The Pukeko Patch is our home school blog.

We will be recording what we are doing at our place to give the Oh Waily Kids skills for living an independent, intelligent, caring, loving and expansive life.

The Oh Wailys are a family of four.  Mum, Dad, Daughter and Son.
Mum generally goes by the nom de plume, Ms Oh Waily.
Dad suggests he should be Rob Anybody, to keep in the Oh Waily theme.
Daughter is known as Miss Oh Waily and Son is Master Oh Waily.

Miss Oh Waily has turned five this year (2012) and this is traditionally the age children go to school here in New Zealand.  Only we are planning not to take the traditional road.  We are planning to homeschool our children, for many reasons, some of which I may even post about in due course.
To that end, we will be submitting our application for exemption some time next year (2013), fairly close to Miss Oh Waily’s sixth birthday.  Six is the official age at which your children must be attending school here.

Master Oh Waily has turned three this year, and will tag along on many of his sister’s learning journeys, picking things up on the hoof as younger siblings often seem to do.  He too will be joining in with the homeschooling fun.

Our learning style is not defined as yet.  I have a great love of the Montessori way of conducting children’s education, but I am also open to the unschooling way of learning.  I think we will turn out to have quite an eclectic method of teaching and offering learning opportunities, so I do not want you to go away thinking that we are “boxed” by the terms Montessori or Unschooling.   The last thing I want to do is turn this journey into is a rigid ideological experiment, so flexibility will be a theme here too.

I think that sums us up at the moment.  Welcome to the Patch, I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures in learning and growing.