A pair of sisters are ‘unschooling’ their children together – and let the kids decide when and what they learn.
Kelsey Hall, 29, decided to deregister her son, Logan, seven, from school in March 2023 as he ‘hated’ going.
When Kelsey began homeschooling, her sister, Rachel Andrew, 24, followed her example – she has no plans to send her children, Mila, four, and Ronnie, two, to school either.
The mums turned homeschool teachers don’t stick to a rota or schedule, and won’t force their kids to read or study.
Instead they do everything on the children’s terms – spending time baking, walking along the beach, and taking trips to places such as the police station, to teach the kids about everyday skills.
Kelsey, a chef and content creator, from Whitehaven, decided to take her son out of school when she realised how much he disliked going.
‘Logan hated school ever since the day he started,’ she said.
‘He’d take his uniform off on the way to school. I deregistered him – it was terrifying.
‘We spent the first week just doing fun stuff, to get him used to not being at school.’
And just three months on, and Kelsey says there’s already a change in Logan.
‘He’s so happy and confident now,’ she said. ‘Everything we do is on his terms.’
Rachel, who lives a 10 minute drive from her sister, has always wanted to home school her children after her own experience at school.
She said: ‘I was very aware of this life outside of school.
‘I was forced to do lessons I wasn’t interested in at all. I had so many passions that I wanted to pursue.
‘I’ve never used my GCSEs.’
The sisters usually start the day with a walk along the beach with the kids.
Logan, Mila and Ronnie spend the day playing, looking at animals on the beach and baking and cooking.
Logan has workbooks to help guide his learning but mum Kelsey won’t force him to go through them – and is led by him.
‘We bake – he’ll read the ingredients and practice maths as he is weighing them out,’ said Kelsey.
Rachel, also a chef from Whitehaven, added: ‘If he doesn’t want to read, we’ll go to the beach but then he’ll be reading all the signs.
‘We go to the shops and talk about money.
‘The kids love looking for jellyfish running in the sea – they love the sea.
‘They do free play. We give them the freedom to play outside.’
The siblings loosely choose a focus for the week for the kids to learn about – such as space or animals.
They take trips to the local farm and recently visited the police station.
Kelsey said: ‘We loosely focus on something – like this week was space. But if the kids want to do something else we will.
‘People ask: ‘Do you teach them anything?’ But they’ll have just watched a video of them at the beach looking at sea life and baking.
‘We’re trying to show people it’s an option to home school.’
Kelsey said they will give Logan the option to take his GCSEs if he’d like to – and can pay for him to sit them.
But they don’t want to pressure him into doing them or going to university.
She said: ‘Exams don’t prove how you are as a child. We’re outside every day. Logan is more willing to learn now.’
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