The stay-at-home kids who are being "unschooled"

Maryanna Jacobs’ children don’t go to school. Rio, nine, and son Bryden, eight, spend their days playing Minecraft on their laptops, baking or going on errands with their mother instead.

Their mum is “unschooling” them and she insists it’s the best decision she’s ever made for her family. Instead of getting dressed in a uniform and doing lessons in a classroom, Rio and Bryden stay at home and learn “naturally” by playing computer games and going for walks.

“Both the kids have learnt numbers, words and how to type through their computer games, and they’ve learnt a lot about computers too,” Maryanna tells The Daily Mail . ‘They’ve learnt maths through things like shopping and baking. Numbers are always going through Bryden’s head – he’s fascinated with clocks and timetables. Rio is more of a words person – she learnt through games like Scrabble and Monopoly. ‘They’ve learnt about birds, trees and rocks just by being outdoors.”

Maryanna doesn’t believe in routines or schedules either, so her kids don’t have set meal or bedtimes, sometimes only going to sleep at midnight.

“We have a great deal of quality time together and it’s made us closer as a family,” she insists. “It makes me very sad when I hear parents say they can’t wait for their children to go to school so they can have some peace and quiet. Why have children if you don’t want them around?”

Rio and Bryden initially attended preschool five days a week, but when Rio was four, her mother heard about “unschooling”.

The philosophy rejects traditional education in favour of letting children choose what they want to do. There are no accurate figures on how many children are unschooled in Australia, but more than 50,000 kids were home schooled last year.

Beverley Paine, who runs the Unschool Australia website, estimates up to 20 per cent of home educated children may be unschooled, while many others are taught using some elements of unschooling methodology.

“We’re learning every moment of every day,” says Beverley on her site.”Unschoolers and natural learners don’t focus on the what, when, how and why of learning. They focus on being in control and taking responsibility for their own learning processes. They are motivated and engaged learners because of this.” and decided to give her children the choice about the future of their education.

When Maryanna gave her kids the choice of staying at school or trying unschooling, “they both decided they wanted to be at home with their mum.”

Last year Rio told Maryanna she wanted to try primary school, so her mum bought her a uniform and bag, but she only lasted eight days but decided it wasn’t for her.

“She found some things very frustrating – she was much more advanced than other kids in her swimming classes but wasn’t allowed to go in to the deep end of the pool. The teachers didn’t really know how able she was. She was also taught nursery rhymes like ‘Ring a Ring o’ Roses’ which she found babyish.”

As for how it will affect her kids prospects in later life, Maryanna isn’t concerned.

“I’m bringing the kids up to be free-thinking entrepreneurs who don’t have to work for someone else if they don’t want to and don’t feel they have to ‘be something’ when they grow up,” she insists.

What do you think about Maryanna’s decision?