Kensey was slipping behind at school due to illness, so Alesha and Damien decided to do something different. Now she writes books about unicorns and gathers toheroa with her whanau. Photo: The Spinoff
Around New Zealand, 10,000 tamariki are getting their education outside of classrooms - and not always indoors.
In the new video series Home Education, six Kiwi families share their own diverse takes on learning.
Director Chris Pryor said he and filmmaking partner Miriam Smith were not themselves advocates of home-schooling, but the children they met for Home Education seemed to be thriving.
"The kids that I've met through making this series are some of the most engaged and engaging young people I've ever come across," he told RNZ's Saturday Morning.
Home education: Learning with the ones you love
Many children simply did not find traditional school to be a nurturing enough learning environment, Pryor told host Mihi Forbes.
Making Home Education, he met kids with an inherent love of learning that had been fostered by educational content relevant to their interests, culture and circumstances.
New Zealand's distance learning school Te Kura aspired to provide an education that was not one-size-fits-all, Pryor said.
"They're looking to individualise children's learning and provide flexibility. Rather than being a school of last resort, as sometimes occurs, they're hoping to be a school of choice by incorporating some of those learnings."
Jen and her daughters were one family using the flexibility of Te Kura to their advantage. The school recognised the varied work the girls did on their mum's dahlia farm as credit towards qualifications, Pryor said.
Rachel was the mother of 12-year-old Felix - one of many neurodiverse children in Aotearoa's home-schooling community.
She sometimes incorporated a Nerf gun into maths lessons, igniting her son's love of history with expeditions.
"[Rachel and Felix] recently discovered an old military bunker in Mount Eden. And through exploring that, researching that, Felix went from pretty unengaged to highly engaged and produced an essay that was jaw-dropping."
Observational filmmaking - in which the subjects needed to be completely comfortable, - required a great deal of trust, Pryor said.
"We're constantly doing a dance around what isn't for the world to see because it's so revealing. It's incredible access. That's the beauty of observational [filmmkaing] and why we love it, because it can transport audiences into worlds that you don't otherwise get to see.
"People do love observational when they get to see it. It's a dying form, but there's certainly an audience there. It's just surviving."