working while homeschooling Lessons learned from homeschooling and working

[Halcyon]

I would love to start a discussion about lessons you have learned from homeschooling and working, either full or part-time, outside of the home. I work about 27 hours out of the home. I have always been one of those homeschoolers who was very, very strict about homeschooling time: from 9 am to 2 pm, we homeschooled. Period. Nothing got in the way. I rarely did any homeschool field trips during the morning, I wouldn't make dentist appointments, pick up the phone---morning was homeschool time, period. 

 

Well, let's just say that has needed to change.  :laugh:

 

Right now, we are toying with the idea of homeschooling 6 days a week, but less time each day, using more of our downtime to read history and science, do some Latin work, and not be so strict that "school" has to happen Monday to Friday 9 am to 2 am. This is very hard for me, as I like delineations between different areas of our life, but I think I have to learn to embrace the concept of "learning happens everywhere" and use opportunities as they present themselves. 

 

What have you learned through working while homeschooling? And I don't mean, necessarily, practical things like "use the crockpot", but more...what have you needed to let go of, and found (surprisingly) that schooling is still going well?

[MomintheMountains]

Well, "use a crockpot" is pretty important advice, lol! I am curious as to why you feel like you have to let the strict schedule go? I have to keep a strict schedule- schooling in the morning or it has a way of not getting done. We usually start school at 9 and right now I am thinking about trying to start at 8 so that we can be done earlier in the afternoon. I think that 1 hour will make a huge difference for me.

[elegantlion]

Lesson still learning: my flexibility is not necessarily ds's flexibility. I worked part time at the beginning of the school year. Due to the nature of the work, it wiped me out full time and my grand plan to work, come home and rest for an hour then oversee school didn't work. I am now a full-time student and while my classes are online, it's harder to prioritize everything. 

 

Our schooling is set up that ds and I work together or do a lot of discussion. I've had to go back and prioritize what he can do on his own, how to prioritize my schooling, and get everything done (I gave EVERYTHING a long time ago, I mean everything the abbreviated list). Ds hates working on his own and he's less productive too. I have two weeks left of my semester, after that I plan to regroup and try to have a better system for next system. 

 

We did drop one class and have opted to spread one subject out through next summer as well. I will probably be working next summer and next fall I'll have to be at campus at least 3 days a week. 

 

Clear written instructions have been helpful, a regular meeting time to discuss, and we also start later, which gives me time in the morning to do some of my schooling. 

[WahM]

I work from home, it is a strict job, tight deadlines, and cannot be done with the kids or while homeschooling, very much like any other outside of the home job. I have also found the "use the crockpot" very good advice! Haha! I also have found it best to keep a constant schedule when it comes to school. I have to work certain hours a day, so keeping school organized, having a schedule is very, very helpful.

[texasmama]

I have learned to let things go, such as housekeeping.  lol  I now work mostly from home and about 7 hours a week in the office.  I have learned that I had to let go of any expectation that I would have involvement in my kids' outside classes.  My boys take middle school science and third year Latin at a co op, and I do nothing to facilitate or help them with this.  They are on their own.  They have risen to the challenge and done very well.  I think that was a great lesson for all of us and very confidence boosting for them, even if they don't realize it.  My boys otherwise do not seem to understand the concept of independent work except for WWS.  We do subjects and curriculum that are supposed to be independent together (AoPS and Rod and Staff grammar).  So I am glad that they are able to have the experience of being independent with co op classes.  These are demanding classes and demanding teachers, as well, so it really is stretching them. 

 

Although I have to structure our days in a way that is not ideal or preferable, I do believe that the kids are receiving a quality education.

 

Also, I let go of my second grader having her own history and literature curriculum.  She listens along to the read alouds with my boys for these subjects, and she frequently asks me what a word means that I have read so I believe it is good for her vocabulary.  I don't have time to manage two different history/lit programs so that is the best I can do, and I truly have no angst or regrets about this.

[Critterfixer]

Part time work, two days a week. Many lessons learned.

 

Lesson 1: Remember to take care of yourself. Sometimes I find it easy to try to be superwoman; or at least to try on the cape and tights. Doesn't go on so well when I forget that I need sleep, exercise and a little bit of quiet time daily to be at my best.

