By Linn Kelly

I started looking into home education when my son was 6mths old. I couldn’t find much on the internet, but I had some website and forum savvy so I decided to set up a place that would bring homeschoolers to me. It worked and we now have a wonderful and vibrant community of home educators here at Joyous Learning. However, I felt like a bit of a phony; I was the owner and administrator of a home education site but as the mother of a baby I had no experience in homeschooling at all.

As I looked more into home education I found an article by Sandra Dodd called Deschooling for Parents, and this quote stood out for me:

Stop thinking schoolishly. Stop acting teacherishly. Stop talking about learning as though it’s separate from life.

I realised I was still thinking within a ‘schoolish’ framework. I was still thinking that learning begins at 5yrs old and finishes twelve years later. My baby son is learning from life every single day. He needs very little from me in terms of what direction his learning takes as he has a natural curiosity and is naturally challenged by his environment. A lot of what he learns are things he has worked out for himself through either observation or trial and error.

Natural learning is already happening in our home. I know now that all I need to do is continue to provide an environment that is nurturing of his desire and ability to learn, and he’ll learn what he wants and needs to. Learning doesn't begin at some magical age, it starts as soon as we are born (perhaps even before that!), nor does it finish at a certain age or upon the completion of a tertiary institution or apprenticeship - we all continue to learn until we die.

So if you are the parent of a child who is not yet 'school age' and you are interested in home education, don't let your child's age be a barrier to getting involved. Do a little deschooling and you'll be surprised by what you learn!