Home Education follows the everyday lives of six families in Aotearoa educating their children at home. In this episode we meet Alesha and Kensey.

The new docu-series Home Education is filmed across Aotearoa, in and around the homes of six families who have taken schooling outside the bounds of a traditional classroom. Each family moulds their days to suit them, fostering a love of learning through incorporating elements of Montessori, Waldorf, Unschooling, Te Kura and mātauranga Māori. The students we meet are just a few of over 10,000 who are educated at home in Aotearoa.

Episode four introduces Kensey, who started slipping behind at school due to repeated illness. Her mum Alesha remembers Kensey turning five and going to her first day of school as a huge milestone, but rather than let her fall behind, she dug deep and decided to do something out of her comfort zone – at the time however, all they knew of home schooling was what they had seen on Country Calendar.  

When Kensey asked Alesha what was in their local stream, the experts were called in. The home education community in the area gathered, and a council ecologist helped them collect critters in nets and containers. Alesha says their home education journey is just beginning, “we’ve just taken our jandal off at the edge of the river.”

Made with the support of NZ On Air.