# Homeschooling: What to Do When You’re Ready but Clueless

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 9 Feb 2026, 15 min.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/143c62ed-3858-4428-94ba-b3e500b1dd7a/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

Thinking about homeschooling… but secretly terrified you’ll get it wrong? If you’re standing at the edge of homeschooling wondering What am I actually supposed to do all day?—this episode is for you. Justin and Kylie unpack what homeschooling really looks like once you ditch the school-at-home mindset and start building something that actually works for your child (and your sanity). This isn’t about rigid schedules or perfect plans. It’s about slowing down, tuning in, and creating learning that fits real kids and real families. KEY POINTS • Why copying school at home almost always backfires • The freedom (and relief) that comes from flexible structure • The four principles that made homeschooling sustainable for their family • Why community matters more than curriculum • How knowing your why gets you through the hard days QUOTE OF THE EPISODE “Homeschooling isn’t about doing school at home. It’s about creating learning that actually fits your child.” RESOURCES MENTIONED • HappyFamilies.com.au • Submitting a Tricky Question: podcasts@happyfamilies.com.au ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS • Start slower than you think you need to • Focus on connection before curriculum • Find (or build) a homeschooling community early • Let go of the idea that it has to look like school Revisit your why on the hard days—it matters more than your plan See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Hello and welcome of the Happy Families Podcast. A couple
[0:08] Speaker 1: of weeks ago, we were asked the question why do
[0:10] Speaker 1: you decide to homeschool your kids? How's it all going?
[0:14] Speaker 1: Should we do it?
[0:15] Speaker 2: Like?
[0:15] Speaker 1: How do you make that kind of decision? And we
[0:17] Speaker 1: got a fairly substantial response from a lot of people
[0:19] Speaker 1: who are interested. One of my picks, one of my predictions,
[0:23] Speaker 1: my trend for twenty twenty six is that the homeschooling
[0:27] Speaker 1: situation is going to continue to rise and that schooling
[0:31] Speaker 1: is going to become continually individualized as families struggle with
[0:36] Speaker 1: issues around bullying and the associated challenges that school can
[0:39] Speaker 1: present for a lot of children. Well, today we're answering
[0:43] Speaker 1: one of your tricky questions and it extends the conversation further.
[0:46] Speaker 1: A mum who's saying, thinking it's time for homeschooling, but
[0:50] Speaker 1: I just don't know what I'm supposed to do. That
[0:52] Speaker 1: is our conversation today on the Happy Families Podcast. Stay
[0:56] Speaker 1: with us. Hello, welcome of the Happy Family podcast, where
[1:00] Speaker 1: you get real parenting solutions every single day. This is
[1:03] Speaker 1: Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast, so appreciate listening. Thanks for
[1:07] Speaker 1: being here every Tuesday on the pod, we answer your
[1:10] Speaker 1: tricky questions about pretty much whatever you want. You can
[1:13] Speaker 1: ask us anything. We love talking about stuff, especially as
[1:16] Speaker 1: it relates to family and relationships and wellbeing and screens
[1:19] Speaker 1: and school and discipline, and the list goes on. If
[1:22] Speaker 1: you'd like to submit a tricky question, we've got a
[1:24] Speaker 1: super simple system at Happy families dot com dot you
[1:27] Speaker 1: just scroll down to podcasts, click the record button, start talking.
[1:31] Speaker 1: It's literally that simple. Or send us a voice note
[1:34] Speaker 1: to podcasts at happy families dot com dot au. Just
[1:38] Speaker 1: like this month from New South Wales Central Coasts.
[1:42] Speaker 3: Hi, guys, it's Lisa from the Central Coast. You're right
[1:45] Speaker 3: justin this is such a great place to live. I'm
[1:48] Speaker 3: just out at the world. I watched nickids player as
[1:49] Speaker 3: we speak, and it is awesome. This question is mich
[1:53] Speaker 3: A Kylie. I guess we are about to start homeschooling
[1:57] Speaker 3: our five year old and I'd love to hear more
[1:59] Speaker 3: about what your days look like. How do you structure
[2:03] Speaker 3: your days thinking about homeschooling and everything else? In last
[2:08] Speaker 3: look for to hear from you. Bye.
[2:11] Speaker 1: So, first of all, I drew up the New South
[2:13] Speaker 1: Wales Central Coast, hence the reference there, and it did
[2:15] Speaker 1: sound a little bit blissful and idyllic, didn't it.