 

Lesson 2: Priorities. It is easy to take on too much in my professional life and let my academic life slide, hoping to "catch up" later. For me that is like trying to catch up on sleep. It just never happens. I have to be strict with myself about how much time I can work, and how much time I need for school, how much time for taking care of things at home, etc. I've a bad habit of overestimating the amount of me to go around.

 

Lesson 3: Routines are my friend. Having a set time to get up, to do my chores and prepare for the day is important. Of almost equal importance is chore time at the end of the day. Knowing when school will be done for me is helpful. (May not be done for the boys depending on how long they plan on stringing out math! But I'm out of there at three.)

 

Lesson 4: I can't cook every day. I don't do crock-pots, and I really enjoy preparing things from the fond up, so to speak. But I can't do that every day and still get my house done the way I want it. So I've learned to have cooking days. I have chosen days with less housework so that I can cook a few things that turn into really nice leftovers for the days when I won't be up to cooking and the cleaning that goes with it.

 

Lesson 5: Housekeeping isn't about having a clean house. It's about cleaning up the messes made by living. As long as I get my rooms done per day, I can let them get messy right away if that happens. I've cleaned. So there. I know I'm going to hit it all again the next time that area comes up on the rotation.

 

Lesson 6: Everyone has to tow their own weight. Momma isn't a maid, a short-order cook, or entertainment station. The boys are being taught how to take care of more and more of the basic housework; things they need to know how to do for themselves at some point. This includes some of their school tasks: getting out their books, putting away their school things, clearing up after the day.

 

Those are the most important ones I've picked up in the last few years.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Still learning, or trying to.  I work part time, but it isn't regular, it's seasonal.  So the no-brainer is that we need to really focus on school very diligently during the seasons when work is light, and then I need to cut us/myself some slack when work gets busy.  It's silly to try to keep up the same pace of schoolwork when I'm suddenly working 2-5x more hours.

 

I'd love to think we could school weekends, or longer weeks, to make up for the weekday time I need to work, but the reality is that both my kids and I need a break.  I think they would rebel and I would burn out if I tried to do school 6 or 7 days a week.  We really need the boundaries between school time and nonschool time.

 

Now, I often work on the weekends to try and keep the weekdays free for school, but it does wear me down.  I need to have at least one day when I have neither work or school scheduled, for my own sanity - this is something I've learned.

 

The bad part is that I do my best work and they do their best school first thing in the morning, with efficiency falling off in the afternoon hours.  So it doesn't work well for me to work in the morning and do school in the afternoon.  We'll do it occasionally, but it can't be a regular thing.  I also don't work well at night, so if I'm really busy my best bet is to wake up early early and work for several hours before the kids get up and are ready for school.  This works with some projects, but not all.

 

Housecleaning suffers, for sure, and we eat more quick or crock pot meals.  It's stressful.  But then, when I'm not working much money is really tight, so that's stressful too.  I'm not sure which stress is worse.

 

So, I haven't really learned anything that useful yet . . . that's why I joined the conversation, maybe I can learn something from you smart people! 

[Carol in Cal.]

I had to take advantage of outside classes.

 

I did not have much time for socializing with other homeschoolers anymore, and so I started to offer things.  We have a local elist that offers tickets to very good field trips for homeschoolers, and I would routinely sign up for a few of those, and also routinely purchase 1-2 extra tickets.  Then I would call around and invite other kids to come, for free, so that DD could have some company and so that I could see the parents at drop off and pick up and visit a little.  I did not do this to get Dd included in their activities, but as it turned out every once in a while someone else would include her, and that was great.

 

I taught coop stuff on my own terms.  For instance, I designed and hosted a literature discussion class that met monthly, and I did it my way entirely.  This was fun for me, nice for Dd, and it was a schedule that I could reasonably commit to.

 

I gave up on housekeeping.  The first two weeks I worked, I had to go away for training, and DH let all the plants in our front strip die because he simply refused to water them (an easy job--put out the little sprinkler, set the timer for 10 minutes, move the sprinkler, lather rinse repeat.  I decided when I came back and saw that that I would let things go also.  Why do stuff for someone who doesn't appreciate it?  Plus I was working fulltime, and homeschooling, and there was NO pitch in at all, except to take DD and plunk her in front of a television, even though he had lost his job.  So basically I was staggering, and he was not stepping up, so I had to step way back just to keep my head above water.

