# Why We Chose to Homeschool and What Happened Next

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 27 Jan 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/74c1095a-a0d3-4ffd-af9f-b3d200b8f8d3/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

When school becomes a source of anxiety, exhaustion, and lost love of learning, something has to give. In this deeply honest episode, Justin & Kylie share why they made the controversial leap into homeschooling - what pushed them to act, what surprised them, and what the research actually says about outcomes. If you’ve ever worried your child is struggling in the system, this episode may change the way you see education. KEY POINTS • The real drivers behind Australia’s homeschooling surge (hint: it’s not ideology) • Why kids who struggle at school often thrive at home • What the data actually shows about NAPLAN, university outcomes & social skills • The surprising benefits Kylie sees day-to-day with flexibility, autonomy & mental wellbeing • Why homeschooling isn’t “all or nothing”—and how parents can test without regret • The single parenting factor that matters more than the schooling model QUOTE OF THE EPISODE “Motivated, engaged parents produce good outcomes for their kids—regardless of the schooling method.” RESOURCES MENTIONED • Australian homeschooling growth statistics • US research on long-term academic & social outcomes ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS • Observe — Notice learning behaviours: anxiety, disengagement, excitement, curiosity. • Experiment — Try small schooling variations (flex days, distance options, tutoring, hybrid). • Connect — Talk to homeschooling communities to understand real-world rhythms. • Review — Ask your child how they feel about learning—not just school. • Decide lightly — Treat schooling as a season, not a life sentence; you can always change course. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:06] Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to the Happy Families Podcast. My name's doctor
[0:09] Speaker 1: Justin Colson, and today on the pod the question we
[0:13] Speaker 1: get asked all the time, why do you homeschool? Today,
[0:17] Speaker 1: Kylie and I answer that question and the research behind it.
[0:22] Speaker 1: Stay with us. Hello, welcome to the Happy Family's podcast,
[0:26] Speaker 1: where you get real parenting solutions every single day. This
[0:28] Speaker 1: is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast where Justin and Kylie Coulson.
[0:32] Speaker 1: I'm the author of a bunch of books about raising
[0:33] Speaker 1: happy families, and we're also the parents of six kids.
[0:36] Speaker 1: Oh and grandparents have a beautiful baby granddaughter. We received
[0:41] Speaker 1: this message from a Melbourne mum just recently and thought
[0:45] Speaker 1: it was a good topic for discussion.
[0:48] Speaker 2: I was wondering if you could please give us an
[0:51] Speaker 2: update on your home school journey and how you got started.
[0:57] Speaker 2: I'm very interested. I've actually gone over your old podcasts
[1:01] Speaker 2: from probably about a year ago and very interested to
[1:04] Speaker 2: hear how things are going. I'm sort of swinging from
[1:08] Speaker 2: one side to the other to where to take the
[1:10] Speaker 2: leap into homeschool and I really love to hear your perspective.
[1:15] Speaker 1: Thank you, Kylie. I really would love to answer this question.
[1:19] Speaker 1: I've got another of things that I've jotted down in
[1:21] Speaker 1: my notes. But I know that this is really your domain.
[1:25] Speaker 1: You do most most of you do ninety nine percent
[1:29] Speaker 1: of the homeschooling. I get involved every now and again.
[1:31] Speaker 1: I have some conversations, but really.
[1:33] Speaker 3: Is that the surf lesson?
[1:34] Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I take it to other stuff. I'm involved.
[1:39] Speaker 1: I'm involved. Gosh, that made me look like a bad dad.
[1:42] Speaker 1: So first of all, why did we start doing it?
[1:46] Speaker 1: Let's go through that, and then we'll talk about how
[1:47] Speaker 1: it's going.
[1:48] Speaker 3: It's a conversation we've been having for more than ten years,
[1:52] Speaker 3: a decade easily, and I couldn't. I literally couldn't say yes.
[2:00] Speaker 3: And I look back now and wish that I had
[2:02] Speaker 3: of just Number one had the confidence in myself. But
[2:05] Speaker 3: Number two trusted that when we were questioning what was
[2:09] Speaker 3: happening for our children in the school system, that we
[2:11] Speaker 3: were actually right because with one of our children, particularly
[2:16] Speaker 3: who's now finished school, her experience, her education experience would
[2:20] Speaker 3: have completely changed as a result.
