Anyone here work full-time AND homeschool? I'd love to hear from you.

[hlee]

Our family is about to go through an unexpected transition after homeschooling for five years; I will be going back to work full-time starting next month. I have an incoming 7th grader, 4th grader, and 2nd grader. My husband is going to be around several days/week due to being on sabbatical so can help with homeschooling at least this coming year, although I think it might be rough for him to manage all three so I am toying with sending perhaps the younger two to school.

 

If you homeschool and you are also employed full-time, I'd love to hear from you. How do you make it work? Do you have any concrete suggestions? What is the minimum time you need to cover school at each of those grade levels? I am looking for any and all suggestions!

 

Thanks much,

Helen

 

[sweetpea3829]

I am not employed, but I do know a family where both parents work full time.  She is a middle school teacher and he is an adjunct professor at one of our local colleges.

 

They are schooling a Ker, so their schooling needs obviously are considerably less difficult at that age, but I think they plan on homeschooling even when their children are older.  

 

In chit-chatting with them, I know that they have a lot of help with child care and that makes a big difference.  Otherwise, they school year round (mom is obviously off during the summers) and on weekends as well as in the evenings.  

 

I'm sorry, I can't offer much in the way of advice, except perhaps to suggest checking if there are any area umbrella private schools.  If so, you might be able to send your children two or three days a week and then have them homeschool the other days.  At least in our area, children enrolled in an umbrella school are considered enrolled and their parents do not have to report as homeschoolers.  (I might be misquoting that...I know that children enrolled in our area umbrella school...their parents do not have to hand in paperwork, IHIPs, quarterlies and assessments).  

 

HTH!  I'm sure others will chime in too...I know there are several here that make this work.  

[kiwik]

I am single and work and cannot home school because of it.

 

However the deciding factor is do you have/can you afford to employ someone to care for the kids while you work. There are people on the boards who have this (grandparents/partners working staggered shifts/enough money for a nanny etc). If you need to work a fairly low to medium paid job to pay the bills because your husband has no income but he can't be there full time then it would be tricky. If there is enough slack in the system to pay for care the days he is not there it could. If he is actually working on something at home then also maybe not depending on his multi-tasking skills and his commitment to home schooling.

[mountains27]

I am single and so need to work full time. I am trying homeschooling this year with a 1st and 2nd grader. I have childcare available through my mom for when I am at work and I work a lot of nights anyway so so far it is working out OK. I do feel like it is going to be hard on me as far as spreading myself pretty thin with work, schooling and everything else but I'm committed to making it work and enjoying it so far! I plan to school year round to make sure my kids get enough lesson hours.

[WahM]

I work part time and homeschool my kids. I am able to work when my hubby is home with the kids. So he goes in early I homeschool the kids then when he gets home, which is early, we eat dinner then I go to work.

[Wabi Sabi]

We do it by working opposite shifts, dh and I. I'm home with the kids during the week and do most of the homeschooling, but work a long 16 hour shift on the weekends and two regular 8 hour shifts during the week in the evenings.

I don't think we could manage if dh and I both worked traditional hours. All schooling aside, just the cost of needing childcare during the day would not be feasible for us at our current income level. But, in between me having an unusual schedule and dh having a flexible job that allows him to go in late, come home early or even work from home as needed as long as he doesn't have a meeting scheduled, we make it work. 

I know someone else with two children and both parents work full-time, but they have the financial means to have a couple of nannies/tutors who are with the kids during the day. 
 

[Gil]

Me! Single, college student, word 3 PT jobs. Homeschooling 2 little boys--going on 7 and going on 8 both of whom are going into "2nd" grade but don't work on that grade level. I have help with affordable childcare from my mom.

 

Here is what you do--get flexible. Really flexible. You need to figure out what you spend your time on each day and week--cooking, cleaning, yard work, shopping, budgeting, errands, schoolwork, recreation etc. and then do your best to come up with an efficient schedule to get it done. Its hard but its doable. But even when you are doing it, it is really, really, really, really hard sometimes.

[Wheres Toto]

Dh and I both work full time.  Dh is self-employed so has some flexibility but he is a chemist so can't work from home or bring the kids with him at all.

