Does anyone HE part time (and how do you manage it?)?

[chocolatecrispies]

I would love to HE my son who is currently 2.10 years, but I work part time and it would be very difficult both financially and professionally to stop working completely for the years that he will need educating for! My DH works part time too but we still have 2.5 days of childcare to cover. Does this mean that HE really isn't an option for us or does anyone manage it part time - and if so what do you do about the time when you are at work? Will childminders take on a school-age child or can they go to school part time - or does that defeat the object? This is only an idea I am trying to work out so please be gentle - I'm aware that maybe I would need to be committed enough to give up my job but at the moment I can't see how that would work.

It's called flexischooling - I have no experience myself but we are thinking of doing this for my DSD (13) as she's struggling.

Unfortunately there is no law about it - it is up to individual schools to decide if they're happy to take a part time student. So if it's something you are keen on you should ask the local schools if it's an idea they are interested in.

I have heard that some childminders will take school age children, just depends on the individual person.

Also, your child doesn't have to legally be in full time education until the term after their 5th birthday. So if he's a summer baby, he could technically be part time for the whole of reception and that is not breaking any law. Again though, it depends on the school - my friend kept her august born DS on half days for the whole reception year, the school were really pissy about it but my friend knew her rights so she stuck with it and the school couldn't actually do anything.

You may be able to find a childminder who is happy to take on an older child - many look after them before and after school anyway, so they might be flexible. But I guess you'd have to meet up with them and talk about your plans to see if they would be amenable to it.

As Wobbly says, schools can permit children to go part-time but its totally in the gift of the head, and you'd have to consider how the school's ethos matched up with what you want for your child - if you're against the way schools do things, it wouldn't really work!

I work 2 days a week, we're lucky to have a fab nanny, and as we've a toddler too, the expense is more justified ( things are still tight though!).

Lots of local home ed families have parents who work, there's lots of juggling with grandparents and spending time at friend's houses, it all seems to get easier/less of a hassle as the children get older.

I used home educating CMs for a while, which worked great because my dd could play with older kids during the daytime. One of them quickly became her best friend.

Remember that with some CMs you are eligible for the government-paid half-time nursery entitlement when your child is 3 and 4, and that at any age with a registered CM you can apply the childcare element of Tax Credits. In my view a CM is likely to provide much better care than a school, which usually has a ratio of 1:15 at best, at an age when I feel small children still need far more attention than that. In fact, if you see school purely in childcare terms, it doesn't have much going for it other than the fact that it's free.

and of course don't forget that home education doesn't have to take place 9-3 Mon-Fri in term times........

It may well suit your family to have your child looked after by a CM/Granny/Friend and then you to do the 'official HE' when you are at home. I know of quite a few single parent home educators who work part time around their child being with another adult-who have course then contributed loads to the child's education.

win:win!

Just wanted to second what julienoshoes said; I'm sure you can do as much in an hour or two of focussed one to one time at home as could be done in a 6 hour school day.
At school, only around 4 and a half of those hours will be spent actually in class (allowing for lunch, playtimes and assembly) and the child will have at best five minutes of the teachers individual attention, if that!

It doesn't have to have the same shape as a conventional education. Saturdays and Sundays count too I would think!

I work one day a week and we have a nanny type person who comes in and looks after the children and takes them to a home ed. group if it's on, or to the park or whatever. My eldest is 7 and this still seems to work well. There are quite a few parents locally who have some childcare - au pair or nanny at least a few days a week and still home ed. I know someone who works full time and has a nanny to take her child to lots of home ed groups etc and generally hang out with him.