A woman believes homeschooling kids is "better" than sending them to school - and says childhood should be for "playing" instead of structured learning.
Hannah Koumakis, 24, was home schooled with her three siblings for seven years of her education - from the ages of six to 14.
Her mum, Delwyn, 57, taught them academic subjects as well as teaching life skills such as budgeting and business skills.
Hannah would get all her work done by 8am and was able to play with her sisters, Rebekah, 28, Christy, 26, and her younger brother, Luke, 19, for the rest of the day.
She believes being homeschooled made her more "street smart" and says it's "better" than sending kids to school.
Hannah, a self-employed podcaster and business owner, from Auckland, New Zealand, said: "It's better.
"I'm grateful I was homeschooled.
"It let us be kids and play.
"It was so flexible.
"It let us be very creative.
"It's what your childhood should be like."
Hannah went to a private primary school before her parents decided to homeschool them all.
She said: "It was a novelty at the start. It was very fun.
"My mum was very dedicated.
"We did music, recorder and knitting.
"We went to McDonalds and KFC and analysed the calories. She taught us all about fast food."
Hannah said it became less structured over time and she was able to be more flexible.
She said: "I would wake up and get all my work done by 8am.
"We trialled it all. Some weeks I'd do all my work on Monday."
Hannah was also taught about real life skills such as how to budget.
She was given $140-a-month in pocket money and had to budget and record her finances in a book - buying almost everything she needed for herself.
Hannah and her siblings had to use the money to pay for their own essentials like clothes, meals out with the family and school trips.
Each month she would put $70 in long-term savings, $20 in short-term savings and $14 to charity - leaving her $36 to spend.
Hannah said: "Spending and saving are such important lessons.
"I don’t think there is enough education around it, and I feel very lucky to have had that growing up.
"It has helped me masses in life. You’re never going to not use that skill - parents should do it if they can.
"In 2007, $140 was a lot more than now.
“Our dad would make us write all our finances down in a book.”
Hannah said she was always busy and would be spending time doing sports, volunteering and going to creative classes.
She also met up with other homeschooled children and families and they had balls and events.
Hannah said: "We never really miss our on anything.
"Every single thing you could do at school - we did."
Hannah says homeschooling also meant her could parents could take them on holiday when they pleased.
They had to finish all their schoolwork early one year for a trip around Europe.
Hannah said: "It was the best history lesson you could get."
Hannah's parents decided to put her back into school aged 14 and she says she was put into a class for less advanced students.
She said: "It was the dumb class.
"I remember being the first to finish all my work."
Hannah was moved up to the highest class and said she "thrived" in a last few years of education.
She said: "I personally think homeschool is amazing from primary school.
"If people can they should homeschool their kids.
"You get a better relationship with them and get to teach how you want.
"My childhood was full of play. I'm very privileged."
Hannah Koumakis, 24, was home schooled with her three siblings for seven years of her education - from the ages of six to 14.
Her mum, Delwyn, 57, taught them academic subjects as well as teaching life skills such as budgeting and business skills.
Hannah would get all her work done by 8am and was able to play with her sisters, Rebekah, 28, Christy, 26, and her younger brother, Luke, 19, for the rest of the day.
She believes being homeschooled made her more "street smart" and says it's "better" than sending kids to school.
Hannah, a self-employed podcaster and business owner, from Auckland, New Zealand, said: "It's better.
"I'm grateful I was homeschooled.
"It let us be kids and play.
"It was so flexible.
"It let us be very creative.
"It's what your childhood should be like."
Hannah went to a private primary school before her parents decided to homeschool them all.
She said: "It was a novelty at the start. It was very fun.
"My mum was very dedicated.
"We did music, recorder and knitting.
"We went to McDonalds and KFC and analysed the calories. She taught us all about fast food."
Hannah said it became less structured over time and she was able to be more flexible.
She said: "I would wake up and get all my work done by 8am.
"We trialled it all. Some weeks I'd do all my work on Monday."
Hannah was also taught about real life skills such as how to budget.
She was given $140-a-month in pocket money and had to budget and record her finances in a book - buying almost everything she needed for herself.
Hannah and her siblings had to use the money to pay for their own essentials like clothes, meals out with the family and school trips.
Each month she would put $70 in long-term savings, $20 in short-term savings and $14 to charity - leaving her $36 to spend.
Hannah said: "Spending and saving are such important lessons.
"I don’t think there is enough education around it, and I feel very lucky to have had that growing up.
"It has helped me masses in life. You’re never going to not use that skill - parents should do it if they can.
"In 2007, $140 was a lot more than now.
“Our dad would make us write all our finances down in a book.”
