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Resume thoughts on adding homeschooling & how to word?


Prairie~Phlox
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It was recommended to try & add it to an “Additional Information†area since I have other jobs on my resume to fill it in. I was thinking that I could say something about the homeschool co-op that we were members of since 2004. If you have homeschooling on your resume, how did you word it?

 

Thanks.

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I included a single sentence solely to explain my lengthy employment gap.

 

If I had had homeschool related volunteer positions or other relevant experience, I would have mentioned those but not homeschooling directly, unless I had been applying for education related positions.

 

Eta: in your situation where it doesn't sound necessary, I wouldn't mention it all.

Edited by MEmama
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I am the Chief Academic Officer of our homeschool. I select and personalize materials and lessons plans, manage our budget, arrange extracurricular activities, and teach. I also manage disciplinary challenges, maintain familiarity with the latest classroom management techniques, (content) teaching methods, and policy trends at the national, state and local level. I see zero reasons not to acknowledge those functions or give myself credit for the work that we've done/are doing.

 

I think mentioning homeschooling largely depends on the types of work you've done in the past or are hoping to do. I left a career as a senior manager in ed. policy and hope to return to the same field. All of what I've done as a home schooler is relevant. So, as far as I'm concerned, I've had no employment gap. I decided to open my own private school with two high-achieving students to show for it.

 

IMHO, I think we do ourselves no favours when we poo-poo the WORK that is homeschooling. It is not for the feint of heart and, when done well, is very taxing. Quantify the work you do/have done in buzzword terms hiring managers will understand. Your efforts/skills have value. Own that.

Edited by Sneezyone
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Here you go. I copied and pasted from the “Volunteer Work†section of my resume. The formatting did not copy over, but you’ll get the idea:

Homeschool teacher

“W****m Household, R****e & S****m, VA"

Sept 2014 - Present

~Selected and procured all teaching material needed to teach three children of varying ages.

~Initiated and executed daily and weekly lesson plans for all children of school age.

~Documented success: two children passed standardized testing with average percentile score of 91 over three years.

 

 

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I disagree that you’d only include it if it is relevant to the work you are applying for. The skills used to manage a homeschool are relevant to any professional position. You wouldn’t include it as job experience, since it’s not an employer/employee relationship, but to include it as volunteer work and a probable explanation of employment gap is relevant. Mention any measurable successes. I applied for corporate tax work (nothing like homeschooling!) using my resume, and my interviewers found my little blurb helpful in understanding me.

 

 

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I don't have "homeschooling" on there per se, but I have a number of things I've done that are part of homeschooling, like teaching co-op classes, running a small theater group, tutoring other people's kids, etc. In the context of the homeschool world, most of those things were super informal. On my resume, I make them sound like "real" work. Which, of course, they ARE.

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Here you go. I copied and pasted from the “Volunteer Work†section of my resume. ears.

 

 

Thanks for sharing! 

 

I don't have "homeschooling" on there per se, but I have a number of things I've done that are part of homeschooling, like teaching co-op classes, running a small theater group, tutoring other people's kids, etc. In the context of the homeschool world, most of those things were super informal. On my resume, I make them sound like "real" work. Which, of course, they ARE.

 

Can you give an example of something other than tutoring? 

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Thanks for sharing! 

 

 

Can you give an example of something other than tutoring? 

 

The two other things I mentioned would be other than tutoring? I ran a small homeschool performance group and I have taught and organized co-op classes. I additionally have down that I'm the moderator of our local homeschool listserv and that I have a homeschool related blog. I guess my point was just that I don't have down "homeschooling" or "teacher for two children (who happen to be mine)" or anything direct, but that I've put down other things I've done in the homeschool community - most of them unpaid - as experience on my resume. Not everyone has done things like that, but many of us have in various ways so that seems like an obvious way to put something on a resume for the "homeschooling gap."

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So, from two sides....

 

When I was a hiring manager in my past life in corporate America - any resumes that had things like mentioned in this thread would have been gone to trash.

 

Then I forgot all about it and decided to put homeschooling on my own resume.  To fill an 8 yr gap.  I almost didn't get a phenomenal job that I have right now.  Any mention of HSing is now permanently deleted it.

 

If you organize things other than in your own house, if you lead/taught groups of kids, if you did anything like that - sure, I would it put it on.  Otherwise - absolutely not.

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SereneHome, if you don't put homeschooling somehow on a resume then what do you do to justify the gap?  I haven't been involved in co-ops or any such thing so nothing to put in there.  I am just asking because I submitted a resume and cover letter today where I didn't mention it on the resume but did on the cover letter.

 

ETA:  I am applying for occasional engineering jobs, so nothing similar to education.  I only added it to the cover letter in 1 sentence to explain the gap.

