Welcome to Home Education Matters, the weekly podcast supporting you on your home education journey.

Welcome to Home Education Matters and our episode.

Today we are joined by Kate, who is a home educating mum and she has an exciting project to share with us today that her daughters have been undertaking.

I'm really looking forward to hearing more about it, but first I would love for you to share a little bit about your home education journey and why you have chosen to home educate Kate, we'd love to hear more.

Oh, thank you so much for having me, Emily.

We've been home educating, I think about 11 years now, maybe coming up 12.

And it was quite, it was an, it was an unexpected choice.

I trained in, I have a degree in education and didn't ever really imagine.

I didn't really know anything about home education until I had my youngest daughter and I decided that I wanted to have a doula support me with a home birthday and she was home educating and suddenly I was sort of immersed in this, you know, world of all the baby meetings and things that I went to.

There were so many home educators.

So when my eldest daughter started having some issues at school, it was like we were like, oh, well, actually there is another option, there is something else that we can do.

And yeah, and so that's how we, when we decided to de register, my eldest was six.

And we've been happily home educating ever since really, and learning lots along the way.

Mostly me having to unpick all my, you know, education has to look like this when actually education can look like anything it needs to.

So yeah, so it's been.

I can't quite believe it's been so long, but yes, so that's briefly how, how we came to home educate.

And that's really interesting because that's what I hear a lot from people is it's a journey together as parents, we embark on this journey of home education as much as our children do and we also benefit from it in the same way as well.

Oh, absolutely.

I have always said that I learned more the first couple of years of home ed.

I learned more about education than I had in four years of the degree and all of the years prior to that when I'd been working in schools.

The idea that, you know, sort of everyone has to learn the same thing and everyone learns at the same time and everyone, you know, is doing the same thing at the same age.

My eldest came out of school and I admit to trying to, in the first few months, trying to kind of replicate school.

We'd done a bit of flexi before we deregistered her, we'd done a couple of terms of flexi.

Schooling.

Yeah.

So I kind of was like, oh, yeah, we've got to.

You know, I was really stuck in my.

This is what education is meant to look like.

It's meant to look like school.

And so the.

The learning process, for me, it was really hard.

It was, you know, sort of wobbling every day thinking, oh, my gosh, I'm failing my child.

You know.

But then eventually we kind of settled into a sort of a really gentle flow of.

Well, actually, she's really interested in this thing.

And.

And if we're doing this thing, it's actually ticking all of these boxes quite naturally and organically without any sort of, we need to sit down and do this.

Or, you know, she was becoming in charge of her own learning.

And that was.

That seemed wild, but actually really wonderful.

But it was a hard lesson for me because I was, you know, so ingrained in.

This is what education is because of the training that I'd had.

So.

So, yeah, I think that definitely home education is a learning journey for everybody in the family who's part of it, not just the.

Not just the children, definitely.

Yes.

And that's interesting because we often talk about the need for a period of deschooling for children when they.

They come out of the education system, but actually there's a need for that as.

As parents as well.

Yeah, I would absolutely agree.

And I think it's just a period of kind of finding your flow and finding, you know, like, finding out what.

What interests there are.

And then, you know, there's been things that my eldest has been interested in.

She's.

She's mad on genealogy and I am, too.

And so finding out, actually, she's.

She's really enjoying this and she's really good at it.

You know, just sort of being able to support that and feeling kind of quite excited because it's also, you know, I mean, sometimes it isn't things that you enjoy or know anything about.

Cough Minecraft, but, you know, you get there and it's.

Yeah, it's great.

I can't imagine our life in any other way than the way that it is now where we have this freedom to all of us explore the things that we're interested in.

Absolutely.

And you've talked about it being a sort of journey for you and your daughters and also finding your flow.

So what sort of approach have you landed on?

I know we discussed previously that, for want of labeling it, that your approach has been a more unschooling approach.

And so how did you come to sort of find that that worked best for you and how does that approach benefit you and your family?

As I said, it's.

It was a, it was a journey.

