Our Why

creative innovator kids as fearless leaders of an inclusive future.

When you and I
were growing up, education lead towards vocations.

(Do you want to be a doctor, teacher, vet, artist, astronaut?)

To survive and thrive our kids will need collaborative innovation

driven by diversity, compassion and creativity.

Why We Started Wonderchums

We are sisters,
Alison and Joanne,

born 2 years and a world apart.

"Life was tough when i was a little girl living with disability.
Now i want to inspire families everywhere to create more inclusion for kids with disabilities."

As parents, we see

our little ones’ lives speeding by.

Will they live a life of

purpose driven by genuine passion?

"Game Changers tend to be deeply compassionate... they are radically passionate about helping other people solve problems... That is why they are so often able to evolve humanity itself."

- Mary Spio

If you are a game-changer parent or educator, or simply want to help raise creative-innovator global kids,
we want to hear your ideas.

Rachael - SYDNEY

"

Our workshop made me realise how awesome the Wonderchums adventures would be to enable my kids in Sydney to grow up with their cousins in the UK in a genuine way. As a parent I want to do more for our kids. Sometimes I try to be that good 'Pinterest parent', but mostly I am just exhausted.

Antonia - SYDNEY

"

The real value is that I can see families putting aside time each week to do their Wonderchums adventures. It's like anything in life; if it brings genuine connection and joy, you make time for it.

Sarah - SYDNEY

"

This morning I listened as my partner Sasha showed his brother Misha in Mexico how to build a circuit board for an amplifier. Sasha is an electrical engineer and Misha is a musician with little knowledge (or interest) in electronics. I loved hearing them bond, Sasha through sharing his knowledge and being the 'teacher', Misha discovering that electronics is easy. This got me excited about Wonderchums and its massive potential to connect people, share skills and build self confidence.

Paul - MELBOURNE

"

I love how Wonderchums reminds us that kids can do anything! To me the hidden value of the platform is in connecting people and re-creating communities. It would be great in the future to create a marketplace for Wonderchums Adventures where anyone could get support to upload learning experiences for kids everywhere.

Taina - SYDNEY

"

The adventures could also involve 'conversation topics' over family dinner. Kids love the absurd! So the topics could tie in the Wonderchums heartsets that the family is focussing on. For example, 'How do worms share? If we share our food scraps with the worms, how do they share back to us?

Vivien - SYDNEY

"

We used to connect to kids around the world through Pen Pals. I have a lifelong friend in Germany that was my pen pal as a kid. These days there are few safe spaces for kids to connect online, so I am excited to think of the productive friendships Wonderchums will create between families around the world.

Suzy - SYDNEY

"

Essentially, kids love other kids. So I think the way Wonderchums plans to connect kids together through a more meaningful use of technology - not just gaming - is fantastic.

Is this you?

"

[ Your ideas welcome! ]

A little more of our story...

Hi, I'm Alison.

I’m 39, a thriving mum, and a craft enthusiast.

I grew up on a wheat farm near Bruce Rock, 3 hours away from Perth (Western Australia), with 3 siblings - a brother and 2 sisters.

Life was tough when I was a little girl!

Doctors told my parents that I will never be able to read and write. I think it's because I got extra help at home and extra support at school that I can do those things now.

The Mums from Bruce Rock volunteered to help me with my school work for 1 or 2 hours a day for my whole schooling in Bruce Rock.

At the end of year 10, I went to a Special Ed unit at Sacred Heart College in Perth and boarded there. It was very hard for my parents to do it, but they knew I couldn't just stay at home. It was the best thing they ever did for me.

When I finished high school at Sacred Heart, I then moved in with my sisters in a house in Perth.

I'm pretty confident to look after myself.

I love socialising and making new friends.

When I started working for Worksafe, I had a employment agent (Bizlink) come in to visit me every week for 1 hour to see how I was going. After I got more confident, they only came every 2nd week.

I resigned from Worksafe when I was 4 months pregnant and had a lovely baby boy, who is now 7.

I suffered depression most of my life and always took medication.

One day I decided to start weaning myself off the tablets and now I'm a more positive person...

I now go to the gym every day. I self-motivate myself to go.

I've traveled the world to Europe, Japan, and often go to Sydney and Melbourne to visit family members.

I am a determined person. I never give up on things.

I always get the results I want, even if it might take a little longer for me.

I live independently and am bringing up my son on my own.

I have an online craft shop on Etsy. I'm also creating my homemade craft goods.

Now I am running my own business with my sister Jo.

Ali  xxx

Hi, I'm   Joanne.

I’m 41, a Researcher, Designer and Passionate Educator.

When I was a kid, I was pretty good at translating what Ali was saying to other people. And I also loved helping to tutor her at home after school.


We lived on a farm where our parents taught us to make absolutely everything for ourselves. We took pride in wearing, eating, driving and playing with everything that was home-produced.


But when I grew up I struggled for years to grasp a sense of how to apply my creativity.


I had been recommended to follow a professional course of study based on my academic skills (for me, maths, art, physics), because that's what kids like me did, right?


I followed that path and became a dedicated - albeit frustrated - architecture academic, guiding students who were equally adrift for lack of empowerment to shape and innovate their future for the better.


Over the years it became clear to me that we'd all been worn down to an 'ideal mould' by years in the competitive academics system.


In that worldview, how we collaborate towards the greater good is far less important than how well we compete.


Breaks of light came when I travelled the world and created exciting collaborative workshops with others who were different to me.


Eventually, my stars began to align when I co-founded an innovation lab at the university where I worked, and as a collective we thrived on the diversity of interests, cultures and abilities that it attracted.


We discovered that solving problems with creativity and diversity is the key to innovation.


In fact, Wonderchums is like an innovation lab for kids; globally distributed and focused on disability inclusion.


We welcome you to the very beginning of this journey with us!


We know so little, and can only dream so much...


But with you, we might just build this extraordinary community for all of our kids, and for our greater vision of how their future might evolve.

Here's to an Adventure!

(For the parents as well as the kids)

Joanne xxx