Image Credit: NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

(I picked this image because Anna loves to surf)

Homeschooled from Kindergarten to year 10, Anna says, “I loved it, it was a lot of fun. I loved being at home.” Anna has ten siblings, and says, “it was fun to have a group of us at home.” All her siblings have been homeschooled for part of their education.

Anna’s favourite thing about homeschooling was “having the freedom of choosing your own thing…and having that one-on-one time with your teacher, which is my mum, to…help you overcome difficulties that you’re facing, or improve on your good qualities.”

History was Anna’s favorite subject, but she also enjoyed English, and science in primary school. Anna talks about how homeschooling prepared her for the university studies she is doing now at Campion; “in homeschooling…we [studied] ancient history, like classical history, which is what we’re learning at Campion.”

Anna went to school for a short time, and says “the school life was a big change.” She says it was “good for socialization,” but often she spent a lot of time at school learning things she’d already learned, or learning things that “at homeschooling we could have just gone through quicker.”

After a term or two of school, COVID happened, and Anna was studying at home again. Anna says, “It was a surprise, but…I liked being at home. When you’re doing online school, it’s at your own pace, in a way, so I liked that part of it…I also did like going to school and seeing people every day.”

Anna says “a lot of our homeschooling subjects were focused on the Faith,” and mentions learning Catholic history and reading Catholic literature, which “really helped me grow in Faith.” It was also great to have a good grounding in the Faith when she went into the school environment.

On extracurriculars and social life, Anna said “I’ve grown up in a small town, so I think that really helped with my social life…knowing all the other families in the town and doing sports within the town.” She mentioned that “there’s definitely a point in school, where you do a lot of different sports and stuff that you don’t normally do at home.” Anna enjoys sports and has “done lots of different sports, so surfing, swimming, netball, touch football, soccer,” and also “drama, we did musicals and stuff,…music, we did piano, and little bit of guitar as well.”

Anna gave a study tip for homeschoolers; “if you’re struggling, if you’re stuck on something which you can’t push past…focus more on those kind of things, grow with your understanding of those things which you’re struggling with.”