 

I gave up on some curricula that I would have liked to try.  No Classical Writing--too teacher intensive.  No Latin until pretty late, and then we used Memoria Press CDs.  No TOG. 

 

I gave up on some things that I thought were not all that essential--drawing classes (although I watched for opportunities to do intensives), things like that, to focus very hard on reading, literature, writing, and math.

 

I outsourced some things to summer camps and budgetted for them.  So, for instance, DD attended science and technology camps but we didn't do as much with that during the school year as I would have liked--it worked out.  Drama camp was a serious consideration, although it never worked out.  Vocal music festivals.  Even traditional summer camp with swimming and hiking and crafts made a good vacation for her. 

 

One thing that I didn't mean to do but which worked out well is that we were in a program where we met with a teacher each month, so I would write a quick summary of progress in advance of those meetings so that I could use the meeting to have the teacher cover something with DD that I thought she needed a little help with.  The summaries actually forced me to stop and take stock in our progress, and it was nice to see what we were actually accomplishing, and it helped me focus properly.

 

Honestly, I mourned the happy days of excellent homeschooling, but it was necessary to do this so I made it work.

[jillian]

I teach in the mornings so we can't do school unless we get up at 5am and school till 730 and then get ready for the day. We are not morning people! We get home (dd from her sitter and me from work) between 1230 and 1 and have something to eat if she didn't eat already and then do school.

 

ETA: lessons learned--if I don't prep myself and dd to do school then we won't do it. lesson 2: she is getting more education based toys--puzzles, science kits, etc for Christmas and birthday to help us do more fun things than just read our chapters and do our hand work lessons

[Halcyon]

Well, "use a crockpot" is pretty important advice, lol! I am curious as to why you feel like you have to let the strict schedule go? I have to keep a strict schedule- schooling in the morning or it has a way of not getting done. We usually start school at 9 and right now I am thinking about trying to start at 8 so that we can be done earlier in the afternoon. I think that 1 hour will make a huge difference for me.

 

The reason we need to let the "strict schedule" go is that for me, strict schedule meant 9 am to 2 pm daily. Well, I work two mornings a week. So I suppose what I need to do is think of another schedule. Just off the top of my head, here's what I am thinking.

 

Monday: I work 900 am to 2 pm. Homeschool 2:30 pm to 6 pm. Too late for the kids? I don't know.

Tuesday: homeschool 8 am to 12:30 pm, science and music coop for kids 1 pm to 5 pm (I work 1:30 to 8 pm, DH picks kids up)

Wednesday: Big school day:  School from 8 am to 3 pm, afternoon off (no work for me on Wednesday)

Thursday:  school 8 am to 1:30 pm, work from 2:00 until 8 pm (DH relieves sitter)

Friday: work 9:30 to 2 pm, Homeschool 2:30 to 5. TBH, this is our hardest day to get stuff done, being Friday and the afternoon.

Weekend: do some work on weekend--reading, history, easier-to-complete stuff. 

 

Does this seem like enough time devoted to HS? 

 

Re housekeeping. One of the first thing I did when I started making a bit of money was to hire a housecleaner. DH is very picky (well, I like a really clean house, too) and I was exhausted keeping up. So that's taken care of. Shopping and cooking is another issue--that has definitely fallen by the wayside, and I need to find a simple solution--and that means easy meals, not simply planning ahead (often times I am tired on the weekend and really don't want to "prep" for the coming week--i know, bad, but just keeping it real.)

 

Thoughts?

[Halcyon]

I hear you about history. History for younger consists of reading SOTW and writing a narration. That's it. He listens in on older's history, and watches some documentaries. As for reading, he is a voracious reader and likes both "advanced" classical lit and Captain Underpants, so I am not going to sweat that.

 

I have learned to let things go, such as housekeeping.  lol  I now work mostly from home and about 7 hours a week in the office.  I have learned that I had to let go of any expectation that I would have involvement in my kids' outside classes.  My boys take middle school science and third year Latin at a co op, and I do nothing to facilitate or help them with this.  They are on their own.  They have risen to the challenge and done very well.  I think that was a great lesson for all of us and very confidence boosting for them, even if they don't realize it.  My boys otherwise do not seem to understand the concept of independent work except for WWS.  We do subjects and curriculum that are supposed to be independent together (AoPS and Rod and Staff grammar).  So I am glad that they are able to have the experience of being independent with co op classes.  These are demanding classes and demanding teachers, as well, so it really is stretching them. 

