I work from home – but still find time to homeschool my daughter

My daughter Olivia was sitting at her desk in our living room, pen in hand, doing research and writing about Ancient Egypt. 

Her iPad was playing music, she had a smile on her face, and she was learning about history and civilizations.

As I watched her, I kept thinking how far we’d come, and how lucky we were that this was what a typical Monday morning home schooling looked like for us now.

Olivia didn’t start Year 3 being homeschooled. In September 2024, Olivia was looking forward to being back in class with her friends.

But after the Halloween half term, everything changed. She started complaining of stomach aches daily, some days even being physically sick.

We took her to doctors multiple times to see if there was anything physically wrong with her – the only time there was, it was a severe urinary tract infection she’d got from not going to the toilet at school because some of the toilet doors did not lock – but all her symptoms boiled down to one common problem: anxiety.

When we raised this concern with her teachers we were told that Olivia would not talk in class, either to her classmates or to any of her teachers. The school had done their best to bring her out of herself by putting her in groups to discuss her emotions, but nothing would work. 

It got to the point where Olivia had become so school avoidant that I would often have to drag her there kicking and screaming, leaving us both in tears.

We couldn’t carry on like this. I didn’t want to force her to be somewhere she clearly didn’t want to be, so in January, after two weeks of complete school avoidance, I sat her down to find a solution. 

Listening to my 8-year-old daughter pour her heart out to me about how she found the classrooms overwhelming, couldn’t concentrate because of distractions, and couldn’t eat because the dining hall was too noisy, broke my heart.

Clearly she had been bottling these feelings up for a while. It explained why she had been slowly losing her spark – laughing less, becoming withdrawn and emotional, and not acting like our little Olivia.

In my eyes, there was only one option for us: homeschooling.

There has been a certain stigma around this in the past, relating to the perceived intelligence and social skills of home-schooled children.

But these views seem to be changing in recent years, as demonstrated by just how many people are choosing home elective learning for their children now (in the UK, there are roughly 111,700 children who are being taught at home – and that number is rising every year).

Home schooling is not a decision to be taken lightly. There are many factors you need to consider, mainly whether your schedule and finances can take it.

Fortunately, I work a four-day week from home, so in January 2025, we started the process of taking Olivia out of mainstream education. 

The school was hesitant to deregister her at first. They believed there were other paths we could go down before pulling her out of school altogether, but after explaining our reasons to the head teacher, he agreed that it was the best plan going forward.

Some family members were also concerned that, because Olivia was already a shy child, she might then struggle to socialise if we took her away from her friends. While I shared this worry, I knew in my gut that this was the right decision for her, so we went full steam ahead with home schooling. 

I had assumed that home education would need to follow strict rules, similar to mainstream environments, but actually, it was entirely up to us whether we wanted to follow the set curriculum or not. 

This took a weight off my shoulders. I’d been worrying about how I could imitate school in a home setting, but I didn’t have to make Olivia sit behind a desk staring at a board for six hours a day. Instead, she could be trampolining outside one minute and baking cakes the next. It could be fun. 

In the end, we decided to follow the curriculum loosely, giving Olivia three topics to choose from in each subject. 

In art, for example, this term she studied Banksy rather than Van Gogh. She has to study maths, English and spelling every day. We do have a timetable, but we don’t always stick to it – sometimes we like to throw in baking or crafts.

I found multiple apps and websites to use, as well as some Minecraft workbooks that weren’t too ‘school’ like. We also signed up to apps such as Duolingo, Doodle and Twinkl – costing us roughly £40 a month.

So far we’ve built roads with Romans, discovered the origins of Halloween and learned how to make a perfect brownie. We’ve painted in the style of Seurat, aced fractions and written multiple stories. 

We make sure Olivia has frequent opportunities to socialise. We attend days out with other home-educated children, occasionally meet up with her school friends at the park, and are currently looking into cooking classes specifically for home-schooled children. 

We also put aside a day at the end of each term to go on a local field trip – Olivia’s current favourite is a place called Wild in the Woods where she can learn all about the outdoors, fish, cook on a fire while also playing with other home-educated children. 

Now that social interaction is on her terms rather than being forced on her, Olivia has really come out of her shell. It has also helped me massively as, because I work from home, I barely have other adult interactions – chatting to other home-educating parents, hearing about their experiences and getting their favourite tips, really helps my mental health.

She now has started coming to more family events instead of staying home with one of us and she will interact with other children when we’re at soft play.

All of these things combined have made a huge difference. Not only is Olivia smashing learning targets left, right and centre (she is already working at a Year 5 level in maths), she’s back to being our funny, full-of-beans little girl. 

Her anxiety is practically non-existent – she hasn’t had any stomach aches or hospital visits for months. Sure, she still has off days, but that’s just part of being human, I think.

If this change has taught me anything, it’s that as a parent or guardian you know your child and what they need best and you should always listen to that instinct.

Even if it leads you all the way to Ancient Egypt. 

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jessica.aureli@metro.co.uk. 

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