I want to shout it from the rooftops! He found his way without school ❤️

Proud Mummy Moment! I just want to shout out about my son Samuel who has just phoned me with some wonderful news. Many of you know of him and his early struggles in school and that we ended up unschooling after a long and often hair raising journey to get there. He is now at 19 in his final year of his software engineering degree at the University of Queensland. As part of the work for one of his papers he has been going into industry to interview people and after one day he received a call from a company that said they had an internship going and they thought Samuel should apply if he was interested. He was not looking for work but the sound of it was something that really interested him. The date of application closure was the day they called him. He furiously filled the application and sent off his CV (which for someone with his executive function issues is huge to get himself into gear and organised to do this!) and was then called for an interview with 40 other applicants and he being the only homeschooler. He went for the interview and felt that it had gone well but was up against some other very talented young programmers. However, he got a call last week and was told that he was wanted for a second round of interviews. The interview happened on Tuesday and he was called last night offering him the internship!! Tears of joy from this proud Mama! He will be going in one day per week paid and taught all that they can teach him and then at the end of his degree has the offer of a full time position. My out of control (to others!) boy diagnosed with ADHD/ASD/ODD/Gifted and with learning difficulties (namely dyslexia and severe dysgraphia) who was suspended from every single school bar one (and he went to quite a few schools), who we were told needed serious psychiatric help by one school principal and who left the school system crushed, depressed and with little to no self esteem has just proved them all how wrong they were about him! I always knew that they were wrong but he didn't! He came home and was allowed to be the wonderful, smart human being that he is and always was. It was just that school didn't always see that and tried to "fix" him when he was never broken! To all those parents who worry about their children - please have faith. I know sometimes it is a huge leap of faith but Samuel was allowed to follow his passions and do things HIS way and I am so very proud of the young man he has become and his achievements today. He has proved to me that you don't need others to teach you, tell you what you need to or should be learning. Having a passion, interest or aptitude in something and being allowed to follow it really does work - well it has for my family anyway and I am sure it will for most heart emoticon

To worry or not?...

I just wanted to share this with those who worry and I often see a lot of worry online in the homeschool forums... worry that they are not doing enough... worry that they are not using the right curriculum... worry that what they are doing is not the same as their friends... worrying about being registered, un-registered, just worrying about lots (I know I do at times!!).. There really is no right or wrong way to homeschool.. just what is right for you at any given time and things change (all the time!) and that is ok.

I have been homeschooling for 10 years now and have been registered, unregistered, used Distance Ed, done project based learning, unschooling (where I really did just let my son do whatever he wanted and that actually worked best for us) and hey he is 19 now and in his final year of Uni, holding down a part time job and living his life being true to himself and is happy. He got where he is having done a lot of playing over the years (often it seemed to others that he was mostly playing  ) and teaching himself what he wanted when he needed it and he learned it much quicker that way than when I tried to teach him when he wasn't ready or interested..

Anyway, I just wanted to share this with those other fellow worriers and just know that things do work out for so many who have chosen to homeschool (or unschool or whatever you personally like to call it) and I bet we have all got wherever we wanted to be using a different path to many others - so if you are a worrier try to hold onto this knowledge - it will all work out just fine and you are able and capable of doing this whichever way you choose <3