Hannah said she was always busy and would be spending time doing sports, volunteering and going to creative classes.
She also met up with other homeschooled children and families and they had balls and events.
Hannah said: "We never really miss our on anything.
"Every single thing you could do at school - we did."
Hannah says homeschooling also meant her could parents could take them on holiday when they pleased.
They had to finish all their schoolwork early one year for a trip around Europe.
Hannah said: "It was the best history lesson you could get."
Hannah's parents decided to put her back into school aged 14 and she says she was put into a class for less advanced students.
She said: "It was the dumb class.
"I remember being the first to finish all my work."
Hannah was moved up to the highest class and said she "thrived" in a last few years of education.
She said: "I personally think homeschool is amazing from primary school.
"If people can they should homeschool their kids.
"You get a better relationship with them and get to teach how you want.
"My childhood was full of play. I'm very privileged."
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FunTranscript
00:00 A few days ago I posted a video about how I was homeschooled and one girl stitched the video and said that it helped her significantly when she had to work from home.
00:06 And it didn't really cross my mind until she did this video that it actually makes so much sense.
00:10 At the age of 7 I had to have so much motivation because if I wanted to go and play I had to get all my schoolwork done in 2 hours.
00:15 So from such a young age I literally learnt the importance of motivation and getting things done fast so you can actually enjoy your life.
00:21 And now I'm a self-employed girl, I head out to meetings, I have so many meetings and so much on and it's really easy to get distracted.
00:27 It's finding the motivation to go "you know what if I get all my work done I can actually enjoy my life, I can hang out with friends and I can be free to literally be human and have a better work-life balance".
00:35 So yeah I attribute that to homeschooling.
00:37 But honestly this is such a realistic day in my life, it's not all fun and games, it is literally just work.
00:42 I've also got a really exciting project that I haven't actually mentioned on here and I have been working really hard for months on it and so I'm really excited to finally tell you guys very soon.
00:51 Why is it that there's a stereotype that homeschoolers aren't socialised and that homeschoolers are weird?
00:55 I'm Hannah and I was homeschooled for 7 years, me along with my 3 other siblings and I have to admit, yes, sometimes it's true.
01:02 Sometimes you do get parents that do not put their kids through different clubs.
01:06 It is so important when you're homeschooled to be doing clubs and homeschool activities and extracurricular things to get socialised.
01:13 Otherwise yeah you could literally be at home just playing by yourself.
01:17 That was not the case for me and my family, oh my gosh were we busy.
01:20 My dad didn't call it homeschooling, my dad called it not at homeschooling because we were never at home.
01:25 Literally Mondays we had netball and then Tuesdays we volunteered at a kids thing.
01:29 And then Tuesday afternoons we had art class and then Wednesday we had swimming.
01:32 Thursday we had homeschooling group with like 60 other families in our area.
01:36 And then Friday we had another type of sports or like other classes or ballet.
01:40 So we were socialised with other kids that weren't homeschooled as well which is also important.
01:43 But it's just so funny, it's the number one question that I get, it's like how are you so normal?
01:47 And it's a shame that there is a stereotype but it honestly isn't 100% true.
01:52 True for some people but for the majority of people homeschoolers are very well socialised.
01:56 If you've got any more questions about homeschooling let me know because people are really intrigued.
02:00 I was homeschooled for 7 years of my life and I literally got all of my schoolwork finished by 8am every single day.
02:05 I finished all my schoolwork within 2 hours every day.
02:08 I would wake up at 6am and make sure that I was finished before the school bus came past my road to go pick up the school kids.
02:14 The rest of the day I literally played. And I can't help but think that that is literally what your childhood should be about.
02:19 It should be about playing and having creativity, being out in the world.
02:22 And me and my siblings became so close because all we were doing all day was play.
02:26 We were playing, creating movies, playing with Barbies.
02:28 It was such a wholesome childhood that I literally was playing Barbies up until I was 13 years old.
02:32 My parents taught us economics through actually giving us all of our finances at the age of 7.
02:36 Meaning they gave us $140 every single month and we had to pay for every single thing.
02:40 Everything, including our clothes, our underwear.
02:42 If we went out to McDonald's we had to pay for it.
02:44 We literally got real life experiences.
02:46 And I often get the question, how did I turn out today?
02:48 Am I normal? Well I hope so.
02:50 I have 3 other siblings and we're all very high achievers.
02:52 But I'm so grateful that my parents were in the position to be able to homeschool us.
02:55 Because not everyone is able to be in that position.
02:57 But if you're considering homeschooling, then have a look at my page, have a look at my family and see how close we are.
03:01 And I attribute all of that to homeschooling.
03:04 I attribute all my street smart, book smart, I attribute it all to homeschooling.