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How Do You Combine Working at Home With Homeschooling?

Stephanie — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:07:56 +0000

This has been quite the challenging year for me. We made the choice to homeschool my oldest, as the neighborhood school was doing poorly. I knew at the time that it would be difficult to add in the time it takes to properly homeschool a child to the time I need for working, but sometimes that’s what you have to do.

Despite the quite reasonable concerns of many, it went pretty well. The school year is nearly over and I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to make working at home and homeschooling work.

Be Realistic About Time Commitments

Homeschooling takes a lot of time out of the day. How much depends on the curriculum you choose, the rules you have to follow in your area for the program you choose, and how fast your child works on assignments.

Many homeschoolers manage to get it all done in much less time than their kids would be in school. That’s not always the case and you should be prepared for the fact that sometimes days run long.

Sometimes kids try to goof off rather than work on assignments. They may need a lot of help on some assignments, and less help on others.

You’ll have your own obligations to have things ready for your student each day. Some assignments will need advance preparation on your part, which may take away from time in the evenings that you had hoped to work.

With all that the homeschool requires, you still have to keep up with whatever time commitments you have for your work. This is especially important if your family relies on the income to get by financially.

Heavy Duty Time Management

If you’ve worked at home or homeschooled, you know how important time management is. Put them together and you have some serious time to manage.

As with working at home, adding in homeschooling means talking to your spouse and the other members of your family about where you’re going to need extra help. You still have all the rest of your daily routine to manage around the house, and you shouldn’t expect to be doing it all alone. Look at chores the kids can help with as well as places you need more help from your spouse.

Many homeschool families have a schedule. They’re often pretty flexible, so that you can change things around at need. Nonetheless, they’re necessary for most families, at the very least to help ensure that everything gets done that is needed.

You will quickly become aware of your child’s best working time. My daughter often does well in the mornings, getting her going again after lunch is often difficult, taking a day from one that had looked like an early finish to a late one.

Your schedule will also help you to remember when you need to work. You should still try to take at least one day a week off to enjoy time with your family, but that means you need to be absolutely certain you’re getting everything else you need to accomplish done on the other days of the week.

Be Sure Your Work Is Flexible Enough

You aren’t going to be able to cope with both homeschooling and working at home if your work schedule doesn’t cooperate. I work for me, so it’s pretty easy to make things flexible enough that I can deal with both schedules. Tiring, but possible.

Most times, you’re looking at the ability to mostly work evenings and/or weekends. If your child is self directed enough, you may be able to work as he or she goes through the schoolwork, so long as your work may be interrupted as questions and problems arise.

My work computer and my daughter’s school computer are side by side, which has been a great advantage since I can be interrupted when she needs me. It’s not like she wants me hovering as she writes a report or works a math problem, but if she has a question it’s nice having me available to her. Because I don’t usually need to talk to people on the phone for my work, this isn’t a problem.

Are we homeschooling next year? No, the situation at the neighborhood school has changed, as they’re becoming an International Baccalaureate charter school in the fall, so we’re giving that a try. The district decided to close the old school at the end of this school year due to poor performance, pretty much justifying my homeschool decision, I’d say.

I did enjoy the homeschooling, and if it weren’t for the change in the neighborhood school, would have continued with it. California Virtual Academy was a great choice for us, and now I know what to do if we ever have such problems with a poor quality school in the future. Their program is really challenging but fun to work with.

Coping with the Extra Work Homeschooling Adds On

Stephanie — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:17:17 +0000

I have to admit, these past few weeks have been just hammering me. Very challenging. It’s hard getting used to the demands of homeschooling a third grader. Especially since the K12 program is so demanding. The amount of work is pretty amazing some days.

It’s mostly good. But some days are really draining.

I have a love/hate thing for taking my daughter to Community Day classes. They’re classes she takes with a credentialed teacher with other students. Her class is a group in grades 3-5.

The break from teaching is great. I get to run errands with only my youngest along. Then I have to pick my son up from kindergarten, give the two kids a quick lunch, then pick my daughter up from her classes, and finish off her school day, as the Community Day only covers 3 subjects, and to keep up more has to be done.

That drive time really adds up fast. Messes with the daily routine pretty seriously, and so those days tend to be on the long side.

Her online teacher-led classes do much the same, but at least they only eat up an hour of the day. It’s just that it throws the routine off.

