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HSing while working FT?


bakpak
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Hi folks,

 

In general when I've seen this topic mentioned I have only heard nay-saying. Can't be done. Can't imagine it happening. I'm wondering if this is still valid or if I am remembering incorrectly.

 

I have 1 DD, 7.5 who is trying out PS for the first time (2nd grade). I knew it was a long shot to be a good fit, and I know so much depends on an individual teacher, but neither I nor my DD are happy with the situation so far. She had been in a Montessori school for years before that, and in general the Montessori approach was a great fit but again it comes down to the individual teachers and practices at a given school, and I decided I needed to save for retirement instead of paying for more private school that I wasn't entirely happy with anyway.

 

DD7 has always loved learning (and still does) and has always been an accelerated learner, but has grown to hate school over the past year. She is so disheartened about being heard, being challenged, and learning ANYTHING new. In general, while she doesn't enjoy it, she seems to have learned to deal with school noise and chaos. She is making friends okay at school, but nothing to write home about. They are scheduled to assess her for the GT program in late Feb (I turned in forms last MAY!!), so I can't comment on that yet. It may prove slightly better to have an extra advocate and the weekly pullout, plus more differentiation in class. She's already sort of grouped with the GT kids (all boisterous boys) so that has helped some, but not a great fit due to personalities. She doesn't even like music class, as it's so basic and they only do percussion instruments and rhythms that it drives her nuts.

 

Anyway, I've been mulling over homeschooling for years and years, but because I was in grad school, and then got my dream job, and now I am divorced so need to work full-time, I haven't taken the plunge. Before I was worried about getting my work done sufficiently while simultaneously watching and educating her. I am still feeling cautious, but she has seemed to have matured so much in the last 2 months with the recent growth spurt, that I am thinking about HSing again. I am not 100% my boss will go for it, but he's aware of her struggles & my desire to HS, I already work from home a lot and have an extremely flexible schedule. I also only have to work 35 hrs/week. I do travel for work quite a bit, but my ex always watches her then anyway, and we have shared custody. There are issues there to work out with his job(s), but he is supposed to have 50% custody; obviously I need to chat with him more about logistics. I suspect in general he's probably not going to spend too much time directly HS'ing academic subjects (maybe some math & science), but would be pretty good with RL learning experiences to supplement.

 

So, my question is, can you see this happening while I work full time? She can be needy, but that's been lessening. Our relationship had been a bit rocky, but that too has improved by leaps and bounds recently. She asks me daily to learn new things, but is simultaneously wiped out from being at school all day and needs lots of down time to recover, so I've avoided too much after-schooling in recent years. After about 10 days of free time over the winter holiday she was pulling out MCT, math, history and science on her own and asking for homeschooling.

 

My Current Plan:

Right now I'm thinking about trying out homeschooling again this summer (while working) and see how it goes. If nothing else we could work harder to get a teacher who is a better fit in 3rd at PS and then reassess after a month or two. I know I can pull her out any time. I need to find out what my ex's work situation will be (he rarely knows - sigh). And then finally if I'm serious about it, I need to figure out a solid plan for keeping up with my work. I'm also not on top of knowing about secular co-ops in my areas, so that's another thing I could work on in the meantime - I've poked around a bit and haven't come up with too much. Or maybe I could trade piano lessons for some child care by someone with a similar-aged child.

 

FYI I mostly have an office job. I am on conference calls a lot, some of which I run. Otherwise I'm on the computer much of the time reviewing documents, data, writing, corresponding, organizing, coordinating. And then I end up traveling out-of-state about once a month for 2-7 days, when I actually rack up a lot of work hours for the month. And in May/June I log in at least 2 weeks of outdoor field work where I could take her with me.

 

So given some of this info, does this sound doable?  Any thing else I'm obviously missing? I am imagining spending about 3 hrs a day with a 3rd grader homeschooling. Is this a good estimate? 

 

Sorry if you think this should have been an another board, but I know you guys really get the intensity of ALs. She's not as extreme as some, but it is much higher than an average child.

 

Thanks!

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I think the main hiccup would be when you are traveling.  You need to know that your ex would be able to have care for her while he is at work.  

 

Something to check out while looking into co-ops is tutoring programs.  At least that is what it is called here.  I drop my kiddos off every Wednesday and they are taught Geography, Spanish, and art.  Unlike a co-op I do not have to be there and so that would be a great time for you to get some work done. Keep in mind that there would be a cost associated with it.

