Logistics of Working Full-Time and Homeschooling?

[flatstanley72]

Right now my 6 year old DD is in K and my 3 year old DS is in full-day PreK. DS is doing great and I think it is a good environment for him, but DD is having a tough time. Academically she is fine, but she has anxiety & sensory integration disorders, which are greatly increased with going to full-day kindergarten. At this point, I would not even say I am really even considering homeschooling, just trying to figure out if it would even be feasible. I don't want to quit my job--I like it and we need the income. I have heard of people who work full time homeschooling, but am just wondering, if they don't go to school, who cares for them while the parents are at work?

[Emaye]

You will have to hire a sitter or have family take care of them unless you can set your hours up in such a way that one parent is home while the other works. I am out of the house for about 20 hrs a week and I have a sitter.

[Kellyh_01]

I work 3-4 12 hour days per week.  My husband works from home.  The kids are always at home with at least one parent.  Even though I work out of the home, I still do most of the schooling - we just do it on my days off.

[shanna-cat]

i am very rarely on this board but both my husband and i work full time and happily homeschool with little sitter time. here's what are weekly schedule looks like:

mon: me 8am-4pm work, DH 11am-2am. Kids are at my mom's during the day until I pick them up at 4

tues: me 8am - 4pm work, DH 2pm-2am. Kids have another homeschooler babysit from 1-5 (which they LOVE). This is our only paid sitter time

wed: me 8am-4pm, DH off

Thurs: me 8am-4pm, DH off

Friday: me 8am-4pm, DH 5-2am

Sat: me off, DH 5pm - 2am

Sun: OFF OFF OFF (yay!)

my DH is a bartender and I work as an AmeriCorps volunteer full time at a small non-profit. we keep a non traditional schedule with the kids (ages 5 and 7) going to bed about 10-11pm and waking up around 9am. I do most of the actuall homeschooling in the evening starting at 7pm. We do follow a curriculum lightly but don't do much in the way of schooling. we call it 'table time' and mostly it consists of art work, reading together, and studying whatever they are interested in.

we also have a 'homeschool co-op' in our area where homeschool families can get together and help provide childcare for other families. maybe look into something like this in your area?

[littlest birds]

We average out to both working full time+, but dh and I have a business together and he does some freelance jobs and I also WAH.  We work a lot of opposite shifts--where I am homeschooling during the day while he is working and I work more in the evenings and sometimes late at night too. 

It is really hard.  It helps that our kids are older and they can accompany us in our workplaces but I still wish we could find a better balance overall. 

If you will be away, you'll need child care every day that you are both at work.  It is possible to hire sitters for homeschooling children, but it is a lot to expect of a caregiver to help you homeschool and it is also a lot to expect of yourself to homeschool after your work day is over.  While many communities have homeschooling groups, most are arranged as co-ops and each parent contributes a lot of time.  Occasionally such a group may include drop-off classes.  But then those ones are often expensive.

If both parents would be working full time I would suggest considering whether one of you could work evenings/weekends instead in order to have more daytime parenting time available for learning-focused activities.

[stormborn]

We manage it by working opposite shifts; dh runs his own business from 10 to 6 or so with side jobs during his off season and I work part time at night from 8 to 2. Our younger is only 4 so I usually try to work with the 11 yo in the morning before her little sister wakes up and dh does the stuff they can both do together after dinner.

Do you or your partner have jobs that could be done alternate hours or partly from home?

We're friends with a family who employs a sitter when both parents have to work (doctors on call) and while the sitter doesn't really teach the kids she does drive them to activities/co-ops, etc. and sometimes supervises work in progress.

[pollyanna02]

I'm a single parent and work fulltime. I work from 5am to 2pm most days. I bring my son to my mom's house and when we get home in the afternoon we do the school work. Since homeschooling only takes a couple hrs per day this works well for us.