There’s some benefit to both, although it’s frustrating when they’re covering something we already did on our own. But I know my daughter isn’t always catching on to everything right away, so even if it’s review I consider it a benefit.

I’m learning a lot about my daughter’s learning style, and trying to teach her better study habits. She’s used to being able to skim through and get enough of an idea to do well in her classes. That isn’t working with this program. She’s having to make more of an effort than she’s used to.

When things are quiet, I work while she studies. When she needs something, I’m right there to help her. But things aren’t quiet too often with a toddler in the house.

The hardest part is when we have a rough day and I just feel exhausted in the evening, but still really need to get some of my work done. My productivity for my business is down, and I know it. I hope to get things into a better routine so that I’m not always struggling to find time and energy to work.

On the plus side, my daughter loves some of the advantages of homeschooling. When we remember, I turn on music for her to listen to as she studies. She loves that, and tends to be more cooperative. She also likes to stand while working at times, which never went over well at public school. The ability to fidget really is a help.

The ability to take breaks at need has been nice, although we have to be careful about how often they happen. I had to remind my daughter tonight that she can ask for a break when she thinks she needs to get outside and play for a little. Much better for her than sitting at her desk all day. She’s more focused if she can be physically active occasionally.

It will be interesting to see how she and I feel about this as the school year goes on. Homeschooling through an online public school is challenging because there are so many more rules to deal with than in traditional homeschooling, but it’s the style that appeals most to me and gets the least resistance from family members. We’ll see if I continue to enjoy it, which despite my complaints, I mostly enjoy tremendously.

How I’m Adding Homeschooling to My Home Business Routine

Stephanie — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:31:32 +0000

It’s about a week and a half until my daughter’s homeschool program officially starts. To be accurate, it’s an independent study course through an online public school. CAVA provides us with a teacher to contact, and classes to attend on Tuesdays so there’s some in person interaction with fellow students and the teacher.

This is going to be a huge impact on my routine. It’s going to be interesting, and that’s why I’ve started the changes now, before things get started.

My goals in changing the routine now aren’t just about me. They’re about getting my daughter into a bit of a school routine before she has to be on it. We’re doing math and a bit of writing, mostly, at this point. Next week I’ll be having her learn how to use the online programs for her homeschool so that we’ll be completely set when attendance starts to matter.

Our day starts just as though she were still attending the local public school. I have to walk my son to kindergarten anyhow, which gets all of us moving bright and early. No point to dawdling the morning away.

I give her some math problems – addition, subtraction, multiplication. Caught her early on not paying attention to the signs on the problems, but now she pays better attention and shows her work, which is really improving her accuracy. Very useful for when she’s doing regular school work.

We’re figuring out how to deal with my youngest, who loves her big sister and wants to be a distraction. My oldest is quite capable of distracting herself from her school work, and really doesn’t need help from her siblings.

I’ve warned my daughter that she owns her homeschool time. If she doesn’t work, she’ll be stuck at her desk until it’s done. I’m still reminding her some that she needs to focus when she starts goofing off, but the goal is for her to manage her time without a lot of nagging from me. I know she can do it.

Besides, often enough I’ll be involved directly enough in the process that she’d better be paying attention.

I also figure on using Sunday evenings to plan out the week ahead. That’s a tip I got from some of the moms on the K12 site, and it makes a lot of sense. Have plans so that I know what I need to be ready for the week ahead.

A big thing is being stricter with myself on the times I have available for work. They need to be more productive. I do some work by my daughter’s side when my youngest is napping, and I’m getting better about grabbing the laptop when the kids are playing together and don’t need me. Can’t sneak off to my desktop… that’s just begging for trouble. Perfect bait for a still breastfeeding toddler to come up, want to nurse, pound on the keyboard and mess with whatever she can reach on the desktop.

She does the same often enough for the laptop, but it takes only a moment to close it and protect whatever I was doing.

I don’t expect to have this all solved before we officially get started; in fact, I don’t expect to have this all solved within the first few months. But I figure I can have things in some sort of order, and work from there.

Time to Think on Back to School

Stephanie — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:14:15 +0000

I’m feeling unusually organized this summer. I actually bought school supplies for my son already since kindergarten is starting in less than a month here.