[2:17] Speaker 2: Well. She also made using the website sound ridiculously easy.
[2:22] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[2:22] Speaker 1: Here, I am literally the beach, watching the kids and
[2:25] Speaker 1: leaving a voice note by a happy family. Guys, it's
[2:29] Speaker 1: super simple. One more point on this. I feel like
[2:34] Speaker 1: I've just been given the day off. I think this
[2:35] Speaker 1: is your podcast. I'm just going to sit back, relax,
[2:38] Speaker 1: and hand it over to you.
[2:39] Speaker 2: Because I am going to say the days that you
[2:42] Speaker 2: take control of the notes, they're a lot easier to
[2:44] Speaker 2: read and my hand written scrawl. So let's see how
[2:48] Speaker 2: we go. I was doing the maths. We have been
[2:51] Speaker 2: homeschooling now for nearly three and a half years.
[2:54] Speaker 1: Yeah wow, and hadn't thought of that.
[2:56] Speaker 2: I am still feeling completely inadequate to ansla question. I'd
[3:01] Speaker 2: love to give you like a prescribed day.
[3:05] Speaker 1: No, that's called school, but that's what school is exactly.
[3:09] Speaker 2: Every single day in our house looks different. In the beginning,
[3:12] Speaker 2: I had this grand plan that we would, you know,
[3:15] Speaker 2: school from nine to eleven or whatever the timeframe was,
[3:18] Speaker 2: it really is not important, but that we would have
[3:21] Speaker 2: some regimented structure to our day. But again, that's what
[3:26] Speaker 2: school does. Homeschooling is this beautiful opportunity for us to
[3:31] Speaker 2: be really flexible in the way we learn because some
[3:34] Speaker 2: kids actually will learn really good in the morning. Other
[3:36] Speaker 2: kids will learn better in the afternoon once they've got
[3:39] Speaker 2: all their wriggles out. Like every child.
[3:41] Speaker 1: Is going to be different and every day as well,
[3:44] Speaker 1: but there is still some structure what.
[3:46] Speaker 2: You do there is. So I thought, instead of giving
[3:49] Speaker 2: you like a plan of what our day looks like,
[3:52] Speaker 2: that I might just kind of cheat a little bit
[3:54] Speaker 2: laser and give you four tips that have made the
[3:58] Speaker 2: biggest difference to my home soog going journey.
[4:00] Speaker 1: Every now and again, when I put a list together,
[4:02] Speaker 1: you count me through it. I'm so excited to say,
[4:04] Speaker 1: what's number one?
[4:06] Speaker 2: Number one is take it slow. When I first pulled
[4:11] Speaker 2: the kids out, I was so scared. I was scared
[4:15] Speaker 2: I was going to destroy their education for starters. I
[4:18] Speaker 2: had no idea what I was doing. I had no
[4:21] Speaker 2: idea what to expect, and not at my child.
[4:24] Speaker 1: We were pretty gung ho, like, you've got to do
[4:26] Speaker 1: this many hours, You've got to do all this stuff,
[4:28] Speaker 1: like we were fully here is the strict regimen that
[4:32] Speaker 1: you have to follow so that we can do everything perfect.
[4:38] Speaker 1: Like at the start we were pretty intense about it.
[4:40] Speaker 1: We've loosened up a little bit, just.
[4:42] Speaker 2: A little, just a little. But I think the thing
[4:45] Speaker 2: that really resonates with me at the moment is the
[4:48] Speaker 2: acknowledgment that Rome wasn't built in a day. You're starting
[4:53] Speaker 2: something entirely new, and the great thing is you actually
[4:56] Speaker 2: get to decide what that looks like. There is an
[5:00] Speaker 2: to prescribe the way, There isn't one way to do it,
[5:03] Speaker 2: and you don't have to have it all worked out
[5:06] Speaker 2: on day one. It's going to take you weeks, maybe
[5:08] Speaker 2: even months. For me, I feel like the first year
[5:11] Speaker 2: and a half was kind of all trial and error.
[5:15] Speaker 2: I was actually learning how to work with my child
[5:17] Speaker 2: and she was learning how to work with me, and
[5:20] Speaker 2: that was really important for me to grasp. So that
[5:24] Speaker 2: kind of leads into number two.
