HSing and working part time ???

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

I have to go back to work for financial reasons. I hope to work about 20 to 30 hours per week. I'm home schooling teenagers and they can follow assignments independently. I'll teach the math and writing on days I'm not working.

 

I know that this will be very hard!

 

Does anyone else work part time and still manage to home school?

 

Please give me tips!!!

 

Thanks!

Pam

[Chris in VA]

With kids that age, I'd look for phone work at home--Arise is looking for agents, and there are several compute-based, work at home places like that, where you could be present somewhat with your kiddos, not leaving them alone.

[bnbacademy]

I work the evening shift part-time, dh works the day shift. This way I can homeschool and need childcare for only the overlapping few hours.

[G5052]

I've worked part-time longer than I've homeschooled, and done both for over a decade now. A number of my local homeschooling friends do it as well.

 

Yes, it's hard. I've always been able to work it so that I am home during the day, which IMHO is a biggie. As responsible as my kids may seem, I don't think it would go as well if I regularly left them in charge of their own academics. They're still kids, I'm afraid, and even when DH is in charge don't do as much as when I'm around.

[Margo out of lurking]

I've worked part time for the past two years, three days a week. One of those days usually is 12-8pm, and we cover a bit of school in the morning. Usually two of those days each month are Saturdays, which are good.

 

It's harder on my 12yods; he misses me. It's more challenging with my 15yodd; there are a few subjects we review frequently, and I have to really focus on keeping up with those.

 

Dh is home during the day, but he does no schooling (which works out fine with everyone involved!). I have a daily schedule for ds, a weekly schedule for dd, and it works best when I call them once or twice a day just to touch base. They rarely have any questions with school work, but I want them to know that they are still my primary concern even when I am not home.

 

My suggestions to you would be to let go what you can bear to let go--whether it's housecleaning, a subject or two in school, a planned activity out of the house. I have found that if *I* fall off the schedule, everyone else does too, and it's hard for me to fault them if I'm not making it my priority.

 

I would prefer to stay home, but that's not my life right now. Our schooling hasn't suffered so much as it is just different.

[AngelaNYC]

I work part-time, 20 hrs/week, 5 evenings/week, from 5:30pm-9:30pm, with Tuesdays and Fridays off. It's a great schedule. Dh and I switch off (he gets home at 6). Homeschool stuff & outings all during the day and I'm home in time to be with my girls before bed (and all day with the family on Saturday and Sunday til 5).

[StephanieZ]

Yup.

 

You can do it!

 

The last several years, I was working a good bit, and had a wonderful helper/tutor/governess come on the days I worked. . . That was for about 5 years! Wow, time flew. It started out 3 days a week, then went to 2 days a week. . . and then in June, she moved away. . . and so I fly solo w/o her now.

 

The timing actually worked out pretty well, as I reduced my working to one day a week when she moved away. I am working on Fridays only, so that I can do school w/o distraction of work M-Th, and then, theoretically, leave lists with the kids while I am at work on Fridays. (I do have an adult in the house on Fridays, as my kids are still relatively young to leave all day regularly, IMHO. . . but she doesn't school the kids; she just keeps them from burning the house down, lol)

 

My advice would be to try not to work Mondays so that you can get things off to a good start, assignments made, etc. Getting the week started well makes a huge difference for us. If you can do some of your work on the weekends or evenings, that would make it easier on school schedule, but harder on family time. . . If I were working 20 hours, I'd try for 1-6 Tues - Friday, so I could get my full day in schooling on Monday, and then also have every morning schooling all week. If I needed full 8 hour days, I'd try for maybe Tues, Wed & Friday. (Ouch, sounds really hard just thinking about it.)

 

If at all possible, if you can get 30 min w/each child every morning before you leave for work, I'd think that'd really help you keep on top of things, address problems, check assignments, etc. That, plus a full day together at the beginning of the week would really be helpful, IME.

