By Anne-Marie Jones

Homeschool. That word is full of judgement, pre-conceived ideas, and negativity, isn’t it?

Or what if I said it could be a word full of possibilities. Creating a generation of happy kids with a genuine love of learning.

Last October, my whole world changed. Here is my familys story.

Quick background, my husband Jonathon and I have one son, Chase, who is 10. After Covid, my husband became our primary caregiver, and I mostly freelance/work from home and study – our household runs a little differently to most. I do a lot of random things like film shoots, markets, etc, so every week is different for me.

Chase attended our local public school for the first two years, and it was mostly OK. He had a good group of friends and was happy there. One day he came home with his workbook and an entire page of work was all wrong and unmarked. I asked him if his teacher had seen it, he said “No, the teacher had to go and do something so she wasn’t there”. She hadn’t explained the work, just left them with a worksheet she didn’t have the time to go over with them.

I remember seeing a photo of Chases class, nearly 100 of them sitting on the floor holding whiteboards, the teacher would call out a spelling word and they’d have to write it on the their whiteboards, she wouldn’t/couldn’t check them. It reminded me of the photos that World Vision would promote of the kids in third world countries, all huddled up on the school floor.

Jonathon and I had a talk, and thought we should try something different. One of Chase’s preschool friends had moved on to a smaller, independent school, so we looked into that and Chase had three amazing, happy years there until last year it announced it wasn’t reopening for 2025. That was quite a shock! With a year to go til intermediate, it made it tricky to find another school, so although homeschool wasn’t something we ever thought we’d do, we decided to give it a go.

Homeschoolers come from all walks of life, with a wide range of beliefs and values, and in general we are all respectful of each other. I’ve had to bite my tongue a few times where I see content about creationism/anti-evolution, and parents opposing LGBTQ+ content – we have to co-exist in the same spaces so mostly we all get along pretty well.

Each week is so busy and so varied, which we love! Some families follow a more rigid schedule, but everyone has a totally different approach. We wanted to follow Chases interests so we change things depending where we are all at, letting it evolve somewhat organically.

For us, homeschool is a temporary situation, so we are trying to also prepare Chase for his transition back to school next year. His last school was very laid back so even things like uniform and doing homework will be new to him, so we are trying to make it easier for him to adjust by setting Chase small homework tasks which he is responsible to get finished in his own time.

A typical day –

Chase and I aren’t big on routine but we are trying to be fairly consistent. Most of the time, our day starts somewhere between 9 – 9.30, we aren’t too strict on the time. Jonathon and Chase do about two hours of book work together in that time, always Maths, English, spelling words then usually some Science or Social Studies.

I’ll do my computer work and some work for my art course during that time, unless I’ve got something else on.

Chase gets a long lunch break then I either start the afternoon lessons or he goes out for the afternoon. Chase does swimming, a social/activity group for homeschoolers, a parkour class, and a sports group or sometimes we just hang out with friends. If it’s an afternoon at home, we cover a range of topics, it’s a bit more laid back than the morning learning, mostly it’s to reinforce skills learnt earlier, not learning new material, or we cover topic studies, we might make a book, watch educational videos, do a hands-on craft activity, etc.

That may not seem like a lot of actual learning, since most kids are in school for 6 hours a day, but homeschool kids do a lot of their learning during their day to day life, there are lots of things we don’t count as part of the school day like cooking/baking, cultural experiences and trips, reading/craft/LEGO etc done outside of school hours. The learning experiences aren’t just from 9 – 3 for us. We follow the school terms too, and have public holidays off.

Chases learning is literally one on one, so he doesn’t need as much book work time as he would at school – remember, I said earlier about the classroom with 100 kids where the teacher didn’t even look at his work? He’s way more focused and engaged, and everything is catered exactly to his level.

A few questions people have about homeschool –

Costs/payment

People wonder about what costs are involved with homeschooling, and what payments and support are available.