It probably has to do with registering my oldest for homeschool. It got me thinking on what my son will need to go to school.

We did good. I bought his backpack and lunch bag for under $10 all together. Hopefully they’ll last more than one school year, but with kids it’s hard to tell. At least he likes them.

If selection is what you’re thinking on for your kids, this is the time to shop, before it’s all picked over. I bought my son’s stuff over at Ross, so the selection was already pretty small but they had some he liked.

I’m sure there will be a lot of back to school sales coming up, but I don’t think I could beat the price I paid by shopping already. Any my son’s happy. That’s a pretty good deal.

It still feels like the middle of summer to me, though. Hardly seems possible that school is coming up so fast.

Do Homeschooling and Working at Home Mix?

Stephanie — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:13:00 +0000

We’re working on a big experiment around here this summer. My oldest daughter and I are trying out a bit of homeschooling.

We started up just this week. I expect combining homeschooling and working at home to be an interesting challenge, even though I know many work at home parents do it. But it’s going to be a new part of what we do.

I’m enthusiastic about it. We plan to go through the k12.com program if we do it, as they have a California public school option that is free. It’s so far above the quality of the schools around here, and even in our old district that was much better that I don’t know if I can stand to do less for my kids.

My son’s going to kindergarten in the fall anyhow. He desperately needs time to learn to be around other kids on his own, I think. Homeschooling may be an option in a couple years for him.

Fitting in Home Business Stuff

The biggest challenge may be fitting in enough time to keep working on my home business. So far so good on that front, however. I’ve always said busy times make me work harder.

Business lessons are also a part of my intended curriculum. My daughter has long expressed interest in what I do; why not start teaching it to her?

I do some work while she works on assignments where she’s not asking me a lot of questions. It means dealing with more interruptions than I’m used to, but that’s fine.

I’m doing my best to be still better about evening work hours after the kids are in bed. Time to cut back on acceptable distractions! Except my husband. Not cutting him out.

I have no doubt that this summer’s efforts will be a challenge, but that’s a good thing. Even if we decide it doesn’t work for us, or my daughter says she really can’t stand to leave her school friends, we’ll both have learned something new about what we can do together.

Taking the Time for Science During the School Break

Stephanie — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:18:57 +0000

Came up with a really fun idea Saturday afternoon. We decided that since the kids are on break for Thanksgiving, we’d do one science activity a day. I suspect that some of the idea came from reading this post at The Mother’s Handbook: To Science, or Not to Science, at least subconsciously.

My kids still love science, because we’ve always kept it fun. Sometimes they come up with their own experiments; other times my husband and I help them or we pull out one of several science activity books we have around the house.

Science geeks? Us? Could it be?

Pretty much runs in the family.

Our first experiment was to get a few types of dirt from the garden, then mix them up with some water in a jar and see how it settled out. I’ve been saving spaghetti sauce jars lately because they’re such a good size for random uses.

The kids were quite impressed first by how the layers settled out, and then by how long it takes for the really fine stuff to settle. They’re still checking it each morning.

Yesterday we went for the cornstarch and water experiment. There are plenty of great YouTube videos of this one, but my kids didn’t care because I didn’t pull up any videos until they were actually playing with the cornstarch and water suspension. About a cup of cornstarch to somewhere near a half cup of water, for those who are interested.

They had quite a bit of fun with it, and particularly enjoyed that when they spilled it was pretty easy to clean up. It becomes so firm when you do anything to it that it’s really not much of a problem.

They played with it for about a half hour. Would’ve been longer if I didn’t need them to get cleaned up for dinner.

I haven’t picked today’s project yet. My daughter has asked for something more challenging. Time to really dig into the books.

Some of the titles we use:
How to Make an Egg Swim, Grow Mold, Eat
730 Easy Science Experiments: With Everyday Materials

And if you really want to get into trouble, try SciPlus.com. They’re a science surplus store and I hardly trust myself to go there. Too dangerous to the budget. My husband only dares go there when he’s looking for fun Christmas gifts for the kids and I’m always talking him down on the list of things he wants to buy. Not easy, I want them too! And that’s not even an affiliate link. SciPlus is just that much fun.

I really love keeping science fun for my kids. Even if they don’t choose it as a career path I consider a good scientific education to be of tremendous value. Doing little projects at home and talking about some of the principles keeps them interested.

