I never planned to home school my children. But sometimes life takes you somewhere you never expected and somehow, it feels exactly right.

Well… I’ve recently joined the home-schooling gang.

I have one child who would be in Year 4 and another who would have just started Year 7, and I can tell you, home-schooling comes with a LOT of questions.

The main ones I get are:

“How are you going to manage that whilst working?”

“How do you have the patience?”

“Are you following a curriculum?”

So, I thought I’d address some of those questions.

These are my answers for where I am right now. Who knows where we’ll be in a year? Things change, children change, circumstances change and, ultimately, I’m learning as I go too.

But for now, here goes…

How do I manage home-schooling whilst working?

Interestingly, my answer to this and the question about patience are actually connected.

My children and I went through a LOT in 2025.

Their parents separated. They watched people within our family treat their mum unfairly. They lost their grandfather, someone they loved so, so dearly. And, in many ways, they also lost a grandfather's love in this world.

All of that happened whilst they were trying to navigate having a mum who was grieving, processing and finding her way through a completely different life.

And yet, something happened through all of that.

They developed compassion.

They developed emotional intelligence.

They learnt that sometimes Mum needs space to process things.

But perhaps more importantly, they learnt that they need space too.

Looking back, there was almost an alignment happening through all of the pain and loss. Things were changing, whether we were ready for them or not, and somehow it brought us to a point where spending our days together actually made sense.

And what about my patience?

Believe me, my patience was tested long before I decided to home school.

Boy, was it tested.

But perhaps God's plan for building my patience was to break me first.

Because when you've reached what feels like rock bottom, there is only one direction left to go.

Up.

I don't think I would have had the patience I have now if I hadn't been forced to learn it.

And home-schooling isn't about suddenly becoming this perfectly patient mother who never gets frustrated.

I'm still me.

There are still moments.

But there is a difference between reacting and understanding.

And I think everything we went through taught all of us a little more about that.

But how do you home-school whilst working?

My children actually respect my working time.

They know that when I'm working, I'm working. They don't constantly interrupt me because we've established that boundary.

And do you know what I love most about that?

They're learning to be independent.

They're learning how to figure things out themselves.

They're learning self-motivation.

They're learning that they don't always need someone standing over them telling them what to do next.

And honestly, I think those are incredibly valuable skills.

One of my favourite things is watching my eldest work something out by herself.

Not because I gave her the answer.

Not because a teacher showed her exactly how to do it.

But because she figured it out.

And I know she'll remember that feeling.

That feeling of “I didn't know how to do this… and then I worked it out.”

We don't talk enough about how important that is.

So, am I following a curriculum?

Not exactly.

I don't follow a curriculum verbatim.

I work to my child's ability.

If that means she's capable of doing Year 9 work in one particular area, then why would I hold her back because she's technically in Year 7?

And if she needs Year 6 work in another area, then that's what we'll do.

It's individual.

Because children aren't identical.

They don't all learn at the same speed, in the same way, or have the same strengths.

And that's one of the things I love about home-schooling.

I'm not trying to fit my child into a system.

I'm trying to understand my child.

But why take them out of school at all?

For me, I don't think children necessarily need to be sitting in a classroom for as many hours as they currently do.

Think about a typical school day.

There is teaching.

There is behaviour management.

There are transitions.

There are distractions.

There are moments where children are waiting for everyone else to catch up.

And then there is the actual focused learning.

Take away the 30 minutes of a teacher talking, the 10 minutes managing behaviour, the waiting around and everything else that comes with managing a room full of children, and sometimes the actual piece of work a child needs to complete can be surprisingly small.

At home, they can sit down with focus and get through it.

Then they're done.

I'm not saying school is bad.

I'm saying one size doesn't necessarily fit all.

And perhaps that's the whole point.

Do they really need to learn everything?

This is something I've thought about a lot.

As adults, we've all had moments where we've thought:

“Why did I spend so much time learning that when I've never used it?”

Of course, children need a strong foundation.

English.

Maths.

Science.

They need to understand the world around them and have the tools to navigate it.

But beyond those foundations, I'm increasingly interested in what they are actually interested in.

What makes them curious?

What makes them light up?

What do they want to understand?

What do they want to create?

What makes them think?

Because maybe education doesn't have to be about cramming as much information into a child's head as possible.

Maybe it's about teaching them how to think.

How to learn.

How to question.

How to solve problems.

How to trust themselves.

How to keep going when something is difficult.

And then there's the part that I think matters the most…

Emotional and spiritual balance.

Because eventually, they're going to grow up and enter a world that can be overwhelming.

A world full of pressure, opinions, expectations, rejection, comparison, relationships, loss and uncertainty.

And what will help them then?

Knowing every single thing on a syllabus?

Or knowing how to manage their emotions?

Knowing how to regulate themselves?

Knowing who they are?

Knowing how to sit with discomfort without allowing it to consume them?

Knowing how to think for themselves?

Knowing what brings them back to peace?

For me, those things are just as important as academic achievement.

Maybe even more important.

Because I don't just want to raise children who can pass exams.

I want to raise human beings who can navigate life.

And perhaps that's what this home-schooling journey is really becoming for us.

It's not just about taking them out of school.

It's about creating a different way of learning.

A slower way.

A more individual way.

A way that gives them space to discover who they are rather than constantly telling them who they should be.

And I'm not claiming to have it all figured out.

I'm not a home-schooling expert.

I'm a mum figuring it out alongside my children.

Maybe this works for us forever.

Maybe it doesn't.

Maybe our approach changes completely six months from now.

Who knows?

For now, I'm just following what feels right for our family, giving my children room to learn, giving myself room to learn too, and trusting that sometimes the path you never planned for yourself turns out to be the one that makes the most sense.