Family dismiss the common home school myths
They sit in their pyjamas all day.
They are hillbillies who do not brush their hair.
They are serial killers and more famously, they are strictly housebound.
These are only a handful of common myths home schooling families debunk, says the Muller family.
Mother-of-five Clare Muller has been home schooling her children for more than 16 years and says her experience of home schooling has been anything but the above.
“My husband Brett and I wanted an opportunity to educate our kids because we had a concern for our kids, their different learning styles and personalities, ” she said.
“I don’t think the mainstream schooling system can cater to each individual child and their personality because of the number of students in each class; I don’t blame the schools, I just think they do not have that ability.
“As parents, we want our kids to be who they are and we want to build their education as well as their character and life skills, which we believe are equally as important in life.”
Mrs Muller said parents were a big factor in helping develop a child’s character, and home schooling allowed for parents to have more of an influence on their development.
“Parents help build their children’s characters but because the children are at school for so much time, I think the school and school environment often ends up doing a lot of the character building, ” she said.
“I know my kids so well and I have learnt my kids’ ins and outs, especially with their learning styles, personalities, crises they may be going through which could affect their work, their struggles and strengths.
“I don’t know how the teacher could do it with so many students to cater to.”
During their daily routine, Clare gets her three currently-home schooled children up early to do normal tasks such as making their beds, brushing their teeth and having breakfast.
The school day will typically start between 8.30am and 9am, and often her children would have finished their learning by noon which allowed for extracurricular activities such as sport, excursions and art.
As it stands, one of Clare’s daughters, Trinity, should be starting Year 9 this year, according to the school system, but has already completed the Year 9 curriculum and will finish the Year 10 curriculum by the end of this year.
Mrs Muller said that had been the case for some of her other children also, and found they have been working faster through the home schooling system.
“There are many different programs aimed at home educators and small schools so one of the advantages for us is we get to create a schooling curriculum which meets Australian standards, but also allows kids to learn in a way that gets them engaged, ” she said.
“We are able to create opportunities for what their interests are outside of book work, which they can start to explore at a younger age because we have more time.
“We always said if home schooling didn’t work for our family, we would send the kids to school but so far it has been really successful for our children who are well-rounded, very social and diligent young people.”
And as for hillbillies not brushing their hair? “There are so many people who think we are weirdos …— we may be weird, but we are not that weird and we all brush our hair, ” Mrs Muller said.