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I know a single mom who is homeschooling her 4th grader while working at an office in the afternoons and working from home in the mornings (same job). She started when her daughter was in 2nd grade and her mom takes care of her daughter while she is at the office. She just makes sure the 3Rs are done decently. History and science are best efforts but sometimes not done. Three hours is a reasonable estimate. If her dad can't take care of her when you are out of state, can you take her along?

 

My DS12 is so independent that I have been hands off since he was a toddler for academics. I only have to take care of his motor skills being behind milestones. My DS11 on the other hand needs constant supervision even now or he daydreams. So siblings but extremely different levels of supervision needed.

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I don't homeschool, so I'm speaking from a point of ignorance, but I'd throw out these questions in addition to LTBernard's question regarding what to do when you are gone:

 

1.  Is she good working on her own, or will she want to bug you a lot to talk?  (I know you said she was "needy but it's getting better".  If it's a lot of little interruptions, it's going to be worse than using your entire lunchtime break to go over questions she has).

2.  Does she have good judgement about not interrupting your phone calls?

3.  Does she talk to herself a lot while she's working? (I have a girl who talks non-stop to herself or anyone in the room.  In fact, right now, she is just talking to herself)

4.  What does your boss think?  (I know you said you hadn't asked him, but this seems like the make-or-break question)

5.  Is there space in your office to set up a desk for her including a computer?

6.  Can she work with the distraction of you talking on the phone?  

7.  Can you nix the travelling?

 

I don't think this would've worked at all for two of my kids at that age, and the third maybe, but since every kid is different, maybe it could work for you.      I could see it working for a quiet, self-driven kid who is motivated to make it work because they don't want to be in school, but still love learning. 

 

"I am imagining spending about 3 hrs a day with a 3rd grader homeschooling"  Yes and no.....  She's going to be with you at the office full time right?

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I haven't worked FT but have homeschooled for 10 years now, and I would say that the most difficult aspect of the arrangement you describe is that you will be 100% responsible for your DD's supervision and education, 100% of the time.   You and your ex will need to both be on board with the arrangement, and you'll probably need an additional caregiver to help with childcare while you travel and your ex is at work.  

 

You can't realistically expect a 7.5 year old to work independently more than 30-60 minutes (or 1 subject) at a time, sometime only after you have given some instruction or explanation.    If you are working from home, you'll need to be accessible frequently, so if you can do your computer work from the same room as she is working, that should be do-able.   My kids are 14 and 12 and my 12 year old still has questions about math or grammar that need my attention.    If I had tried to hold a conference call in the same room as my kids were doing school when they were 7 or 8, they would have gotten no school work done because they would have been distracted by my conversation.   But if I had left the room for an extended period of time, they would have been distracted because I wasn't there to help them stay focused.   This may be different for your DD, but when you consider how much time it will take, plan that this will be time for BOTH of you focused on her school work.

 

Also consider all that you do now while she is at school - work, errands, doctor appointments, household chores, etc.   You'll be doing all of those things with your DD tagging along, which may be a good thing, or it could make you feel like you've lost a lot of freedom.   Your estimate that 3rd grade should take about 3 hours per day is pretty accurate, but keep in mind that your DD will be with you ALL the time, which is 6 or 7 hours per day more than she is right now.

 

I think your plan of trying it out over the summer, when you can work out the kinks and have a back-up plan, is wise.   I admire you for wanting to make this work!

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Thanks everyone. All good feedback and good questions. I am not 100% sure HSing will work, but I feel like she's lost in the system and it's never been a great fit for her. She's been asking to HS for a couple of years. She often works best by jumping ahead to a more challenging topic and then filling in the blanks, a style no school has never let her do. Spiral drives her crazy. I have after-schooled her a bit off and on for years, so I'm somewhat familiar with her personality regarding distractability and work ethic. I think those 2 things would require more supervision than some for sure. I don't imagine I would be off working nonstop without lots of checking on her and possibly even working beside her a lot. She's been present for many conference calls and that is no problem for her - she's off reading or entertaining herself. As an only child she does need lots of close snuggle time, but also self-entertains really well for long periods of time. Actually I love conference calls at home, because I can often be sweeping or doing laundry or something mindless while I'm focusing on the conversation (busy hands).  I do have flexibility and often am up working a few hours before she wakes up, or I can put in some time on weekends. I really have a ton of flexibility in my job. I don't imagine my boss would say no we couldn't try it, especially if I give it a shot this summer and let him know how it works out. He might be cautious about it, but really doesn't meddle in my work AT ALL. He trusts me to get my work done and make good decisions.

