Does anyone here work and homeschool at the same time? I don't mean simultaneously...I mean work a job that is not in the home, and homeschool your kids.
I work part time...24 hours a week. However my schedule is unique. I am an RN and I work 12 hour shifts, fri, sat, sun, mon night (7pm-7am) and then I have 10 days off. works out to every other weekend. I have been doing this for 4 years and on my sleep days I leave lesson plan for ds...he has not been very good at doing the lesson plan, but I feel like we do enough on the other days, that it is ok.
I did. Last year my oldest was doing Kindergarten and I was working 3 days/week, 8 hour shifts during the day. When my husband was working (he works seasonal), my MIL watched the kids and I schooled on the other 4 days/week. Then I went on maternity leave for a year, which just ended at the end of March. We had been waiting for dh to get into the Union. If he hadn't, I would have gone back to work 3 days/week and we would have continued as before. 4 days/week of schooling would be suffient for a couple of years, at least. Instead, he got into the Union and so we're able to afford for me to SAH full time. So it can be done, depending on how flexible your work schedule and child care options are. The great thing about homeschooling is that school doesn't have to be Mon-Fri, 8am-3pm.
I have in the past, but not right now. When I worked I worked part time, evenings, so we were able to have regular school hours.
How did you guys plan out the schoolwork/activities though with having so little time? When did you plan your curriculum? Or are the curriculum's pretty structured and set out for you?
I work 20 hrs/week. Mon-Thu 6-10pm and Sat 2-6pm. I love it, it works perectly for our schedule. I'm with the kids all day - and we do a LOT together. I have plenty of time to get everything done.
yep done it, Jen it's hard not easy but it can be done. I got the box curriculum when I worked outside the home it's all laid out for you. Activites we did as many as we could. It can be done. I do work now but I work around the girls now.
Yep, I used to work about 20-30 hours a week the first year. I ussed a boxed curriculum from Christian Liberty Press that year and loved it! Well, I didn't use everything they had in it, and I did my own grading, but I loved the convenience, and how they had things laid out for me. It helped me get a feel for homeschooling, and helped, in that I didn't have to spend hours making up the curriculum and schedule, etc.!
Thank you. There are times I still think about homeschooling. I pray about it. It may happen in the future. I just want to be prepared if I ever get that "call". We aren't having any major issues with Tanner's school, but I wont lie and say there are not things that irk me. I'm just picky. LOL We'll see where the future takes us. I'm always in prayer about it. I just always worry about finding the balance of time between that and working. If we were to ever homeschool, I don't want to jip my children. I want to give it my 110%. I work M-F from 4pm-9pm. ETA: By the way, Aiden saw the Pooh avatars and yelled "Pooh....Pooh!!!". LOL
Those hours are perfect for homeschooling! You could get everything done in the morning or afternoon, whichever fit best with your family, and go to work in the evening. The grading and things are not too hard in the early years. I know a boxed curriculum is looked down on by some, but it truly helped me understand how to go about it. I was alrready not using some things and bringing in other things I thought would be good for my ds, but I had that base to draw from, so I wasn't concerned about whether I was doing all I should! You could do it, Jen, if that's how you feel called at some point! We'd support you here, as you know, so if you had questions or concerns you could voice them here! I'll pray about it with you!
Thanks Deena. It also helps that I know a LOT of homeschooling families at our church. One who lives right down the road from us. I know I have lots of support here too. My mom even brought up homeschooling when Tanner started school, which is odd because you normally hear people complain about family in that respect. lol I'm going to keep on praying. Tanner is doing well in school and still at the top of his class, and I do like the school on a whole...60% of kids are transfers because of school choice and it's the best one in our district. However, I just wonder sometimes if the environment is what is best for him. Example...he speeds through his homework...took him 5 seconds last night. LOL His teacher tries to send him home challenging work, but it never fails...he speeds through it in a flash because he already knows it. Another example: not that secular is bad, but I really want him in more of a Christ-centered learning environment. Although the school is very tolerant of religion, being tolerant and teaching it are two different things. I loved his teacher last year. This year, his teacher is ok, but not as great as last year...and what happens when I keep getting teachers I don't like??? I don't like that uneasy feeling, ya know? I dunno. Still praying!!! Troy also would need some coaxing...so I'll have to pray for him too. The plus is that I have a husband who is always willing to help with things, so I know all the pressure wouldn't be put on just me. I just like to keep my options open, and ready for whatever God throws at us.
If Tanner's thriving, Jen, I'd say if it ain't broke, dont fix it. Your story of him giving things to a friend shows he has excellent social skills, and I bet he's smart as a champ. If you have concerns, why not run them by the ladies at atoz? Maybe they can help you find a way to talk to the school about what concerns you.
The thing is...he is thriving for now, but I can see how his love of learning isn't what it use to be, and I need to find out why. When we are home though, and I am teaching him about something, he is all ears and excited about learning something new! I know all kids complain about school, but I know Tanner. He gets in trouble over dumb little things because I think his teacher doesn't get that he's bored. She is extremely picky about things which she should be to an extent, but Tanner has been feeling lately like if he even breathes wrong he'll get in trouble. The concerns I have aren't really needing advice, but more of just praying and waiting to see where we are directed by Him. There is more to it, but I really can't get into it now. I emailed his teacher yesterday about a situation I was concerned about, and I still have yet to hear back from her. As picky as she is, I am tempted to send back every newsletter of hers back with her mistakes highlighted so she can see HER mistakes since she feels the need to be so picky. This probably doesn't make much sense because I haven't really vented about it. Here is an example: Tanner was taking a test. He finished early and got bored so he decided to start drawing on the back of his test. She wrote "doodling on paper" with a sad face on the test when it was sent home. What the??? Who cares...he did the test, he got 100%, so the boy doodled a little. His academics are great, but that doesnt' mean a thing to me if his self worth is damaged in the process.