[2:23] Speaker 1: So when we were having this conversation, there were a
[2:25] Speaker 1: range of factors that we were talking about. I'm going
[2:28] Speaker 1: to encompass several of them in one that I'm going
[2:30] Speaker 1: to call safety. So from a physical point of view,
[2:34] Speaker 1: an emotional point of view, there was when you're homeschool
[2:37] Speaker 1: there's no bullying, there's no school violence, there's no unsafety,
[2:39] Speaker 1: a dynamics, the kids can learn without anxiety and performance
[2:43] Speaker 1: pressure and comparison culture. I think it's really interesting. I
[2:46] Speaker 1: mentioned this in last week's pod, but bullying and school
[2:49] Speaker 1: refusal are driving Australia's homeschooling surge. It's up ninety two
[2:53] Speaker 1: percent nationally since twenty twenty. It's up one hundred and
[2:56] Speaker 1: sixty three percent in Queensland. So those issues were were
[3:00] Speaker 1: right at the top of the ladder for us, and
[3:02] Speaker 1: also things around neurodivergence, like schools are designed for neurotypical brains.
[3:08] Speaker 1: Two thirds of homeschooling families have a child who has
[3:11] Speaker 1: a disability or health issues. And the great thing about
[3:13] Speaker 1: homeschooling is you can tailor the pace, you can tailor
[3:15] Speaker 1: the environment, you can tailor your expectations to the actual child.
[3:19] Speaker 1: So we saw that and thought there's definitely an opportunity
[3:23] Speaker 1: for us to serve our children better by doing that.
[3:25] Speaker 3: And it's interesting. When I sat down with Emily at
[3:28] Speaker 3: the end of last year, to ask her whether or
[3:30] Speaker 3: not we should continue homeschooling we've been doing it for
[3:33] Speaker 3: now just over two.
[3:34] Speaker 1: Years, or do you want to go back to a
[3:35] Speaker 1: big school, a real school for like what it was
[3:38] Speaker 1: a great grade six this year, and.
[3:41] Speaker 3: The things that she shared, she rattled them off without
[3:45] Speaker 3: a second of thinking. It was literally she loves the
[3:50] Speaker 3: fact that I'm her teacher, that she only has to
[3:53] Speaker 3: do about two hours of school every day, so and
[3:56] Speaker 3: there's so much flexibility around when that learning schedule takes place,
[4:00] Speaker 3: and she gets to do it in a familiar environment
[4:02] Speaker 3: like home. That she has beautiful friends that we've made
[4:05] Speaker 3: in the homeschool community. She gets to have regular catch
[4:08] Speaker 3: ups with them, not just outside of school. We're trying
[4:10] Speaker 3: to squeeze it in between all the extracurricular and family actually, so.
[4:13] Speaker 1: We can literally give them a call and say, hey,
[4:15] Speaker 1: are you free on Wednesday? We thought we might get
[4:17] Speaker 1: the kids together for four hours.
[4:19] Speaker 3: But there is lots of free time for her to
[4:22] Speaker 3: be creative, and there's more time available for her to
[4:25] Speaker 3: actually earn money. Like those were things that really jumped
[4:27] Speaker 3: out at her.
[4:28] Speaker 1: Yeah, there's not much that I can add to that.
[4:30] Speaker 1: It's a really nice list. There's more self directed learning,
[4:32] Speaker 1: is what I had on my list, So that aligns
[4:35] Speaker 1: with autonomy and self determination theory and at Foster's intrinsic motivation,
[4:40] Speaker 1: not compliance. It's more flexible, like you're going to go
[4:44] Speaker 1: overseas with them on a little bit later this year
[4:46] Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks, and that's going to be
[4:48] Speaker 1: a homeschool study trip, and you can do homeschooling while
[4:51] Speaker 1: you're there. But also the experience that you're going to
[4:54] Speaker 1: have with her is just amazing.
[4:56] Speaker 3: You're jealous, aren't you.
[4:57] Speaker 1: Yeah, because I'm staying here so that I can go.
[5:00] Speaker 1: I had a whole lot of schools during the school
[5:01] Speaker 1: term and give talks to parents, which is an important
[5:03] Speaker 1: thing that I do as well. I don't know if
[5:07] Speaker 1: we've talked about the extracurricular opportunities, but there's so many.
[5:11] Speaker 1: There's so many, and you've got the space in the time,
[5:12] Speaker 1: Like you're not doing this crazy panic rush between four
[5:15] Speaker 1: point thirty pm and six thirty pm.
[5:18] Speaker 3: I hadn't even really thought about that. But because there's
[5:20] Speaker 3: so much space around her learning, she actually enjoys the
[5:24] Speaker 3: process so much more.
