What's it like to homeschool your kids?

Currently, 6,000 New Zealand kids are getting homeschooled, not including those enrolled at the correspondence school Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu. Educating a child at home can allow a parent to "light a fire in their hearts and minds" without pressure or competition, says Siobhan Porter, who has homeschooled all five of her kids. Siobhan is the director of Auckland Home Educators - a support and advocacy group for homeschoolers. She and education consultant Natalie Donaldson - who has also homeschooled five kids - talk to Kathryn Ryan about their experience.Currently, 6,000 New Zealand kids are getting homeschooled, not including those enrolled at the correspondence school Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu.Educating a child at home can allow a parent to "light a fire in their hearts and minds" without pressure or competition, says Siobhan Porter, who has homeschooled all five of her kids.Siobhan is the director of Auckland Home Educators - a support and advocacy group for homeschoolers.She and education consultant Natalie Donaldson - who has also homeschooled five kids - talk to Kathryn Ryan about their experience.Siobhan Porter had a private school education herself and every advantage, she says.She hadn't been exposed to home education at all when she became a mother. (Her children now range in age from 6 to 19.)"When my oldest was nearly five, I thought 'actually I don't really want school to interrupt this lovely thing we've got happening here'."Siobhan met with some other people who were homeschooling and decided to give it a go."I thought 'surely it can't be too hard to teach a child to read. I can read myself, I'm not trained to do this but I think I could find out."Every child learns differently and as a parent, you have a lot of intuition about what is best for your own child, she says."When you can sit alongside your child and connect with them, it's a wonderful process of them learning and you learning alongside them."You're really lighting a fire in their hearts and minds and helping them to follow their passions."You can do that in a really thorough and unhurried way when you're homeschooling without all that pressure and competition."They do this great learning but they still have heaps of time to play, explore, create and imagine."Natalie, whose kids now range in age between 11 and 19, also had no intention of educating her kids at home until it became clear her 5-year-old son was going to find school a big challenge…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details