About Us

Karen is the Founder, CEO, and dreamer of Simply Homeschool - she dreams up all the work everyone else should be doing! Karen is also the imagination behind most of our core programs. Her favourite Dr Suess is Let's have a little talk about Tweetle Beetles.

Karen homeschooled her own kids for 26 years and is passionate about supporting other families on their homeschool journey.

Ellena lives on the Central Coast with her husband and three kids. When she’s not family-wrangling or working, she loves to sew, read and be near the ocean. Homeschooling wasn’t in Ellena’s original plan, but it became the right choice for two of her neurodivergent kids, who currently do life best with the freedom and flexibility of learning at home.

As COO, Ellena supports our staff and guides daily operations, enabling our team to focus on helping Australian homeschoolers.

Kathleen is our CFO and lover of all things nature and literacy. She is the mother of three boys and a daughter and is so thankful for the opportunity to have been home educating for over eight years. 

Kathleen enjoys bushwalking, nature journalling and is an avid reader. Her favourite childhood books were the Chronicles of Narnia and the Discworld series.

Bek lives in Melbourne and is a homeschooling mum of 4 children. She loves the opportunities that homeschooling provides her children to deeply engage in their fields of interest and to learn at their own pace. Bek is an avid reader who enjoys sharing her love of fantastic stories and classic literature with her children and cannot possibly name one single book as her favourite.

When not busy homeschooling, working or cooking, Bek can be found quietly tucked in her armchair reading, crocheting or enjoying time with her family and friends.

Jo is one of Simply Homeschool's customer service specialists and often will be answering calls, emails and texts. She homeschooled her children for five years, with an age gap spanning from Year 3 to Year 12 equivalent! Her eldest has now started university.

Jo loves reading, music and simple bush walks and her favourite core is A Year on our Farm – it's such a sweet introduction to Simply Homeschool!

Her favourite childhood book is The Magic Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton.

Leah provides customers with support and guidance in their homeschooling journeys. Leah homeschooled her two children for a number of years, with some of those years spent travelling through Eastern and Central Australia. She loves the beach, spending time with family and friends, cooking (and eating) and reading. Leah is passionate about the wellness of mothers.

Her favourite childhood book is The Secret Garden, and she loves sharing her love of reading with her children. 

Sandra is a former Sunshine Coast girl who married a farmer, and ended up on a livestock and grain farm in the middle of NSW. Her passion is helping families living in areas where education options are limited to achieve the best education fit for their children.

She homeschooled her youngest child for two years with Simply Homeschool, and loves this way of educating. Her favourite childhood book was Bears in the Night, by Stan and Jan Berenstain, which is entirely written with “in pink ink” prepositions, and which she memorised word for word in preschool and fooled the teachers into thinking she could actually read!

Liz assists members to register and report using Simply Homeschool and writes any biblical content for core programs. She has been homeschooling for years and loves the freedom and flexibility that Simply Homeschool allows in following our natural curiosity and learning about things that matter.

Liz loves questions, horses, glitter and lists. Her favourite Simply Homeschool book is The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Johanna lives on the Central Coast with her husband and 2 young kids. She is a lover of education and spent many years full time in the classroom before having her son in 2022. Johanna has a Masters of Teaching in Primary Education and is passionate about helping kids love learning for their whole life. She loves to be creative with ways of learning even for her toddler at home. Johanna works with out Customer Service team and helps customers via email and text.

Johanna loves reading for herself and out loud to her kids. She can never say no to another book. Johanna’s favourite books as a kid were the Babysitter’s Club: Little Sister. Her favourite books to read aloud to her kids are by Julia Donaldson. The rhymes never seem to bore her after reading them for the hundredth time in a row.

Donna is one of the content writers for Simply Homeschool blogs and core programs. She also assists Queenslanders to register and report using Simply Homeschool.

Donna has been homeschooling her kids for 20 years (with four adult graduates) and currently homeschools her youngest five. Donna loves the freedom of homeschooling - she often takes a beach day mid-week - and the ability to tailor the learning to the individual child.

Donna loves Mem Fox books and her current favourite is Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge.

Veronika is a writer and long-time homeschooling mum. She spent seven amazing years learning alongside her daughter while travelling Australia in a little pink campervan – an experience that shaped her love of homeschool and the freedom it offers to explore, follow curiosity and turn the world into a classroom.

A lifelong reader, her home is full of books, and her favourite childhood story is Pippi Longstocking. 

Veronika leads marketing, storytelling and social media, sharing ideas and inspiration with families across Australia.

Ruth is one of the content writers of the core programs. She homeschools her son, in addition to working as a special ed teacher part-time. She was also homeschooled herself during her high school years.

Ruth's favourite books include the Harry Potter series and Little Women.

Emily grew up in Northern NSW and is now living in Gippsland, Victoria with her husband and six children. Emily is currently homeschooling four of her children and loves the way homeschooling allows for an individualised education tailored to each child’s unique needs, interests and skills.

Emily is particularly passionate about great children’s books and delights in a good family read-aloud. She believes there are entirely too many good books to possibly pick a favourite but especially enjoys reading Australian authors.

Belynda is an avid reader. She enjoys creating bad art, being in nature, music, and cooking. She once packed up her family of six (at the time) and did the big lap around Australia in a caravan. Belynda is currently building a permaculture garden, studying sustainability, and homeschooling four of her five children. Belynda’s favourite core at the moment is Seasons: Spring.

Riette has been living on the Central Coast for 15 years but grew up in South Africa and previously lived in Canada for nine years. She was a stay at home mum to her two children for 20 years. She enjoys a variety of outdoor activities, visiting art galleries & watching interesting movies. She also enjoys making things visually pleasing and well organised - traits that her two children don’t appreciate so much.

Her favourite book to read as a child was The Big Friendly Giant.