About Our Homeschooling Family

This page tells you more about our homeschooling family - who exactly is the "I" and the "we" that are being mentioned on the design-your-homeschool website.
You can also see our homeschooling family in our "I love SBI!" video.

Here's another slideshow about our homeschooling family.

Our Homeschool Days - what we love doing as a homeschooling family! Read more about Our Homeschool - 2009 Update!

Make a Smilebox postcard

My name is Marianne and I have been married to my wonderful husband, Gerald for 20 years.
I am originally from Western Australia and he was born in New South Wales and moved shortly after to Queensland, where he spend most of his childhood. How God planned our meeting is another story.

We married after he had finished theological studies and moved to a church in southern Tasmania. We lived in this scenic part of the world for 7 years. Since then, we have lived in Sydney and we continue to enjoy living in the southern suburbs. We are blessed to be part of a wonderful church family.

We made the enormous decision to homeschool when our eldest child was "ready" to begin pre-school. The norm was that we would send him out of the home and to the pre-school where all the other children his age would be. For some reason the question, "Why?" "Why should we send him away?" "Why should he go to someone else's care when we are enjoying being a family together?" "Why should we be left with the scraps at the end of the day?" came to us and it was then, that the huge job of investigating options came about. God brought me in contact with some homeschoolers and up to that point, I had not even known about "home-schooling". At a small Christian University in Hobart, I was able to read my first book on homeschooling which has been one of my favourites ever since and I know it is a favourite of many. The book is For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffar Macaulay. That book was so inspiring and gave me a new perspective on education. The author says, "Education is an adventure... It's about people, children, life, reality!"

Following a year of questions, prayer, searching the scriptures and discussion, we made the decision to "give it a try". God gave us such an incredible peace when the decision was finally made, that we believe that He has led us to this point and has called our family to follow in this direction. So, our journey as a homeschooling family begun.

Since that time, we have had our ups and downs, questions which unsettle us (and me, in particular) for a time, but which slowly recede into the background the more convicted we become of what God has called our family to do.

We know never to make huge life-changing decisions when you are in a crisis or in a time of doubt or enormous stress. It is easy to toss in the towel when it looks too hard! But if God has convicted you to walk along a certain pathway, do not question that conviction because of stress. Look hard at why you were led to a point in your life and if necessary consider whether God is calling you to a different path, but do this when life is peaceful and you are assessing the situation in a rational manner.

Now we are 13 years down the track and still enjoying the benefits and lifestyle of homeschooling. As I have met more and more homeschoolers in the last few years, I have felt a desire to write about homeschooling and specifically a guide to help newer homeschoolers find their way and fulfill the goals that God has for their family. That brings us up to date.

Our Children

We have six children: five boys and one girl. As to be expected, our children are all very different with different gifts and abilities and it is a joy to see how God is moulding each one for use in His kingdom right now.

Our eldest son, Nathanael,(18) is pursuing an interest in Information Technology. He has had the wonderful opportunity of connecting with a senior man in our community who he has spent time pulling apart and putting computers back together again. He is also advertising his skills in transferring videos into DVDs. He is working part-time. He is keenly involved in the boys group at church as a junior leader, in camps and missions, and also plays piano in the junior church band.

Our second son, Reuben,(16) loves to read! He loves historical fiction novels and especially any G.A.Henty novels. He reads and re-reads the 30-40 we have on our shelves continuously. (Even when his light is supposed to be OFF!) He is also really enjoying his guitar playing and last week received his own semi-acoustic guitar for an early birthday present. He has been playing his Dad's guitar for a number of years, and it has been very exciting for him to receive his own at last!

He has always wanted to be an electrician. This year he is completing a General Vocational and Education Certificate through OTEN, and so in the next few years he will look for an apprenticeship.

Our third son, Benjamin,(13) loves his history and is into making games. He lives in an organized mess, in which each piece of paper has some special writing and statistics and information crucial to the master plan. He loves thinking of "history days" and "history projects" and is a great source of enthusiasm in our home. He loves his reading also and working in his colourful and informative history books. One day, he would love to learn the guitar or the bass guitar, but his mum insists on him learning the recorder first, and that.... may take a while.

Our fourth son, Joel, (12) loves anything that flies. He is consumed by his thoughts of flight. Once, in church, I imagined that I had a budding theologian next to me as I could see his mind was busy thinking and struggling with questions, when he tugged at my sleeve. I knew that I needed to answer that question then and there. His whole salvation seemed to be hanging on that moment. "Mum," he said, "Where do flies go when it is raining?" I sat stunned. I wondered how the gripping sermon of my husband had turned into flies in the rain! Joel is the best at making paper aeroplanes in our house. His fly the best and are the longest off the ground. He is also a very dedicated sportsman. He could kick a ball all day long! As all children, he is a very interesting little boy!

Our fifth son, Micah, (9) asked me one day, when he was seven, what the most important thing would be for him to learn. He, being quite a chatterbox, did not allow me to answer, but answered his own question, "Languages - I think... and probably Greek- that way I can learn to read the Bible in its first language." Where did that come from? He is a busy little thinker and best mates with his brother Joel. They sit side by side when they do their bookwork - compare answers, chat and giggle together. It can be frustrating for mum at times, but still really gorgeous!

Well, that leaves our little girl, Talitha (8). And yes! she is very different to the boys! Do you know the poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, "I have a little shadow, Who goes in and out with me..." Well, that is Talitha! She loves to spend time with her mum, and truly it is a joy to have another female in the house. She loves pretty things, anything pink!, loves teasing her dad, has just entered the "I love reading" along with the other children, making things, writing cards, crafts and lots of messy stuff! It's a different experience for me to have a little girl and I am enjoying my pink one among all the blue. (At least her clothes are easy to sort out!)

Well, that is about "me" and our homeschooling family.

In the video below you see me describing what I really love about SBI (-those who helped me build this website). The video has all the members of the family in it!

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