Seeds of Gratitude
Assunta's Story - Hunter Valley, NSW / Wonnarua Country
Assunta, her husband and two daughters (aged 11 and 8), live on 2.5 acres in the upper Hunter region of New South Wales, where she is never happier than with her feet on the earth and her hands in the dirt. In this conversation we cover how their family navigated the transition from Steiner education to homeschooling, mourning the loss of the life they had envisaged whilst being accepting of change, permaculture, craft clubs, screen boundaries, travelling as a form of deschooling and Assunta’s Seeds of Gratitude curriculum.
This is episode 35 of the Australian Homeschool Stories podcast - Assunta’s Story:
Summary:
How Assunta’s own educational journey left her with a sour taste for public schooling.
To this day she doesn’t wear a watch because she can’t stand being ruled by a clock.
Moving to Sydney to work in the publishing industry as a young woman made her see the world through a different lens. She realised that a materialistic focus wasn’t what felt aligned to her.
After the birth of their eldest daughter, their family made drastic changes to their lifestyle, changing the way they ate and the way they lived and looked at the world through a more natural and holistic sense. This shaped the way they parented and wanted to raise their children.
Her eldest daughter got to grade 2 and her youngest had just started kinder when COVID hit and changed everything.
She went through a period of mourning for the school experience they lost, having prepared herself for the kids to be there for the next 12 years. She felt like there was a lot of detachment she had to do to look towards a new path forward.
The beginning of 2021 marked the official start to their homeschool journey. She had always loved the idea of homeschooling, but had never considered it for their family.
For the first 12 months, she utilised all the co-ops and workshops in the area and felt like she was outsourcing quite a bit, calling themselves ‘part-time homeschoolers’ for this reason.
“Homeschool looks so different to so many different families, just because we were utilising drop off programs didn’t mean we were any less homeschooling.”
It was a good way to ease into this new lifestyle, particularly because it wasn’t a direction they thought they would go in.
Their move to acreage was prompted by wanting to be on land and growing their own food, focusing on nutrition and a healthy family life.
They had a permaculture design plan done on their property, but became overwhelmed with the enormity of it. Recently they have been working on their native food forest.
Permaculture workshops her girls attended in their local area got them very passionate about growing food.
How Assunta created and facilitates her monthly kids craft club.
They have strong boundaries around screens in their home, but there are also benefits in being able to research, use a laptop and go online. Loosening the reigns and being able to open up the world a little bit for the kids is important.
“We’ve consciously created a lifestyle where we have a lot of time flexibility and that’s something that is one of our highest values - time freedom.”
“I’m very accepting of change and when we make a decision to do something we do it wholeheartedly. We go all in on everything we do.”
Gratitude has been a huge catalyst for her own mental wellbeing so building a gratitude curriculum became her passion project.
Seeds of Gratitude is a tool for families to use to build connection and create a strong family unit.
Gratitude, mindfulness and having a lens of appreciation is an amazing foundation for any family.
The curriculum is a 10 week course, suitable for preschool age up until the late the primary years and parents and children can work through it together.
Assunta’s vision for the future:
“I love the idea of my children living on land with us and building homes for their families on our land. Having the experience of my grandchildren homeschooling on the land that I raised my children on.”
Earlier this year they took 4 months off work and went travelling around Australia. This was a transformative period for the whole family. It gave them the space to really, truly, deschool after being thrust into the lifestyle unexpectedly by the pandemic.
“Travelling shaped the path forward. Having more trust in the kids, knowing that they can follow their passion intuitively and we don’t have to set all these standards of where they should be or would be or could be if they were in the system. Just trust.”
The most important thing within this journey is trust. Trust in yourself and trust in your children.
Deschool yourself first. There is so much conditioning we need to break through.
“Forever be open to the journey, the learning experience and the growth.”
Inspiration
Hold Onto Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld & Gabor Mate
Connect
Instagram:
@seedsofgratitude_
@lola_sage_homeschool
@assunta.layla
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
Australian Homeschool Stories the podcast can be heard on all major podcast streaming platforms.
Hello! It’s wonderful to hear your voice again, what a beautiful episode as always. Listening in is such an excellent start to the week. - Bianca :) (encouraging.curiosity)