[5:26] Speaker 1: Oh can I say, what's the second one?
[5:29] Speaker 2: Number two is actually about being gentle to yourself and
[5:32] Speaker 2: to your child because you're navigating completely new territory, and
[5:37] Speaker 2: not only new territory, but you're taking on a new
[5:40] Speaker 2: role in their life. Up until this moment, you've been
[5:43] Speaker 2: mum and now you're going to be teacher as well,
[5:47] Speaker 2: and that responsibility and that relationship changes a little bit
[5:52] Speaker 2: as you navigate that space together. And so for me,
[5:57] Speaker 2: what has been really helpful has been trusting my own
[6:01] Speaker 2: instincts and recognizing that as her parent, there are some
[6:06] Speaker 2: things that I know about her that nobody else knows
[6:08] Speaker 2: about her. She has strengths, but she also has challenges.
[6:12] Speaker 2: And if I can work to her strengths and kind
[6:14] Speaker 2: of support her more in her challenge spaces, then we're
[6:19] Speaker 2: going to have a much better experience together. I think
[6:23] Speaker 2: it's also really important to remember that you're like, this
[6:25] Speaker 2: is a huge, huge learning curve for the two of you,
[6:30] Speaker 2: and just like any new relationship, there's going to be
[6:33] Speaker 2: some time for you to work out. The Kink's homeschooling
[6:36] Speaker 2: relationship is no different.
[6:38] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[6:39] Speaker 1: I mean, I'm listening to what you're saying, and I
[6:40] Speaker 1: just I love this idea of your work without you
[6:43] Speaker 1: go slowly. The great news is you've got a whole
[6:47] Speaker 1: lot of time to make a whole lot of mistakes,
[6:48] Speaker 1: and if you try to make it perfect, you're just
[6:50] Speaker 1: going to put unnecessary pressure on yourself, especially if you're
[6:53] Speaker 1: starting at the beginning.
[6:54] Speaker 2: Well, the great thing for Lisa is her child has
[6:57] Speaker 2: no what going to happen, what school looks like. So
[7:01] Speaker 2: when covid hit Emily was six, she was in her
[7:05] Speaker 2: first year grade Grade one. Yeah, they sent home the schoolwork,
[7:11] Speaker 2: and I knew straight away that this was not going
[7:13] Speaker 2: to inspire exciting.
[7:15] Speaker 1: Yeah, because it wasn't homeschool, it was school at home.
[7:18] Speaker 2: And so I just took on a really creative flare.
[7:21] Speaker 2: So she had to write her alphabet letters. So each
[7:26] Speaker 2: week there was a different letter. So I got her
[7:28] Speaker 2: scrap booking, so she would go through magazines and find
[7:31] Speaker 2: pictures of words that started with that letter. She loved
[7:34] Speaker 2: filling them up. And then we would when we would cook,
[7:37] Speaker 2: we would cook with the letters, and just everything we
[7:41] Speaker 2: did was about that specific letter.
[7:44] Speaker 1: As they get older, obviously you don't get to have well,
[7:46] Speaker 1: I mean, you can still have a lot of creativity,
[7:48] Speaker 1: but the assignments become a little bit more academically oriented. Yes,
[7:53] Speaker 1: but you can still be creative, you can still have fun.
[7:55] Speaker 1: And by then they're used to working at home and
[7:57] Speaker 1: getting the job done. Now, this is the part where
[7:59] Speaker 1: we take a quick break. And at this point I
[8:02] Speaker 1: always say what's coming up after the break is a
[8:04] Speaker 1: hook but you don't know, or a tease but I
[8:06] Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know what I'm supposed to say.
[8:08] Speaker 1: So after the break a couple more things that will
[8:12] Speaker 1: help any parent considering homeschooling their child. That's a bit
[8:18] Speaker 1: where you sort.
[8:19] Speaker 2: Of do the hook, Oh you want me to okay?
[8:21] Speaker 1: Well, the tease you don't give it all away, you
[8:23] Speaker 1: just tease it.
[8:24] Speaker 2: So we're going to talk about community matters and we're
[8:28] Speaker 2: also going to talk about trying new things.
[8:30] Speaker 1: Stay with this, We're back into the Happy Families podcast.