 

You're right....figuring out child care while her papa is working would probably fall on my shoulders more. I'd have to think about how much I could afford - it surely wouldn't cost as much as Montessori school! He's actually not always working during the week when she's at school....so it's hard to predict where he'd  be in the fall. I'll discuss with him the next time I see him.

 

You're also right about the number of hours she's with me...it could be a bit of a drain on my energy levels. In general I love spending more time with her; I suspect I I would likely be more open to some child care for personal things than I currently am, as I am often trying to maximize the amount of time she is with me (given custody issues) and don't want to miss out on an evening with her because I want to go to a meditation group or join a choir or .... In some ways I think it would FREE me up so I'm not always rushing around wasting time heading to/from school, packing lunches for school, getting her/us ready in the mornings. It sounds like more quality time for work/family/school compared to the current scenario.

 

I could take her in to work for awhile when I need to. Plenty of space and I can close my door. Traveling with me is a bit dicier for many meetings....we tend to be full throttle the entire day for multiple days, talking shop through meals as well. But as I said, I log tons of hours on those few work days, freeing up lots of other time in other weeks.

 

 

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Her being interested is a definite plus.  

 

Can you get out of the travel?  I really wouldn't bring someone with me for travel meetings.  And you don't want to leave her in a hotel room by herself (and in some places it might actually be illegal).

 

You might consider doing a part-time nanny to lift some of the burden off of you.  For the weeks when you'll be gone, it'd be less of a burden on her dad.  The nanny could take her to a park or to sports in the afternoon so she could still have some extracurriculars.

 

On the other hand, if her dad is home during the day, he might actually value the time with her--I'd definitely ask him what he thinks.   If he's inclined, maybe he could take her to a park or museums.  Those weeks could be "vacation" time with dad.

Edited by tiuzzol2
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I know a family who homeschools one child (AL, not a good fit at school) while both working full time. Their nanny does the bulk of the childcare and home ed, but there is also a younger child for the nanny to care for.

 

Without childcare or dramatically flexible hours, I can't see homeschooling being very successful.

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I could reduce travel some, but actually love most of my meetings as I work with an amazing group of dedicated ornithologists across the hemisphere and they're my tribe :)  But I was brainstorming that having some teenage help at times might prove useful; especially a responsible HS teen who wouldn't mind traveling with us occasionally. I do go to some awesome places and we usually pick fun natural areas to meet.

 

Yeah, I wish I could convince my mom to move closer. Maybe I'll work on that :) If she felt needed she just might!

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And yes, DD's papa does enjoy spending more time with her when he can. They do lots of outdoor activities together and he involves her in cooking and building and providing her with lots of positive opportunities (just not extremely social with other folks). He often takes her to see live music and gets her in to see live shows at the local Arts center frequently. And he's been letting her have some screen time lately, so she's getting her math fix through Prodigy occasionally at his house. He supports her practicing violin at his house as well.

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I have done this. In some ways I still do - now I work from home. Ds is fairly unschooled still. I do not think he could go back to traditional methods now that he has been released to doing school and his own life his way.

 

When Ds was younger (elementary), it was easier. Do the next thing was how many programs were set up and the complexity of the tasks being asked were much lower. I recognized this last October that he now (middle school) needed more from me again. The complexity of time management and scaffolding was really taking a toll. He had elementary all figured out and was in a groove. The jump up meant I needed to be more direct in supervision and tutoring. Assignments became "take notes on the lecture and write an essay. This contained a whole lot more moving parts and places for uncertainty than just finishing pages 7-12 in a workbook or reading and summarizing chapters 10-12. So I came home to be of greater avaliablity and have lessoned the amount of hours which I HAVE to work. I still try to work the same hours, but if I get derailed by a math lesson it is no big deal. I have a feeling in a year, he will be completely set to be fairly independent again.

 

When I was working full time, it definitely required an extensive amount of prep from me so that Ds knew EXACTLY what was expected. As in down to the minute, page number, word count, no need for ANY questions. I had to list the resources to use, the resources if he was stuck, and the resources if he finished early. He had a One Note notebook with everything all linked. He could school from his iPad pretty much anywhere.