Twice a year, homeschool families receive a payment of around $340 for their first child, and a bit more for additional kids. This is back paid for the last 6 months you’ve been homeschooling. We do not receive ‘benefits’. There is debate in the homeschool community as to whether we should receive a weekly allowance to enable us to homeschool, I don’t know if that would be a good idea, though it would definitely help.

Every family has different expenses but ours include swimming lessons, parkour, petrol for driving to events, small payments for events that are $5-10 per session , plus our school books and resources.

Socialising

That seems to be one of the main worries for people, which is fair. With Chase being an only child, we had the same concern. The reality is, there are so many opportunities out there, and so many different groups to join and things to do, the kids are only isolated if you are.

Ironically, the school that Chase was at was so small there were only 4 boys in his entire class last year, and his best friend from school is now also home schooling, so socialisation is much better this year!

I started hosting my own small events for Chase and his friends, and to meet some new people, and that’s quickly grown! I have lots of events coming up in the next few months, including organising an entire kids market.

How to start

You need to apply to the Ministry of Education for what’s called an Exemption Certificate. In New Zealand, every resident ages between 6 and 16 must be enrolled in, and regularly attending, a school. An Exemption Certificate means your child is exempt from attending school.

When you apply for an Exemption Certificate, you have to demonstrate that your child will be educated as well as, and as regularly as, a school. It’s not an easy process, you have to put a bit of effort in! We purchased a guide by Cynthia Hancox and that was incredibly helpful, otherwise we wouldn’t have known what to do.

Your Exemption Certificate is valid until your child turns 16, or until they are registered in school (or if you move overseas). You have 10 weeks to ‘trial’ school and if you decide to return to homeschooling within that time frame, you don’t need to reapply.

Testing/Curriculum

Another thing people wonder about is how are families held accountable for their kids learning, are there tests, do they have to follow the NZ curriculum? The answer is NO. Once you have the Exemption Certificate, you’re on your own!

Apparently (I say apparently as I don’t have actual first-hand experience and may not be entirely correct), the MOE have the capacity to audit about 35 kids a year, but this is generally only done when Oranga Tamariki has had some involvement with the family, they don’t typically conduct an audit on the average family.

There are no ‘tests’, no standards to meet, no one checking in on you to see how it’s all going. And no support from MOE other than access to a website with a few free books etc.

It’s a double edged sword. Some people in the homeschool community believe the government should have no involvement as to how they teach their child. On the other hand it would be helpful to have more support and advice available from them, and a way to know if our learning is on the right track.

Many homeschoolers don’t follow the NZ curriculum, they might follow a faith-based curriculum, a different countries, set their own child-let programme, or they might ‘unschool’ or ‘deschool’ (unschooling is a far more relaxed, and holistic approach to education, deschooling is detox). With Chase hoping to attend intermediate next year, we stick pretty close to the NZ curriculum

High School/Uni and The Real World

People often wonder who homeschool kids will get on if they enrol in a mainstream high school, or want to go to tertiary study. In general, they do very well. Homeschool teens have a high rate of getting into university, and most do well if they end up transitioning to a high school.

Te Kura vs Homeschool

Many people think ‘Te Kura’ (the online correspondence school) is homeschooling, and technically it’s not, even though the kids/teens are learning from home.

Te Kura is following a set NZ curriculum, and is a registered ‘school’, which does not require an Exemption Certificate. There are strict criteria to meet to enrol, or there are fee-paying options as well. So this is not considered homeschooling, though Te Kura students are always welcome to join in with homeschool activities.

Finding the right fit of school is so important, and it is so hard for most of us to do! I wish I had the ability to start a school like the one Chase went to, with small classes, hands-on and engaging, where school catered to the individual. Not ‘another brick in the wall’ like school was mostly in my day, and mostly still seems to be now.

Education is an important part of life, but it’s also not everything, and homeschooling has helped many of us create a family/life balance, of not only educating our kids with book work, but also helping to shape them into confident, independent and well adjusted young people, with good life skills – the stuff that school can’t teach.