Edited by Mama Geek
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Context definitely matters. I mean, anything I've used a resume for in the last few years has been in the field of education, which is what I have my master's degree in. So putting down that I taught a small class or tutored children makes sense. If you're applying for something way outside, especially at a large company, it may be better not to bother trying to work it into anything meaningful.

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SereneHome, if you don't put homeschooling somehow on a resume then what do you do to justify the gap?  I haven't been involved in co-ops or any such thing so nothing to put in there.  I am just asking because I submitted a resume and cover letter today where I didn't mention it on the resume but did on the cover letter.

 

ETA:  I am applying for occasional engineering jobs, so nothing similar to education.  I only added it to the cover letter in 1 sentence to explain the gap.

 

It was hard.  I got so annoyed with one recruiter that I actually snapped at him and told him "I can assure you, I was NOT in prison, just had  a family, that's all"

 

I did get a Master's degree, during that time, but still.....I just said that I took some time off to start a family/homeschool and that's it.

 

I think one sentence explanation on a cover letter is great.  I think trying to make homeschooling spin into something else makes "you" look desperate.    I also am not a believer in explaining yourself to potential employers.   I have always kept my resumes and interviews strictly professional, bc I've never met a hiring manager who cared that you scored a winning something during a softball game or that you knitted scars for homeless people or that you organized potluck dinners for your moms club.

 

Oh and I was in accounting/corporate finance and now do taxes, so my working worlds has always been very uptight.  May be it's different in different fields, but I only know what I know.

 

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It was hard. I got so annoyed with one recruiter that I actually snapped at him and told him "I can assure you, I was NOT in prison, just had a family, that's all"

 

I did get a Master's degree, during that time, but still.....I just said that I took some time off to start a family/homeschool and that's it.

 

I think one sentence explanation on a cover letter is great. I think trying to make homeschooling spin into something else makes "you" look desperate. I also am not a believer in explaining yourself to potential employers. I have always kept my resumes and interviews strictly professional, bc I've never met a hiring manager who cared that you scored a winning something during a softball game or that you knitted scars for homeless people or that you organized potluck dinners for your moms club.

 

Oh and I was in accounting/corporate finance and now do taxes, so my working worlds has always been very uptight. May be it's different in different fields, but I only know what I know.

 

Yeah, I’ve been the hiring mgr for several jobs in my field too and the quality of the resume, education and experiences (and egads, spelling) always trumped gaps or any explanations thereof. In k-12 fields, taking time off is not the least bit unusual and I’ve never had an issue finding work despite our nomadic lifestyle. This is actually kind of sad that the work of homeschooling/volunteering was so undervalued. For many milspouses, that may be all that’s available (being the treasurer of the base spouse org, for ex). It’s also, quite frankly, bordering on discriminatory since this issue primarily affects women. When we hired, we screened for fit and soft people/team skills as much as technical skills and ability. We could teach an engaging, solid writer to write a press release, prep a speaker, and prioritize tasks according to the boss’ preferences. We had trouble teaching those that were only technically proficient to be kind. Edited by Sneezyone
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I don't think that the resume needs to explain gaps.  Gaps can sometimes be explained in the cover letter but are most often addressed at some point in the interviewing process. 

 

I've do not list homeschooling on my resume.  I'm not saying things about it can't be mentioned on a resume but it doesn't make sense for the types of work I do.  In a way, I am fortunate because I am self-employed and working (slowly but surely!) towards an advanced degree so that fills the gap quite nicely.  I've been very intentional about preserving a tiny foothold in the working would in case I needed to get back in FT due to an emergency.  If it were relevant to what I do, I would list leading various clubs and tutoring.  But it's not relevant so I tend to leave those things off. 

 

I never hold my self out as someone who has worked FT while self-employed and I am very explicit with the prospective clients that I am not available for ongoing FT needs. Most of the time when someone is asking for my resume, they have already deciding to hire me.  

 

Maybe it is not considered prudent but when it does come up, I make no bones about why my last full-time in-house position was in 2012.  I just tell them "My family required full-time care".  Almost all of the people hiring me are women, many of whom also work PT because of their family obligations. If they have a problem with that, I don't know that they are the sort of person I want to work for.  I don't need to tell them but I've not yet run across a situation where telling them if it came up at all cost me the contract. Perhaps I would be more circumspect about sharing that if it was preventing me from earning income but in my experience, it is not.  I am an accountant but my background is in non-profit management and fundraising.  My niche is organizations with budgets of up to about 2 million dollars who need quality work but don't have enough of it to merit hiring someone on staff.  So definitely not buttoned up.   And it's Seattle, where basically nothing is buttoned up.  

 

ETA:  I also put relevant board experience on my resume.  

Edited by LucyStoner
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