Homeschoolers: Could a Working Mom Homeschool?

[*pixie*dust*]

DS is not school age yet, but I am wanting to look at all of the options to give him the best education possible. I am a single parent so I work FT. I do have some flexibility in my schedule. I know that Home Schooling is a big comitment so I was wondering is there anyone that also works outside the home Home Schooling their child? Can it be done? Is it realistic? Would you follow a 5 days of class plan or something else? Thanks for your help!

 

[wtrmlnlabs]

I can't tell you for sure, I'm a SAHM that homeschools, but I can tell you, esp for those first few years, there's not all that much you have to do. My son is in 2nd grade now. We only do about 3-4 hours of school work a day, and it would be shorter if he'd cooperate His kindergarten and first grade were mostly working on reading and math, so it was about 2 hours. It's easy to work the other stuff into fun, music, science, art... this is stuff that can be worked on in a car, on a walk, etc... so not a lot of time is taken up. We work all year round, shorter days but all year. I would think this would work for you. I find it to make school more relaxing and he stays on track. A summer off, it'd kill us getting him back to school mode, he fights it so bad. By the time the get into more work, they can do a lot more on their own. My nieces are 13 and 14 and by 4-5 grade they could do a lot on their own, which would help keep your actual teaching time down.
I hope this all makes sense, hope it's helped even a little!
Good Luck

 

[MomTo4+more]

I am a single homeschooling mom, but I am able to work from home. There people who I know that work outside of the home and homeschool, but most only work part-time. Childcare seems to be the biggest issue. day care centers don't take older children during school hours, so you are left with finding someone to come to your home. That is often more expensive. The good part of that is you can structure your child's day so they will have energy left for "school" time. You can put together learning center activities for your child to work on while you are at work.

It definitely can be done well. It takes a bit of planning and getting the right people in place.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I'm a FT work outside the home single mom. The biggest issue I see with this is where would your child be while you are working?

DD goes to school while I work. Now that she is school-age, I can't imagine having her with a babysitter or at a child care center during the day. But just because she attends a traditional school doesn't mean I'm not teaching her. We work on basic reading skills as we read books together. I teach fractions while we bake cookies together. It seems like I'm always trying to work basic math skills into things we do. Then again, I'm a former math teacher so I think that's just second nature. It's like "homeschool lite". I supplement what she learns in school. I'm just not solely responsible for her schooling.

 

[arielmomma]

I am a SAHM homeschool mom, but I help to run a large home school support group in our area and there are several moms who work FT and homeschool several children. I have worked PT and it worked out fine. So long as you have reliable daycare for your children, it certainly can be done. While they are young, there is little to do. For Kindergarten, we spent about 1-1 1/2 hours per day. We just started first grade a few weeks ago, and since it is all review, it isn't even taking that long.

I say if you feel led to homeschool, do so! You can always find a way to make it work for your family!

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

I am a SAHM homeschool mom, but I help to run a large home school support group in our area and there are several moms who work FT and homeschool several children. I have worked PT and it worked out fine. So long as you have reliable daycare for your children, it certainly can be done. While they are young, there is little to do. For Kindergarten, we spent about 1-1 1/2 hours per day. We just started first grade a few weeks ago, and since it is all review, it isn't even taking that long.

I say if you feel led to homeschool, do so! You can always find a way to make it work for your family!

I'm with arielmomma all the way. H/sing young kids is so much fun, doesn't take a ton of time, and could easily be juggled with working FT outside the home. Probably wouldn't be too hard to find childcare, either. It's when they get older that things could get a bit tougher -- but you'll have h/s experience under your belt by that time.

I work from home and h/s, and every year, as a family, we evaluate what's working, what's not, and how to adjust to meet our needs. (Oddly, my annual suggestion of, "We need to go to WDW more!" never ends up passing the committee...)

Good luck!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I'm not sure about working full time during the day. I work 30 hours a week, but second shift. I go in when dh gets home from work, so we will be doing our school work during the day. If you have somewhere for your kids to be while you are at work you can do your school work at night and/or on the weekends, whatever works for you. That's the joy of homeschooling, it's YOUR schedule!!!! Good Luck, if it's really what you want to do, do it, everything will come together!!!

 

[TheRatPack]

We have a lot of working mothers in our local homeschool group....most of them nurses, so while they may be full time they don't work a full 5 days straight?

 

[bumbershoot]

If you want to do it, try to find a way!

My mom knew about homeschooling and knew it would be best for me (tremendous social anxiety that started when I was 4 and persists to this day), but felt that she couldn't do it as a single, working, parent. She had trouble just finding good afterschool care for us, let alone someone to watch me (my brother loved all aspects of school) all day.

But oh I wish she had done it! For me, the social aspect of school was too difficult, and it made the learning part of school fade to insignificance. And since school is about learning, it sort of made the whole thing useless for me.

If you have a support group, family, friends, good sitters, a kid-friendly workplace, make it happen! And everyone is correct...when you subtract the passing periods, the rollcall, pledge of allegiance, teacher quieting the rowdies down, etc etc etc, the actual SCHOOL part of homeschool doesn't take anywhere near the time that being IN a school takes.

 

[EthansMom]

I don't homeschool, but have/would consider it an option for my children.

Is there something about your local public/private schools that makes homeschooling particularly attractive for you? As other posters have mentioned, what arrangements would you need to make for your child while you are working? And if you pay for childcare, how would that compare to money you could spend on private school or public school and enrichment activities.

I think for us, the homeschool/public school/private school decision has come down to a combination of considerations including safety, quality of education, and socialization. Currently, we live in an area with very good public schools. We've been generally happy with our son's experience there, though we wish they had more for gifted/advanced students. We do use at home opportunities (and money) for enrichment. Personally, I think that a lot of parents forget that they can use the public school system as a basis and then add enrichment at home.

Just some food for thought....

 

[williamson_ja]

I work part time out of the home and have been able to make it work just fine. I like to remember that our homeschool does not have to take place during the same hours that regular school takes place. There is no reason that they can't do their math in the evening or even on Saturday. As long as we work out a schedule that works for my family, I'm fine with it. My family loves to homeschool and we do what works for us.

 

[DawnM]

I worked when I first started hsing. DH and I juggled our schedules so we didn't need childcare.

One thing I will point out though......and this would be esp. true with an only child.....I found that I was not able to do more of the fun things like fieldtrips with others, etc....because when I was home we were cramming in school. My boy did at least have each other so I didn't worry too much about it then, but now that I don't work I see a huge difference.....we are far more relaxed and able to do the extras.

That doesn't mean I don't miss working. If an opportunity came along to work part time and I could still hs I probably would look seriously at it. It CAN be done.

Dawn

 

[dyna]

My TOTALLY BLIND friend home schooled her ADHD child during jr high she was a single mom to boot. The way she checked answers was to have kid read question an answer math she had to do in head she said she learned more in that 2 yrs than in 12 yrs of school hahaha

If she can home school being totally blind anyone can.......