 

Then I had to be rather ruthless in expecting it to be done. He could not talk to me during designated work hours, but could anytime outside of the hours. There were specific times for things to be completed and checked. If he did not get done during his personal worktime, he had to do it during his free time until it was done regardless of whether we were going to hang out or he had something fun planned. This was the hardest part. It only took a month or so of really strict expectations, but I really disliked being that parent. He was just not developmentally aware of how important my work was. I was mom all the time to him. This took me being very upfront. It sucked.

 

Many of my non-work hours became hours discussing school, correcting school, or tutoring questions. Ds has said more than once it is nice to have me back as just his mom, rather than so much of his life being about school. We distinctly planned super fun no school days, vacations, and trips. It became paramount to definitely have sanctuary time that was strictly no school.

 

Last thing was to easily set up the household for him to take care of his own needs. Mornings I would work and then come home. He was responsible for getting himself up, feeding himself, tending to the dog, getting dressed, hygine, keeping the house clean, signing on to his online class, and staying on task. From ages 9-11, he had the mornings to himself and I would come home at noon. This has paid extreme dividends now that I work from home. There is no reason to derail me about laundry, food, the dog, etc.

 

I don't know. It is doable. It is not preferable. He did not get fabulous one on one instruction from me. He did not get really challenging curriculum (because he had to be able to do it all himself). It was miles better than public school. The kid can manage himself like a mini-adult (schedule his own lessons with his own phone, call his own cab, pay from his wallet, tip well, set his own alarms to get himself ready, get addresses off the internet, text me when he is returning, whole deal). He is essentially almost college ready in that department, but some feel that is too much stress too young.

 

The long and short of it, you are telling your child "Handle it" for a large chunk of their day. You have to be in order to be a responsible employee. This does not mean you are abdicating your parental responsiblity (public school just was not going to emotionally work for my Ds at that time), but it is hard on the kid. It means you and your child are a team in a whole new way. If she does not pull weight, you go down too. If you do not get the ducks all lined up, she sinks. That is neither good nor bad, but it is a lot to put on a small person who more than likely just does not have the judgment center to get it. Ds is my best friend. Hands down, not even thinking about it. He knows me better and has me more figured out than anyone else. If he didn't, and I didn't know him in the same way, it would have fallen apart.

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I don't know anyone personally who homeschool and works full time, but I'm sure it can be done. The one thing I've noticed though, is that as my son gets older (10 now), he seems to require a lot more of my time. I agree with EndOfOrdinary in that the assignments, resource hunting, scaffolding, questions, discussions, etc. are all more complex and require more than with a younger child. This surprised me as I assumed having a gifted learner meant I'd have more independence at this age. Some of that is DS's personality, but some of it is having a kid who is going to be bored with standard assignments and fill-in-the-worksheet stuff. My day requires a lot of interaction and hands-on teaching as DS wants to discuss his ideas, get feedback, and work together. 

The other thing is the social aspects of homeschooling a smart kiddo. When my son was younger he was happy to do local park days or YMCA classes or whatever was convenient for me, but as he's gotten older he's wanted to find more intellectual peers and his extracurricular interests have become more specific. All of that requires more driving and logistics than when he was younger. 

Edited by RoundAbout
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My day requires a lot of interaction and hands-on teaching as DS wants to discuss his ideas, get feedback, and work together. 

 

 as he's gotten older he's wanted to find more intellectual peers and his extracurricular interests have become more specific. All of that requires more driving and logistics than when he was younger. 

 

As kids get older, it is very important to have discussions with peers or teachers or parents while they learn. Not all kids are wired to be autodidacts. A good solution would be to have a relative or nanny who can stay with your child when you are away and your daughter can work with you when you are home. A few working parents I know homeschool - but, they work in tech and have great flexibility in their work hours as well as being able to telecommute or take their kids in to their work place with them. I know of one single parent who works and homeschools, but she has a reliable and highly educated nanny who comes in every day and stays until the parent returns - the nanny can answer school questions, help with simple household tasks, make small meals, drive the kid to places and even help with musical instrument practice daily - the nanny is a neighbor whose kids went off to college and misses being around kids, so it is a winning situation for them.

