YOU CAN DO IT ALL-Work & Homeschool

Yes, there are only so many hours in a day, but if you use them wisely you can DO IT ALL. You can effectively work outside your home and school your kids.

PLAN IT OUT

Yep, I know, this part sticks, but it is effective. Plan out every single second of your day. Identify the places where you can multi-task reasonably. Also, note what tools you need to help you complete that task for the day.

DIVVY IT OUT

As a working mom, there are many task I have moved on to my kids since I no longer have the time to do it. When our Mother In Law, or Babysitter is watching the kids, she doesn’t do homeschooling with them. My kids just don’t perform well when they aren’t being watched by Mom or Dad who is their typical teachers. But they will do other things.

Now my kids cook dinner, clean the entire house (broken up as a task per day) and even make up Mom and Dad’s bed for extra allowance money.

WORKIN IT OUT

This is a part I really have to stress, find a job that can be flexible. My husband took one that he works mid-days and even night time. My job is extremely flexible. I can go to work whenever I want as long as I work 80 hours in a 2 week period. I changed my career to give me this type of flexibility when I was pregnant with my first child. Even then I knew I wanted to work while my children were young. I’ve never really been a stay at home mom, but my husband and I had periods where either one of us was always home. My husband worked a home business for 4 years while our youngest two kids were babies which allowed us to forego the constant need for childcare.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

Don’t be afraid to get help. Luckily for us, we have family close by. My Mother and my Mother-In-Law both helped out with the kids. At times we’ve even had our siblings pitch in as we supported each other. I’ve even kept my nieces for an entire summer since my sister had to work and couldn’t afford childcare for them at the time. Also, a friend of mine had a teen daughter who wanted to work for the summer but couldn’t drive. We paid her a reasonable bit to be our summer nanny. It was much cheaper for us, but a great opportunity for her.

SCHOOL TIME

This is where you have to really be creative when you are a working parent. Find curriculum that doesn’t require you to actually teach. If time is the issue, try to find a curriculum that will be doable in 2-3 hours or can be broken up into a 7 – day school week with only doing 1-1.5 hour a day.

Take school on the road. While I’m at one kid’s cheerleading practice, I’m schooling my other kids using our portable workbox notebook with all of their subjects. Since they are using a DVD based school, I take a small portable DVD Player and headphones and my son can do his school lessons while waiting 2 hours for his sister to finish practice.

SLEEP? IS THERE TIME LEFT

Yep, but not much. I have to admit this is the one part of this working outside the home and homeschooling that never seems to even out.

However, I take Sunday’s off and sleep in, going to the late 6pm church service.