Does anyone use a nanny and home ed?

[Hopefully]

Just that really.

I'm self employed and we are tentatively contemplating home edding our DS's (currently 3 and 6 months, so not terribly urgent!). However, we can't survive without my meagre income. DS1 is currently at a Montessori nursery for 12 hours a week, and my sister helps out with DS2, although she's moving away in a couple of months. I can (and do) do some work in the evenings, but ideally need a couple of hours a few times a week during the day.

We're thinking of employing a nanny next year, depending on how my business goes, but it would be with the aim of continuing with a nanny for at least a few years, until both DS's are old enough to occupy themselves for a bit while I work.

This is an extremely long winded way of saying, does anyone employ a nanny for their home ed children? How does it work? Does the nanny take the kids to groups etc? I'm vaguely thinking that we might try to work it so that the nanny works on a day when there is some activity or other, or arrange plenty of outings with the nanny, as our house is tiny and it's hard to work with two noisy people in it! Also, I know nannies tend to prefer younger children and babies, am I going to struggle to employ one once my kids are a bit older?

Any words of wisdom or advice much appreciated! We're obviously looking a way into the future, but trying to work out whether home ed for us (partly because we are thinking of moving soon and need to decide how important school catchment is) and working out some kind of childcare is going to be an essential part of this.

I've known of a family, who home educated with a nanny, and then later with an aupair.
It worked pretty much in the way you've described with the nanny looking after the children whilst mom worked, talking the boys along to HE activities that happened on those days

If your house is too small for you to work there while your children and a nanny are around, what about a childminder instead? My older dd went to a CM while I did part-time work at home. She really enjoyed it. One of the things she loved, I think, was just the change of scene. I am guessing that even with two children it may be cheaper to send them to a CM than have a nanny.

Plus (someone correct me if I'm wrong) I have an idea that CMs by definition are self-employed whereas nannies are employed by you and therefore you have more legal obligations towards a nanny - sick pay, NI contributions etc? It might be rather a hassle to learn about all this and deal with the paperwork if you only need a few hours several times a week. On the other hand a self-employed CM would have all of that sorted out already so I imagine it would be more straightforward from your point of view.

Thanks Julie, that's kind of how I imagined it would work. I can't see any problem in theory, but wondered if I was missing something. My only real concern is that getting a nanny for older kids might be hard. Although possibly a nanny who already has a child and wants to bring them along or something might work...

Saracen I've thought about a CM. The two main reasons for a Nanny are (a) the whole convenience thing - no needing to get everyone to somewhere and (b) CMs are reasonably expensive round here (£5ph, a bit less for siblings), so I'd only be spending a bit more on a nanny (I'm working purely on the basis of a friend who pays her nanny a little over £10ph gross, including taxes etc). Definitely not closed to the idea of a CM if the right one exists locally though - I used to send DS1 to one and she was lovely.

You can get nannies who HE, grandly titled governesses. More common overseas but I have interviewed for a UK based position like that.

Some nannies prefer older children, others with their own child may also been keen.

A nanny is a reasonably big commitment financially and legally but certainly not impossible.

I would do it!

I'm a nanny who HE's my own children. At the moment I work with a family whose children attend school. My son is 4 now and most of his peers started school this year so things are becoming more complicated as I try to juggle his education around my commitments to my charges. Working well so far!

I'm expecting my position to come to it's natural end next year and plan to advertise as a home educating nanny/governess but I have no idea how much interest I will receive! I would be more than happy with looking after older children. Quite happy to go to groups, outings, organise educational activities, playdates etc. It's all things I do now, I just wouldn't have to worry about organising it around a school run

Thanks for the replies!

Governesses sounds terribly grand

Its good to hear that it might be an option - we're still in v early stages of thinking through the practicalities of possibly home-edding so good to know it's an option.

Also hoping that w'd be a good employer in terms of happy to have nanny during school hours only (useful, I guess, if they have school age children), don't care what days it is as long as it's the same every week, happy to have nanny with own child etc.

I'm also a Nursery Nurse [Nanny] who Home Ed's! I Home Ed my own child, and the children I care for join in - if they are interested - they are still young - 3yrs and 1 yr. The parents of the children I care for are delighted that their children are exposed to education and are picking up on things that I am teaching to my own child. The mix works amazingly well, with all parties very happy.

We had a fabulous nanny who was happy to get involved with the HE. I am self-employed and she started a degree last year so it has been flexible on both sides. Definitely do-able though. If you can manage with 2/3 days a week the PAYE and NI costs are reasonable. They certainly start to escalate if you nee a nanny for more hours though!

I had a nanny share with another family - they employed her more hours, but a couple of days a week she'd bring their children here or take my dd to their house.

It worked really well when I had a lot of work on and needed the flexibility. They'd go to HE groups (even though the other family had younger children) if they fell on those days. It came to an end when I finished up some work I was doing and I just couldn't justify paying for so many hours as I wasn't using them. But the arrangement itself had worked very well.

Just popped back on here and saw there were more posts! Thanks for taking the time to reply.

We're going to try to work out our budgets, but it sounds like the practicalities should be ok, as long as we can find the right person!