 

Although I have to structure our days in a way that is not ideal or preferable, I do believe that the kids are receiving a quality education.

 

Also, I let go of my second grader having her own history and literature curriculum.  She listens along to the read alouds with my boys for these subjects, and she frequently asks me what a word means that I have read so I believe it is good for her vocabulary.  I don't have time to manage two different history/lit programs so that is the best I can do, and I truly have no angst or regrets about this.

 

[Halcyon]

Your last point hit home. My boys are learning, slowly, to help out more. Dishes, laundry, folding clothes, vacuuming. Yes, we have a housecleaner but that doesn't help with the day to day stuff that can quickly get out of hand. I have told them that I am not the maid or cook, but I do it occasionally. They are also learning to cook quite well. 

 

One of  the things that bugged me recently was when older DS said "You don't do anything fun with us.." I felt terrible. I feel sometimes like I am either homeschooling, cleaning or working. :(

Part time work, two days a week. Many lessons learned.

 

Lesson 1: Remember to take care of yourself. Sometimes I find it easy to try to be superwoman; or at least to try on the cape and tights. Doesn't go on so well when I forget that I need sleep, exercise and a little bit of quiet time daily to be at my best.

 

Lesson 2: Priorities. It is easy to take on too much in my professional life and let my academic life slide, hoping to "catch up" later. For me that is like trying to catch up on sleep. It just never happens. I have to be strict with myself about how much time I can work, and how much time I need for school, how much time for taking care of things at home, etc. I've a bad habit of overestimating the amount of me to go around.

 

Lesson 3: Routines are my friend. Having a set time to get up, to do my chores and prepare for the day is important. Of almost equal importance is chore time at the end of the day. Knowing when school will be done for me is helpful. (May not be done for the boys depending on how long they plan on stringing out math! But I'm out of there at three.)

 

Lesson 4: I can't cook every day. I don't do crock-pots, and I really enjoy preparing things from the fond up, so to speak. But I can't do that every day and still get my house done the way I want it. So I've learned to have cooking days. I have chosen days with less housework so that I can cook a few things that turn into really nice leftovers for the days when I won't be up to cooking and the cleaning that goes with it.

 

Lesson 5: Housekeeping isn't about having a clean house. It's about cleaning up the messes made by living. As long as I get my rooms done per day, I can let them get messy right away if that happens. I've cleaned. So there. I know I'm going to hit it all again the next time that area comes up on the rotation.

 

Lesson 6: Everyone has to tow their own weight. Momma isn't a maid, a short-order cook, or entertainment station. The boys are being taught how to take care of more and more of the basic housework; things they need to know how to do for themselves at some point. This includes some of their school tasks: getting out their books, putting away their school things, clearing up after the day.

 

Those are the most important ones I've picked up in the last few years.

 

[Halcyon]

 

Honestly, I mourned the happy days of excellent homeschooling, but it was necessary to do this so I made it work.

This. This is where I am at right now. I am used to doing my homeschooling...excellently. Not cutting corners, researching, striving for perfection. 

 

I have to let that go, I think. Interestingly, my kids are changing in ways I can't quite put my finger on now that my focus is not TOTALLY on them. I don't know exactly where this will lead, but because I need to focus on my business and not exclusively on them, something is shifting, I just don't know what. Hopefully it's good.

[texasmama]

Also, my two boys are "curriculum twins".  In fact, they are essentially treated as twins in every way.  Older is a bit slower academically on some things, and academics come easily to younger, so it is not really an issue.  I do check in with younger at times and offer him a change if he wants it.  I have told him recently that he can be a fifth grader if he wants, not a seventh grader, which is what he essentially doing curriculum-wise.  So far, he turns me down, and I trust him.  He's an old soul.  I think he is happiest this way.  But the point I am making here is that I NEED my boys to be combined because it saves a lot of time and extra work on my part.  They can work together on co op subjects as needed.  I do ONE math curriculum/lesson for the two of them.  That is a big reason why our homeschooling works.

