I’m a mum-of-6 & pulled ALL my kids out of school – I’m criticised but it’s great, my life is so much less stressful
A SOON-TO-BE mum of six has told how she is much less stressed after taking her kids out of school, selling their home and travelling the world.
Leona Burton, 36, who is due to give birth to child number six later this month, said living without the pressures of school, after school clubs and long hours at her exhausting job has completely transformed her family's lives.
She homeschools her children by giving them maths lessons in the sand at the beach, or in the jungles of Mexico and people often think her life is one permanent holiday.
Leona said: “Life before travel was very normal, it was school for the children, it was after school clubs, it was work.
“I worked in television for a while and it was long hours and then I started running a business and that was even longer hours.
“Honestly, I was exhausted and I just had had enough and I thought, 'What's the worst that can happen? If it doesn't work out we just jump on a 10 quid flight back.'
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“Life wasn't bad, it just wasn't full of adventure and I think my soul was yearning for more than the everyday plodding that we seem to fall into.”
Leona, from Leicester, made the decision to leave her old life behind in 2018, and she along with husband Lee, 35, kids Kian, 18, Kye, 16, Enna, 14, Olana, eight, and Elis, five, sold everything they owned except for their clothes and hit the road.
The family's first port of call was Spain where they fully immersed themselves in the local culture - avoiding tourist hotspots and learning the language.
So far they have also travelled to Mexico, America, the Dominican Republic, Croatia, Portugal and Austria.
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Leona continued: “Making the decision to spend our lives travelling has been amazing. It's transformed my life. My only regret is that I didn't leave sooner.
“Removing the pressures of that school routine and having the freedom to travel has not only just made me less stressed. It's made my children less stressed.
“We, as a family, are much happier even though on paper, we were happy before - for example my daughter had an agent in London and my son had opportunities to play with Wales in rugby.
“But in reality we hardly saw each other because we were dashing from one place to the next.
“We weren't really communicating because it was like, 'get in the car, get out of the car', shovel a pasty in your face before racing out to the next thing. It's really hard to do it all.
“And actually the reality was we were just ticking boxes. I felt like life was a box ticking exercise and we weren't enjoying the moment.
My soul was yearning for more than the everyday plodding
Leona Burton
“There was no real downtime. There was no real quality time. And actually what the last few years has taught me is it's the small things that matter.”
Leona says that while it is not always “sunshine and rainbows” especially when it comes to the logistics of packing and travelling through airports with such a big family - there are moments life is idyllic.
She said: “The reality is you are still living, so you are still doing your washing and you've got to clean the house or you've got to do your schoolwork.”
“When we were in Mexico, I was getting up at four o'clock in the morning to have meetings for my business.
“And sometimes people only see the beaches, they don't see the reality that I still have to do the regular things.
“I didn't win the lottery so I still have to grow my business to be able to do the things that make me happy.
“So I'm always very real with people about that - but there are also so many times where I'm like, 'This is such a nice life, I'm grateful'.
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“Especially if you are somewhere super tropical, with the different smells, the heat, the palm trees, a different way of life - then it does feel like a holiday even though in other ways it's still real life.”
Leona, who runs a business that supports mum entrepreneurs, says she homeschools her kids with a mixture of online lessons and topics tailored to her kids' interests.
She's also keen on making sure her kids learn lots of life skills - with her older two already running their own businesses - but admits she doesn't "sweat the small stuff" and puts no pressure on her kids to take formal exams or follow a strict curriculum.
Leona said: “At the end of the day I don't remember what bloody algebra is, I'm 36, I left school and I haven't used algebra since so for stuff like that, we just use online classes.
“For the younger ones it's easier because obviously they have stuff that I still remember like times tables.
“For me, I realised that actually all my children are very different, they all need different things and they all have different strengths and weaknesses.
“Homeschooling them has allowed me to get to know them a little bit more because I think in the school system, there's a lot of kids in one class and not all of their needs get met.
It's transformed my life. My only regret is that I didn't leave sooner
Leona Burton
“I found it hilarious in lockdown at all the parents losing their s**t and I was telling my followers 'This is not homeschooling! This is teachers forcing you to teach your kids and be on Zoom every minute.'
“Homeschooling is finding your feet, seeing what works for you and then going from there.
“One of my sons loves algebra and that's what we give him but for my daughter, that's not her strength. She has zero interest in it, so we just do the basics like how you pay your bills, how you work out percentage, they're usable things that she would need in everyday life.
“I don't sweat the small stuff and I'll probably face a backlash for saying this, but at the end of the day, she's never going to university to study maths. So I'm not going to force her to do a maths A Level.”
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And Leona says she is too busy enjoying her life to worry about any critics of her lifestyle.
“To be honest I don't care what people say - good or bad. I live my life for me, not other people.”
