How do you homeschool AND work at home, THAT is the question
I didn't think it was possible to work at home and homeschool too.
The day I realized it WAS possible, that's when I began to really entertain the idea of homeschooling. I've learned a lot and gotten better at it, but I would love more tips and tricks for doing this well. Not to mention fitting in all of the other Mom (or Dad) stuff we need to do in a day like making meals, picking up and cleaning, running kids to practices, doing errands or grocery shopping, laundry, ahhhhhh!
So as a new school year begins, I'd love more advice from other work-at-home Moms, especially if you work full time hours like I do, on how to homeschool and work at home, without pulling my hair out. Please comment below, and thank you!
(See the helpful comments below.)
By the way…
Yes, I do know that our children and their education are both more important than making money (they'll only be young once, blah blah blah, that goes through my brain enough, believe me!) — but surely you all know how expensive college and braces and home repairs are, to name a few!
I definitely need your advice on keeping a good balance.
My biggest tip is getting up early before the kids do and getting a good handle on my work that way, but I can't wait to hear what you've learned over the years! Share in the comments — I can always use more help in this area, can't we all?!
More you might like:
- See all of my homeschooling posts here in one spot…
- Save TIME in the Kitchen — Teach Your Kids to Cook!
- Podcast: Ups and Downs of Being a Homeschool Mom and Working Full-Time
- Lowering Stress and Anxiety by Realigning Your Priorities — the Courage to Rest
Debra says
I also liked https://www.urthemom.com/ and bought her book on self-teaching. I work from home. If your student knows what they need to get done they can work independently. I also stay up and work late.
Peggy says
I work 20-24 hours a week at home and volunteer 10 hours a week at church. I can only do this because the kids are self-motivated self-teachers and help each other most happily. It requires a shocking amount of cooperation and planning. Now that my youngest is 12, we have weekly planning meetings at the dining room table where we go over everyone’s schedules, the chore list for the week and specific problems or prayer points. Everyone has their own planner, and uses it daily. I check schoolwork once a week and answer questions, discuss lessons, share cool factoids, etc. as they arise.
Of course, each child has his own needs. One of mine needed forty-five minute classes with bells, attendance and homework (!), another one needed one hour of schoolwork before dawn each morning and two to three hours after sunset each night. It’s just how her body clock worked. But finding that out for themselves was KEY.
Carla says
Okay I posted on your other articles first but now I will REALLY post here since i see you haven’t gotten too many on this yet. I run a business from home (I write educational materials for publishing companies). This is not just writing, it involves communicating with my clients and supervising/hiring/training subcontractors who also do work for/with me. And due to our family finances, I just added another 10-15 hours a week of working for a family member who owns HIS own business. i am committed to about 25-30 hours of work per week.
And I homeschool. Yep. And it is not easy. However, I would not give it up for the world. And I just finished our first year HSing after having my older daughter in school for three years (K-2nd). I have a little one who is 3, almost 4.
Things that help me:
-Classical Conversations. Fantastic. My daughter LOVES it and it covers so many things that I would not think to – and it challenges her beyond what I woudl probably do on my own.
-I pay for preschool for my little one 2 days per week (you don’t have the problem of the little one needing constant attention, so not an issue for you, but it is for me!). They days that she is home, I definitely get less done.
-setting up time with friends for my daughter so I can work (otherwise she wants me to entertain her) – this is where having lots of homeschool friends comes in. We are generally done with her work by 12 or 1, and we typically start at 9ish.
-Guide the kids toward independent learning. THe longer they have been in school the harder this is, so be patient with it – they are used to someone telling them what to do constantly and you want them to become self-starters who are dying to look up how to classify butterflies because it is interesting. 🙂 Check out http://www.urthemom.com. I put that on the other page of comments. She has GREAT advice about this topic.
-Time management: this is what works for me. We have breakfast from 8:30-9 and do some Bible study together during that time. From 9-lunch we do school. I set up workboxes (google sue patricks workboxes) and she works through them, asking me for help as needed. I do some work during this time, but I sit in the same room with her so I am available. We eat lunch together. After she is finished, she is free to go read or pursue other activities. I strive to keep her to one hour of TV a day; some days I don’t succeed (honesty here!). I work during the afternoon. If I am on deadline or behind on projects, I work at night after they are in bed. Some people might get up early to do this, but that is not for me.
-That describes a day without activities, which is rare. The days where I can get a friend over for her to play with, or she can go to a friend’s house, I get more work done. You will have to be careful about how many activities you commit to because with 3 kids, you could become taxi mommy and have little time to work. That is a challenge for us, and I only have one doing activities. 🙂 Adding in those fun learning times like the zoo and lake and field trips, and those days I have less time to work. Somehow, though, I have managed to successfully keep my business going and have a great year of HSing.
Hope this helps! If your site provides you with my e-mail, feel free to e-mail me privately for more support! I would be happy to help. Best wishes!
Carla says
I posted this before editing so please forgive my typos and incomplete sentences! You would never know that I edit other people’s work for a living!
Our Small Hours says
It can be difficult. I’ll say this upfront–we have a daily quiet time and my youngest is bed by 7pm on evenings when we aren’t at the soccer field or basketball court or the track or, or, or . . . He’s a little extravert and mommy needs quiet time in her brain to write! lol
I used to work for others from home and that was hard. I work from home now with my writing but since I’m not making any money from it (Yet!) I don’t know that I should call it work. Writing is something that I must do because it is part of my life purpose. I take it seriously and spend no less than an hour or two each day working on it.
A good routine helps. Letting the boys know what is coming next and when I am available for hanging out or helping with things allows them to be comfortable in giving me my time to work.
I like to get school work and chores done early and save writing/working for when I’m not thinking about all of the other things that need to be done. I don’t know if you have that sort of flexibility, though.
Jill says
Getting reading to start working at home! I am starting my own little business making and selling natural personal and home care products (“Happy Stuff”), so if you ask me this same question next year, I’ll tell you all about it! 🙂
I have done volunteer stuff though, and in South Africa I was pretty busy many days with ministry related stuff, and away from home while the kids worked on school a lot of days. As they get older, more and more, their curriculum is really designed to be self-taught and tends to be written to the student, so it was fine. I would check on them to make sure they did their stuff, but they didn’t need me to always be there walking them through stuff. I could grade math or science tests or read a paper or essay in the evening or the following day. I think the main thing is making sure they do it and checking up on it, rather than always taking their word for it or assuming it’s done because they’re doing something else now! We’ve had several times of realizing one or both had gotten really behind in one or more subjects and had to get “tough” about catching up. There have been many summers of catching up too! We’re not a perfect homeschool family, as you can see, but I think it’s worked still!
Lara says
I won’t lie, it can get crazy trying to fit work and homeschooling in. One thing that helps here is that we loosely homeschool year round, with breaks when we need them(like tax season when I work loads more). I usually try to either get up early and work before the kids wake up or work late after they’ve gone to bed. I would recommend avoiding curriculum that has a set schedule for every week because it is too easy to feel like you are falling behind (though I think sonlight has options for picking how many days a week you homeschool. I’ve never used a full curriculum but I’ve been tempted by sonlight.).