Siobhain Little created the Homestead Hippie community to provide parents, caregivers, teachers and home schoolers with free resources to teach children how to live a healthy and sustainable life through play. It is now the ultimate family hub for holistic education and practical home schooling, where you can access hundreds of resources designed to make educating children fit into your lifestyle. They offer a practical approach to home schooling and extra curricular education so you can find the happy balance between doing life and educating your children. Here Siobhain talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind her business, the challenges she has overcome along the way, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
It all started as a few extra resources when supporting my two stepdaughters through their home-schooling journey. I was hunting around in online groups to find some tips and tricks and experienced a lot of friction. It was quite a cliquey and elitist scene. I wasn’t made to feel welcome at all, because I was ‘too young to home school’ or ‘I wasn’t the children’s mother so shouldn’t be responsible for their education’. I found it really challenging to get the support I needed as a stepmother being thrust into home education, so I created my own support. I started making my own resources and building my own community. I made it my mission to provide a judgement-free zone for anyone looking for any kind of support around the home ed space.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
It started out as a free membership to provide resources on sustainable living. I offered a free bundle of resources to teach parents to propagate with their children. And it went from there. I started expanding on the resources and created a full membership. I kept this membership 100% free throughout lockdowns from 2020 to 2022 and supported thousands of families worldwide with crisis schooling. From there, I realised we needed to reach further and wider and expand into a full community.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
It has to be not only surviving a global pandemic but thriving in one. I made sure the membership stayed free, because I knew how challenging home schooling could be and suddenly 90% of families had no choice but to home school – I called it crisis schooling! I made it my mission to get Homestead Hippie out there to support as many families as possible following the no judgement rule. I saw lots and lots of parents taking to home education groups where they weren’t welcomed, because ‘they weren’t really home schooling’. I didn’t have any agendas; I just knew we had resources and support that we could share and would help whoever needed it. We received pictures of our resources being used during multiple lockdowns and it gave me goosebumps. We supported thousands of families during that time, and this was the ultimate breakthrough that led me to the thought process of the mission being bigger than just us. We needed to level up to reach more families.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
It’s not easy. I feel as if it’s something I had a ‘trial run’ at. I have 3 older stepchildren, and they taught me so much about balance. When they were with us, I’d had to totally adjust into a caregiver whilst also working on multiple businesses and maintaining a large acreage with 18 horses, 2 cats, a puppy and chickens. It was manic! But they all taught me that life is fun. When they weren’t with us, it was so quiet and actually, I preferred it when they were staying with us. That space made me realise that if you just stop and take the time to breathe, you realise what’s truly important and what’s just noise. I try to remember this with my own 3-year-old. When things feel manic, I just focus on the important bits and let go of the noise. I also think back to how quiet it was with no kids around. All parents crave some peace and quiet – children are full on. But that eerie feeling of a quiet house with no kids….that was previously filled with laughter and craziness, it’s enough to put everything else into perspective. It’s not easy; it’s extremely overwhelming and overstimulating sometimes. But, just coming back to the things that mean the most to you, and putting into perspective what’s actually important, is useful when finding balance between work and family.
