Sep 19 2008
Working and Homeschooling
I don’t think I mentioned before that in addition to writing, and homeschooling, I have a day job outside the home. Fortunately, due to a lot of dedication from my husband that I should be home as much as possible, and some sacrifice of many material things in life, I only have to work part time outside the home – about 2 ½ days a week on average.
I mention it because I’ve seen this issue come up on homeschool forums and chat boards from time to time. People wonder if it’s possible to homeschool and have an outside job at the same time. Maybe a working family wants to homeschool, but doesn’t look into it because they think they can’t do both.
Well, you can do both. Many families do. Some even work full time and homeschool, although that’s obviously exponentially harder than what I do. I am actually quite lucky in that I have wonderful extended family support. My mother watches my girls when I work, and she also oversees my daughter’s schooling on my work days. Not everyone has that option.
But even if my mom was not available, I believe we could still make this work. Again, because I’m only out of the house 2 ½ days a week, we could simply move ’school’ days to the day’s I’m home. For homeschoolers, there are not set in stone rules that say school can only happen Monday through Friday. I can happen Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday if it has to. It can happen in the evenings instead of the daytime. If the child is old enough, they can work independently most of the time, with the parents just being available for evening help the way they would help with homework if their teen was in a regular school.
What I’ve found is that families who want to homeschool can get very creative in order to make that happen. Maybe one parent works a swing or night shift while one works traditional hours. Many find a way to work from home (as I’m slowly, but surely moving toward doing.) Others just reevaluate their lives, find a way to live on less, and bring one parent home.
Finding solutions to these tricky life problems is a passion of mine. I hate that money keeps people from living their live in a way that embraces their beliefs and ideals. But it does. I hope to dig out other ideas to help bridge the money/work/homeschooling gap, and will share whatever I find here.
If you work and homeschool, and have a tip to share, plpease leave a comment. We can all use any support we can get.