 

Halcyon, I think your schedule sounds like "enough" to me.  I judge more by curriculum covered than time put in for my kids.  Here is my own weird schedule:

 

The boys on their own do co op homework throughout the week, which takes several hours, so this accounts for Latin and science for the boys.  I do not account for this in the below schedule because they do it independently.

 

Mondays: Homeschool 9 am - noon, take dd to piano lesson, back at 1:15, homeschool until the boys leave for bball practice at 3 pm with dh.  Piano is a big disruption in the flow, in addition to taking an hour out of the middle of our day.  I work at home from 3-7ish, and I help dd do her science homework during this time.

 

Tuesdays: I work at the office and am gone from 7:15 am - 4 pm or so.  The boys go to bball practice.  No scheduled homeschooling on Tuesdays other than the boys doing their co op.  Younger ds volunteers at the Human Society for 2-3 hours on Tuesdays while I am at work.  Dh take the kids to my dad's house on Tuesdays, and my dad transports ds to and from the HS.  Dh picks up the boys from my dad's house and takes them to bball practice. I pick up dd when I get off work.  Sometimes I log a couple more hours for work at home while the boys are at practice.

 

Wednesdays:  Homeschool from 9 am - 3 pm.  I work from home from 3-6 or 7ish.  No bball practice. Yay!

 

Thursdays:  Homeschool from 9 am - 3 pm.  I work from home from 3-6 or 7ish.  Dh takes the boys to bball practice at 3 pm.

 

Fridays:  Co op from 8:30 - noon.  I teach a lit analysis class, which both of my boys attend.  I take my work computer and log in using my hotspot and work from 8:30-11 am. I teach from 11-noon.  We are toast by Friday afternoons so I don't plan much.  I might run errands.  The boys go to, you guessed it!, bball practice.  I usually work 2-3 more hours while the boys are at practice.

 

During bball season (October-March), the boys have games 1-2 days a week instead of practice.  I will often go early and ride along with them and do work on the computer using my hotspot during the drive to and from and before the games start. 

 

I have two in orthodontics so between those appointments, dental appointments for me and the kids, doctor's appointments, eye doctor appointments, acupuncture appointments, chiropractic appointments....well, you get the idea.  Sometimes our days don't run as smoothly as the above list.  I am super excited because the next two weeks are free from appointments...except I need to make acupuncture appointments for me so there's that...

[Critterfixer]

Well, it's a cutback on school hours for your guys if I did my math right. I came up with a reduction from 35 hours to 21 hours. That may not be a big deal, because they may be doing work on their own while you are at work, correct?

 

You are going to be one tired cookie, though. Counting your school hours as part of your work, I'm coming up with around 45 hours of work per week. And those are some late nights on Tue/Thu. You need to be sure that you schedule in time for recharging, and resting.

 

One thing you might think about is doing your teaching on the afternoons for the next day's lessons. You might do that on Sunday afternoon for instance, and the kids could do their exercises on the Monday morning while you work.

Just thinking.

 

Don't forget to count those homeschooling hours into your work-week. That's work. Whether you get paid for it, or not. And it will wear on you, so you need to factor that into your estimate of how much you are working per week. Just my opinion.

 

 

[Sunshine State Sue]

I worked 20hrs/wk until ds was 12, then 30hrs/wk.  Last 11.5yrs from home. 

 

1. Choose curriculum wisely.  I can do one or two at most teacher-intensive subjects.  I am happy to pay for anything that will make my job as teacher easier.

 

2. We schooled year round for many years, taking all of December off. 

 

3. I created a 6 week meal schedule with shopping list so that I don't spend a lot of time each week thinking about what I'm going to prepare.  I cook dinner 3x per week.  Dh cooks dinner 1x per week.  We eat dinner out 2x per week.  The rest of the time, it's leftovers or fend for yourself.

 

4. Ds helps daily with housekeeping (well, theoretically).  He started doing his own laundry at age 9.

 

5. I started outsourcing a bit in middle school, more in high school.

 

HTH!

 

 

[lovinmomma]

I really appreciate the detailed schedules posted!!! Is there anyone that works nights that might post their schedule?

[G5052]

Lots of good advice.

 

Bottom line, you have to forge your own way, and don't try to replicate what others who aren't working for pay are doing.  You aren't them, so don't go there.  Don't think that you can work and drive your DC an hour each way twice a week to a dual enrollment class with lab.  Or do extremely complicated, hands-on programs like Konos.  Or make gorgeous Thanksgiving centerpieces for 12 tables at the co-op lunch. 