[8:40] Speaker 1: Another tricky question, as per normal on its Tuesday, we
[8:44] Speaker 1: answer your tricky questions. Today, Lisa from the Central Coast
[8:47] Speaker 1: wants to know if I start homeschooling my child this year,
[8:51] Speaker 1: what am I supposed to do? Kylie, You've got four
[8:54] Speaker 1: things for us. We've covered off the first two.
[8:56] Speaker 2: What's next Community matters connecting with us the homeschooling families
[9:01] Speaker 2: is such an integral part to the positive experience that
[9:06] Speaker 2: you will have as a family.
[9:08] Speaker 1: And great news there are more people doing it than
[9:09] Speaker 1: ever before, so it's easier and easier to find people
[9:12] Speaker 1: who are your people doing this.
[9:14] Speaker 2: So I learned this the hard way after Emily's probably
[9:18] Speaker 2: first half of the year. She'd been working with a
[9:22] Speaker 2: small group and they had been catching up one to
[9:26] Speaker 2: two times a week, and she was really enjoying it.
[9:29] Speaker 2: But it got a bit tedious in that they were
[9:31] Speaker 2: doing the same things, same activities, over and over again,
[9:35] Speaker 2: and we were going on a holiday. So I pulled
[9:37] Speaker 2: her out for the holiday period, and when we came back,
[9:40] Speaker 2: she didn't ask me about the group, and so I
[9:42] Speaker 2: kind of looked at and I was like, Oh, it's
[9:43] Speaker 2: costing me a lot of money to send her, and
[9:46] Speaker 2: I think that we might just see how we go
[9:47] Speaker 2: without it. We probably did about six to eight weeks
[9:51] Speaker 2: without a group, and at that point that meant she
[9:54] Speaker 2: was not doing any social activities at all. And one
[9:59] Speaker 2: day we had the most just the biggest emotional meltdown
[10:04] Speaker 2: that she'd had all year, and she begged me to
[10:07] Speaker 2: send her back to school. And I was like, where
[10:09] Speaker 2: is this coming from? And so I sat down with
[10:12] Speaker 2: her and I said, I am really happy to talk
[10:14] Speaker 2: to talk to you about going back to school, if
[10:16] Speaker 2: that's what it is. I said, but can we just
[10:18] Speaker 2: kind of look at this a little bit more? Can
[10:20] Speaker 2: we explore this a bit more. I said, is it
[10:22] Speaker 2: school that you miss? Is it teachers and sitting at
[10:25] Speaker 2: your desk and writing, or is it your friends? And
[10:29] Speaker 2: she just solved, She said, I just missed my friends.
[10:33] Speaker 2: I just missed my friends. And so I realized really
[10:36] Speaker 2: quickly that I needed to find help and fast. And
[10:40] Speaker 2: so I did what I think anyone would do in
[10:44] Speaker 2: my situation, and I stalked Facebook and I put out
[10:48] Speaker 2: an sos into the universe of homeschooling families and said,
[10:53] Speaker 2: we're desperate, we need a group. And within maybe I
[10:56] Speaker 2: don't know, ten or fifteen minutes, I had three different
[10:59] Speaker 2: mums tell me about group that was three minutes from
[11:02] Speaker 2: our house and they met once a week. That has
[11:05] Speaker 2: been the biggest lifeline of Emily's schooling experience over the.
[11:10] Speaker 1: Last eight ten months. All the besties are there. She
[11:14] Speaker 1: she loves being with those people, and it's branched into
[11:17] Speaker 1: other activities, other relationships like it's been. Once you find
[11:21] Speaker 1: the group, it's easy.
[11:24] Speaker 2: And the great thing about having homeschooling relationships is you're
[11:27] Speaker 2: doing life similar So even though your homeschooling day will
[11:31] Speaker 2: look different, they're available during the day. Whereas she was
[11:35] Speaker 2: trying to fit into her schooling friends. Her old school
[11:39] Speaker 2: friends and their lifestyles didn't fit with her.
[11:42] Speaker 1: Available nine to three, they had their extracurriculums in.
[11:44] Speaker 2: The afternoon, and it was just really hard.
[11:46] Speaker 1: So what's the last one.
[11:48] Speaker 2: The last one is being open to trying something new. So,
[11:52] Speaker 2: like I shared at the beginning, I had this kind
[11:55] Speaker 2: of conceived idea, this perception of what homeschooling was going
[11:59] Speaker 2: to look like. And essentially I was bringing school like
[12:03] Speaker 2: the classroom into my dining room. And it didn't work.
