Can you home ed and work?

[Homebirdafterall]

I'm seriously considering home educating my 7 year old daughter, but I love my job. I currently work full time shifts but could maybe work less shifts or change to an office job, or potentially work from home. Has anyone successfully managed to work and home ed? My DH works night shifts so would be around for childcare but the education (actual writing/maths etc anyway) would all fall to me.

Home education is much more efficient than school, so most home educated kids spend far fewer hours on formal education than schoolchildren do. In fact, some families do no formal education at all, instead letting their children learn by following their own interests. Once you have settled into it, you will probably find that the education side of it takes much less time than you expected.

That means the main challenge is childcare. Any arrangement could work so long as your daughter is safe and happy. She is likely to want to go out and do things out of the home, so it's best if someone is available to do that sometimes. You and your DH might manage it between you. If that is too exhausting with both of you working full-time, you could use a childminder or other paid childcare.

What arrangement have you used during school holidays?

Thank you! I only know home edders who don't work so had assumed it was a full time job but it's nice to think it's not impossible. In holidays we use our annual leave or change our shifts around as our employers are flexible, so it's certainly doable in that respect.

It's definitely possible to home educate and work. I've been doing it for the past 11 years (and I veer towards the more 'formal' sort of home educating). However, as Saracen says, some form of childcare is pretty essential - whether that be help from grandparents, childminders, etc. Also remember as children get older, some parents use online providers which means that you don't necessarily have to be 'hands on' all the time. Good luck!

I home ed and run my own business and have done for 3 years now. Many of the home edders I know either work part-time or like me have their own businesses. The way I work it is, I have to get up early anyway for my DH to go on shift so I get a lot done then. Then I switch to education/biz during the day. We tend to work smarter and get more done as I'm one-on-one with DS so I concentrate on exactly what he needs and the plan is worked around him solely. At school, he was barely getting any attention as he was in a difficult year group and a lot of the attention was on crowd control. He now makes a lot of progress over a couple of days whereas it would take weeks for the same thing in school. As regards business I'm just organised and plan what I need to do and when. I have three calendars and memos which give me what I need to plan it all. I plan to continue till 16 as the schools here are dire.