Who here works full-time at home and homeschools?

[Cricket]

We recently took a job managing an RV park and I'm already wondering how on earth this is going to work out. I only have Sundays off. Dh works somewhere else all but two days a week. The older boys are still doing school work over the summer. We have constant interruptions during the day and this is the slow season. We are open 9 to 4 and I'm in and out all day, pumping propane, dealing with guests, letting people into storage, answering the phones, making sure the grounds are tended. I have a desk set up in the corner of the office where the kids sit. Add to that two preschoolers and I'm beginning to go nuts! :willy_nilly: I start having doubts like Am I cheating my kids out of a decent education because I'm so stuck on homeschooling? Would they be better off in school for the next year? But on the other hand, I believe my oldest would really struggle in a school setting and I think our second would be bored silly because he is already ahead. Dh said that he has arrangements with someone to come in around October and take over some of the responsibilities. I hope that works out. Dh would quit his other job but we really need the extra income--which is why we took this job in the first place.

 

I know someone here runs a B&B in Alaska. I have new admiration for you!

[Mom to Aly]

I don't now, but did up until two years ago. I started soon after my ex left, with an ebay store. It may not sound bad, but it was horrible, I put in a good 45-60 hours a week on it, I got no sleep, and finally decided, as my daughter got older, that I couldn't do it and homeschool her. We now live on basically nothing, but it is worth it. Our quality of life has totally changed, and I do get some sleep, not a lot, but some : )

[Kate CA]

Not full time, but yes, I work from home and homeschool. It is difficult at times - there are no two ways about it, honestly. I have five children and there are times of the year that are very difficult to balance it all, but I would try to schedule your school day as much as you can and fit the interruptions in like you would a long phone call.

 

I *am* committed to homeschooling, and we also need the money. I know exactly where you are coming from. If I were you I would modify my school day to make the bulk of the "work together" school time in the later afternoon, when you are close to closing and when you have closed. This would be the time we have together reading, etc., and utilize the day "open" time for things that the children might be able to do on their own. I would incorporate the children into the working time if at all possible. I would think your oldest son could certainly help with the work and it would be a family project and maybe they could earn a bit of money from you for their help. I know my children would love a chance to do such a thing. They have often asked me if they could help me.

 

Life is a family project in our house. Homeschooling is not separate from life - it is part of life. This is tricky sometimes, but SO worth it to us.

 

Hugs to you as you figure it all out. :)

[Pamela H in Texas]

I worked full time, then haven't worked for a few months and now am going back to almost full time (probably 30-36 hours). But I don't have young kids....

 

Could you plan to do school super early? There have been threads about this in the past. For us, it just simply means school gets done faster. I'm not positive why but there are fewer interruptions at 5am and the kids seem to go faster also. It's a win-win situation.

 

That would get your school day off to the right start then it could be interrupted more throughout the day without much worry.

 

Also, your 10yo can be fairly independent past early morning teaching (think homework). The 7yo will probably still need a little more hands on throughout the day but won't need quite as long a day either.

 

I think you can work it out. It'll just take some finagling whether you try this idea or someone else's or come up with a mix that works just right for y'all :)

[Cricket]

Thanks! We will keep tweaking the schedule to get it all in. Evenings are hard because we are going to tae kwon do Mon - Fri in the late afternoons and Sat morning. Once our 7 yo is on the same day as our 10 yo it will only be 4 days a week. Yay! I think that will make things easier. Then we can do more project-type stuff on those evenings. Maybe I need to get myself out of bed sooner so we can get more done in the morning before I have to open the office.

 

On the positive side, I just got done paying all the bills. And we have a nice balance left in the checking account! I think that is the first time that has happened since we have been married. That takes care of a lot of stress right there! Now we can start paying down our debt so we can live on less.

[Kay in Cal]

Well... I work full-time, and frequently from home. I've spent this afternoon making a bunch of church phone calls, and my boys are running somewhat crazy as I've been heavily involved in a two-church parsonage negotiation.

 

Is there an age at which children stop misbehaving the second you are on an important phone call? Or asking if they can play video games (or some other thing they no you will say no to, but be unable to discuss)? Ugh!!!

[Tap]

We started school early, and moved some subjects to evening when needed.

 

One thing that worked for me was making a timed schedule for each subject. We changed plans several times for different reasons but here is an example from when I home each day (vs weeks when I was home 3 days and gone 3 days) For instance our day may look like this:

 

7am-7:30 Spelling and Latin

7:30-8:00 History

8:00-9:00 Science/history (3 days science alternating with a longer history block)

9:00-9:30 Breakfast

9:30-10:00 15mn break and pack bags for afternoon activities

10:00-11:00 Math/logic

11:00-12:00 Reading/vocab/comprehension/grammar instruction

12:00-2:00 Lunch, +30 min break and then do work for LA subjects until 2pm.

no matter what school was over at 2pm. My kids need that final bell to know that school is over for the day!

 

I would go to work from 12-8pm.

