Why I decided to Homeschool

I was a sick child. I remember being smaller than all the kids in my sisters class (2 years below me) . Not only that, but I was the oldest or second oldest in mine.

From when I was 8 I started missing a fair bit of school because I had very bad stomach pains. Gradually, as I missed more and more school, the rule became "If you can stand and not scream you're fit for school". So when I was at school I certainly wasn't in a position to concentrate on my school work.

After many hospital visits with horrible doctors (one doctor told my Mum that I was a wimp and that there was nothing wrong with me. I had been brought in three days in a row, each day screaming my lungs out) Mum changed from Monash hospital to the Royal Children's Hospital. They took one look at me and said that I was very sick. They didn't know what was wrong, but they would operate and find out.

I had "a malignant tumor that twisted the ovary and rendered it gangrenous" - in layman's terms, I had ovarian cancer. God was really watching out for me. Ovarian cancer is not something you look for in 10 year olds, and I had been suffering for 2 years. But the cancer developed in a way that was very painful (so we found out about it) and in a way that slowed its own progress. The cancer, in twisting and rotting my ovary, cut off its way to the rest of the body. This meant that I was fortunate enough to escape chemo.

So, I had missed out on effectively 2 years of school. I caught up in the 2 1/2 weeks after my operation. I entered school back at the top of my class.

I remember thinking how awful that was - much worse than cancer. If I had been well I would have wasted two years of my life. All of my classmates did. And I remember swearing that my children would never go through wasting two years of their life at school. I would teach them at home, and they would go through their work at their own speed. And if that meant they were ready for uni at age 12, then off to uni!

I can appreciate now my advantages. I'm gifted, I read when I couldn't sleep because of the pain, I went to a school with 7 children in my year level, and 13 children in my class. My parents could afford to buy me books and were academic enough to help me if I needed them to help. But 2 years! 2 YEARS!

Besides, my children will have the same advantages!


My children are going to go out and change the world. They don't have time to waste. They need to learn all they can so that they can be equipped for when God calls them. They need to know their Bible, know their maths and science, know how to write and argue persuasively, and (most importantly) know how to serve God.

The do NOT have time to waste.