Has anyone asked you to homeschool their child?

[PhotoGal]

We haven't even started yet and I've had a few people casually mention having me homeschool their children (not seriously ask if I could do it, but kind of saying something in passing). One of them was talking about someone she knew who wanted to homeschool, but was too busy and was looking for someone to do it for her. I thought that was a bit strange (?). I guess they are looking for the benefits of one-on-one attention, but aren't interested in doing it themselves?

 

Anyway, just wondering if something like that has happened to you. Or maybe some of you have experience homeschooling other people's children. If so, how did that go? Just kind of curious about the whole idea I guess. To the one person that was more serious, I just said I would have to see how the first year on our own goes! :001_smile:

[Bang!Zoom!]

I met a tutor the other night at a curriculum fair.

 

Forty bucks an hour and worth every penny. :)

 

Start a business maybe?

[Aquinas Academy]

Yes, I've had parents ask me, in the same casual way you mention, if I'll homeschool their kids. I doubt I ever will because for me homeschooling is so much about family; adding a non-family member to the mix wouldn't feel right.

[Bang!Zoom!]

For reals?

 

omg-that is hysterical!:lol:

[Forget-Me-Not]

I doubt I ever will because for me homeschooling is so much about family

 

Yep. I've never had anyone ask, but I'm 99% sure I'd say no if I was asked.

[abdesigns]

I'm actually just finishing up with three extra kids (plus three of my own). The mother had to go back to work quickly, and she couldn't get the kids into private school quickly enough. I finished up the school year with the kids, and watched them over the summer. Today is our last day (I'm a little sad). It worked great, and it didn't strain our friendship at all. The kids were VERY well behaved, if they weren't, there would have been no way that I could have done it. There were a few issues, all of the kids would fight as if they were siblings sometimes, but nothing out of control. I'll miss them, but at the same time, I'm ready to get back to concentrating only on my children, plus, I'm tired!

 

If anyone would decide to do this, make sure that the kids are well-behaved, otherwise, it's very very hard.

Edited August 26, 2011 by abdesigns
edited to say private school instead of public school.

[3peasinapod]

My sister asked multiple times, and she is semi-serious, but it could never happen as she lives 4 hours away and can't move her children away from her ex-husband. She can't do it herself, and it's not a matter of not wanting to, she just can't for other reasons. He's in 5th grade this year. He has also mentioned a few times "I wish Julie could homeschool me."

[plansrme]

I thought that was a bit strange (?). I guess they are looking for the benefits of one-on-one attention, but aren't interested in doing it themselves?

 

Geez, could you be a little more judgmental? There are plenty of people who understand the benefits of homeschooling generally or for their child in particular and have many, many legitimate reasons for not doing it themselves. They're not necessarily home watching soaps and eating bon-bons.

 

I have both had someone else homeschool my children and had others hint very broadly, repeatedly, about my homeschooling their children. I do not find either arrangement the least bit strange. I do find it odd that someone would ask a completely inexperienced homeschooler to homeschool their kids before the homeschooler has ever taught even her own children for one single day, but that wasn't really the question.

 

Terri

[edelweiss]

My sister has jokingly made comments several times. She has said, "So, do you want another child or two added to your homeschool?" I've flat out told her that I don't and that my two children are my limit. She is having a lot of problems with the private school that her daughter is attending and isn't sure where else she can move her to (she won't consider public).

 

I've given her a few pep talks and told her that if push came to shove, she could homeschool her daughter (she is a SAHM). But the bottom line is that unless there were extreme circumstances (for instance, if my sis was a working mom and her child was in a dangerous situation), I am just not interested in homeschooling any other children aside from my own.

[Pamela H in Texas]

When my daughter was 3, I took on a 16yr old. A couple years ago, I had a friend's kid for K/1. He's in 3rd now. Another friend asked if I'd homeschool her kids more recently but I didn't feel I could take that on.

[Peela]

I did it for a year- or maybe it was 9 months, cant remember.

The mother was my dh's x-wife, and the kid I homeschooled, and my kids, share a half sister. He was the same age as my oldest- they were 12 at the time.

It was ok. Really, the mother didnt have a clue what I was doing and was more interested in just believing i was doing a good job, than really seeing what I was doing. Then when her son refused to finish the last 10 pages of Treasure island during the holidays- and she backed him up and told me I was being too hard on him, when it was the only book he had shown any interest in, and read all year- I quit and told her to send him to school. Dont know what went wrong there- she was quite shocked- but if she couldnt/ wouldn't make him finish the only book he woudl read all year (and he was enjoying it to that point), and wanted to make me the bad guy instead of her own parenting- I wasn't going to do that labour of love any more.