It wasn't, you know, we weren't immediately out of school and like, okay, where, you know, gonna unschool.

We don't call it unschooling really, unless I'm talking with, with other home educators.

But I think it's just the approach that I have is that we are living and it is life and we are, you know, sort of embracing everything where there's an interest in, in all of the things that they're interested in.

We kind of just take it as far as they want to and then if they've kind of let it go and they interested in something else, then we, we focus on that.

And so it's not, it's not about, oh well, we haven't learned everything that we need to learn, so we need to keep.

It's a.

Okay, well that's, you know, you've finished learning what you want and you're moving on, so I'm going to move on with you.

And yeah, it's just kind of a natural, organic living and enjoying, you know, whatever it happens to be that they're interested in at the time.

And that actually leads us really nicely onto you talking about the projects that they've naturally fallen into.

Do share with us a little bit about how that came about.

So we, my children love all animals really.

Cats.

We've had cats for 10, 11 years.

We initially, when my eldest was, was, you know, just out of school, started helping out at a local cat sanctuary where they, one of the big parts of what they do is catching and neutering and in as many cases as they can, rehoming feral cats.

There's quite a lot of feral cat colonies around the area where we live.

And so the girls from being quite young had experience of, you know, how important it is to, to socialize.

These, you know, cats would come in pregnant, feral cats coming in pregnant.

And so there would be kittens that would need to get to know who, you know, that humans can be kind and you know, to be socialized so that they could have homes, be living outdoors.

So they had had lots of experience.

We got our, we got our cats.

We've had three cats from this particular cat sanctuary and they do amazing work.

But like a lot of, like most cat rescues at the minute there, there's a lot of intake, a lot of cats coming In.

And obviously there's lots of reasons why people are struggling to maybe to look after or to financially support cats, because obviously lots of people are struggling financially at the minute.

But.

Yeah, so the girls have always loved cats.

And we.

There's a street near where we live that we call Cat street because there's so many people on the street who have cats.

We often will walk around it and sort of, oh, that's that cat.

And all the cats have been given names.

And there was one day we were walking along and there were three tiny little ginger kittens sitting on top of a pile of mattresses in the back garden and with a mum cat.

And we walk past and be like, oh, my gosh, they're so cute, and go on to whatever we were doing.

And after about a month, the mum cat wasn't there anymore.

And what we've kind of worked out from sort of neighbors and chatting to the family who were living at the house was a lady next door who had passed away sadly, an older lady who had had a cat.

And we think that that cat was mum cat.

And the cat got rehomed to a family friend without any of them having any knowledge that there were kittens.

Um, so the kittens were kind of just fending for themselves.

And so, yeah, so we got permission from the family in the house and we started work to try and catch them.

So this was the end of the summer we began.

So far, we've managed to trap three.

There was actually a third, a fourth, a very, very small calico kitten.

And she.

I think she's probably from a different litter, a different barrel litter.

But, yeah, so we've managed to catch three of them.

One of them has already been rehomed and is going for his operation tomorrow.

He's with a lovely family that we know really, really well and who are really experienced with cats.

Yeah.

So it's been.

It's been a summer of cats in our house.

But it's been just a really lovely thing for them to do, to be, you know, to be part of that and to be kind of in charge of it, really, because they've been as.

As with everything that we do educationally, they've really been leading the way on, you know, wanting to do that, putting their money in and.

Yeah, working really hard, really hard to socialize them.

It's really hard to socialize a feral kitten that's been out in the wild.

They're doing.

They've done an absolutely amazing job and I'm really proud of them.

Yeah.

And you Absolutely should be.

And what amazing skills to have had the opportunity to develop because that commitment to supporting animals, the skills in, you know, we talked earlier about patience and perseverance.

I mentioned to you that I am a bona fide crazy cat lady, absolutely obsessed with cats.

So this is right up my street.

And I also, as a teenager, I rescued a feral kitten and he ended up being like my baby.

I used to carry him around everywhere in my jumper.

And it's such a, an amazing feeling as well of achievement when you, you know, you see something through to the end like that.