[OnTheBrink]

I'm a single mom, and I homeschool and work part time. I work 2nd shift (2:30-11, Th-F-S). Sometimes on Saturdays, I can go in earlier and leave earlier. It's hard, admittedly. We don't have one single day where we don't have something to do, or someplace to be. But, this is how it is for now. Add to this, my dd is now doing school 5 days a week (we used to do only 4 days a week). TBH, sometimes it's very overwhelming.

 

Our weekly schedule is:

 

M--School, laundry, housework

T--School

W--School, clarinet lessons, church

Th--School, music class, work (I take dd to a friend's house, who drives her to music; her father picks her up when it's over at 3pm)

F--Co-op class 9-11 am, EX takes dd to class; I meet them at 9am to stay there while he goes to work. I drop her at his office when it's over and they go to his place and I go home to do any needed housework, run any errands, and get ready for work.

S--sleep in! Go to work early if possible to be able to get home early so we're not too tired at church on Sunday.

S--church, nap, church

 

It's exhausting, but it's our life right now.

[ColoradoMom]

I have been homeshcooling and working full time for 8 years! You can do it! :001_smile:

 

I admit I work from home now (most of the time), but it wasn't always that way. I can remember MANY days of getting up an hour early to write out lessons on our whiteboard. It helped that my kids were 7 years apart so the oldest always took care of the youngest - but she never sat down and did lessons with him. He's been an independent worker from the beginning because he had to be.

 

Things havne't always been easy and even though my homeschooling never interfered with my work - I've had employers who really looked down on me for it. In fact, I had my major professor in grad school tell me to choose between homeschool and my PhD...I chose homeschool and switched programs.

[Tutor]

I work from home part-time/ full-time (depends on how close to a deadline I am) and have overlapped this with homeschooling for the last 3 years. Essentials I have found are:

 

1. the headphone rule - if mommy is wearing her headphones, she is working; she may be interrupted for death, fire, and blood only, otherwise, work it out or see dad (half the time, I don't have music on, but I like the physical reminder to the kids)

 

2. write it down - have clear lists and calendars of when school is, when you are working,when dh is working, activities, etc

 

3. communicate often - we sit down once a week (at least) to update calendars and make sure everyone knows what is expected of them and what to expect of others

 

4. make time to play - we thought this would just happen when we weren't working, but dh and I are both rather driven *and* work mostly from home so we found ourselves saying, "Sorry, sweetie. I have to work" to our kids way too often; we now make sure the kids know when we will be free in advance; this cuts down on them asking (what seems to be) every 5 minutes when we can play or watch a movie or something and also lets them see that they are so important to us that we have made time just for them

 

5. check schoolwork frequently - my older kids are quickly becoming more able to work independently, but if I don't routinely check their work, they begin to slack; we now have a weekly meeting where we have a thorough review of their independent work plus I make sure to check on them throughout the week (this is more for me than for them; I tend to get overwhelmed if I let it go too long)

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

Thanks everyone!

 

I've got one job lined up. It begins mid Oct. IF I don't find anything else.

 

Also, I'm considering being a tutor.... which would be great....but would take time to build up the business.

 

I need money "yesterday":001_huh::001_smile:. LOL

[MSNative]

You can do it, it just takes planning as many pps have pointed out. I just wanted to share one other idea that has helped me out tremendously. Take a day and completely plan and set up a quarter. I get everything organized for a 9 week block of our school for each kid. I put it all in a binder along with assignment sheets. Everything goes in that one binder - math sheets, experiment sheets, writing assignments, maps, etc. I tab it out by week and my kids know that everything on the assignment sheet has to be done that week or it's homework.

 

One other accoutability trick that helps me is marking a date on my calendar by which the kids should be done with that quarter (taking into account vacations, etc.) I leave 2 days after that date clear and call them catch up days. This has been a huge help in keeping us on schedule for the year.

 

Good luck!!