[5:26] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So there's some of the
[5:29] Speaker 1: reasons that we decided to kick on and do it,
[5:32] Speaker 1: And maybe the biggest one for me is just the
[5:35] Speaker 1: freedom from the academic pressure. Like she's not worried about
[5:40] Speaker 1: naplan results. She's not worried about having to sit down
[5:42] Speaker 1: and do a school test or anything like that. I
[5:44] Speaker 1: know some people say, well, kids should get used to
[5:46] Speaker 1: that stuff. I disagree, Like, why why do they need
[5:48] Speaker 1: to do it? There's nothing like that happens in the workplace.
[5:51] Speaker 1: Like if you're at work, nobody's saying I need an
[5:54] Speaker 1: answer to this, and you've got five seconds to give
[5:56] Speaker 1: it to me, right, Like you can google stuff, you
[5:59] Speaker 1: can talk colleagues about things. And when you do get
[6:03] Speaker 1: to a point, let's say you're a surgeon or a pilot,
[6:05] Speaker 1: Yes you do did know stuff, of course, but.
[6:06] Speaker 3: You leave motivated to learn at that point. That's right.
[6:09] Speaker 1: You're an adult. You're learning it, and then you go
[6:11] Speaker 1: and do it and you practice it. It's a totally
[6:13] Speaker 1: different context. So they're the reasons that we did it,
[6:16] Speaker 1: and there are no regrets. It is hard. It's really
[6:20] Speaker 1: impactful on your life, particularly like it takes away your freedom.
[6:23] Speaker 1: You don't have that time during the day that parents
[6:25] Speaker 1: whose kids go to school have but anyway, for the
[6:28] Speaker 1: Melbourne mum, they're the reasons that we started it and
[6:32] Speaker 1: they're the reasons that Emily loves it as well. After
[6:34] Speaker 1: the break, I've done some digging. I've got data. I've
[6:37] Speaker 1: got actual data on how homeschool kids do compare to
[6:40] Speaker 1: kids who go to school. It's coming up next. Stay
[6:43] Speaker 1: with us, we're back. This is the Happy Families podcast today. Homeschooling.
[6:54] Speaker 1: Is it good for kids? Is it not good for kids?
[6:56] Speaker 1: How's it working out for us? That's the topic of conversation.
[6:59] Speaker 3: I am really curious what does the research actually say.
[7:02] Speaker 1: It's hard to find good research because homeschooling is so varied.
[7:07] Speaker 3: And that's been my experience in that every homeschooling family
[7:11] Speaker 3: I meet, there is no two families that do it
[7:14] Speaker 3: the same.
[7:15] Speaker 1: Everyone's doing it differently. Everyone's doing it and there is
[7:17] Speaker 1: one particularly big brand called Yuka that is probably the
[7:21] Speaker 1: dominant syllabus or curriculum here in Australia. So there are
[7:24] Speaker 1: a lot of people who are doing that, but they
[7:26] Speaker 1: still do it their way. Like, there's so much variance
[7:29] Speaker 1: in how people do it, so which.
[7:31] Speaker 3: In and of itself suggests that there's no one size
[7:35] Speaker 3: fits all for children, right and families.
[7:39] Speaker 1: And so I can't find any evidence that homeschooling is
[7:42] Speaker 1: quite unquoite better or the traditional schooling is quite unquite better.
[7:45] Speaker 1: And I think that's a really important point to make.
[7:48] Speaker 1: Why is that, Well, I've already mentioned the variation in
[7:51] Speaker 1: the way that people do homeschooling. Some people are doing
[7:54] Speaker 1: like a rigorous classical education and bringing in tutors, and
[7:58] Speaker 1: the children are doing piano when they're doing jiu jitsu,
[8:01] Speaker 1: when they're doing all.
[8:02] Speaker 3: The things lessons exactly.
[8:04] Speaker 1: And other families are like, we're unschooling. There's no rules,
[8:09] Speaker 1: the kids can learn what they want when they want,
[8:11] Speaker 1: so that makes it challenging. There's no standardized testing, Like
[8:14] Speaker 1: it's very very very rare to find homeschoolers whose kids
[8:17] Speaker 1: are doing naplan. There's a lot of self selection bias
[8:21] Speaker 1: as well in the data. And I know I'm sort
[8:22] Speaker 1: of geeking out on this, but it's really important to
[8:24] Speaker 1: highlight why this is tricky. So families who homeschool are
[8:27] Speaker 1: already kind of different, like they've got more flexibility. Quite often,
[8:33] Speaker 1: not always, but quite often, they'll be more involved in
[8:35] Speaker 1: their children's lives. That they'll often have more resources because
[8:39] Speaker 1: it really does require at least one parent to be
[8:42] Speaker 1: actively full time engaged with the children, and.