 

When I first returned to work my mother watched the kids but she couldn't really handle much in the way of school so they did Time4Learning for those months.  We hired a nanny in January who watches the kids all day and does their school with them.  For us it has been wonderful.  She is amazing with the kids, and they are doing wonderful.   It is expensive but rates will probably vary depending on where you are located, the age of the kids, and what your expectations are.  You would also need to check if it's even legal in your state for someone else to homeschool your kids.

[kiwik]

But if it isn't legal I'm pretty sure it is OK for them to help with homework and take them to outside lessons/co-op as long as you do the actual teaching.

[deerforest]

DH and I both work full time. I telecommute, and we are a global company. Most of my co-workers are 3 hours behind me so DD and I do school from about 7am-10am. Then she has independent work and then DH drops her off for afternoon activities. His schedule and work location is flexible but his 3 offices are all between or near our house and her activities.

 

It's hard and DH and I both work weird hours if we have any deadlines or middle-of-the-night work needed. We both work in high tech so both those situations are common.

 

We only have a sitter in the summer afternoons if she isn't doing camps because her normal afternoon activities aren't happening. We don't use any outside childcare during the school year.

[ocelotmom]

I worked full time up until a few months ago (new baby), and probably will again once she's a bit older. But full time for me is 12 hour shifts 3 days a week. Currently, DH works from home on a very part-time basis. He's talking about possibly going back to an outside job soon. Presumably on days when I'm not working, but I suppose we'll work out the logistics.

 

I will admit that this past year hasn't gone great from a homeschooling standpoint, between me working lots of overtime and being pregnant. But now I've got them going on a daily routine that they can do by themselves, in addition to being able to be more involved on my days off, and that seems to be working.

[aggieamy]

I think a lot of that depends on what type of job you have.  Is it going to be traditional hours?  Is there going to be much overtime?  Is it a high stress job?  I work full-time from home and there's some evenings when I've had so much going on that the last thing I want to think about is Singapore math.  Then again when you home school you can skip math on Wednesday if mom is too tired and do it on Saturday.  

[giraffefamily]

:bigear:  Following

[My3girls]

I tried it.  I worked 9-6 as IT help desk from home.  We schooled on my lunch break and in the evenings.  My work was monitored, and I had to clock in out, etc...  just saying so that you know it was NOT flexible AT ALL.  It didn't work for us.  Now, I am in real estate where my hours are much more flexible, and I work at home about 90% of the time.  Most of my showings are in the evenings and weekends.  Things are going much better, but I am making less money at the moment.  I anticipate making more within the next year, but until then we're cinching the belt.  Kudos to those that can make it work working traditional hours outside the home; it's incredibly hard.

[Momof2littles]

I do! 

 

My husband works nights and I am a Realtor. I've been very busy this year (8 closings/month) and it has been very, very tough. 

 

We contemplated public school and even private but don't feel that's right for our family. 

 

For this school year, we are switching to something that is NOT teacher intensive. We are using BJU online streaming for all classes. I can be mom and work, too. My job is flexible though...I can say no or work late or from home...

 

I am looking forward to the online lessons. I think even if I didn't work they would be something I'd be interested in...

[Gardner6]

I did, for 4 years. Although, because I am a nurse, full time is only 3 days per week. I worked night shift durring these years, and homeschooled my 3 grade school aged children on my days off. We used Seton, and were enrolled durring this time, but only did "school" 4 days per week. I would have to say that it is much easier to do this while they are K-5th. I find attitudes and curriculum change after 5th grade and our young men/women need additional supervision in order to stay properly motivated durring the 6th-9th grade transition period. Now I work only part time, 2 12hr days, and it is still hard, but more managable esspecially with toddlers and grandpa's running around the house LOL...There are times when I wonder, what exsactly I was thinking;D

[journey00]

Now I will add that while my kids are being instructed by either their online teacher or their DVD teachers I am usually doing other things that need to be done. There are days I get tired, but I'm a high energy type of person and my husband puts in at least 40% of the effort with me doing the rest to set things up and make it so that it's interchangeable.