 

You need to figure out how to handle the times when you are away on work - will there be someone supervising her work? will she be working only when you are available and using the time when you are away for fun things like field trips, park trips etc? would it be easy for you to reschedule your down time and some work time around your daughter's education? how much support and help will her father provide? what is your long term plan for HSing? etc.

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What about any outsourcing? The thing that will make independence easier over the next year or so is that Ds has been able to outsource core classes. Without that, I would be drowning. Within the next couple of years, Ds is essentially going to be doing private tutors in his subjects across the board. He is homeschooling, but majorly outsourced. I become an administrative assistant. This is definitely doable.

 

Hers do not need to be core, but they would allow her to have outside rsources for instruction. Even something as simple as an online umbrella to hit the major stuff, from home, and then she can enjoy learning her own things in between. For her age, it would more than likely not take very long to get through the "have to" and to the individually fun stuff.

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Well, DH and I both work full time, and we've always homeschooled. DH was a SAHD until first grade.

 

We are both managers at our companies but I am 100% remote with a large global company, and he works in 3 different locations and from home a lot.

 

I am responsible for all schooling. DD doesn't like independent schooling nor classes.We have always used teacher intensive curricula, often that I've put together. Nothing off the shelf has ever worked. DH is responsible for all cooking, cleaning, errands, I take care of bills, appointments, etc. My point is that you have to have help. You'll need to depend on your ex, family, friends, or people you pay.

 

We have dedicated school time. I work with her directly from 7am-10am. Then she does independent work for a few hours and then DH drops her off at afternoon or evening activities.

 

It's a ton of work, but it's important enough to DD that we keep at it. We have to be flexible too. Last week I was working 12-15 hour days and DD had the flu. DH could take care of her and we just didn't do school that week.

 

I think it's much easier now that she's older for day-to-day scheduling because she's better about entertaining herself when finished. I've always always spent 3-4 hours a day with her but her independent time has increased. I spend more time prepping because I read everything I assign her and 7th grade has a lot more to do than 2nd!

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Yes, you can do this. We do this here.

 

I'll just give you a quick list of how we make it work.

 

1. One of us is always working from home. We start work at 6 am and get 2-3 hours in before school starts. We then rotate between teaching and working for the rest of the day (1-2 hour rotations). While we are working, the children are on a break/lunch, doing outsourced work, or working independently. School's done at 2-3 pm and we work the rest of the hours needed.

2. Each day must be organized; literally a list with times.

3. Outsource something to an online class or online learning or CD - at age 7: CAP writing classes, online foreign language class, online reading/phonics program, etc... NOT MATH at this age unless it is just learning math facts. History could be listening to a CD and reading along for example.

4. In your case, have an on-call, in-home nanny that is available to cover when your ex can't and is willing to help with assignments (not necessarily teach).

5. She needs to be able to work independently (some); meaning she can sit there and read to herself for 20-30 minutes or can practice her memory work alone; can work math problems alone for practice, etc... 

6. We can't do a co-op bc we are working during the day -- we join in on some field trips using vacation or by working at night. However, our kids are in sports, so they are around kids daily for gymnastics, karate, and whatever sport is in season. Plus our neighborhood is full of kids and they go outside and play with them almost daily. In the summers, we do summer camps.

 

My kids are a little older, so a 7 year old may only need 2 hours of school a day + independent reading / exploring / online learning stuff.

 

As she gets older, her independent workload can increase.

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Thanks everyone. It was good to hear some more perspectives and some ideas for making it work from the trenches. She was home for 3 days last week with a fever and I thought 'ack!' as she was pretty needy and it was harder for me to work. I knew it wasn't a good picture though as she was ill. Today we were home for a snow day and she has self-entertained all day with some focused one-on-one time from me. I did bring it up with my ex and we agreed we'd need to think about it some more and much will depend on his job situation. I'm not planning on yanking her just yet - I'm still planning to see how things go this summer. She can read hours by herself when reading novels or a topic of interest and as an only child she does pretty well self-entertaining with play and crafts.

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I am not worried about the schooling part. That can be done; young kids don't need to spend a lot of time on school, and older kids can work partly independent. Also, schooling does not need to happen during traditional school hours. So, the homeschooling can work.

 

The hard part is the childcare aspect. An adult or teen has to be with a 7 y/o at all times. I have brought my kids with me to work in my office, have done some work from home, but while watching a kid, a parent cannot devote 100% of her attention to her work duties. There will also be times when it is not appropriate to have a child present. So, you can make it work, but you need to figure out some way to delegate part of the childcare to another person, at least for the next five years.

