Dd desperate to be home schooled but what work could I do from home?

[workfromhomequestion]

My Year 8 has for two years now been asking me to be home schooled. After the latest incident that has sent her anxiety sky rocketing, I think we should go ahead and do it.

The main problem is that I don’t know what work I could do from home (and earn enough doing it).

I am currently working as a school administrator. In general my experience is either in admin, and I have also been a primary school teaching assistant and teaching English as a foreign language teacher. I speak to foreign languages but they are bog standard EU languages and not particularly sought after.

I would like/need to be able to earn in the early 20Ks at least.

Any suggestions ?

Do you have any teaching experience which means you could offer tutoring in the evenings?
Home schooling a secondary age child will be quite demanding time wise and I suspect that it would be challenging to earn enough outside the time you'd need to dedicate to home schooling (I'm sure you have considered this already).
Are there really no other options - mediation at the current school, counselling, transferring to another school?
Good luck with it all - i hope you find a good solution!

How can you work from home at the same time as teaching your child? No company would agree to you wfh knowing you are home schooling.

The languages bit might be useful - could you tutor languages or English as a foreign language? A lot of tutors do Skype lessons so you wouldn't be limited by who wants it in the area. I'm not sure how much it would bring in but it could be useful.

Yes I know it would be challenging.

She seems to think she could do it online and with the help of some tutors who come to the house.

My teaching experience is really limited to TEFL.

I have suggested another school but she is having none of it though maybe you are right and that’s the road we will have to go down.

I have sort of lost faith in her current school and she seems to be quite scared of some other children.

Thanks for your message .

Sorry - missed the last two messages. Will write back in a bit.

Your job would be unpaid teaching surely?

I would have to work freelance at the same time as helping dd organise herself with her work, also with the help of outside tutors for her.

You’d be subject to checks from local authorities I think? How will you sell homeschooling plus working to them? They will probably need some convincing unless it’s highly part-time. Evening work might be suitable.

If you are paying for tutors you'd need more money to pay them. Doesn't make much sense really.

Virtual assistant/PA?

InterHigh could help with the teaching bit but it's not cheap.

As for making money at home - I don't know of anything.

I know some people who make a little with selling products but it's not a lot and they have to go out and about - I think BT was supposed to have call handlers having who worked from home but they were heavily monitored – but I don’t think there’s a lot TBH.

“You’d be subject to checks from local authorities I think? How will you sell homeschooling plus working to them? They will probably need some convincing unless it’s highly part-time. Evening work might be suitable.”

You don’t have to sell anything to anyone. In order to start home educating all you have to do is de register your child, which you can do today by writing to their current school and not sending the child in tomorrow. I’m not recommending that, obviously, but you can do it!

If you look at the Home Education board there might be some useful information from people in similar situations. Or ask MN to move it? Or you'll risk getting a lot of advice from people who have no idea what Home Ed is actually about.

From what I gather most people don't teach 9-3 to mimic a school timetable but use online schools, group tution with other Home edders and do trips to museums etc. You do some of the tuition yourself but outsource in areas that you can't cover. Some people will follow the National Curriculum and others choose not to.

There are lots of kis who aren't suited to the mainstream education system and quite a lot who end up being Home educated due to anxiety or ASD. I teach kids who are out of school for medical reasons (through the LEA, not privately) and most are because they aren't able to attend school due to anxiety. You are not alone.

Does your LA allow managed moves to another school? If so I'd try that before the massive commitment of leaving your job to home school.

You can teach EFL online over Skype - there are loads of companies you can sign up with (mainly teaching Chinese children). You just need a good internet connection and a headset.

Not sure how it would work if you were trying to home school as well, but it's an option.

Unless a child has an ehcp you can withdraw them without permission.

OP, how would you be intending to pay for the tutors and costs of online courses?

I wish people who don't know the first thing about home education would not try and give advice about it.

OP it's perfectly possible to work from home and home educate a secondary school aged child. Would you be able to leave your dd at home some times? I'm not sure exactly how old she is?

I would look for your local home ed Facebook group to find out what is on in your area. There may well be low cost study groups or classes with tutors that she could attend.

Ignore people who don't understand home ed and think you'd have to stand over her for 6 hours a day teaching her. Home ed doesn't have to look anything like school, that's the beauty of it.

You also don't have to pay for online courses and tutors unless that's what suits your family.

You don't have to school in school hours you can school later and Dr can do the other parts, " homework" while you are at work. While kids are at school 9-3.30 they are probably only actively taught for 3-4 hours once you factor in crowd control, working in class without being taught, breaks, moving from classroom to classroom. PE can take the form of an evening or weekend sports club you could consider teaching her Saturdays and her weekend being Sunday and Monday, there are many solutions which don't require you to give up the day job.

Just be aware as your DD suffers from anxiety, that you don't reinforce it by enabling her world to become smaller. In your shoes I would only consider this if she agrees to go to a club every evening for social activities.

TeacupDrama I don't think schooling during school hours is the issue here. OP still needs to supervise her child. Her DD is too young to be left home alone all day every day while she goes to work.

Are you a single parent? If not could you work evenings?

Something like transcription could be done in chunks but I'm not sure you could earn as much as you need.

Private tutoring in your languages and some TEFL teaching is possible.

There are online schools that you can use. My friend did so with her ds after he struggled in school and he left with good GCSE results.

depending on what one you use they often have a " sign in" time and then tutors available to contact for what they are due to study that week.

Realistically, you'd need to either find childcare so you can work and not be looking after her, or work outside of the hours that she's learning. I've worked from home by as an employee and while self-employed.

If you're an employee, you'll have a set wage, but there are almost always strict rules about not being in sole charge of a child, no disruptions, etc. You have to be able to focus and get things done at the times they want it done.

If you're self-employed, you have more flexibility about what you are doing and when, but no guaranteed income.

Plus, if your daughter has anxiety, you'll need to commit a decent amount of time to getting her outside and socialising with other people on a really regular basis. Strangers and friends. Otherwise, you risk worsening her anxiety by making her world even smaller, and stopping her from being able to develop social and coping skills.

She's fixated on this as the solution because it soothes her anxiety and it's less stress. That's completly understandable, but it's not practical, and it's not good for her. I'd present it as unobtainable right now, and suggest you view some more schools together. All the best

I don't think there are many reasonably earning WFH jobs, otherwise everyone would be doing them. Certainly there are remote working opportunities but then you're most likely at the whim of the timings of the company in question.

I would definitely meet up with some Home Ed groups locally and ask questions of them. They'll have much more local knowledge.