Some families turn to home-schooling as their solution to the challenge of education.
One home-schooling mother spoke to The Record about how it all
started for her. It’s not easy but, says Lisa English, the rewards are
immeasurable.
FOR 15 years, Lisa taught ESL, Reading and Recovery and general classes in primary schools before marrying Anthony English..
As they prepare to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary on 13 May, they’re also preparing for the arrival of their sixth little one due in six weeks – another sibling for Mary, 9, Thomas, 7, Christina 6, Elizabeth, 4 and Rose, 2.
Thomas says he thinks it’s going to be a girl: “Well, because I have had so many sisters”.
He says it can be “quite hard sometimes” looking after four sisters.
“Sometimes, I don’t exactly want to do what they want to do, and so that makes it even harder. I have to organise something. I have to do something that will make it easier,” he says, explaining that he has to think of something different every time.
Mary too thinks it can sometimes be “a bit of hard work” – being kind to the younger ones.
She says she counteracts this by “spending a few minutes by herself” and then she does things for them, “like I make up little dances for them and games and they really like it”.
But for little four year old Elizabeth, the best part of having brothers and sisters is the “birthdays”.
As young as they are, these children can already articulate the joy of family.
“The best part is we’re all one family, we’re happy. We’re always going to try and be strong for each other, and believe in each other and love each other and we’re all just going to be united in one,” Mary says.
These children are part of a growing trend in Australia – they home-school – and their mother, Lisa English, is leading the way in providing a fine arts enrichment programme of education for her children as well as some fellow home-schooling families in the Sydney metropolitan area.
It’s called ‘Providence’ and what began as a group of five or six families coming along to a music and art lesson she would offer once a month, has become a Thursday routine.
Around five years ago, when her eldest hit school age, Lisa started the support group for Catholic home education – as much for her own children as for her need for friendship and support when, “nearly all your friends choose the other option,” she says.
In 2010, there are up to ten families who come along every Thursday to Homebush parish church hall for a weekly class running from 10am–12pm.
One week it’s a fine art and music appreciation class and the following week the pupils come along for Latin choir lessons or a drama class.
The third Thursday of the month is a science class and this year the focus for the science classes are ‘beasts’ – prehistoric beasts, ice age beasts, mythical beasts, jungle beasts, sea beasts and mini beasts (bees, ants).
The fourth Thursday is dedicated to craft or cooking and the sessions are always followed by a visit to Our Lady of the Assumption church in Homebush where the families pray a decade of the Rosary for vocations and for the children and any special needs.
“The children can spend time in their own little devotions afterwards,” Lisa English adds.
For Lisa, while her background in education has been helpful, she didn’t want it to be a “little school” nor all about “me being a teacher”.
“I wanted everyone to cooperate and share their own talents with the kids”.
A parishioner, a retired art teacher and some of the mums and dads lead the classes. And once a term the Providence group will go on an excursion too.
And while it’s not always easy, Lisa’s aware just how precious is the time with her children before they grow up.
“It’s a very special time in your life, it can be very challenging, hard work. It can be isolating and a little bit lonely at times, but the benefits far outweigh all those different challenges – you’re giving your children the best of yourself; you’re giving your children your time. … It’s so precious to be with them as much as you can in these years – sharing your faith and the values and showing them by your presence that your husband and they come first in your life,” she says.
As a mother, Lisa says her role is “multifaceted” which has strengthened her faith.
“You’re everything to the children: their teacher, nurse, guide, model and it makes you rely upon your faith so much more because, as time goes by, you see your own weaknesses as a mother because you need Our Lord to strengthen you and help you to grow in virtue,” she says.
“I definitely think it is a vocation to home-school,” Lisa says, adding that she doesn’t think every family is called to home-school; “but for those who are, it’s a very happy way of life”.
For her husband, Anthony English, the main thing is teaching the children “how to count their blessings and how to love”.
As for being a father, he says “There’s nothing to compare with that first smile when you come home from work and the kids come running to you”.
“Whatever’s happened during the day or at work, you’re never going to get that again – or that hug in the morning. Or even just helping them through what they think are huge traumas. And then [seeing] just how easily they can pass through,” he says.
For many, it’s usually the faith and a desire to keep their children safe that draws them to home-schooling, Lisa says.
“Then after that they find so many other benefits they didn’t realise until they started doing it. For example, the family closeness, strengthening the sibling relationship, protecting them from a lot of the negative influences in the media and in the playground that they can be exposed to.”
After nearly five years of homeschooling, Lisa warns that home-schooling isn’t perfect – “there are times when it doesn’t work – but it can be a very successful way of schooling your children if you seek the right kind of support, resources”.
One of the most important things to successful homeschooling is that “the mums must look after themselves … through caring for their own health, their own emotional wellbeing and that they get lots of support from their husbands,” Lisa says.
“It can be lonely, especially for mums with large families. It’s a big challenge, so they must make sure that their life of prayer and their time for recreation is there. Otherwise they just can burn out and it can be a disaster for the family, for everyone.”
The ‘Providence’ support group has been approved by the home-schooling inspectors from the Board of Studies who are “very pleased” with the group, as “they know how important it is for the mums as well as the kids for support” to help eliminate the problem of isolation, Lisa says.
She later adds that her first inspector, who had been inspecting for twenty years and believed in home-schooling, gave her a piece of advice she passes on to any mum who’s uncertain about her own abilities.
“The ones that have done teaching start off with more confidence, but then he said that all the mums become good teachers”.