Home education stories: family bonds

Weronika: My name is Weronika, and I have five children who I am home educating. I've been home educating for about 12 years. My eldest daughter is 15. I've got two sons, aged 12 and nine, and I've got two younger daughters aged seven and 21 months.

When we are home educating, we spend so much time together as a family. So it really strengthens our bonds in all of the things that we do. We're doing everything together, so it really lets the children have a chance to develop their sibling bonds.

For teamwork, I think it's important that the children realise that they are part of a family. Everyone has to help out with tidying up and doing a few chores, and if one of the siblings needs help with something, then one of the older siblings might be able to help.

One of the main things we love to do is just read together—do read-alouds. I love just sitting on the sofa with all of the children around me. We also love baking as well, and we try to bake our own snacks a few times a week so we can have some really delicious foods that are more healthy.

Home educating multiple children definitely has its challenges, and I think the biggest one is when you've got a toddler or a baby to look after because they can be quite disruptive. I like to spend time with the younger ones before we actually begin our homeschool day, to make sure that they've had that one-on-one time with me. Whether it's playing with some toys or reading some books together.

With my 12-year-old, for example, he's very, very active and he finds it very difficult to sit still. So I always have to be aware of his need for movement. Then my nine-year-old, he's a little bit quieter, so he might not come up with so many ideas all the time, but he's a very deep thinker. So, you know, I like to have deep and meaningful conversations with him.

And then my seven-year-old—she's also quite active, and she's very creative as well. She likes to do arts and crafts, so I make sure that she's got lots of opportunities to do that.

My eldest daughter actually goes to school now. She's in year ten, and that was totally her choice to do that. And I just like to support my children's choices.

There can be a bit more friction between her and the other siblings. She's really happy at school. She doesn't want to come out of school. The others are happy at home. I think it's difficult to facilitate both, actually, because it means that you have to kind of adapt and maybe not have as much freedom and flexibility as you would if you completely home educated.

I think it's just important when you've got some children at school and some at home, to try and create some fun, shared experiences.It is very interesting to see how different siblings can be, because you just think, wow, there's five of them, but they've all got completely different personalities and different ways of learning.