[12:07] Speaker 2: It didn't work on any level. Emily hated me, she
[12:11] Speaker 2: didn't want to learn at all, and I was miserable.
[12:16] Speaker 2: I didn't want to be doing this and I didn't
[12:17] Speaker 2: want to be fighting with her all the time. But
[12:20] Speaker 2: I knew that her being home was the right decision.
[12:23] Speaker 2: But I also was desperate to send her back to
[12:25] Speaker 2: school in those moments because it was just so hard.
[12:29] Speaker 2: So being open to trying new things, open to talking
[12:32] Speaker 2: with other families, seeing what's working for them, what's not
[12:35] Speaker 2: working for them. It might mean that I don't think
[12:38] Speaker 2: in Lisa's situation, she's going to have this, But for
[12:40] Speaker 2: families that have already been in the school system, it
[12:43] Speaker 2: might mean literally having a term of no learning. Were
[12:46] Speaker 2: so structured.
[12:48] Speaker 1: Did we do six months? I think we did two
[12:50] Speaker 1: terms where we pretty much said to our two homeschool kids,
[12:53] Speaker 1: it's just a six month holiday.
[12:55] Speaker 2: Well it wasn't. It wasn't quite six months. We took
[12:57] Speaker 2: them out at the end of term three, so they
[12:59] Speaker 2: had all of time and then to be holiday break.
[13:01] Speaker 1: Yeah, so we gave them like, what's that like ten
[13:04] Speaker 1: sixteen weeks something like that. So it was four months
[13:07] Speaker 1: and then when we hit the ground the next year,
[13:09] Speaker 1: they were ready. They were like, yeah, we can get
[13:12] Speaker 1: into this, and it made a massive difference. Homeschooling is
[13:16] Speaker 1: just for us something that we're so glad that we've done.
[13:21] Speaker 1: And I don't know if we'll ever send her back
[13:23] Speaker 1: to school. I mean, every now and again we're like,
[13:27] Speaker 1: we really need a break. It would be good to
[13:28] Speaker 1: have her at school.
[13:29] Speaker 2: From that, I'm not gonna lie, there are definitely days
[13:31] Speaker 2: where I wish that I had my days to myself. Yeah,
[13:35] Speaker 2: but knowing what your why is, knowing why you're doing
[13:40] Speaker 2: it is so important because when those days do get hard,
[13:43] Speaker 2: you go back to that and you remind yourself of why.
[13:47] Speaker 1: Victor Frankel, who wrote men Search for Meaning said, and
[13:51] Speaker 1: I'm paraphrasing, he who has a why can live with
[13:54] Speaker 1: any how. In other words, you can push through whatever
[13:57] Speaker 1: you've got to push through if you've got a really
[14:00] Speaker 1: good purpose driving. And I feel like that's why we
[14:03] Speaker 1: do what we do, at least with that particular daughter. Hey,
[14:06] Speaker 1: thanks for the question. If you have a tricky question
[14:08] Speaker 1: that you'd like to throw, Oh, sorry before I do that, Hey, Kylie,
[14:12] Speaker 1: thanks for running the podcast for me. I still feel
[14:14] Speaker 1: like I talked too much. I have to give you
[14:16] Speaker 1: another one and try and stay quieter.
[14:20] Speaker 2: We'll give it a go another day.
[14:21] Speaker 1: Hey, Okay, send you questions to Kylie tricky questions via
[14:26] Speaker 1: podcasts at Happy Families dot com dot au. If you'd
[14:28] Speaker 1: like to email or send a voice note, or use
[14:31] Speaker 1: the super simple system at Happy families dot com dot
[14:34] Speaker 1: you just like Lisa did from the beach on the
[14:36] Speaker 1: Central Coast and let us know what it is that
[14:39] Speaker 1: you'd like us to help out with. The Happy Families
[14:41] Speaker 1: podcast is as always, produced by the wonderful Justin Ruland
[14:44] Speaker 1: from Bridge Media, with additional support and admin from Mimhammond's
[14:47] Speaker 1: If you want more info. To make you family happier,
[14:49] Speaker 1: you can check out happy families dot com dot Au
[14:52] Speaker 1: where we have an amazing course to help families raising
[14:55] Speaker 1: ADHD kids. It's all there at happy families dot com
[14:59] Speaker 1: dot au. Talk to you tomorrow

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