Nadia Sawalha and her husband Mark Adderley have shared their "biggest regret" as parents, as they look back on their experience of homeschooling.
Loose Women panellist Nadia, 55, and her hubby Mark made the difficult decision to homeschool their daughters Maddie, 17, and Kiki, 13, several years ago.
Looking back at the ups and downs of the experience, the married couple, who tied the knot in 2002, decided to write a "guide" on educating children from home.
Opening up about their new book Honey, I Homeschooled the Kids, Nadia and Mark spoke exclusively to Daily Star Online about their experience.
The couple were honest about their regrets as parents, as Nadia said: "We always say that the biggest mistake we ever made was sending our children to private school. We regret that.
"The school that they went to was a lovely school and most children that go there love it, but it just wasn't the right school for them."
Mark, who works as a producer in the television industry, agreed with his wife, branding the decision to privately educate their daughters as his "biggest regret".
He said: "We made the obvious aspirational choice and we thought ‘well if we can afford it then we'll just keep paying for the better education'.
"I'm state school educated, Nadia's principally state school educated. We just thought ‘oh right ok aspirational, lets get them to it'.
"It was the local fee-paying school, it wasn't the most expensive."
Mark added: "In retrospect, it was the biggest regret of my parenting life"
Nadia also opened up about the pressure home-parenting can create in a marriage, as she revealed the first few years of the experience challenged her relationship.
While Mark had a more traditional approach, Nadia felt she took a more "hippyish" attitude to home-schooling – which initially raised concerns.
She said: "Within our relationship, it was very hard at times, I mean really, really hard. Because Mark was 100% behind taking her [Kiki] out, as soon as we knew, the day we knew we took her out. Because we didn't know it was an option.
"Then we were on that pink cloud initially and then it was ‘blimey what are we going to do now?'
"I went much more hippy with it and went ‘oh it will be fine'."
Reflecting on the initial challenges, Nadia said she suffered sleepless nights after first taking her daughters out of their schools.
The dedicated parents admitted the guide was intended for parents going through similar anxieties, as Nadia explained: "To have been able to read somebody going through that at that time, oh it would have been so lovely.
"I didn't used to sleep at night. I'd just be so worried about what we were doing. "
Now, several years down the line, Mark and Nadia are delighted with their decision to home-school their daughters, as they feel it benefited the teens immensely.
Kiki has decided to return to school and Maddie is looking into creative university courses to pursue her passions in acting and animation.
Now, having realised their hard work has paid off, Nadia and Mark have decided to help other parents in the same boat, sharing their wisdom in their new book.
Nadia added: "God, if only we'd had a book like this when we first started homeschooling. It was a really tough and scary time.
"Hopefully, other people won't have to be as scared as we were!"
Honey, I Homeschooled the Kids by Nadia Sawalha and Mark Adderley is published by Coronet, £14.99, out now.
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