 

I wouldn't say it was a bad experience till then. It was difficult in that to me homeschooling was a whole life thing- it included the books I read to my kids in bed at night, and all those incidental conversations- wheras the visiting kid had only "school hours" with us which wasnt so wholistic, and affected how I ran things- more school like.

 

But the worst was the expectations of the mother. But she always was a drama queen in our lives, so I should have realised.

[kalanamak]

I guess they are looking for the benefits of one-on-one attention, but aren't interested in doing it themselves?

 

 

 

Or looking for what they hope will be an inexpensive tutor.

Or simply lack confidence. I often hear "oh, I couldn't do that", and they mean that they really think they COUldn't do it.

[Dmmetler]

I' m considering it for one of my DD's friends. The poor kid, who loved K and 1st, is absolutely miserable in 2nd, and the mom can't quit work because she needs the benefits (she has another child with fairly serious medical needs). The school has NOT been at all helpful. I'm not sure that it would work to HS the two of them together, but it would at least get the girl out of a bad situation now and let the parents look for options.

[Joanne]

Yes. I have "homeschooled" other people's children. The familes came to me for varied reasons.

[elise1mds]

I've considered it, but it hasn't come to pass (yet). My best friend has twin sons DS' age. One of them (like my daughter) is quite happy in school, has several friends, and is being challenged at his level and likely will continue to be challenged throughout his school career. The other one is more difficult to challenge, gets bored easily, and has already had a couple of run-ins with negative influences. We've joked about her bringing him here to do school with DS, but I doubt it'll ever happen. For now, I just bring over extra resources that we're not using and she does some afterschooling to keep him busy and happy.

[Lady Marmalade]

Yes, I was asked, and I have seriously considered it. (Without telling them I was seriously considering!) We have very close family friends who would love to homeschool, but for financial reasons, simply cannot. They have three children, but one in particular would thrive in a homeschool environment.

 

I thought very carefully about what materials I would use with him, and then thought about the realities of having an extra child for the entire day- because he wouldn't just be here during school hours, but all day long... and that's when I realized that it was not going to happen. I think it would change our family dynamic way too much.

[Live2Ride]

Yes I've been asked numerous times. I won't do it though. The ones that have asked aren't willing/able to really pay what I think is appropriate to do so. They just want someone to fix the problems their kids are having and homeschooling is not going to do that. They aren't proactive about their childs education at home much less at school. Seems that sports are more important or their other stuff in life...I'm not taking on the teaching and raising of their kids... :glare:

[Impish]

I had a coworker ask me about it. I don't think its legal where we're at, unless you're a licenced teacher, and told her so.

 

But, I couldn't manage it. An occasional situation, ok. But not every day.

[NanceXToo]

I've never been asked, seriously or jokingly, although one of my daughter's friends did once say that she wishes I could homeschool her, too!

[TravelingChris]

Yes, a few times. I declined both times- in one case, it was a flighty woman with a few kids who had a traveling job and whose kids weren't learning anything useful in school but had learned plenty of bad behavior (and I am not kidding about the learning part since they learned all types of new bad words and new ways to behave badly). Even if I was willing to help in theory, at that time, my middle was having serious medical issues and I couldn't take anything else on. But I didn't think it would have worked since flighty mom didn't believe in medicating for ADHD and I certainly do.

 

The second case was a mom who left a marriage and had lots of kids ranging from high school to littles. While I would have had no issues homeschooling her two older kids, I really couldn't babysit littles and homeschool others at the same time. I know my limitations and that is one.

 

I would definitely consider doing it now or in the future, if it was the right situation.

[DianeW88]

No, no, a thousand times NO!! :lol: The stress wouldn't be worth it and there's no way anyone could pay me what I'd be asking....which would be equivalent to a teacher's salary for a year.

[PhotoGal]

Geez, could you be a little more judgmental? There are plenty of people who understand the benefits of homeschooling generally or for their child in particular and have many, many legitimate reasons for not doing it themselves. They're not necessarily home watching soaps and eating bon-bons.

 

I have both had someone else homeschool my children and had others hint very broadly, repeatedly, about my homeschooling their children. I do not find either arrangement the least bit strange. I do find it odd that someone would ask a completely inexperienced homeschooler to homeschool their kids before the homeschooler has ever taught even her own children for one single day, but that wasn't really the question.

