“That's the beauty of an unschooling lifestyle, it’s just continuing what you’ve always done with your children.”
Having always homeschooled and having been homeschooled herself, Debbie’s story spans across both analog and digital generations. Whilst she never set out to become a radical unschooler, she now confidently embraces the path her family have chosen. Along the way she has created a viable small business that has the potential to revolutionise the way we balance working and homeschooling, a dilemma many modern home educating families face.
Summary:
- Homeschooling was a very unusual choice 30 years ago. She never thought of herself as weird or strange but looking back she could see how tiny the homeschooling community must have been compared to what it is now.
- Whilst it might have been true back then, the perception that people have of homeschooling today, that children aren’t going to be able to socialise and they will be stuck at home, is so inaccurate.
- School as it is currently laid out, is not very effective.
- Having a transformative VBAC home birth with her second child proved to be a catalyst for considering homeschooling for her own children.
- When your child is two and you are going to the local show that’s got diggers, you are unschooling. You’re following your child’s interests. You just keep doing that as they get older, ignoring that there's an arbitrary age where some people have decided that we should start doing learning only through doing book work and we should start learning only by doing a particular subject in a particular way.
- Debbie shares her interpretation of the differences between unschooling and radical unschooling. She doesn't believe anyone identifies with radical unschooling unless they actually are unschooling all of the time.
- Debbie created The Village Hub as there was no place that existed where you could take your kids and they could have some fun and you could also get some work done. The Village Hub is an unschooling friendly space. It is not structured. It is free play. It is messy play.
- With the homeschool community continuing to grow, this could be the way of the future - having hubs in every area of Australia is her next dream because it really does tick so many boxes. She would love to mentor others to open something similar to The Village Hub in other areas of Queensland and Australia.
- On the 6th of March 2024, legislation changes were proposed that impact homeschooling in Queensland and Debbie is working with the Free 2 Homeschool advocacy team. She outlines the major changes that are being proposed and how we can all get involved and do our bit to help.
NOTE: This is an abridged version of the show notes.
Follow the link below to dive deeper and find quotes, links and references that Debbie shares in this episode:
FULL SHOW NOTES HERE
Connect:
Instagram - @thevillagehub.qld
Facebook - The Village Hub
Instagram - @australianhomeschoolstories
Substack - Australian Homeschool Stories
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.