Watch Educational Videos – Free Fun Friday

Stephanie — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:26:30 +0000

I came across NeoK12 due to a tweet from MamaByNature. My kids are already hooked – my 4 year old watched a video on subtraction on it and was quickly asking for help on using his fingers to do a little subtraction.

The site contains videos on all sorts of educational topics. Anything too advanced for the kids you can always watch together and discuss. There are plenty of science, math, English and social studies videos to choose from.

It’s not all serious either. My oldest loves the magic tricks section, where videos explain how the tricks are done. There are also time lapse videos, arts & crafts, music and sports videos.

School Selling Test Points?

Stephanie — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:10:38 +0000

A little off my usual path, but just outrageous. There’s a school in North Carolina that was briefly selling test points to students to raise money. They’re arguing that it wasn’t be enough to change overall grades, but I have to agree with officials who say it’s the wrong lesson.

I have to agree with that. Teaching students that they can buy their way to a better grade isn’t helping them. They certainly won’t be able to buy better grades later in life, or better job reviews or… you get the idea.

Such a relief that they’ve been ordered to cancel the fundraiser and return all earnings from it.

Schools need money. There’s no question of that, and many need fundraisers to enhance the opportunities they offer to students. But fundraisers need to be at least somewhat in line with the overall goal of educating students. Buying test points, even if they don’t significantly impact overall grades isn’t emphasizing the value of learning.

Disappointed That My Daughter’s Class Didn’t Watch the President’s Speech

Stephanie — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:53:27 +0000

I’ve been watching people just about throwing fits about President Obama making a speech that schools could choose to show students. The controversy amazed me. I get that the original suggested discussion points for teachers weren’t exactly well done, being too focused on the President for many people’s comfort, but an awful lot of people seemed to be having fits over the fact that he was speaking to students at all.

Never mind that he’s not the first United States President to address a speech to students.

I’ve heard terms such as indoctrination, cult of personality and so forth thrown around about this speech. Never mind that it was just a speech about working hard in school and they fixed the suggested curriculum.

I truly loathe it when misinformation is deliberately handed out about these things. My inlaws were convinced that this was REQUIRED for all schools to show, which was never true. If you can’t complain about these things honestly, maybe the problem isn’t all that big!

I read the text of the speech. There really wasn’t anything political about it. Just a standard work hard in school sort of speech, the kind of thing that kids need to hear and probably tune out anyhow.

My daughter’s only in second grade, and I would love for her to be hearing that kind of thing from more than just Mommy and Daddy. She’s a good student but some lessons it doesn’t hurt to hear from multiple sources.

Frankly, a good, non-political, back to school speech from any President is something I would let my kids hear, even if I didn’t agree with that President’s politics. Some things aren’t about politics. And if something is said that I disagree with, that’s what talking to my kid is all about.

Tutoring – Weekly Work at Home Job Idea

Stephanie — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:19:41 +0000

Do you love teaching? Do you have the qualifications to teach on a particular subject? Why not be a tutor?

Tutors work at many different education levels. It’s not all K-12; college students need tutors too.

Qualifications/Training Needed?

Qualifications vary on the type of tutoring you want to do. Some may require that you be a credentialed teacher. Others may only want you to have a college degree.

You can work for a tutoring service or seek out your own students.

Job Duties

You may work regularly with particular students or be available at particular times for whichever students come looking for help.

The basic job, of course, is to help the students improve in whatever subject you are tutoring.

Your hours may be very flexible, but you have to be available at times that people are going to want a tutor.

Equipment Needed

If you’re an online tutor, you’ll need your computer and high speed internet access.

Where to Search for Jobs

Education job listings at Home with the Kids
Craigslist (beware of many, many scams!)
Hire My Mom
Home Job Stop
Elance
Guru
College campus bulletin boards if you’re going to tutor local college students. Post your information.

Related Scams

Tutoring is of course subject to the usual “pay to show your interest scam,” but there’s another interesting possibility.

You answer an ad for a tutor, and are told that you will be paid by certified check. They want you to cash the check, take out your pay and send the balance on to someone else.

This is related to the mystery shopping scam or payment processing scam where they tell you to take your mystery shopping pay out of the check. It’s fraudulent, and you are suddenly responsible for the money. Worse, you can face criminal charges.