[8:46] Speaker 3: Or they're actively choosing to go without.
[8:49] Speaker 1: Right, yes, exactly, which we've discussed on the podcast before,
[8:52] Speaker 1: certainly something that we've stepped into. So here's what the
[8:56] Speaker 1: research does show. First off, when it comes to Australian data,
[8:59] Speaker 1: the homeschoolers who do do naplan, and I know I
[9:01] Speaker 1: said most don't, but there are some who do. And
[9:03] Speaker 1: the homeschoolers who are doing naplan because their parents are
[9:06] Speaker 1: heavily involved and they do want to make sure the
[9:07] Speaker 1: kids aren't quite unquite falling behind. They score seventy marks
[9:11] Speaker 1: higher on average seven zero. They are scoring really really
[9:14] Speaker 1: well on NAPLAN, And again there's a selection bias in that,
[9:18] Speaker 1: so I'm not sure how much we can take from it.
[9:19] Speaker 1: But the other thing that I found was some US
[9:22] Speaker 1: data which showed that homeschooled kids in the US are
[9:25] Speaker 1: scoring fifteen to thirty percentile points higher on standardized tests.
[9:29] Speaker 1: So there's also the social emotional outcomes and they're quite positive, right,
[9:34] Speaker 1: So international surveys show that homeschoolers do not have any
[9:38] Speaker 1: social deficits versus traditionally schooled peers. There's no evidence of
[9:42] Speaker 1: worse mental health outcomes, and some studies actually indicate that
[9:46] Speaker 1: there is better self concept with homeschool kids and lower anxiety.
[9:50] Speaker 1: So I think that that's really interesting data and the
[9:53] Speaker 1: longer term outcomes. If I was to summarize it in
[9:55] Speaker 1: one sentence, I would say that long term outcomes are encouraging.
[9:58] Speaker 1: What do I mean by that? Kids who are homeschooled
[10:01] Speaker 1: attend university at similar or higher rates to kids who
[10:05] Speaker 1: go through a traditional schooling pathway, and there's no evidence
[10:08] Speaker 1: anywhere of career disadvantage. Some studies actually show that homeschooled
[10:13] Speaker 1: kids are more entrepreneurial, they have an advantage around their
[10:16] Speaker 1: creativity in starting businesses and that kind of thing.
[10:20] Speaker 3: So what I'm taking from all of that is that
[10:23] Speaker 3: there actually isn't any clear data at all.
[10:27] Speaker 1: I think that that would be a misrepresentation of what
[10:30] Speaker 1: data we do have. The data is mixed, but it's encouraging,
[10:33] Speaker 1: is how I would say it. So we don't have
[10:35] Speaker 1: research proving that homeschooling is academically superior. I can say
[10:40] Speaker 1: that categorically, but I will also reverse that and say
[10:44] Speaker 1: we don't have any research proving that traditional schooling is
[10:47] Speaker 1: better than homeschooling, either.
[10:50] Speaker 3: From our personal experience in homeschooling, in traditional schooling, and
[10:56] Speaker 3: even your schooling experience. I mean, you finished high school
[11:01] Speaker 3: in the bottom fifteen percent of the state. You were
[11:04] Speaker 3: pretty much a high school dropout for all intensity purposes.
[11:08] Speaker 3: I really did not attend classes. Yes, and yet you
[11:13] Speaker 3: sit here with years and years of experience and education
[11:20] Speaker 3: under your belt because there came a point in your
[11:22] Speaker 3: life where you were motivated to learn. And I think
[11:26] Speaker 3: that happens for most of us at some point in
[11:28] Speaker 3: our lives. We're motivated to learn. And when we're motivated
[11:31] Speaker 3: to learn, learning is so good, like we enjoy the
[11:36] Speaker 3: process even when it's hard, because it's so good and
[11:39] Speaker 3: we want something. And if I was to go back
[11:43] Speaker 3: to my ten years ago when we started the conversation.
[11:47] Speaker 1: And we still had six kids in school back then.
[11:51] Speaker 3: I wish that I had of known that making that
[11:54] Speaker 3: one decision was not set in concrete. It didn't lock
[11:58] Speaker 3: us into a decision. If you want to do homeschooling,
[12:02] Speaker 3: give it a go. It's a massive learning curve as
[12:05] Speaker 3: a parent taking on that new responsibility and working out
[12:09] Speaker 3: how you and your child work together. But if it
[12:12] Speaker 3: doesn't work, you just go back to school.
