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 ?

Why can’t she just change school if the school is the problem?

Wow, some of these answers amaze me. If it was an adult you were talking to, would you give the same advice? If I'd been bullied at work and was suffering with my mental health, would you say I should be forced to go out and socialise every night with people I don't know? Or would you advise rest, taking my time, getting loving care from my family until I felt more able to cope with life?

Just an observation, OP: it seems that your daughter has asked to move to Home Ed since starting secondary? She is in the end of Year 8 and has been mentioning it for 2 years, you say. If so, could it be an issue with this particular school? I would try moving school first and see if the situation improves.

Damn; It was the OP who said her daughter thought she could use online schooling and private tutors. The LA is very unlikely to fund this, even with an echp, unless all other options are exhausted.

Home schooling, especially at secondary is not cheap either, rarely do you get any financial support from the state. Earning £20k around teaching her is unlikely too unless you have specific skills eg translation. I'm doing accounts from home for small businesses but I have a degree and 10 years experience, still doesn't bring in £20k

DamnItsSevenAM No, but you have to look at the practicalities. The child cannot just stop going to school. Its illegal. The OP cannot just stop working and home school, as they would have no money.

So another solution need to be looked at - changing schools for example.
Unfortunately we can't just do want we want (adult or child)

damnit If you had anxiety, I would not advise you to give up work unless you had lots of regular socialising organised. Because yes with anxiety, spending days regularly in the house alone or just with family can reinforce anxiety and make you too scared to go out of the house.
This isnt about being mean. It is about not reinforcing anxiety and making it worse. I have seen it time and time again. Parents think they are doing the best for their kids but they actually increase the kids mental health problems.

How are you going to afford private tutors? You're not expecting the local authority to fund it are you?

Please be careful you don't end up with a child who won't leave the house, whose future options of Uni etc. disappear. This happened to a neighbour of mine. Her son is now 22 and still at home, no job, no friends. She doesn't know how to help him now.

I wasn't suggesting OP had to use InterHigh -

I was thinking it might give the OP more flexibility – in case there was another adult who could be around but who wasn’t prepared to teach or so OP could be away for few hours and the child wasn't entirely alone.

Though Home Education board will be full of people who are doing this already OP.

I would be looking at all your options, OP, including a change of school, what your local home ed groups are doing and what would be best for DD. For example, if she wants to study science or continue a sport, how can you accommodate it? What qualifications does she want to work towards? Would she consider a college environment (some of the technical colleges around here accept students from 14 onwards). If you both have an idea of what you are working towards (Instead of running from), it becomes a lot easier.

Regarding jobs, it's possible to earn 20k + as a Virtual Assistant, but it takes time to build up the clientele and you would need protected office hours (it does not need to be 9-3), just for your own sanity. If you go down the self employed route, you also have to take into account tax, NI, pension contributions and sick leave, so ensure your hourly rate reflects those expenses.

"The child cannot just stop going to school. Its illegal."

But that's not true. Nor is the post about home education at secondary level being expensive.

I'm out of this thread because it's like trying to discuss getting help with the menopause with a bloke who read a Buzzfeed article on it once.

The child cannot just stop going to school without another alternative in place. Its illegal- Is that better?

OP it's perfectly possible to work from home and home educate a secondary school aged child.
Yes if you are self employed. I have had several decent jobs working from home though and they have always expected you to not have your kids at home when you are working. I would suspect that would be pretty standard. You might be lucky and find an employer who would be happy if you were home with your DC while working, but many would not be.

You absolutely can do this OP.

I have home schooled my year 5 dd while she went through a phase of crippling anxiety. She’s now back in school and thriving but this is what we did:

• actual learning took about 15 hours a week with assignments taking another 4 hrs a week. We did InterHigh. DD was v self sufficient with it all. You could choose InterHigh or NetSchool as online options that will take her through her whole curriculum.

• while dd was online in lessons or doing her assignments, she would sit in my home office with me while I worked. I work as a freelance copywriter and comms consultant. I don’t know what your field of work is but could you work freelance in this way?