 

Terri

 

I wasn't trying to be judgmental. I'm sorry if I sounded that way. I'm sure I COULD be a little more judgmental if I tried. I didn't write "What?! Are these people crazy or what?!" ;)

 

I did think it was strange - "strange" being used meaning "unusual." I haven't heard of anyone doing that before. Hence the question marks and asking if anyone has done this before.

 

I agree that it was odd that people asked me before I even started! I guess it is because I was a teacher before having kids. Or maybe they can just sense my impending awesomeness. :D

[Negin]

I've been seriously asked twice. I felt bad, as I always do when I say "no", but there's just no way I could do it, unless if we charged them AND we seriously needed the money. I think that it would completely change all the dynamics. As it is, some days, I can barely handle homeschooling the two that we have :eek:.

[Grover]

I've been asked a few times, mostly in jest, as in "hurry up and start home schooling your kids so I can send mine to you too." I suspect one person may get more serious once I actually do start in earnest. I'm not sure that it's actually legal here though - not something I've looked into. I don't think I could do it as a full time proposition but a day or two a week might be workable... I'm not sure anyone would be willing to pay me enough though.

[NittanyJen]

We haven't even started yet and I've had a few people casually mention having me homeschool their children (not seriously ask if I could do it, but kind of saying something in passing). One of them was talking about someone she knew who wanted to homeschool, but was too busy and was looking for someone to do it for her. I thought that was a bit strange (?). I guess they are looking for the benefits of one-on-one attention, but aren't interested in doing it themselves?

 

Anyway, just wondering if something like that has happened to you. Or maybe some of you have experience homeschooling other people's children. If so, how did that go? Just kind of curious about the whole idea I guess. To the one person that was more serious, I just said I would have to see how the first year on our own goes! :001_smile:

 

I have had many of this type of insincere casual inquiry. I just grin and reply that we're out of vouchers :)

 

If somebody was in a real need I would have to consider it, but some logistics would be interesting... All of our travel, etc.

[DawnM]

I have been asked but after talking to the mom I realized that she was saying she didn't like the local PS, but couldn't afford the $400 per month tuition. There was no way I was keeping her 13 year old from 7am-5:30pm for less than $400 per month, esp. if I had to school him too. That would equal over 50 hours per week, over 200 hours per month and she was hoping to pay $200/mo. Less than $1/hour....nope.

 

We also homeschool because of the schedule. We love being able to pick up and go to our friends' house 2 hours away and stay for 2 days because we can. We take vacations in October and May because we can.

 

Dawn

[Belacqua]

I had a neighbor ask me to homeschool her son. This boy had been booted out of every school, public and private, he'd ever attended. The mom tried schooling him herself, but he had little respect for her and homeschooling just wasn't working for them.

 

I had all sorts of sympathy for her, as I know she was desperate to find a situation that would work for her boy, but there was no way I would attempt that. Several teachers, experienced with behavioral problems, had failed to reach this kid; the likelihood that I would succeed was pretty slight. And more selfishly, I really didn't want to deal with him.

[cjshima]

I've had a friend hint at having me homeschool her son, but he has educational/behavioral issues and there's no way I would bring him into my home to disrupt my children's education.

 

The only time I seriously considered homeschooling other children was a few years ago when the teachers in our school district went on strike the month before school ended. There was talk of them shutting the schools down for the rest of the school year. I told a friend that she was welcome to send her daughters to my house during that time, so at least they could learn something the last month of school. It helped that they were the same age as my children, so they could just do the same lessons my children were doing. I didn't end up doing that because the strike lasted only a few days.

[mothergooseof4]

I have had people jokingly ask. I don't ever plan to for the same reason I have turned down very serious requests that I babysit younger children. We school around life. School is a priority, but life just happens sometimes and I don't want to have to deal with children outside of my own when that happens. For example, this past week was to be our "back to school" week. Monday I had teacher workday, then the rest of the week was for schooling. We schooled on Tuesday and then had a death in dh's extended family and had to make rush plans to attend the funeral out of state. In the process of all of this, I would not have wanted to have to tell another parent that they had to find other care for their child with no advanced warning and then try to redo a schedule for schooling. As it is, we were able to pick up and go. Now that we are home, we just get right back to work tomorrow and don't worry how this will affect a schedule later in the year.

[usetoschool]

I have - one was a babysitting from birth job that became homeschool up through 2nd grade. Another was a child who was failing in public school and we had her for a little over a year around 4th grade. The third was a homeschool friend who had to go back to work - 6/7th grade. They were all friends of our family and around my youngest sons age. I had all three of them for a while. It was fun to have 4 kids working together. I was totally in charge of curriculum etc. for all of them, which made it really easy.