And I think that's what really captured me with your story, was that level of commitment.

It was the beginning of August when we first saw the kittens and a lot of the work that the girls did was, you know, sitting in the garden in this, this family's garden every day.

The house wasn't occupied at the time the family were away and they've given us permission to be there, but sitting every day in the garden, feeding them and sort of like respecting their space because these cats, these kittens were like they would, it took them a long time to come and actually eat in front of us and gradually getting close to them, getting to the point where they were, you know, they could.

The girls were making like a cat call that they'd made up.

I'm not going to do it.

But it's a lovely, lovely noise.

But every time they would come and eat, they'd make the noise so that the kittens were associating this noise with us and with food.

And, you know, they were really thinking about how they could connect with them and how they could basically trap them sort of safely and carefully and kindly and.

Yeah, and all of the learning opportunities.

I mean, we talked about patience and perseverance.

You know, it's not just been a, oh, look, there's a cat.

Oh, we've caught it.

Okay, let's take it home and look after it.

This has been months of really hard work and commitment from them and it's just so good to see that in your children, to see that they have that belief that, yes, we are going to help these cats and we're going to make a difference to them and we're going to make a difference to the colony by reducing it.

But just all of the other learning things, you know, the maths and the budgeting and how much food are they going to need and how much is it going to cost and, you know, learning about feral cats and why colonies grow and the catch neuter release programs.

And cats that have been caught and neutered but can't be rehomed because they're so feral that they just can't live with humans.

And so they're often released back to where they were found, but they had their ears clipped so that people know that that cat's already been neutered.

And so all these things that they've found out along the way and then deciding, okay, so we've run out of our, you know, run out of pennies.

Now they've actually got.

And they're doing a Christmas craft fair, a homemade Christmas craft fair in a couple of weeks, and they've got plans for things that they're going to sell to raise money for the cats.

But setting up the GoFundMe and learning about, you know, they'd done a couple before for a local stables during lockdown, so they had a little bit of experience with GoFundMe, but just the whole kind of proofreading, making sure that the text that's in the GoFundMe conveys everything about the message that they want to share.

And there's so many, so many learning opportunities.

Yeah, it's just been great for them.

They've.

They've really, really enjoyed it and may also have decided to.

To keep one of the cats that we've rescued, who is a lovely boy, and they've got a really strong connection with him, so he's going to stay with us.

Ah.

I was going to ask you if, if you were.

Because that, that, you know, that level of commitment does create that attachment and that's lovely that they, they will have that lasting relationship.

But it really struck me when you were talking that from this lovely chance encounter with these really sweet kittens, that your daughters are now learning entrepreneurial skills.

Who would have thought that that would have led to that?

And so many skills that they'll be.

That will really serve them later on.

But whilst following their passion, I wonder if you could just touch on a little bit more.

You spoke about, with your unschooling approach that you, you facilitate their learning rather than structure it.

In a sense, how has it been for you supporting this journey, but.

But also trying to sit back and let them take a lead with it.

How have you navigated that?

It hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows.

It hasn't.

And one of the Comet, the cat that we, the kitten that we're keeping, he arrived on Halloween and we had kind of almost kind of paused the sort of trying to, to catch him, to focus on the, The Little Calico, who was really very wild when she came and is now climbing into people's laps and having cuddles.

And it's lovely.

But, yeah, so the day that.

That Columba arrived in the cat trap, yeah, we were late for a bus, rushing to get a bus.

We'd already missed a bus, and we were heading out to see friends and pretty inconvenient that he arrived just to.

That we all went out of the house to, you know, with all the bags and things in a rush.

And my eldest said, mom, there's a cat in the drive.

And I admit to really hoping that in that moment that it was just, you know, one of our neighborhood cats and we could just let it go and apologize to it and it would be off.

But it was not.

It was not.

It was on it.

So, yeah, so that was quite a stressful morning.

And, yeah, I think it's.

It's been.

It has definitely tested my patience and perseverance because there's been points where I've thought we just need to give up.

Now.

