I recently started working full time outside the home. We are still home schooling our youngest son, and I am curious if there are other families who are dealing with this kind of juggling act. So far, so good for us..
I'm a stay-at-home mom, so I am not in your same boat. But I am curious as to how you do the homeschooling! That's neat that you've found a way to do that!
wow great. I will be working outside the home soon too. I don't know how you do it. But, how I plan on doing it is when I am gone I will give them some lesson and if they have any trouble with it I will help them when I get home. If that don't work then I will hs when I get home.
What I've been doing is prepping lesson plans on the weekend, my son does his schoolwork while I'm at work, we grade and review when I get home. Fortunately my 20 year old son works in the late afternoon/evenings so he is also able to help his brother. My dh is a huge help, he usually cooks dinner.
I am working out of the home this year as well. With my job I come and go. We do some work when I am home and then my ds has work he has to do while I'm away. It works out ok. I liked it better when I was a stay at home mom or worked out of my home( home daycare of 14 yrs). But we gotta do what we gotta do.
So the son you're homeschooling is older? I could see where it would work with an older child that you could trust to do his work. I think it would be more difficult with younger children. If I need to go somewhere, I can give them a list and know it will be done. But I couldn't do that on a daily basis. Plus, I wouldn't feel right leaving mine unsupervised like that at their ages, other than occasionally.
I just started working full time in January. I work mostly nights, so I am there for most of the day while dh is at work. I am having a hard time balancing the housework and schoolwork. :wink: But so far, we just take it one day at a time and try to do a little bit each day. I try not to stress too much when we end up skipping a day here and there. My boys are 3 and 6. I can't wait until I can sit them down and say "do this"! :lol: Right now it is very hands on. I am thinking ti will probably get easier later when they can read their own instructions. :roll:
I work at/from home and find it hard to stay on track with HSing sometimes. We work year round to help offset this. I have often wondered if it would be less stressful to have a part time job evenings or weekends, so I would know what to expect from one day to another. Working full-time away from home would be quite a challenge. At least working at home, I can put a load of wash in or start the dishwasher while a computer reboots. Doubling up on cooking is one way we manage. We consider grocery shopping a family outing, LOL. The number one way I manage is that my dh does housework. He folds laundry, sweeps floors, takes garbage out, put clean dishes up, cleans up after night meals, cleans the stove, fridge etc. I do yard work and gardening to get out and chat with neighbors on weekends while he stays inside. A good change for both of us as he works outside mostly. Another way we keep things moving is to do some homeschool work at night.
Right now I am not handling the working fulltime well. I think it is more to do with me being pregnant then the actual work. As I was doing it before with little problems. Our plan was for me to work weekends Fri-Sun, mids. I sleep alot on Monday. We do a short lesson if I get up early enough Then we school Tues-Thurs. We do another short lesson on Friday, because I need to nap before going back to work. DH tries to do a short lesson on Sundays, usually history, but often mega chores are done on Sundays. Saturdays, DH and kids do kids' activities all day. Soccer games, TKD catch up/testing, park, fishing, something fun.
My oldest son is 20 and lives at home with us and works part time at night and on the weekends so he is home to supervise (ie: make sure the younger one, 12, who is currently homeschooled follows the basic house rules LOL). This is my 12th year homeschooling so I feel very confident doing it. Where there's a will, there's a way! I think anyone who has it in their heart to homeschool can find a way to make it work. We homeschool year-round as well; mainly because I never saw any reason to take a 2 1/2 month break then spend a month reviewing in the fall! We've considered public school and private school when I went back to work, but to be honest I am just not comfortable with either alternative. I am looking for a cottage school though. I just love the flexibility and freedom of homeschooling, and I love knowing I am in charge of what my son is learning and *not* learning, LOL.... My 12 year old son who is homeschooled is also diabetic (type one) and the thought of him not having access to his blood gluecose monitor and equipment makes me extremely uncomfortable. It's sort of funny because I was feeling pretty burned out when I decided to go back to work. Now that I have a job I love, I feel like I have something for myself outside of these 4 walls, and it's made me feel refreshed to continue homeschooling. I think the attitude of taking it "one day at a time" is great; I'm not sure what the future holds, but for now, for today, this is working out wonderfully and I know it's what is best for my son. The proof is in my 2 older kids who were homeschooled all the way thru highschool; my 23 yr old daughter is doing wonderfully in college and my oldest son enjoys working his job. We have a great close relationship with them both, they are well-rounded and well-adjusted and very outgoing and I couldn't be prouder of them both. I know this is sort of long winded, but I want to be encouraging to anyone who is playing the balancing act of work & homeschool. :love:
Julie, That's also encouraging for all of us that are homeschooling and may sometimes wonder if it's worth it, and if the kids are REALLY learning! It's good to hear success stories and remember how worth it it is to homeschool!
Thanks Dena, you are a sweetheart :love: As far as housework goes? It will *always* be there, I doubt anyone on their deathbed says "I wish I'd kept my house cleaner and the laundry caught up" LOL...I want to enjoy every moment I can just *being* with my son, they grow up so fast...*sniffles remembering the oldest 2 being little ones*
My son is 12. I work at before and after school program and do lunch supervision. I'm gone a few hours at a time. Right now my dh is home with him durning the day. My son does a few work sheets and reads while I'm doing lunch duty. If we didn't do this we would have to hs at night to make the hours. I haven't had any problem with him getting work done. If he doesn't understand something it goes in the I have questions file and we then work on it together. But this has only happened a couple time. My hours will change come summer. I'm tring to get just a.m. hours. I work a lot less hours now and make just as much as I did when I working 50 hours a week out of my home.
I work part time(3 days a week) at a local hospital, 2 of my shifts are 3-11 and 1 is 11-9pm. We homeschool mostly from 10a-12p each day but we spend a bit more time on m,w,f's and we also do some schooling on my weekends off. We adjust to this schedule becaue Im a single mom and I enjoy my job as well as I need to work. Im not sure how long I will HS but right now we are enjoying this so we will continue another year.
Juile, you give me the strength to go, and knowing I can do it, even with my new job. That sounds wonderful. About housework, mine is always there it never goes away.
aww Kris, you are a doll! Thank you!! Just finding this forum has been incredibly encouraging to me, I love reading about what others are doing, and how they are doing it. We can all do this! These precious children were entrusted into our care and guidance and we have it within ourselves to give them what is best for them. Homeschool, like so many other things, my motto is, "your mileage may vary"! It has been such a blessing to me to read on this forum this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know you all better!!
If I had to return to work I wouldn't homeschool at all. Their education is too precious and important and should come first.