• in the afternoons on three days a week we would go out to home Ed groups for climbing, trampolining, art, robotics, singing or forest school. There is so much on offer in the home Ed communities. You will need to ferry her around so that will eat into your days.

“The child cannot just stop going to school without another alternative in place. Its illegal- Is that better?”
Home education is the alternative. “This is to inform you that I am withdrawing X from school from y/y/yy. She will be home educated from that date.” Done.

orange OP is not saying can I HE. She is asking for ideas of how to be able to afford HE. You are self employed so it is possible, OP is not so needs help to look at this issue.

The child cannot just stop going to school without another alternative in place. Its illegal- Is that better?
No.

I might be inferring too much here, but it sounds like DC has problems with other kids at school - maybe she doesn't "fit in"? If so, I think you would need to work incredibly hard to make sure you are not merely enabling her to withdraw. That won't do her any favours in the long run.

HE is not like school, yes, that's true, but if you imagine being able to substitute your current working hours with WFH then I think you're being unrealistic. You will need to allocate plenty of time for trips/groups/working with her on projects/facilitating her learning. She can hardly just sit in the house all day teaching herself, even with online courses - doesn't sound that healthy to me.

There's a lot of phenomenal reasons to consider home educating, but it doesn't sound to me (on the basis of your OP) that you've got one. Would it be better to support her in school, maybe get her into a hobby or something that's with a totally different group of people to those she sees in school? Changing schools may or may not help - if it's a lot of hassle/longer commute etc then I probably wouldn't do it personally unless you have a lot of specific concerns with your particular current setup that you think would be improved by moving.

Childminding primary school aged children

TheSummer Doing afterschool care for a few hours a day is not going to bring her in much money. This kind of work is great as a top up of income, but will be nowhere enough to fund living.

My understanding is same as BertrandRussell’s you withdraw from the school and say you are home schooling and that’s it.

Some councils I think do checks but it varies but I don't think they can object as long as the child is receiveing some form of education.

We looked before our pfb started school we were in rural town and there really wasn't much HE or groups nearby. When we looked again when moving to city DH works in where we might well have faced being given three different primary schools - the HE groups were many and varied. So I’d suggest finding out what’s there.

Mine have all ended up doing well in school system – even secondary not the best one but it has great pastoral care but if we did need to HE we would.

Would it be better to support her in school, maybe get her into a hobby or something that's with a totally different group of people to those she sees in school?

That worked for DD1 when her friendship group and class wasn't great in yr 7 and at times down right nasty - she's had a great yr 9.

Childminders make a bomb round my parts (SE)

After school club charges £40 for before & after school - so they have quite a lot of wriggle room to fit under that - and some have up to 8 kids.

Lots of very bad information on this thread!

We Home Ed and know lots of parents who work while Home Edding their children. Mostly flexible work such as translation etc. but also those who shift work with their partner. It's do-able but it's hard.

Check out your local Home Ed groups. Where I am there are several groups every day we could go to for various activities as well as GCSE study groups we can join. We are lucky enough to have an exam centre close too. You may find your local group has lots of people working while educating their children and they may have ideas for you.

There are three separate issues here.

1. Making sure your child is not left alone for hours whilst you work.
2. You finding work which will give you the money you need to live.
3. Educating and socialising your child.

Home education does not look like school. There are no set days or hours.
So, for instance, you could help her study on evenings and weekends and leave her self-study to do whilst you are at work, if you had someone to look after her.
Do you have relatives or friends around who could look after her do a few hours a day.

Many home ed parents do work from home, though obviously this might be hard to organise. (Not my field of expertise, sorry)

Remember, she is year 8, so if someone is in the house with her, she can get her own drinks and snacks etc, it's not like a 6 year who needs constant attention and close supervision.

You might find groups in the area which help. We go to a group in a leisure centre where teens can be dropped off at 9.30 and picked up at 2pm (some make their own way there, most parents do, of course, stay).