 

 

We only did the assigned subjects during the assigned times. It helped to keep me on task and for the kids to switch easily from one subject to another. We only had 1 hour for math/logic so we didn't have time to look for a lost toy at that time. Our schedule was very firm. The breakfast/break/pack bags hour was very nice to keep the rest of the day going well and gave me a minute to make a phone call or handle a household chore. I also had a deal with the kids that if our subject was done before the time was up, they got to either have a quick break in the extra time OR we could move on and we could add it to the breakfast break or lunch break. Depending on the day, they would choose different things. Another thing that helped was that since I had two in very different grade levels, each time block was divided in half. The first half was for ds the 2nd half was for dd. If it was their block time, they had my undivided attention and if the other student had a question on a problem, they were instructed to skip it, move on and then we would address it at the class switch. Since DD was usually the second person getting instruction, she would do her review work first, or finish work from the previous day. At one time we also offset her schedule by 15 minutes from ds so they each got instruction at the beginning of their time block, but they decided that they preferred it when they did the same work, at the same time.

 

Another rule we had: They were only allowed to interrupt the other person's time, IF they needed something from me that vastly affected their ability to do their work and then only when I was done giving direct instruction to the other child. This may sound very rigid, but my kids really liked that I prioritized them each equally.

 

This worked well with school age kids but I don't know how it would work with toddlers. You may have to assign in some play time for the older kids with the tots so you can get the instruction done. I would love to suggest that you leave the tots sleeping, but we know how well that will work :0)

 

Both of my kids were taught to read at night and they really liked that. We would work on reading before bed and ds used to do quite a bit of his school reading for literature and history before bed. He retains better for academic work in the morning but reading literature selections has always been done at night here.

 

In your case I would problably try something similar but start at 5 or 6am.

[94txaggie]

I work full time from home <mostly> as the director of religious education/youth minister at our church. It definately has its challenges and I often wish we were in a position for me to not have to work. Unfortunately, our youngest has a couple of medical conditions that require a lot of specialists and since I carry health insurance through my job....well, I'm looking at many more years of working with the church (God willing!)

 

It's a different situation than yours, but somehow we get it done. We pack up work to take to the office on the days I need to go in; we work in the evenings or on the weekends. For my older ones, it's not so much of an issue, they work independent of me. The little ones though are the ones who sacrafice since they need more of my attention. Although, I've also been able to have the big ones help out a bit with the younger ones.

[jennifero]

I am already dreading fall when we go back to school. I have 5 kids (13, 5, 3, 1 and 3 months) and I work for 3 different companies from home. Life is never boring! Last school year I was only working part time, but next year will be full time. I also add 2 other children to homeschool.

 

Schedules are very important. The only way we can eat is if I plan meals, use the crock pot or do all the prep on the weekend, and make breakfasts and snacks once every two weeks. If I start working and dinner is not started, I never seem to get back to it.

 

I am looking for a mothers helper right now. I am thinking of someone too young to babysit with full responsibility for the kids, but who would like some experience. My plan is for 10-1 on M, W, F. Tuesday and Thursday we are at the park for karate 8:30-11. I just take my laptop and phone if I need to work.

 

Right now, the hardest thing is keeping the house moderately picked up. I can't see most of the house from my office. We are purchasing some security cameras to put in the rest of the house with a monitor in my office. The kids can destroy a clean room in one phone call. We also had to put a sliding glass door on the office. When the phone rings, I just close the door to keep the noise out. I can still see the playroom, but our customers don't hear the chaos.

 

I always laugh at my friends that talk about how calm it must be to work at home since I don't have to commute in traffic. If only they knew what it was really like.

[EndsWell]

I tried last fall but it was overwhelming. I love my job and it is not possible for me not to work. As a new homeschooler, I tried to do everything and it was too much. My kids are in PS now and did really well. I am schooling some this summer and do miss our homeschool. But I am striving for the elusive balance and I found I couldn't do it all. If I were a veteran homeschooler, I probably would not have taken on so much (Classical COnversations, groups, social things, etc.) and focused on the basics.

[G5052]

I'm cutting back in the fall though because it's so hard on our family. DH is disabled and has very complex medical problems, so at some point I'm going to have to ramp up again if he retires. I'll also be finishing up one class I've been taking over the summer and may take another if I'm especially daring!

 

It sounds to me like you need to work out a very clear routine and expectations with your kids though. They need to know how they're supposed to act if you're on the phone or have to step out.

 

I've spent years teaching my kids that because I have to take hour-long conference calls at home several times a month (weekly in the fall), and they actually come along with me to some work meetings. I also have periods where I need to work without interruption for several hours at a time. Thankfully they're at the point where they start their schoolwork on their own in the morning and know to skip things that they get stuck on until I'm available. In August when we go full bore they'll both get a weekly assignment sheet. This is also the last year that I'm doing read-alouds (we use Sonlight) and science/history together. The year after that (they'll be in 4th and 7th), they'll be working separately and independently on all but Spanish and art.

 

It's a horrific juggling act!