I work a full-time job (40 hrs a week) and a part-time job (Head coach of a competitive tumbling team). My husband owns his own business and works 11 hours personal training and other hours doing the admin and promotion of his business. He is studying for his next personal training certificate and I'm going to start studying for mine. We're both taking courses at our church. We both volunteer 3-10 hours a week at our church. We both write/perform music in a band. Stepdaughter is in tumbling, soccer and she takes a course at our church. AND we Homeschool!!!!!!! So, I guess I have to say no excuses if you want to make it work you can! Yeah, our life is busy. We homeschool 4 days a week, my husband does 2 days and I do 2 days. He does Tuesday-Thursday and I do Friday nights and Saturday mornings. She spends Mondays, Wednesdays and every other weekend at her mom's. I didn't think it could be done until the lovely ladies here at the homeschoolspot told me I could do it. And they were right! DSD is flourishing like she never did in PS! ---------------------------- I was a lot like your son. At the top of my class when I was younger, and always getting in trouble for goofing off because I was bored. I was bored most of my life in school, and as I got older I became mediocre in school because I was too bored to pay attention, but then would miss something important when goofing off. I just pick up things quickly. I flourished in college where I could study at my own pace (which is fast) and then just prove I knew the material. Keep an eye on him. I would have LOVED homeschool, I ate up knowledge as a kid and probably would not have been so bored. I was in gifted classes for a while, but I was not gifted in math so they kicked me out of the program. I could have used accelerated programs in everything else!!! Good luck!
Since it's toward the end of the year, maybe they'd test Tanner for advanced placement for next year, or a split placement into a higher class where he's strongest. Jeannie is a doodler, too, lol. One day in K or first, she drew a horse looking back at its rider! And it looked good, too! I have her in two art classes to keep building on that, too. I wish you well as you decide, Jen.
BTW- I hear ya on sending her mistakes back highlighted! When Jeannie's Brownie leader used to lay me out in emails, I was so tempted to reply back and point out how she misused 'their/there', 'your/you're, and 'it's/its'. And I'd have liked to tell her she didn't need twenty exclamation marks at the end of a sentence to get her point across!
JenPooh, I hear ya girl, that is the main reason I homeschool, but girl your hours our great for homeschooling if you have too or want too. Yes, there will be days but you are strong I know you can do it. JenPooh, my youngest dd is a doodler still is to this day but I don't say much as long as the work is done and she understand it. But, she does get bored really easy..
Thanks ladies. Keep us in your prayers. I am going to be talking to Troy about it soon. I have talked about it casually before, but never in a serious matter. I want him to support whatever we end up deciding to do, but I do know if I whine enough he will let me do what I want. Haha. Anyways. We will see where God takes us. I'm just waiting on Him. The minute I think I have his will figured out, something happends to make me second guess myself.
Sounds a lot like our situation. We are looking into homeschooling because we wonder if ps is right for our 6 year old son that is currently in ps-k. Pre-school was great for both him and us. Couldn't ask for better teachers and he is now ahead of a lot of his class. His teacher doesn't seem to want to challenge him. I tried to talk with her but it just seemed to upset her when I asked for harder work because he already knew what she was sending for homework and would fly through it. I don't know, we are still praying about it too. It really is hard to tell the difference between what is His will and what is ours sometimes, I think. I'll pray that He makes His will clear to you and Troy; but as everything in life, it comes in His time not ours. Blessings-Heather
Heather, that is exactly how it is with us too. Tanner was challenged a lot up until the middle of this year. He is just a natural easy learner. He doesn't need weeks going over the same concept like they seem to do in school. Once he master's something, he needs to go on to the next thing. Another thing that irked me recently: they have this book-in-a-bag program. Tanner "graduated" from book in a bag earlier in the year (levels 1-20, and now is past his grade level for reading) and now is able to pick his own books to bring home to read. She will only let him bring home fiction books, and very rarely non-fiction (even though she has them on the shelf to choose from). She has an issue with non-fiction books, I guess and I don't know why. Tanner has always enjoyed "factual" books. He likes to learn about "real" things. He's never been a fiction book type kid. To me, this is not a bad thing...I believe in fostering a child's interests. I can understand making them read fiction books to gain certain concepts that you can't with non-fiction books...but come on. He graduated from the program and can pick his own...and the reasoning for the book in a bag program is to gain literacy skills...you can learn to read on non-fiction books. Ugh!!!! Now I'm on a roll. lol I really do like the school. It's a great school. And his teacher is not a bad teacher, she's a very good teacher. She is just very picky...and IMO, if you are going to be as picky as she is, then you better lead by example and be near perfect yourself. Kid's get detention for dumb little things in her class instead of creative punishments. I emailed her and told her that detentions are uncreative and serve no purpose at this age for minor offenses when all it is is a glorified "time out" after school. I never got a response.
