This is not a great balance in life and I would much rather be the person who gets to do all the fun things with my children and get the very best of them and not what’s left over.”
When they lived overseas their two biological children were with her full time. They are flexible, adaptable and always up for an adventure. So when they started homeschooling it was just another adventure.
“They are not going to miss their teachers, their not going to miss the playground, their not going to miss the classroom but they will miss their friends.”
When it came to the people they were spending time with, or wanting to have playdates with, they weren’t actually their school friends. Cousins, church group, youth group and family friends are the people they wanted to hang out with. All of their friends were outside of their schooling environment anyway.
They felt they were able to transition to homeschooling easily because of this.
“I had already become disillusioned with the school system. I was not liking the way education was going.”
Homework crept in earlier, more book work in the classroom to what she was used to. When she was teaching it was more play based education, and definitely no homework. She didn’t agree with these changes and felt that the children had lost a lot of their childhood and lot of play. Especially for boys, a lot of things were being expected of them that just wasn’t fair.
Marieka did a year of research before they began homeschooling to figure out what she wanted their homeschool and life to look like.
“This isn’t going to be school at home, this is going to be homeschool. And I get to design what my homeschool is going to look like and it is definitely not going to look like a classroom.”
Ironically, when she was teaching the big thing was to make your classroom look like a home.
Overall it was a smooth transition for their family. They finished school at the end of the year, had summer and then began homeschooling.
“We don’t begin homeschooling at the beginning of the year with all the things and all the subjects. We just put a little bit in at time and slowly build it up.”
It can feel overwhelming at the beginning with all of these choices but Marieka recommends that before you choose the curriculum you want, decide what you want your life to look like.
“We are marching to the beat of our own drum, it doesn’t have to look like school, it doesn’t have to look like what other homeschoolers are doing. We are doing this to create a good family balance and lifestyle for our children.”
Once a week they have a family day, where they don’t do school, it’s just fun stuff, bonding and building their family unit. The other weekdays they only homeschool for a few hours a day, up to half a day. They all learn together, family style (except her eldest who is doing his own learning journey).
Excursions happen on family day so that her husband can come along with them.
They attend a Tuesday social group and on Thursday they meet their co-op group to learn together. Each child has an extra-curricula activity at the end of the day and they also do volunteer work on a Monday.
They began homeschooling at the same time as bunch of other families in their area which meant they had instant community. The group meet up once a week in nature to play and socialise and this group has naturally grown over time.
Marieka has recently been diagnosed with a chronic illness and her community has stepped in to help her. Her husband has flexible work hours. Her mother in law helps out (a teacher herself). Her sister in law will take the kids to things when she can’t take them. There have been meal trains and community donations when her newborn son came to live with them too.
They have been foster carers for 8 years. Her husband always wanted to adopt after having their own biological children.
“Take care of the poor. Take care of the orphan. Take care of the widow. That’s our family mandate.”
Marieka recommends finding someone who is already homeschooling and go and chat with them. Meet with them and ask them every question under the sun that you have.
Youtube was where she sought inspiration but there was no one at the time putting out content from Australia. This in turn inspired her to launch her own YouTube channel. It has been a great creative outlet for her. The heart behind it is that she’s sharing what she is doing and what they have done, not to say you should do it but that this is what works for them.
She describes their style as family style, minimalist homeschooling. They use living books and enjoy reading aloud, and also incorporate video into their learning.
“When somethings hard, it doesn’t mean we don’t do it. There is always going to be hard moments when it comes to homeschooling… it doesn’t mean homeschooling is the wrong decision just because it is hard.”
Homeschooling needs a buddy system, where experienced homeschooler cans mentor and support those just starting out.
“There are no silly questions. Ask anything and everything so we can get more people excelling and feeling confident in this area.”
“If you have the desire to homeschool, it’s already within you.”
Inspiration & Resources
Simply Charlotte Mason - YouTube
Cathy Duffy Reviews - every homeschooling curriculum listed on her website where she gives a short review and provides links
The Good and The Beautiful language & literacy curriculum
Connect
Youtube - Marieka Lake
Instagram - @mariekalake
Thank you
That is a wrap on Season Four of Australian Homeschool Stories the podcast.
Two years. 41 episodes. 25,000 downloads. I’m blown away and humbled.
To know that this podcast has found it’s way into the ears of those who need to hear these stories, for the comfort they bring in realising you aren’t the only one who feels this way, for the relief in knowing there is a life-giving alternative, for the joy in all that is possible when we choose home education. Thank you to all my guests who have bravely let me into their worlds and allowed me to share their stories with you all. Thank you for listening, sharing, reaching out and spreading the word so that others could find their feet and confidence in this lifestyle, however it looks for each unique family.
So what does the future hold for this little niche show put together by a husband and wife duo in their backyard studio in the evenings after their children are asleep? The simple answer is, I’m not sure.
What I do know is that no matter what life throws at us, we will continue homeschooling in 2025 and beyond. To quote my friend and past guest
:“Homeschooling is our lifestyle. It’s not something we do for a certain amount of time a day to our children. It’s not a short term plan while we travel. It’s how we have designed our whole lives for our family.”
Read Laura’s full reflection below if you are interested in hearing what her family have been up to since we recorded her episode:
Moving forward into 2025, Substack will be the only online platform I will be using. That’s right, I’m saying goodbye to the gram for good. What lies in store for the future of this podcast will unfurl via Substack so make sure you subscribe.
You can also find some of my personal creative writing at Splendid to be - connect with me here if you are into slow, simple and seasonal living. The next two emails I will be sending out before the year’s end will be My Year in Books 2024 and How To Go Analog in January. Because yes, I will be taking a much need break from the digital realm for the first month of the year. I’m calling it Janaloguary - care to join me?
I love the turning of a new year, the opportunity to reflect on how far we’ve come and dream up what the future could hold. I have a few ‘What ifs’ I would love to bring to life in 2025, one of which is an altered flow and a potentially new way to access more Australian Homeschool Stories. Stay tuned, to see what 2025 brings.
I will leave you with an open invitation to join me behind the mic and share your own family’s story. No matter how long you’ve been homeschooling, no matter the ages of your children, the way you approach learning and the town or city you call home - I am always open to hearing and sharing all the ways we Aussie’s do life without school.
Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!
Wishing you joy, slow mornings, encouragement, support, community, adventures, connection and love as you step into your first, second, fifth or twenty-fifth year of homeschooling in 2025.
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
Australian Homeschool Stories the podcast can be heard on all major podcast streaming platforms.
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