Bush Kindy

“No jab. No play.”

WTF

What does that mean?

In the state of Victoria, Australia, if you do not follow the Government’s recommended infant vaccination program precisely, then your child cannot access most childcare centre’s.

Yup.

You read that right.

It’s a law.

Indeed, it’s legislation that I didn’t fully understand the implications of, as my wife and I became parents for the first time.

As with most parenting, one has to figure things out on the fly.

Learn on the job!

Early on, we decided that we had grave concerns about the cumulative effects of vaccinations on children, and opted to take a more cautious approach with them.

• What if we don’t get them all at the same time?
• Can we spread them out?
• Perhaps we can also simply say no to the ones that really don’t seem to make sense?

Without going into the details, it took many hours of research, and plenty of discussion.

Ultimately, we said no to the schedule, which now requires up to 19 jabs within their first 4 years.

For us it just didn’t make sense.

But then it dawned on us, hang on, so we can’t access any government funded childcare now?

Nope.

In the past a friend told us you could sign a waiver form, acknowledging your child was at risk having not followed the schedule, but that you were happy for them still to attend.

Now even that option has been removed.

As part of my research, I called around a number of childcare centre’s, and one of the phone call’s I had was very insightful: “the first thing they do when they come on site is check the immunisation records”

One would have thought they might be keen to learn about bullying, workplace care, abuse…? But nope, it’s the vaccination history first and foremost.

Hmmm

What do do?
 Well, we were forced to find our own solutions.

My eldest daughter is now 3.5 years old, and most of her life, we have now “home-schooled” her.

Which really is a rather grand term for saying “Mum and Dad share looking after her at home all day…”

Yes, we’ve had a number of nanny’s help out.

Yes, we did find a couple of smaller childcare setups that were more flexible.

But the vast majority of the time this choice required hands on parenting.

In some ways I’ve loved it.

I “work from home” so have the flexibility to do so.

Really this is born out of my ability to accumulate Bitcoin with my capital, not work for anyone else, and therefore be my own boss.

No doubt I’ve spent a huge amount more time with both my girls than my father ever did with us as kids.

An experience I’ll be forever grateful for.

I won’t say it’s been totally plain sailing though…

After all, looking after children all day, is absolutely exhausting.

Point being, with a combination of both time and money, we’ve been able to handle not having access to the local childcare system.

For many people that just isn’t an option…

Where is this taking us?

Well, first and foremost, we believe we’ve made a superior decision when it comes to holistic health for a child.

Great.

But next it’s then the education options appearing.

Had you asked me 10 years ago if I’d be homeschooling my kids I would have said “never in a million years!”

But here we are!

Which brings me to “Bush Kindy”…

Again, wind the clock back 10 years, and I would’ve said “I don’t even known what that means…!”

Haha

Next week, we’re all booked, and as a family we’re heading to Byron Bay for 4 weeks.

We’ve only got a one way flight…

It might be home for a while!

Let’s see.

And next Wednesday, my eldest is going into her first day of “Bush Kindy”.

A bunch of kids, in the great Australian outdoors, unleashed to their hearts content.

Epic!

Inevitably the needs of our children, combined with our maturing parenting philosophies, are staring to drive more family decision making.

To quote their website:

“We develop Independent and Inter-Dependent Learners

• Passion-Based Learning
• Experiential Learning
• Self-Initiated Learning
• Challenge Based Learning
• Cultivating & tending Country
• Natural Childhood
• Nature as Teacher
• Parents as Guides
• Play as Learning”

Doesn’t that sound cool!

Well to say the least, I am excited for my daughter, as I think she’s going to love it.

Whilst, not only is it going to be a welcome break for full-time parenting, but is proof that are exciting alternative options outside the government controlled systems.

If we don’t have autonomy over what goes into the bodies and minds of our children, then what do we have?

It’s time to think outside the box.

Take a risk.

Maybe, just maybe, standing true to your principles will lead in a superior direction anyways.

Best, Jake

Ps - with the advent of the internet, education as we knew it is being turned inside out, as access to valuable information is no longer monopolised by old school institutions. As an advocate of digital entrepreneurship, I couldn’t be more excited about leveraging this, learning whatever we need, wherever we are, whenever we want. Uk boarding school, the world I grew up in, looks a long way away right now! What do you do with your kids?