Every Bed of Roses an Interview With a Homeschooling Mom from Down Under

Hey everybody today we’re talking with Chareen of Every Bed of Roses. Chareen lives and homeschools in beautiful Victoria Australia, and is also a Social Media Assistant for The Old Schoolhouse. She’s come to share her homeschool days AND several pertinent links with us.

Kemi: Tell us a little bit about your children’s ages and grades?

Chareen: I am currently home educating one student.  Nathaniel is 9 and we have been home educating together for the past three years.
I home educated my eldest two children from Kindy to Graduation. You can read more about us here: Meet My Family 2015

Kemi: What homeschooling method do you use?

Chareen: I’m an eclectic home educator.  I am aiming for a Charlotte Mason, Delight Directed homeschool with Nathaniel.
Kemi: Can you give us a peek into your typical homeschool day?
Chareen: In an ideal perfect home education day our day begins at around seven am when we get up.  Paul leaves for work at around 7:30 and we then have breakfast and chore time.  We spend a couple of hours at the dining table and work our way through Copy Work, Math, Language Arts and Calculadder.  Every half an hour Nathaniel will take a break and have a 10 min break jumping on the trampoline.
Once all our written work is complete we have morning tea together and then switch on the computer and work through a few online programs.  The number of these depends on what we are reviewing for the Schoolhouse Review Crew.
After this it’s normally lunch time.  After lunch we migrate to the lounge cuddle on the couch and work our way through a number of books we are reading out loud.  The subject ground covered is science, history, geography and classics.
Kemi: We love to see where homeschooling happens. Can you give us a peek into your homeschool room?
Chareen: Yes although we are changing things around and will be moving it to the rumpus room this year. This has been the same for the last three years.  You can read about our space here:   Learning Spaces

Kemi: So you know that Homemaking Organized is all about homemaking or the details of home. We love to find out how others keep their homes. Can you tell us about your own homekeeping and how you manage to fit it in with homeschool?

Chareen:  Home cleaning and schedules are not my strength so any help or support I can muster is a must for me.  This year I will be using my  Motivated Mom’s book to help me stay on track.

One of my passions is encouraging mothers to care for themselves better in order that they may be better care givers for their families. Burnout is a very real companion to many homeschool and stay at home mothers and it is vitally important that they take the time they need to care for themselves. I discuss this in depth on my blog along with practical steps to help you in  How important is Alone Time and Homeschooling ?

Kemi: Do you have any crafts or hobbies that you would like to share?

My blog is one of my creative hobbies.  I started learning DSLR photography a couple of years ago and this year one of my aims is to improve my photography and learn more techniques.  I have started a separate Instagram account to post pictures from my experiments on.  My account name is  Macro Passion.
One day when I have some spare time I would like to once again scrapbook and make my own home made cards.

Chareen is a South African born, Kiwi living in beautiful Victoria Australia with her   Zoo Keeper husband Paul and their three Children. She is a veteran home educator (16 years).  She is passionate about supporting and encouraging homeschool Mom’s on their journey. Chareen is an avid lover of good books and great read alouds and enjoys scrapbooking, card making and the Word of the Lord. She blogs about her journey as a Wife, Mother, Homeschooler, Daughter and Friend over at Every Bed of Roses.