This Little Piggy went to Market

This Little Piggy went to Market

Rachel Vautier

If you had met my daughter years ago, and said hello, her answer would have been ‘oink’; pigs….and origami…..were two of her biggest loves.

April’s love for origami, the overflow of that paper love all over our house, and her requests to sell something out the front of our house like she had read about in books culminated in her very first origami stall when she had just turned seven. We let our friends and neighbours know, and had a beautiful morning of selling her and her brother’s wares – with one neighbour thanking us for bringing the community together.

Little did I know, that stall did not satisfy her entrepreneurial nature, but ignited it! Now, at 11, she is a regular at our local market, has had her origami in shops and a cafe, has taught workshops and been paid for that expertise twice, has an ABN, a registered business, sells through her website and has been instrumental in a fundraiser we have been doing for our dog.

April commenced home ed two years ago, in grade 4, at the start of lockdowns. Her brother, Kai, chose to finish primary school with his friends and started at a specialist high school for 2e children. Within the first six months, all four teachers had left the school, as well as the principal, the two co-founders and, most importantly, the therapy dog. We then removed Kai from school and started the long journey of repairing the damage to our sensitive boy. This included getting our beautiful Labrador puppy, Padfoot (Paddy), and working with a trainer with the aim of Paddy becoming a support dog for Kai.

Now, at 10 months old, our beautiful puppy requires surgery on his hips and elbows. Through a fundraiser we have been doing through April’s business, we have raised over $2,500!

Before one of April’s market stalls a few years ago, Kai (our insatiable reader) had been clearing out his bookshelves. I suggested that since we were at the market anyway, he could have his own stall selling his books – which has led to his own hobby business; Kai’s Second Hand Books.

The learning for them both has been enormous. From serving customers and handling cash at the markets, to web design and e-commerce management, marketing, logos, postage, invoicing, valuing their time, photography, how to set up a market display, and the list goes on! Together we are reading the Barefoot Investor for Families (which they love!) and they are learning about the value of money.

There are so many options to introduce a business into home ed. We know children who pet sit, sell woodwork, slime, dream catchers, bake, breed chickens, do fairy floss, facepainting to name a few. As we are predominately unschoolers, we tick off most of the KLAs through running the businesses – let alone all of the other learning we do through hobbies, interests, home ed classes and catch ups, as well as day-to-day life.

If you’d like to support our fundraiser or check out April’s origami, head to foldedbyme.com.au or @foldedbyme on Facebook, Insta and YouTube.

And Kai is on Facebook and Insta under @kaissecondhandbooks.

Otherways 173 (August 2022)