Our decision to homeschool our children is often a hot topic of conversation among friends and colleagues. There are the usual jokes, and many people bring up something about socialisation. Britt’s favourite response when asked why we homeschool is, “Why do you send your kids to school?” Honestly, I love her cheeky nature.

I wanted to distill my thoughts on the subject into a blog post so I could share it with people when they ask. So, why do we homeschool? Let’s start with why we’re not that keen on traditional schooling.

Very few of us speak about our schooling in Australia positively. From bullying to anxiety, peer pressure to abuse, the system has been rife with issues. If my house had such problems, you’d never visit, let alone drop your kids off five days a week, every week.

Then there’s the stress the schooling system puts on our household. From rushing out the door in the morning to rushing back for pick-up, and then from school to extracurricular activities – it’s all a whole lot of rushing, stress, and expense that we don’t need to sign up for.

For something most of us hated as children, and also bemoan as adults, it’s kind of strange that we force our delicate and still-forming children into it.

I’ve also been deeply influenced by Seth Godin and his views on school. Reading his “What is school for? in 2009 changed me. With insights like “school pushes hard for wide, not deep” and “education is not the same thing as learning,” Godin has changed my perspective on how the world works and what school is for. I don’t believe the schooling offered by local providers will take my kids where I want them to go, I don’t believe that what I think school is for is what the education departments of Australia think school is for. I don’t need a babysitter or a childcare worker, I want my girls to learn from the best educators and that can (and does) happen outside of school.

I believe our society is in the depths of a parenting pandemic. We’ve outsourced parenting to the government instead of relying on our families, villages, and communities. We depend on underpaid teachers to raise our children, school principals to discipline and lead them, and government bodies to decide what they should learn and how much they should know.

We look to the government to tell our youth how long they should spend on social media or devices, then complain, “My kid spends too much time on their phone,” forgetting that we are the parents, we are in charge, and if the child isn’t listening or taking our lead, that’s still our problem.

I believe my home is my responsibility, so we’ll raise our kids, we’ll lead them, and we’ll teach them how to be awesome adults. Because when we brought them into the world, we didn’t have kids just to have kids; we had kids to bring spectacular adults into the future.

Our goal is that in 30 years, the world will be enamoured by the generosity, kindness, and intelligence of Luna, Goldie, and whoever else may come along.

We’re also those awkward people who actually like our kids and enjoy spending time with them. We want to do that more, so we’re building a life, a business, a home, and a family that allows us to spend as much time together as possible before they want to leave the nest and go and be adults. Someone smart once said we get eighteen summers with our kids. I’m trying to get eighteen winters, springs, and autumns too.

My brother and I visited our grandmother last weekend, but she was too busy for us. Yet she complains we never visit. I have this vision in my head of my old age, decades from now. In my final days, I picture all our children, grandchildren, and perhaps even great-grandchildren being with us at home. That sixty years from now, we would all joyfully and willingly spend our days together, enjoying each other’s company and missing each other when apart. Reverse-engineering that vision requires hard work today.

If I want a strong family in sixty years, I need to build one now, and for me, that starts with homeschooling. As for you and your family, that’s your call – so make the best choice for yourselves.

Our girls have always come along with us in business and travel. I think Luna’s first outing was to the post office. Both she and Goldie are Qantas Silver Frequent Flyers and they are better at airport security than you are. When we go to the shops or work around the house, they’re not just with us – they’re involved and helping. We aim to spend time in nature with them, learning, investigating, looking, and asking questions. Museums, animal parks, libraries, and exhibits are always on our to-do list. Plus, we spend time writing letters to our friends around the world, painting and making art, and reading about the world around us while also engaging with beautiful literature.

Don’t worry that our kids will miss out on academics or socialisation.

In a world moving towards artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation, our hope is that our kids will shine in humanity and real intelligence.

While their peers may be enslaved by iPads, social networks, and devices, we want our children to be empowered to love, communicate, enjoy, and help. When they’re adults I want to be so proud of them, and for that to happen I need to start today.

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” – Frank Herbert, Dune