how do he families find the time?

[tricot39]

dh and i are interested in he but both work. we actually both work part time to be with the children but it is difficult to see how we could both continue working but do he at the same time. what do you do? tia

Hi Tricot!

What additional challenges do you anticipate if you home educated, which would be different to your current situation? Or is the current arrangement not a good one for you?

I home educated both of my girls from the start. There was no major change in our lives as each one reached "school age". We just carried on as we were.

hi saracen and thanks for your reply.

sorry - i was not clear. in addition to part time working we have had 3 days of childcare per week from a childminder. so we would have to change our current arrangements in some way to be able to spend these days at home. i was wondering what different solutions working parents have devised?

we are thinking that he may only work for us from late primary/secondary if dh could work from home. ds is about to start reception but if we could find a solution we might be able to start earlier....

You can perfectly well continue with your current arrangements for as long as the child minder is happy!! You don't have to home ed in school hours, there are no fixed hours. On fact, even the most formal of home ed families don't do more than a couple of hours a day with little ones :-)

Yes, childminders are a popular option. That's what I did when I was working and home educating. If you like your current CM then you could continue with her, or otherwise look around for one who is eager to take on older children. Reassure her that you only want childcare from her, and you do not expect her to be responsible for your children's education: some CMs may worry that if they have the kids in the daytime then they are expected to be teachers. In reality many CMs are likely to do educational activities with kids anyway - if they have older kids after school then they may be used to helping with homework, and they are likely to talk with their charges, show them things, etc etc. It's the actual responsibility for education which may seem daunting to them, if they imagine home education has to be like school and that it must take place from 9-3 Monday to Friday. But anyway, you can certainly educate your children during the hours you have them with you.

I was lucky enough to be able to use childminders who were themselves home educating. That had the advantage that there were older kids around for mine to play with in the daytime and they got to go along to home ed groups - and got to skip all the school runs! That was a bonus, but it certainly isn't essential.

As a childminder who also home educates, I wouldn't mind taking on older children during the day. We go out doing family stuff and I take my 13 year old. It is very easy to adapt our activties to include him in an educating way. It doesn't need to be constant or even every day but he gets his turn at events being planned just for him. I'd be happy to offer some education to older kids but wouldn't want to be expected to be the sole source of education - the parents would need to set the bulk of the work and liase with me as to what styles and topics they'd like coevered. (Or nothing planned as in autonamus learning)

interesting! thanks. not sure it would suit our current childminder but maybe someone else might consider it. hhmmm lots to think about. thanks!

Hi tricot.

I was a sahm and dh works from home quite a lot but not all the time, he also works away a lot. I now work alongside him, from home.
We fit H.ed in when it suits because we found that just a little every day was all that was needed.
It helps if you don't want to keep the same hours as schooled dc, as you can choose a time that works to fit in with your work.
I'm not sure if this helps at all.
If we worked shifts for example we would share the support we gave to dd depending on who was free and when.

i think we are ok with the idea of flexible working so the main issue is how our dc would be cared for when we are both at work. other than a childminder are there any other options?

An au pair can work well for the days you both work. They can supervise and help with any of the children's work, and also help with language learning, cooking, and sports in leisure centres or parks.

Or you could simply send to school, which is very short, and have the rest of the day free to do your own thing.

interesting exotic - for some reason I was under the impression that LEAs didn't like the idea of pupils doing part weeks and so we would be tied to 5 days in term time if we registered for school?

Thanks Rakoshi - does an au pair have to live with us? we don't really have space.....

I meant the normal school day is very short with long holidays. Lots of time outside that.

So now I am baffled! Is that what you do exotic?

exoticfruits is suggesting that, if you want child care while you are at work, you should simply send your children to school 5 days a week, like everyone else, for a normal formal education.

If you want your children to have a standard formal education, then of course this is the most sensible solution. The fact that you are posting in the HE topic for advice about HE would tend to suggest that this isn't the optimum solution for you and your family, for whatever reason...

:)

Yes our au pair lives with us. It's not impossible to find non live in care, but probably would be more expensive.

thanks omm i had gathered that exotic was suggesting as you said - the baffled bit was more that i thought the point about home ed was that conventional school was not part of the package - otherwise how would it be different from any other family who attend school and have "enhancements"? is this arrangement for he quite common?
exotic do come back and share!

rakoshi it sounds like a nanny/nanny share sort of thing might work - although certainly would be expensive...... am realising that school represents very cheap childcare!

I don't really think you want me to share! I had a glass of wine with lunch and forgot my resolutions to let any HE topics, that come up on active conversations, pass me by. Have now had a lovely long walk and remembered- much better,for all, not to comment.