Home-Educating own child whilst working as childminder

[OliveMama]

I was wondering whether anyone had some insight into this please: are you able to (allowed to I suppose) take paid work as a childminder whilst home educating your own child?

Does anyone have any experience of doing this? Did it feel do-able?

My DD goes to a childminder who home educates a child of her own, and I am wondering whether it is causing too much split attention, as there are also at least 3 under threes.

Grateful for thoughts!

[Velvetbee]

I did this for a while, had 2 of my own that were HE and a baby/toddler, then 2 minded pre-schoolers and 1 chap after school. It was busy but fine, I felt that everyone got the attention they needed.

It depends on the educational philosophy of your CM. If she is very structured and doing HE like school (fairly unlikely) then little ones might miss out. However HE is very efficient and children need to do very little guided work to keep up. It's easy to set up an older child with an activity then keep half an eye on them whilst playing on the floor with tinies.

Different ages of children can also work alongside each other effectively. An HE child might sit up to do some maths whilst a mindee does play dough at the same table for example. The mindee could make shapes for the HE child to visualise the subject better and the HE child could learn to count at the same time.

We used to do lots of trips out too and the different children obviously approached them depending on their age and stage. Little ones might be kicking through leaves and talking about colours, bigger ones might be collecting leaves to look at surface area when they get home.

The parents of my mindees were teachers/academics and seemed to appreciate that their children were in an educational environment. Is there anything specific that makes you wonder about the quality of care.

[Velvetbee]

I meant 'minded child could learn to count at the same time.'

[Penfold007]

Olive do you feel your child is,getting sufficient good, caring support from the minder or do you have concerns?

[Saracen]

You might want to ask more about exactly how your CM is doing home education. As Velvetbee says, there are various approaches, some of which wouldn't require any focused adult attention at all. Also, even with structured formal learning, it doesn't necessarily take much time and doesn't have to happen during standard "school hours". For example, it's possible that your CM finds it better to do work with her child for an hour every evening instead of trying to do it when the little ones are there.

[Saracen]

I had an enlightening discussion once with a mum whose children went to school and whose children went to a home educating childminder. I was taking up references for a CM I planned to use for my own child, and phoned her to ask what she thought of the CM.

It didn't occur to her that I might be home educating too, so she was very direct in her opinions. She was delighted with the opportunities that her children had to go along to home ed groups and museum visits and to play with older children, and she liked the atmosphere provided. However, she wasn't pleased that her children were being exposed regularly to the idea that school could be optional, because for them it wasn't, and she felt this made them discontented about going to school. She was also annoyed that the CM preferred to take her holidays during school term-time (which a school-using CM wouldn't, of course) and it was harder for the mum to find alternative childcare at those times: no holiday clubs open then.

So there is a second-hand opinion for you!

[bobbysgirlfirst]

There is a facebook group for 'childminding home educators' which might be worth joining?

[catkind]

I'd love a childminder who was doing that. No school run! DD loves being around older children, and depending on the ages of the children would probably like to tag along with some of the learning activities.