CAN YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF, YOUR Packing and carrying the books was tricky. We had FAMILY AND YOUR TRAVEL PROJECT? one suitcase dedicated to the homeschooling, which held all of our books, journals and art supplies. We I’m Courtney, a mother of five and the co-founder were able to swap books at different stages whenever of Babyccino. Three years ago, after 12 years in busy we were in an English-speaking country, but when we London, we decided to sell our home, put careers on spent three months in South America, for example, we hold, take the kids out of school and go travel aroundhad to bring enough books to last for the entire time. the world. It’s something I have always wanted to do, and the timing was perfect with our eldest being 10 WHAT IS THE LAW IN THE UK REGARDING and our youngest (at the time) being nearly 3. We TAKING CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL? travelled for nearly 18 months, visiting America, South America, New Zealand, Australia, Asia and Europe. The UK doesn’t have this same rule than France. It was the most wonderful adventure and we all look They seem to be more flexible with families who back on that trip with such fond memories. homeschool. But we did buy a series of books — one book for each child, which outlined the fundamental WHY DID YOU DO HOME SCHOOLING? topics each child should know at their school level. These books helped give us a good guide for what we We didn’t want our children to fall behind academically,taught them. so we decided to teach them while we travelled. To be fair, my husband, Michael, did most of the teaching. The travelling we’ve done as I focused on reading and doing crafts with the kids! ‘‘ WHAT WAS YOUR ORGANIZATION? a family has only strengthened Neither Michael or I have any experience in teaching, our family bonds and expanded and definitely we gained a whole new appreciation our horizons. We have all seen for teachers after homeschooling. It is no easy feat to teach kids, especially of different ages and with and learned so much from our different abilities and strengths.It was especially challenging at first because I think it took our kids experiences and have gained a some time to take us seriously and to focus during lesson times. We also had to learn how best to teach new perspective on our world them. With some topics, we were able to teach them all at and the people and places in it. once. But with specific lessons like math, Michael had to sit down individually with each child. WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF HOME SCHOOLING? Homeschooling certainly proved more challenging than either Michael or I anticipated. Our eldest, Easton, responded really well to being taught by his parents, but Quin and Ivy, both great students in the classroom, were more difficult to teach and found it more challenging to be taught at home. It’s also challenging to teach three students at the same time when their levels are so different and they each have different areas of need. While it is challenging, it is also extremely rewarding to watch your children learn and progress. I would even dare to say that their progress while homeschooled was even more noticeable than any other year in 18 ‘‘