There are many circumstances that may
change in a parenting journey. There are those that start homeschooling due to
a desire to give their children a unique learning experience, or those that due
to their child’s challenges in traditional schools, decide to take the plunge
into a new world of homeschooling their kids. As a career focused parent, the
consideration of homeschooling had seemed off the table of possibilities in
order to maintain the home and lifestyle desired. Trying to work and balance
teaching your child takes a total change of mindset about a career, school, and
your family dynamics.
MINDSET CHANGE
You can survive making the transition to
working and homeschooling no matter which direction you are approaching it
from. If you were a stay at home parent that didn’t have to work, but now has
to, you can survive this. Those working parents that can’t find the right fit
for their child – you can do it. To survive first begins with the attitude that
you and only you can ‘Own Your Flexibility,’ in homeschooling and working.
RESHAPING
YOUR EXPECTATIONS
We have many expectations of what
homeschooling is supposed to emulate. Sometimes, we forget that it doesn’t
‘have’ to be like traditional school or any other homeschool. It is a gift of
learning in your own way, to shape to the needs of your family and your child.
The one and only expectation one should have is that homeschooling is meant to
be flexible. Usually, it isn’t because we stand in our own way. Making
homeschooling and working a reality means to envelope the freedom to shape
school any way you need and around when you need to redefine the way you
accomplish schooling.
The first way to approach homeschooling
and working a job or running a business is to be honest about your situation.
There is only enough time in the day. Therefore, you need to use your time
wisely. Pinpoint how much time you have during the day to hyper focus on either
instruction or work review for your child. Don’t consider what you want to do
with them for the day, only job down what you can do for them during the day.
Total up that time within the full day for seven days out of the week. When you
homeschool and work, you need to be flexible with your homeschooling time and
fit it around work time. That opens up evenings, nights and weekends to doing
school. Kids are usually more fluid and their ability to work within a
schedule. You may also find that they actually like it when their day is
changed around.
CHANGE
UP STYLES AND SCHEDULES
Most people are creatures of habits.
Changing children from learning during the morning and afternoon time seems odd
to the point where it isn’t even considered as an options. Schooling on the
weekends is also off limits for many families, except when kids are in
traditional school, homework is usually done on the weekends. The benefit of
homeschooling and working is that the parent has the ability to mix up styles.
Learning styles are important, but all can be used to teach within the
parameters of the needs of your child and your house hold. If your child’s
primary learning style is audio, they still benefit and learn by being
presented with the information visually or written. Feel free to present
learning in all methods depending on what the family schedule needs, but lead
with the child’s preferred learning style whenever possible. In scheduling,
there are quite a few popular scheduling methods. Own your freedom by using a
traditional five day schedule during the time the kids are cooped up in the
house for the winter, then after the holidays when they are bursting at the
seams to have a break, do unschooling for a few months, then end with a
Need-to-Want-to schedule. Use the various combinations of scheduling and styles
of homeschooling to your benefit based on the time constraints and goals of the
family.
DELEGATE
OR DITCH IT
The major area of flexibility to
utilize while homeschooling is the ability to delegate a task or forget about
it. In instances where you need to do yard work, house work, go to work at a
job or your business, start thinking about delegating a task. If it’s a task
you have to hire out, ask yourself how much money you would lose by paying
someone to do something you could do. So for instance, if you are considering
working full-time, but have to pay for child care, compare the cost of
child-care per hour against what you make per hour. If that isn’t a good
tradeoff, maybe just working part-time around your spouse’s work schedule would
be a better delegation of childcare. Also, if you would take two hours to do
the yard work, and a yard service would cost less than that, pay for the
service. Beyond comparison, there are things you just can’t do or don’t want to
do for the level of time required. In those cases, getting the kids involved to
help tackle the task works by teaching them the skill and getting you help.
Consider what you can’t delegate, don’t have the time to do yourself, and take
a family vote to ditch it. If cleaning
the dishes everyday takes an hour you don’t have, make the investment and buy
paper plates and only wash the dishes once a day.
OWN
YOUR FLEXIBILITY
When you are working and
homeschooling, you survive by owning the flexibility to change all the pieces
of making homeschool work, to fit you. This is the most powerful gift of
homeschooling, the ability to change it to be whatever you need it to become
for your family. There is no rules, no time constraints, it’s about
customization of education.