Edited by regentrude
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Yes, thanks. I know I will need some dedicated work days every week without child in tow. And I'm not too worried about the schooling part either, as she's ahead a few years in everything, learns quickly, fills her own head with content without any prompting from me, and I already have tons of resources and she's used to afterschooling some with me. I'm not necessarily thinking 'homeschool until college' either. Right now I'm just taking her where she is (ok, and where she's been for years) and wanting to do what's best for her right now. I'm still waiting to see if things improve a bit this spring at school, but I am not holding my breath. I could probably try to schedule some play dates with her classmates too...that might help her relationship with her classmates.

 

So much will depend on my ex and what his work schedule will look like. His schedule is the biggest unknown...he would be supportive of homeschooling if we can make it work.

 

It's hard....I have so many fun, wonderful ideas of how I'd love to school my child, and I have always assumed 'I can't make it happen' as it's not how everyone else does it and RL gets in the way. I'm trying to think differently than usual, push past my fears and follow my dreams in this regard. I am too logical to just jump right in to HSing and working full time without careful evaluation of the facts and steps I'd need to take, but I also recognize that I've been partially impaired by societal expectations in the past, and if it's something that I want this badly I should make a concerted effort to try to make it happen instead of just mooning over it. I've now been in my job for 4 years, and assuming nothing dastardly happens from Congress and my funding source remains steady (pretty good chance given strong bipartisan support for 30 years), I know what to expect from the work side of things, my work load, my commitments, and no big surprises there. It's an amazingly flexible job and I'm well respected by my boss, our management board, and my colleagues across North America, so if feels like a good time to try something like this that might be a bit risky. If it doesn't work out, it is easy enough to put her back in public school at any time and return to status quo.

 

I really appreciate the feedback I've gotten from folks. I don't shy away from challenges and I recognize that this could be a big challenge for me to pull off, but hopefully if I do my homework ahead of time and improve my own efficiencies, I have a shot at making it work. To me, it is better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all...

 

Cheers!

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Can you afford a nanny?  If so, how many hours a week or a month?  I think that may be a significant part of your answer.    If the answer is "Yeah, full time, but I just don't want to spend the money", then you can make it work.  If the answer is "no, not at all" then it's going to be about your ex's schedule and how to juggle everything.

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I could possibly afford some help occasionally, but I would need to figure that out. I would rather the money go towards additional music or dance lessons,  taking a class, or a trip somewhere awesome. I never use babysitters now, but I realize that might have to change a bit if I'm homeschooling.  I wish I could convince my mom to move closer. She wants to move, but to be near my brother :p

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I am working part-time and homeschooling a 5th and 9th grader.  The 5th grader has been reduced to art/music/pe (outside classes) and math and writing at home.  She spends most of her day just reading.  She is depressed (unrelated to homeschool, I believe) and not working independently well, even though she was highly independent previously.  However, I have decided she's still getting more out of our homeschooling than she would from a classroom, so I haven't put her back in school.  If you decide to homeschool, in my experience you may need to lower your expectations on independent work, and call what you can accomplish in off hours the focus of your homeschool.   I am confident that my child will be fine, but I wish we were accomplishing more.  I did leave for travel for a few days, and the kids got a little done, but not as much as if I was home.  If I was traveling regularly I might have to adjust our plans, but occassional travel is not an issue.  I am hopeful that once we get math and writing happening regularly we can eventually add other subjects, but those were my priority subjects.  I would say working and homeschooling is doable, but just adds another level of complexity to an already difficult task.

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My DD keeps ending up in the nurse's office lately. She loves the nurse and I suspect she is mostly just wanting some individual adult attention. She even took a nap in the nurse's office the other day, surprisingly. Her art teacher had sent her to the nurse when she complained about her face and head hurting badly (sinuses I think); her regular teacher had just blown her off earlier, much to DD's irritation. And no, they never called or emailed me about it - I certainly would have picked her up!

 

Yeah, I don't see my daughter being too independent with school work right now. She is fairly independent with entertaining herself however.

 

I finally spoke to my ex at length this week and he's on board with the HS'ing if we can sort out the details. Maybe that will motivate him in his local job search.

 

To be continued....

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