Financial / career aspects of HE?

[philbee]

Hi all. I've just applied for primary school for my DD, but I am finding it hard to believe that it's the better choice when HE could be an option. I feel depressed that she'll learn to separate life into subjects, that she'll think 'literacy' is a real thing to study, that she'll be sitting down for so much of her life. She'll only be four when she starts next year and it just seems so young to be forced into that structure.

I keep coming back to HE as another option, but I have real concerns about socialisation and my ability. I am also really concerned that it will limit our working power as a family, and therefore that we'll find things hard financially. I'm at home at the moment, except for one day a week, but we'd planned for me to start working again if we don't have another DC. I'd also like to retrain at some point and am looking to start volunteering as a way towards that.

I just wanted to find out what others experiences' are of having one parent not able to work for money for so long, and how you feel about returning to work one day, and whether you've sacrificed career things or other things you'd liked to have done to HE your children. Thank you.

"others' experiences". Sorry.

We home educate our 3 DCs and both work. DH does 5 days work in 4 so he can have a day at home; I work 2 days a week and we have someone come in for the 5th day. It works pretty well, although there are times I would like to be around more, especially as DS1 is currently studying for GCSEs which only I can help him with. However, he has got into a routine where he does stuff he can do on his own when I'm not there. He works pretty independently now anyway.

I am planning on increasing my hours when I have finished with HE and at least by continuing to work I am keeping up with current teaching methods etc (I'm a teacher).

I pretty much gave up a career to home educate. But my children were very badly damaged by school and desperately needed to get out of there. So I took much lower paid work which fitted better around their HE.
My husband is disabled and so cannot do the activities/workshops/visits etc, but was here in the evenings when I worked.
I also worked weekends because most HE activities happen weekdays in term time.

Our income dropped dramatically, managing on his pension and my low paid job has meant we looked at our budget very creatively.
We bought hardly anything new. we used car boots, charity shops, Amazon second hand, Ebay and Freecycle.
I only buy old cars and change them when it would cost more to put them through the MOT than the car is worth.

Home Educators in my experience are great at passing on bargain info though.
We used Megabus to get around the country for £1 each way and holiday using Travelodge Sale rooms/Sun Newspaper holidays and by going to home ed camps.
We've become vegan and cook from scratch most often-which is a much cheaper way of eating (and very educational!)

Lack of money is the one downside of HE for us, but the benefits have far Far FAR outweighed that disadvantage.
My children became happy, self confident people and achieved so much more academically than schools ever predicated

and we have had the happiest of lives together.

I'd do it all in a trice!

Hi
I'm a vet. I work 3 mornings a week one of which is a saturday and 1 evening a week. While I'm at work my DH is working from home and my girls (twin 6.5yr olds) are at home getting on with things... It's not ideal as DH finds it hard to concentrate on his work with the girls around and somehow expects them to be gainfully employed the whole time...and I find I'm less dedicated to work as I'm wanting to be at home doing things with the girls and feeling torn. I tend to rush off as soon as my works finished rather than hang around being sociable and following up cases as I did when the girls went to school plus I have much less time to read up on cases and I'm also unable to take up offers of working extra mornnigs/days as I'd have noone to look afetr the girls.

All in all I'm happy with the situation and I'm lucky to have such a flexible boss, but I wouldn't be able to advance my career further while HEding. I think DH would rather me work more and earn more and is still unsure that HE is the best thing for our family. We spend very little generally - don't use the car much, haven't been abroad for years, go camping most summers, buy cheap clothes and get books from the library and charity shops, dont' go out to eat or get takeaways etc,

Hope this helps!

We are in the 'small mortgage, grow own food, no holidays' camp! DH works a normal 5 day week, I work evenings. My job is not a career.

Sometimes I feel like I am selling myself short doing the job I am doing, but I remind myself that being a mother is my main job right now, and everything else can wait. Luckily I am young so am hoping that when my children are grown up and left home I'll be able to have a career/worthwhile job then. (I'll only be 39 ish...)

Additionally, we do have a plan for us both to work part time and share the home ed more eventually (once the toddler stage is out the way!) DH could reduce his hours at work which would free up time for me to work, hopefully enabling me to get a 'proper job'. Saying that, my ultimate career goal is to be an OU tutor, which can be done in my own time anyway.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel the pressure to have a career, but there is a whole lot of value in home educating my children. I do wish outsiders would see it that way sometimes though!

So, to draw my ramblings to a close , we live in a small house, plan to get an even cheaper one when we manage to sell this one, and are very lucky that we set up a life based on one income. Let's just hope we keep that income!

im a sahm now, my husband is now self employed so can work up to a 7 day week, but it brings money in. not a lot, but we survive, just. we've got 4 children, 1 at college the others at home. we too have this year started to grow our own veg and we've got some chickens, only for their eggs, i couldnt eat them as they are our pets as well. i use a lot of free sites on the web for the youngest two and my eldest is enjoying the open learn courses. at the end of the summer hols we go out and stock up on stationary while its cheaper, and we've got piles of empty boxes, coloured paper etc for making 'interesting' mess. we are lucky to live on the doorstep of some woods so we go fungi hunting and bring piles of leaves home. we are skint most weeks, but really enjoy ourselves.

To answer your questions honestly, yes we're pretty skint and yes, in some ways I feel like Im making a sacrifice. I am currently looking for work to fit around HE in the evenings or w/end. I cant remember the last time I bought myself new clothes, all my shoes have holes in and we all look like we've just walked out of a charity shop!!!:) From the career side of things, well I was really passionate about my job and worked hard at it for 10 years before kids came along. I was a teacher though, so in some ways I havent left my career because Ive learnt more about how learning really happens since being a mother than I ever di teaching! However, I did love class teaching and Id like to think I'll get a chance to do it again some day.
I wouldnt change this experience though. I love my life. Time with my family is much more precious to me than a big house, nice holidays and new clothes. If I cant find work at the right times I am going to volunteer an eve a week teaching adult literacy. I just feel I need to do this.

?I have real concerns about socialisation and my ability?

We HE our 7 and 11 yo DC and I just wanted to say on the socialisation front: my attitude has always been that the world is a great, big place and friends are there to be made all over the place. I was just thinking to myself that at my DD?s last birthday party, she invited children from:

• clubs (Brownies/guiding, woodwork club, dancing class)
• the HE community (we met these friends via local yahoo groups and our local facebook page which now has around 200 families as members and constantly publicises meetings/events that are on the go)
• her old school (we?ve been HE-ing for just short of 3 years now but she is still in touch with some of her favourite friends from her old school)
• family (cousins, etc).

Regarding your ability: it?s important that teachers in schools are trained to educate 30-odd children at the same time, but HE is a completely different situation. There are umpteen examples on here of HE mums learning things alongside their DC. I?m currently learning a language alongside my DD for example. Friends of mine with older children say that as DC get older, they take responsibility for things they want to study or subjects that they need for their future plans. I know several HE mums with teenagers who now only facilitate/support the learning rather than teach and their teenagers are very independent/motivated.

On the financial front: we are another family in the no holidays/grow own veg/recycle clothes camp! However, we are happy with our lifestyle and would choose it all again. I do some writing and editing from home but it?s not at the pace it was pre-HE, which is ok for now.

Interesting how many teachers have decided to HE. I would love to HE one day. I work FT now as DS is only 2. The benefits for the children and overall family quality seem to outweigh any financial limits.

Hi, another ex-teacher here who home eds! Like everyone else, we too are very skint. I am a GCSE marker and also do tutoring which, whilst they in no way compensate for the loss of my income, do at least give us a little extra cash.