I haven't said that to my girls because they were so committed, but part of me was like, is this, you know, are we going to manage to get.

There's one more out in the world that we haven't caught yet.

But we keep seeing him and he knows us and he.

Yeah, we're just keeping an eye on him.

But.

But, yeah, there's.

There's been points where I've thought, oh, is this.

You know, is this going to continue?

But their commitment and their.

Their joy, it's.

You know, they've got such a.

They're just.

Yeah, they've just got so much enthusiasm to do this.

And so, yeah, I think in all things with.

With home Ed, sometimes your child will be really interested in something, and that interest will continue to the point where you think that there isn't.

You know, there isn't anything else we can do now.

But they'll always find if they're.

If it's something that they want to just keep on with, they.

They will tell you and they will keep doing it.

And that's what I found with this, is that it's tested my patience and my sense of perseverance.

But what it hasn't tested is my belief in them and my belief that they are, you know, they.

They can.

I say it to them all the time.

You know, you can do anything that you set your mind to.

And, yeah, I just.

Yeah, I just generally feel really proud of them, which you can probably tell.

And you absolutely should.

I'm proud of yourself as well, because I think that it can be very easy to, you know, it can be inconvenient when they want to pursue a passion and it, it takes over in a sense, everyday life and you're trying to get on with the things that you need to get on with your family life.

And they're saying, oh, can we do this?

And, and we, you know, I need to look up this or I need to, to sort this out or a cat has arrived unexpectedly and, and it's hard to keep committed.

It's lovely when we celebrate our children's achievements and we absolutely should, but we need to celebrate our achievements as, as parents as well in creating that space for them to be able to, to achieve these things.

Definitely.

And you mentioned their GoFundMe and I think they've got an Amazon list as well.

Do you want to tell us a bit more about that?

People listening may want to help or.

And so, yeah, share with us about how people can support.

They have set up a GoFundMe.

They worked out the cost of neutering and microchipping because obviously cats need to be microchipped now.

Yeah.

So they've done all the maths looking at our local veterinary surgeon surgery up the top of our street.

So they've got a target of £500.

They also have said that anything because you can sometimes get support for neutering feral cats.

So we are looking into that too.

But anything that is above what they need.

So anything that's kind of surplus money is going to be donated to the cat charity, the cat sanctuary that I spoke about at the beginning of our conversation.

They're called Westgate Ark and they're a local cat charity who do amazing work to support all cats in, in the area that are in need.

So that's their plan with the GoFundMe and they, they have got a wish list of the things that, because we're cat, we're a cat family anyway, a lot of things that we've needed we've had already, but we've also had some lovely friends who have been supporting the girls and they've kind of gifted box of food here and there or one of our friends actually ordered like a professional cat trap and so that the girls would have that.

And one of those friends was the family that have taken the first kitten that we caught and socialized who is going for his operation tomorrow.

So a lot of the things that we already had, but they have made a wish list of things that we don't have or that we've run out of and so that I'll be able to share the link with you.

We also have a Bella and Duke referral link, so if anyone has cats.

Bella and Duke are a company that do raw food for cats.

So there's a referral link there which I can share with you, which will get the kitten's account.

Like, I think they put some, like, credit into their kitten's account for every person who orders, but the person who's ordering gets discount, I think is 40% or something off.

But yeah, so there's.

Yeah, it's.

It has been.

It's been a wonderful experience.

It's not finished yet.

We're still going.

Obviously, the girls have had a really difficult time in recent years with a lot of things external to the immediate family, but they have just flourished through this project and, yeah, I'm really, really proud of them.

Well, thank you so much for sharing with us today.

It's been lovely to hear about it and I wish them the best of luck in hopefully capturing the last kitten and also with rehoming the other kitten as well.

So we will put all of that in the show notes so that people can help if they wish to and also take advantage of that lovely discount code if they've got cats.

And thank you so much for joining us.

Yeah, it's been lovely.

And thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to share the girls project.

Thank you so much for joining us for today's Home Education Matters podcast.

See you at the next one.

Have a lovely day.

Sam.