homeschool and work...can it be done

[sewcool]

we have decided that we are in fact going to home school and I am more excited about the decision then i imagined, however i still need to have a job and work about 25 hours a week anyone else do this and how do you make it work?

[vancouverlori]

Well, I work part-time evenings and weekends at a hospital. I mostly work 16 hours a week (2 shifts) and that works out fine. Sometimes I get an extra shift (total of 24 hours) and I find that a little harder - I think I'd have trouble if it was three shifts all the time. But I'm also not very effecient with my time, so someone organized might make a better go of it. I'm a casual employee, though, so sometimes I don't get as many shifts, which is a little harder on my budget. On the upside, in the summer, I offer to work more shifts on weekdays to help cover vacations, when my son goes to daycamps (which he enjoys).

[lorrielink]

This is our third year homeschooling and I am getting ready to start a small business so I have been thinking about this a lot.
What I have come up with is that delegation is the key. There is no way I could continue with all the household and homeschool responsibilities and work as well so I am setting up as many aspects of my life to be as streamlined as possible.
For my kids I am setting up more classes and care out and in home in a way that doesn't have me running around town all day from one place to another, get as much help as you can. For the home stuff I am streamlining shopping, meal planning and housework as best I can. I use as many services as I can such as pick up or delivery service for grocerys, online shopping for household products/medicine, inexpesive take out type food like from trader joes, easy make ahead meals/lunches/snacks. As rock solid of a chore scedual as I can get it, tools and programs to make cleaning quicker and easier. As I begin to make more money I will be taking advantage of things like a housecleaner at least once a month ( this can be as cheap as 40 bucks for me) and those meal services that cook and prepare a weeks meals for you for just a little more than it would take to do it yourself.
Just remember that you can either spend time or money and look at all your repsonsibilities and figure out what you can delagate to save your sanity. Good luck and welcome to homeschooling!

[Madame Pomfrey]

Originally Posted by lorrielink

Just remember that you can either spend time or money and look at all your repsonsibilities and figure out what you can delagate to save your sanity. Good luck and welcome to homeschooling!

Totally agree! My husband left his job about three years ago now and I actuallyt worked full-time for a year and a half - teaching, of all things! At the same time we were homeschooling. DH worked nights and would supervise the kids' schoolwork in the daytime...but he wasn't into it and it wasn't the same.

Now I work 18 hours evening and weekends. I have found that it's best if it's a low-commitment job. After DH got his new position, I worked my old teaching job at the museum part-time. The problem was that there was loads of prep time involved and they really still needed me full-time so there was a constant pull for more hours. I eventually just fully resigned because it was detracting from our homeschool so much.

At the bookshop where I work now there are no outside commitments. I go to work, then I leave. I don't have to prep or think about it at the house.

The key for me is balance. I make less but it's worth it to keep my focus on the homeschool.

Warm regards,

Lucie