Anna is a worm farmer, author and homesteading mother of three children aged 15, 7 and 2. In this episode she shares her journey from suburbia to living off the land and her eldest daughter’s winding educational road to homeschooling. We also talk about permaculture, living life by design, managing chronic illness and her brilliant book Homegrown Healthy Living.
This is episode 39 of Australian Home School Stories - Anna’s Story.
This episode is brought to you by my local library. It was here that I came to first know Anna by way of her incredible book. If you’ve been listening to this podcast for some time you may know I am quite fond of the online library catalogue.
Side note: if you want to read more books and save money, swap doom scrolling for tome scrolling, get off the socials and onto your local library app instead.
Last winter I typed one of my favourite words into the search bar - homegrown. Up popped Homegrown Healthy Living by Anna Axisa and straight into my holds it went. I collected the book and it sat in my non-fiction reading stack for a week or so, but once I opened it and began reading, I couldn’t put it down.
Anna’s book, which you will hear us reference in this conversation, and which she is kindly offering listeners free shipping on (stick around until the end of the conversation for coupon code) is self-published, deeply inspiring, informative and practical. This essential Australian homesteading guidebook tells the story of their family's journey from suburbia to living off the land and includes practical skills, recipes and projects to support others to live a homesteading lifestyle - no matter where you call home.
I felt personally aligned with Anna’s vision but the one thing I kept asking myself as I read Anna’s story, was ‘why isn’t she homeschooling her kids?’
When I closed the final page, I opened up instagram to find and connect with her, and lo and behold, in the time since the book had been published, she and her eldest daughter had stepped out of mainstreaming schooling and were now proudly home educating. Woo hoo! I silently high fived her through my phone. I knew I had to bring her on the show to hear the next chapter in their families story of how their homesteading life had eventually led them to homeschooling.
Summary:
Anna’s parents separated when she was 4 and she started school at the same age. She felt shy, timid, anxious and little. These feelings carried on through primary school. She found it hard to make connections, and feel safe and supported in that environment.
Things did not improve come high school. It wasn’t a place she wanted to be. She had plenty of friends but found it hard to find true connections. It was easy to not show up.
She believes that starting school at such an early age had an influence on her entire education.
She was adamant she didn’t want to attend years 11 and 12. Instead Anna went on to complete a 12 month beauty course and began working full time as a beauty therapist at the age of 16. She fell pregnant and gave birth to her eldest at 19 years of age.
Anna felt like she had purpose, direction and context to her life when she became pregnant. But the reality of becoming a mother at 19 was a shock. She and her daughter have grown up together.
When she was 21, she met her now husband Peter. They talked about having their own property one day, a place to call home.
Anna shares the story of how they found their 10 acre property on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. There was no power, water or services to the block which sat on a steep elevation. No one wanted it and it was all they could afford.
Life on the land began in 2014 with a tent, a 4 year old and no money in the bank.
They wanted to make an income from the land, but being so steep that was going to be difficult. Anna came across an ad for a commercial worm farm for sale. It really spoke to Peter as he was into permaculture and regenerative farming. Worms were a good choice for living on a hill.
They were able to grow with the business over the years and upgrade from the tent to the shed - or shouse, as they call it.
Worms lead to chickens, lead to goats, lead to pigs and their hobby farm grew and grew.
Just before she and Peter were married, Anna was diagnosed with MS. After they were married their daughter Elke was born, and Anna found herself juggling a chronic health condition, homesteading and running a business.
They are self described permaculture nerds who live life by design.
“We don’t have to just do things just because that’s the way the’ve always been done. How can we observe and interact and self regulate and apply feedback?”
Based on her own schooling, Anna’s eldest daughter didn’t start school until she was 6 years old.
Never did it cross her mind that homeschooling would be the right option for them.
Lacey began at the local school and everything seemed okay but at the end of year 1 something didn’t feel right. There was another school, a private school, which she got sucked into thinking would be better and it had all the bells and whistles. Including a rock climbing wall. Lacey attended this school for years 2 - 5.
Anna’s motto has always been if somethings not working, then change it.
Lacey moved onto a third school, a small catholic school and that was a really great fit. The class sizes were small and she felt the teachers were nurturing and supportive.
Then came high school and there weren’t many options, so they sent her back to the private school with the rock climbing wall.
“At the end of year 7, Peter and I just looked at each other and shook our heads and went ‘Where has our little girl gone? What have we done? What have we done? What have we done?’”
Lacey had no idea what was going on in the classroom, and had no idea what the teacher was talking about. The information wasn’t gelling with her and that led to her getting caught up in toxic social interactions and playground politics.
“Hang on a minute, why are we are spending thousand of dollars for her to go here to be involved in all this?”
The light bulb came on all of a sudden for Anna. She asked her daughter if she might like to give homeschooling a go and Lacey was really excited about the idea.
They have now been homeschooling for two years.
Together they had an initial healing period where they were able to soak up each others company and not put too much pressure on things.
“We were able to tailor our path forward together rather than me saying this is what we are going to do.”
Anna felt overwhelmed at first by the speed of the transition and felt concerned that she was going to do the wrong thing. They purchased a digital curriculum program - Education Perfect. This worked well for them as she could pick the year level that suited Lacey, not just the year level she was in. It took them a little while to figure out where she was really at, what she was interested in.
“I don’t care what you are learning about, let’s just find something you are interested in and start from there.”
In their second year of homeschooling Anna felt confident they no longer needed a curriculum.
“You know what, we are going to go this alone.
I thought, we’ve got this.
I thought about what Laceys week actually looked like and how much we were covering just by doing what we do.”
Lacey is a part of the Australian Navy Cadets - a wonderful program full of skills, camps and socialisation opportunities that is completely free.
They decided to keep their younger daughter in school for now and every fortnight Anna and Lacey volunteer in Elke’s school canteen.
“I wanted to give Lacey my time. I made this decision for Lacey.”
Anna felt like she wouldn’t be able to give Lacey her focus and attention if both of her daughters were home.
As a family they try and grow as much food as they can for themselves and they swap, barter and trade with others as well.
When Lacey turned 15 she was able to start TAFE and she has begun her Certificate II in Animal Care.
Maths is Lacey’s least favourite subject, so they sought out a maths tutor for her with the intention of focusing solely on the maths skills she will require if she wants to continue down the path of VET nursing. This way the learning is applicable and not just hypothetical.
Homegrown Healthy Living has become a blueprint to how Anna strives to live her life each day. They started out on the self-sufficency path but now she prefers to say they are striving for resilience. She comes back to the book often. In writing it she has laid out the things that are important to her. Such as eating as well as possible. A lot of things come back to nutrition. They take the food is medicine approach.
“I get my fulfilment from being at home, from crafting, from being in the garden - that is my place.”
Life by design means coming back to the permaculture principles and setting life up to do the things she enjoys, being productive and spending time with the kids as well.
Permaculture is not just gardening. It’s an approach to life.
It’s an innate knowing that as a family they are conscious about the decisions they make for their lives. They know their context. Their why. They are continually tuning into each other and their surroundings.
“Trust that you know your child better than anyone.”
Dive Deeper:
Download a FREE worm farm starter guide
Purchase a signed copy of Homegrown Healthy Living book
Connect:
Website - homegrownhealth.au
Instagram - @homegrown_healthy_living
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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