 

You will need to nudge yours towards independence, but periodically spot check their work even if you think they're doing OK.  Maybe they aren't  :confused1: .

 

And yes, I outsource history, lit, and foreign language for high school because those have gone better for us in a group and would require me to do a lot of study.  Thankfully I have cost-effective options that way. I can handle math, writing, PE, art, and the sciences with minimal work on my part, so I do those at home.

 

[Sew happily ever after]

1. Have a set schedule for when school hours are. I do allow random interruptions from close family only occasionally lunch out, etc.

 

2. No outside classes. However on Fridays when I don't work outside the home, I teach an IEW class in my home, so that counts as sorta like a coop, but I get paid to teach it and my kids get to have their friends over. And we go roller skating 1 time per month with homeschoolers.

 

3. Laundry and big cleaning chores can be saved until the weekend.

 

4. Family is the #1 priority, so attitudes, actions, and having my children's hearts is super important.

 

5. Be realistic. Lower education expectations if necessary to accomplish the above goal. It's ok to do less educationally if it means that your dc have good attitudes, work ethic, love others, etc.

[swellmomma]

Like you OP we have discovered that in order to homeschool and work together we have to do a 3 hour school day 6 days a week.  Other things I have learned, my kids are capable of not burning down the house while I am at work.  Heading out the door to work does not mean I am giving up my role as mom(one of my big beliefs when they were small, leading to me only taking jobs they could attend with me).  The world will not end if I decide to make it a documentary day and clean the house instead of teaching math or grammar.

[Holly IN]

I am working full time and Homeschooling full time.  I already graduated my oldest so he is in college now.  I have two kids left.  The only thing that I have outsourced for the freshman boy is math (via jann Perkins who is a board member here).  Everything else I am doing at home.  It is ROUGH!!!  I am currently using TOG.  However due to the learning issues with the two I have left ....I have to shelf it in January and go back to WTM way.  The two kids want me to go back to WTM.  I said "ok but you have to hold up your end to go by my schedule and get up early so we can chat and have meetings every morning or evening whatever my hours are." TOG was doable but I wasn't doing it the way it is supposed to be done.  The two kids want to be taught so I will be investing in Teaching Company lectures for them.  A friend of mine who holds small classes in her home told me she will help teach my son writing.  (She is a classical ed as well)  I will pay her for her time.  That is not until next fall.  Housework falls under hubby and the kids.  I oversee and help where needed but I am not in charge of it.  They are in charge and they have zones they are in charge of.  It was a huge relief.  I made it clear to hubby if I go back to work full time I can't do it all.  He told he there is no way I can do it all.  :)  So he took over everything for me (billing, house stuff by giving kids their zones and let them be in charge of it...so on it goes). 

 

Right now I am struggling getting the WTM way of history and lit scheduled so we can just pick it up and go.  :)  I see a lot of you do not do WTM way 100%.   Anyway just my two cents.  I will be back tomorrow night to see more response if any.

[ChrissySC]

I work at home and away from home.  The biggest thing that I did was label 36 folders and buy HST.

 

I have one milk crate for each child with 36 hanging files labeled "week 1", "week 2", etc.  I stuff everything in there.  Their books are even in there.  The next best thing was sticker stars.  In our house, that means see me first.

Lastly, HST has been my best friend for planning and recording.  End of year is a breeze.  I grab from the weekly folders and print from HST.  Done.

 

Otherwise, shut your door, make some coffee, and turn the ringer on the phone up (in my case, all three!).

[Halcyon]

Thanks all!

 

In response, yes, my kids do their independent work with their sitter, so that's a total of about 28 hours a week for them, not including weekends.

 

Today was the first day i worked mornings, and I was pleased that the boys did all their assignments and are ready to do more work this afternoon, after a break.

 

This just might work......

[katilac]

 

 <snip>  This is very hard for me, as I like delineations between different areas of our life, but I think I have to learn to embrace the concept of "learning happens everywhere" and use opportunities as they present themselves. 

 

What have you learned through working while homeschooling? And I don't mean, necessarily, practical things like "use the crockpot", but more...what have you needed to let go of, and found (surprisingly) that schooling is still going well?