 

The block schedule is another time savor and allows us to finish many subjects within a 200 day school year.

 

My job is pretty flexible in that I can go in as early as 5am and leave as late as 8pm if I wanted to. Same as my husband. Also, if you do school on the weekends like my friend who is a single mom does - it can be done. I

 

However, it's not for the faint of heart, unorganized and unmotivated. My house isn't always clean, dinner isn't always made, but it's working out beautifully for my kids and me.

 

Believe it or not, this is A LOT easier than when they were in public/private school and I had to wake everyone up at 6am-be out the house at 7:30am to have the kids either on the bus, or at morning care by 8:15am. Then I had to pick all four of them up from 4 different places (my husband had a 1.5 hr commute at the time). Then stuff some fast food in them as we headed to kumon, soccer, dance, or music lessons. So to us - this is a breeze.

 

You want tired - I ought to compare the two schedules, lol! We typically ate dinner at the same time and finished homework sometimes as late as midnight.

I LOVE your day-by-day schedule, that is very helpful...thank you very much.  :)

 

How did you come up with your block schedule? I would love to try to figure that out.  Also, what did you change about the workboxes to suit your needs? I'm still having a hard time figuring that out...basically I have the drawers labeled with the books in each but that's as far as I have managed.  LOL

 

[shage]

Our family is about to go through an unexpected transition after homeschooling for five years; I will be going back to work full-time starting next month. I have an incoming 7th grader, 4th grader, and 2nd grader. My husband is going to be around several days/week due to being on sabbatical so can help with homeschooling at least this coming year, although I think it might be rough for him to manage all three so I am toying with sending perhaps the younger two to school.

 

If you homeschool and you are also employed full-time, I'd love to hear from you. How do you make it work? Do you have any concrete suggestions? What is the minimum time you need to cover school at each of those grade levels? I am looking for any and all suggestions!

 

Thanks much,

Helen

So your husband will be the one primarily homeschooling while working part-time?

 

It is fairly typical in my corner of the world to have one parent full time, one parent part time, because of high COLA.

 

It is very doable. It is also busy. And tiring.

 

For babysitting, we use another homeschooling mom and I list her on the legal documents as a "substitute teacher." (This is technicality because we live in a state where homeschooling is under case law.)

 

Number of hours required can vary greatly depending on the child and the curriculum. In our case, my 7th grader spends 3-4 hours on formal bookwork. It is closer to 2-3 hours for the younger children.

 

Best wishes!

[Renny30]

I am new to homeschooling. I work full-time and have a small business. I'm also a single parent, so everything falls on me. I am homeschooling my 8 year old HFA son. I telecommute but I have very strict weekly deadlines so I choose to drop my son off at a homeschool collective 3 days a week. He receives tutoring in the mornings and then in the afternoons they have specials - music, P.E. bowling, chess lessons and they'll soon have robotics. The woman who coordinates the collective was his former 1st grade teacher. We love her. It's an exceptional program.

 

He and I do school for about 2 hours in the evenings on the 3 days he goes to coop,  4 hours on Tuesday mornings, Friday mornings for 2 hours and I we school on for 3-4 hours on Saturday and Sunday. The collective cost me about $550 a month, but it's a good deal for what I get. The math tutoring is the biggest help and they also cover social studies and most of science during those days with project-based learning activities. He gets to hang out with the other 13 kids that are there as well which is great for him since he's an only child. Well, I have a 22 year old, but you get what I mean.

 

With all that said, it's extremely hard. I'm tired and the money is a bit of a strain, but it's worth it. Taking him out of the private school he was in and the public school prior to that were both great decisions. Neither were a match for him socially and he wasn't learning. He's learned more working with me and his tutor at the collective in the past 2 months than he learned all last year.  

 

In some respects I think it's easier for me because I'm divorced. I can't imagine working, schooling, managing my business and having time and energy to care about a husband. I expect my business to become my full-time income in the next year so that will remove the 50 hours a week that I'm working for someone else. I'll still work 50 hours a week or more, but it'll be all on my own schedule and I won't need as many coop days to achieve that.