About our Family

We are English, well I say that, and it is not strictly true, the kids were born in South Africa, Ant and I were born in England. Ant and I lived in South Africa for 15 years prior to coming back to Europe. We went back to England when the girls were 7, in fact 2 days before they were 7 and when Jahli was only 4.

We stayed there for a year and a half. Then one rainy day in a dimly lit kitchen in Suffolk Ant said to me ‘Shall we go to Italy for the summer?’

I said ‘Yes’ he said ‘Let’s just get one way tickets for now’ and I said ‘OK…but? Oh OK’

So we spent 4 years in Italy. So yes we are an English family that in effect hasn’t spent much time in England really. In our late twenties both Ant and I left the UK, not together, in fact we didn’t meet until years later but coincidentally we both arrived in South Africa around the same time.

This is the quick version…

We lived in South Africa. In Cape Town, we left C.T and moved to the countryside to a place called Montagu. We bought a fruit farm and raised our babies on it, until the girls were about three and our son 8 months old. We sold the farm and bought a house in the local village and moved into it. We ran a restaurant/café/shop. We left after about four years of being in Montagu and went to the UK. After about a year and a half, we discovered we didn’t want to be there. Then we moved to Italy for four years. We no longer live in Italy and right now as we are travelling in Europe and unschooling in our own way and learning a lot in the process.

So this is who we are, I am an illustrator/writer/author/unschooling Mum. I have been recently writing a few pieces for The Guardian. Anthony is a coach, working in health and wellness/a writer/an unschooling Dad/film maker and photographer. We are an English-ish, South African-ish, Italian-ish mish mash of a family.

I am very excited to have a website about Unschooling, for me this is a place to connect up with people and to share ideas and information. To hear other people’s stories and open up our lives to the rest of the world a bit and see what else is going on out there. To meet other unschooling families or alternative educators. Also this is a place for people who can’t and don’t want to unschool but who may be interested and curious as to what it is all about and why a growing number of people are doing it.

We think that the world is changing fast around education and it is lovely to hear what is happening out there. Welcome to our website and thank you for taking the time to be here, we are good at responding so feel free to get in touch!