Victoria Gagarina

(Yoga and Philosophy Advisor of HSA)

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I never planned to be a homeschooling mum, but my eldest daughter Lisa changed that.

Even though she was supposedly attending the best schools in the world (Geneva International school, French Lycee in Hong Kong and such) she was very unhappy.

She was a very sensitive child, very clever at some topics, reading a lot, so the school program was too boring for her, but she needed a lot of help with other subjects that the school environment couldn't provide.

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It took me some time and a process of changing schools, re-arranging her schedule until I arrived at the conclusion that only a fully customized program will be able to meet my child's needs.

It wasn't easy as at that moment I worked full time, but between my husband, our helper and tutors we made it work.

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The first year wasn't easy as we still figured things out, but meeting and talking with other homeschooling parents helped a lot.

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After 2 years we were already navigating it with ease and when I left my office work to open our own business, my more flexible hours helped to shape our homeschooling routine.

By that time our second daughter grew up and the girls started to share tutors, some activities together, which made it easier logistically and economically.

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To keep their social life active I organized lots of classes at our HK YOGA studio in Discovery Bay, where they can have dance, drama, aerial yoga classes and make friends.

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After a while they even got involved in designing programs and assisting in holiday camps, which was fun, creative and educational as they got to see how we run our family business.

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We've been 9 years now on our homeschooling journey with our 3rd kid growing up and now it's hard to imagine it any other way.

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For those who want to think about this possibility, need a word of encouragement or want to know more about our journey, I created a webinar to help parents to evaluate if the homeschooling is right for their family and what kind would suit their kids needs better.