[12:14] Speaker 1: We've got some friends who did exactly that. They gave
[12:17] Speaker 1: it a crack. Wasn't working for them. Kids back at school,
[12:20] Speaker 1: no dramas, no harm, no foul, Everyone's happy.
[12:22] Speaker 3: And I'd be lying if I didn't say that. At
[12:24] Speaker 3: the beginning of this year, I kind of was hoping
[12:26] Speaker 3: she might want to go back to school because I
[12:28] Speaker 3: kind of would like my life back.
[12:29] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[12:30] Speaker 3: Yeah, But the more I thought about it, and the
[12:32] Speaker 3: more I talked with her about it, it's just to know.
[12:34] Speaker 1: So we need to wrap this up. Let me share
[12:37] Speaker 1: the last of the evidence. Okay, So the evidence shows
[12:41] Speaker 1: that motivated, engaged parents are going to produce good outcomes
[12:44] Speaker 1: for their kids, regardless of the method of schooling that
[12:46] Speaker 1: they use, whether the homeschool or whether they're doing distance education,
[12:48] Speaker 1: or whether in a traditional schooling path or some kind
[12:51] Speaker 1: of hybrid. Motivated engaged parents generally produce better outcomes for
[12:56] Speaker 1: their kids, full stop. Had a story. The evidence also
[12:59] Speaker 1: shows that one size fits all systems do fail a
[13:02] Speaker 1: lot of kids, especially the neurodivergent kids, and the evidence
[13:06] Speaker 1: is also there that school related anxiety and bullying and
[13:09] Speaker 1: mental health issues are real and growing and are the
[13:12] Speaker 1: primary driver of the exodus from the school system into
[13:17] Speaker 1: home schooling and our lived experiences You've just so eloquently shared,
[13:22] Speaker 1: and I'll just really quickly summarize as we sum up,
[13:25] Speaker 1: is that traditional school wasn't working for our kids, and
[13:28] Speaker 1: we watched them struggle with anxiety, We watch them lose
[13:32] Speaker 1: their love of learning. We watched them come home exhausted
[13:35] Speaker 1: and stressed, and there were days where we literally carried
[13:39] Speaker 1: them to the car kicking and screaming in their pajamas
[13:42] Speaker 1: and said, you need to go to school today, because
[13:44] Speaker 1: that's what people do, they go to school, and we'd
[13:46] Speaker 1: get them to the car park. I'm getting emotional thinking
[13:48] Speaker 1: about it, and we would literally force them into a
[13:51] Speaker 1: place that they didn't want to be, and it was
[13:54] Speaker 1: torture for them and for us.
[13:56] Speaker 3: And I have to add the only place they didn't
[14:00] Speaker 3: want to be, yes, Like literally we didn't have that
[14:02] Speaker 3: experience in any other settings. So it's not like it
[14:05] Speaker 3: was setting them up for failure because they just didn't
[14:07] Speaker 3: want to be somewhere. This is the only place so
[14:10] Speaker 3: that they were struggling.
[14:11] Speaker 1: So at home, I would argue and this this is
[14:14] Speaker 1: not an apologetic argument for homeschooling. I'm not trying to
[14:17] Speaker 1: say this is what you should do, but Melbourne mum asked,
[14:19] Speaker 1: and this is this is our position right now for
[14:23] Speaker 1: our children. We've found that at home they're safe and
[14:24] Speaker 1: they're learning what's exciting them. We've got an enormous amount
[14:27] Speaker 1: of flexibility, they've got time for passions. And homeschooling is
[14:31] Speaker 1: certainly not for everyone, like it's just not. But the research,
[14:35] Speaker 1: while it doesn't show that it's academically superior, it also
[14:39] Speaker 1: doesn't show that it's any worse. And for our family
[14:42] Speaker 1: and for our kids for now, for now, absolutely the
[14:46] Speaker 1: right choice. Okay, thanks so much for listening. Thanks to
[14:48] Speaker 1: the question. We love your questions. You can send them
[14:50] Speaker 1: through two podcasts at Happy families dot com dot You
[14:53] Speaker 1: send you a voice note through there, or just jump
[14:55] Speaker 1: onto the website happy families dot com dot you scroll
[14:57] Speaker 1: down to where it says podcasts and hit us up
[15:00] Speaker 1: their questions there. We love them coming through. Happy Families
[15:03] Speaker 1: podcast is produced by Justin Roland from Bridge Medium. Mim
[15:05] Speaker 1: Hammonds provides research, admin and all of the other support
[15:09] Speaker 1: that we need for the pod and if you'd like
[15:11] Speaker 1: more support for your family, you'll find it on our
[15:13] Speaker 1: social media pages or at happy families dot com dot au.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.