 

I don't want to discourage you, but I personally have found that the "learning happens everywhere" mindset is harder to keep up as the kids get older. Right about 12 to 13, my kids got social lives that were not based around mom deciding when it would be convenient to have a play date. Their hobbies/interests also became more independent and in-depth; they aren't always happy to walk away from a project with little warning, and they definitely value having "school" contained to set times.  

 

Added to that is the fact that high school courses tend to cover very specific content. A field trip or documentary might be very educational without necessarily moving us closer to our history goal for the year, kwim? When they were younger, I was happy to ignore our schedule when something interesting came along, but I find that much harder to do in high school. I still value non-classroom learning, but now they are more carefully evaluated (is it really worth the time?) and definitely planned. 

 

If your sig is accurate, you have a bit of time before high school, but I just wanted to warn you of the possibility. 

 

The reason we need to let the "strict schedule" go is that for me, strict schedule meant 9 am to 2 pm daily. Well, I work two mornings a week. So I suppose what I need to do is think of another schedule. Just off the top of my head, here's what I am thinking.

 

Monday: I work 900 am to 2 pm. Homeschool 2:30 pm to 6 pm. Too late for the kids? I don't know.

Tuesday: homeschool 8 am to 12:30 pm, science and music coop for kids 1 pm to 5 pm (I work 1:30 to 8 pm, DH picks kids up)

Wednesday: Big school day:  School from 8 am to 3 pm, afternoon off (no work for me on Wednesday)

Thursday:  school 8 am to 1:30 pm, work from 2:00 until 8 pm (DH relieves sitter)

Friday: work 9:30 to 2 pm, Homeschool 2:30 to 5. TBH, this is our hardest day to get stuff done, being Friday and the afternoon.

Weekend: do some work on weekend--reading, history, easier-to-complete stuff. 

 

Does this seem like enough time devoted to HS? 

 

Re housekeeping. One of the first thing I did when I started making a bit of money was to hire a housecleaner. DH is very picky (well, I like a really clean house, too) and I was exhausted keeping up. So that's taken care of. Shopping and cooking is another issue--that has definitely fallen by the wayside, and I need to find a simple solution--and that means easy meals, not simply planning ahead (often times I am tired on the weekend and really don't want to "prep" for the coming week--i know, bad, but just keeping it real.)

 

Thoughts?

 

Did you say if this is work at home or out?

 

Quitting at 2 and starting school at 2.30 does not leave much wiggle room even if you are home. I think it would be tough even with a short commute (just for sanity's sake, lol). 

 

Does the co op pretty much cover science, or is it an add on to your regular science? I am personally okay with lighter science for those ages, and it's a good subject for "anytime learning" because there are so very many resources, and kids generally consider it fun when no tests or writing are involved. Cool books and an internet connection can take you far in the pre high school years. 

 

For Fridays, it might help to have some sort of ritual in place. One that features a lovely reward for completing x amount of school, of course! It could be something as simple as movie night or game night with fun snacks.  

 

Weekends, my kids generally don't mind assigned reading (especially fiction), documentaries, or hands-on projects. Anything the whole family does is much better than solitary assignments. My sophomore knows that some evening or weekend work does have to occasionally happen, but she would be pretty unhappy if she had to do, say, geometry on a Saturday. If she had to do geometry on a Saturday without planning for it, she would be really unhappy. 

 

My kids don't do a lot of activities or socialization compared to many, but I have definitely found that having teens means I don't have total control of their schedule the way I did in the younger years. And that's okay, but it was def an adjustment! We compare calendars and plans frequently. Very, very frequently. 

 

I have worked part-time while hs'ing but actually don't anymore (except for teaching the occasional class that my kids attend). My kids would definitely want a planned schedule like you are working on; the specifics would probably be less important than coming up with a workable schedule. 

[katilac]

Oh, I meant to add that, while we don't succeed at doing school on the weekends very often, we do have a longer school year than some. June is a light month for us, finishing up anything we didn't get to, reviewing, maybe some projects and field trips. July we take off, first Monday in August starts the new school year. Counting July and various breaks and holidays, we probably take off about 8 weeks total, so about 43 school weeks. 

 

We prefer to work steadily for a longer period of time, rather than have long days and 'homework' for a standard 36 weeks. Other people really value a long summer break.