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Home ed

Find advice from other parents on our Homeschool forum. You may also find our round up of the best online learning resources useful.

Starting out Home Ed with two working parents

58 replies

mand1982 · 23/06/2025 13:42

Hello!

We have a 2 year old and 4 year old and just about to start out on the Home Ed scene. My feeling is that our 4 year old just needs same as we have done this year, groups and classes and ad hoc maths and english as things arise at home!!

However, I am hoping to increase my work hours (self-employed tutor) and wondered how others balance home ed and work? My husband is also self-employed so we are hoping to both work part time and both take kids to classes etc. How do others balance this?

Many thanks!

OP posts:
Poopeepoopee · 23/06/2025 13:46

How can you home educate them if you're working? Surely only non-working parents are in a position to home educate

SpinningTops · 23/06/2025 13:52

This sounds disastrous! Unless you plan to work shifts where one parent is always on.

Unless you can fully dedicate yourself to home ed this seems a fairly poorly thought out plan - kids get so much socialisation from school so I think that would be the main aim - but I’d be looking for something like a home ed forest school or equivalent rather than just playgroup type things.

MalcolmTuckersBollockingface · 23/06/2025 14:05

People are institutionalised to think that education has to happen within a certain time frame (broadly 9-3) and it really doesn't: it just has to be full time. That said, it appears that your children are not of compulsory school age so you don't have those restrictions, as yet. Your best bet would be to see what's happening local to you via fb groups to get specific advice. A lot of home Ed families have parents that follow a similar type of schedule so you won't be alone

legoplaybook · 23/06/2025 16:46

Poopeepoopee · 23/06/2025 13:46

How can you home educate them if you're working? Surely only non-working parents are in a position to home educate

I don't personally know any home educating parents who aren't working.

legoplaybook · 23/06/2025 16:50

mand1982 · 23/06/2025 13:42

Hello!

We have a 2 year old and 4 year old and just about to start out on the Home Ed scene. My feeling is that our 4 year old just needs same as we have done this year, groups and classes and ad hoc maths and english as things arise at home!!

However, I am hoping to increase my work hours (self-employed tutor) and wondered how others balance home ed and work? My husband is also self-employed so we are hoping to both work part time and both take kids to classes etc. How do others balance this?

Many thanks!

From experience families tend to:
Work around each other eg one parent works in the week one at weekends, or opposite shifts
Use informal childcare like grandparents helping out or childcare swaps with other home ed families
Use formal childcare like forest schools and childminders (or nurseries up to the term after 5th birthday)
When children are older, there are often learning communities or full day groups available
Do flexible self employed work that they can take their children along to.
For older children/teens, work from home

iwentjasonwaterfalls · 23/06/2025 16:59

Join some home ed Facebook groups - HEFA is the best one in my opinion but there are lots - as there are home educators with all kinds of different commitments there who can explain how they do it.

Don't think that home ed has to happen between the hours of 9 and 3 though. We have some strange learning hours in our house 🤣

Soontobe60 · 23/06/2025 17:04

Assuming that between them both parents work the equivalent a FT job, or at least earn enough to not need to claim UC to fund a lifestyle choice, so that the children are never left alone then it’s fine.

MintTwirl · 23/06/2025 17:05

You would need to work around each other or use childcare. I will be honest and say that t I couldn’t have done it when mine were small, I would have been exhausted and not able to give it my all, now they are older it would be much more manageable for us both to work but that isn’t to say that it won’t work for you.

Saracen · 23/06/2025 20:48

I used childminders. Fortunately I was able to find several CMs who also home educated. It was a great solution for all of us. I had a break from my very sociable young child, DC got to play with other kids and be taken to home ed groups and get a glimpse of life in a different family, the CMs' children had a playmate, and the CMs were able to earn some money while being there for their own kids.

cheesycheesy · 23/06/2025 20:50

Just send them to childcare and school for goodness sake.

Saracen · 23/06/2025 20:56

Soontobe60 · 23/06/2025 17:04

Assuming that between them both parents work the equivalent a FT job, or at least earn enough to not need to claim UC to fund a lifestyle choice, so that the children are never left alone then it’s fine.

No one can claim UC to fund a lifestyle choice. 🙄 Unless the parents are exempt from working, e.g. through being disabled or a carer to a disabled person, UC would require them to seek work once their youngest child is three.

Working parents can, however, claim part of the cost of childcare back from UC. And before you decide that is somehow scrounging off the taxpayer, do the calculations and you'll find that the taxpayer would have to shell out less for a home educating family's childcare than for a state school place for the child. So there's that.

Pottingup · 23/06/2025 20:59

I have three DC that are now at Uni/college but I home edded them until 6th form. I always worked although very part time when they were little. DH could sometimes be flexible at sometimes did a day a week with them. We also used a sort of nanny who would take them to home ed activities for a few years. As they got older we did swaps other families to cover working hours. When they got to 13+ we used quite a lot of online classes and some tutors.
We accessed lots of home ed groups/classes and sports activities.
It was sometimes really hard and I felt like I wasn’t always giving my best to work/the kids but they made it through with the exams they need for their next steps and they seem happy and confident and I still have a career.
It was a lot of fun on the way.
You can probably make it work doing different things as your needs all change. I know some families that have used school for a few years as well and gone back to home ed or not.

Saracen · 23/06/2025 21:08

cheesycheesy · 23/06/2025 20:50

Just send them to childcare and school for goodness sake.

Do you also go onto vegan forums telling people to just eat meat for goodness' sake, or religious forums to tell folks it's silly to pray?

iwentjasonwaterfalls · 23/06/2025 22:55

cheesycheesy · 23/06/2025 20:50

Just send them to childcare and school for goodness sake.

Why?

olderthanyouthink · 24/06/2025 08:45

Love how many people answered when they clearly have no experience and can’t think outside the box

I had to give up my job because it was killing me working without childcare and not much other support (ND kid was broken by nursery experience, couldn’t do anything drop off for about 3 years)

Possible solutions:
Paying Ad Hoc sitters. I did this for about half of the 3 years, mostly they were in the flat while I worked from home because I don’t trust strangers unsupervised with my kids for many reasons.

Childminders CAN take school age kids they just can’t be responsible for giving a full time education. Might be easier to start at preschool age and stay because when I looked at a normal CM for my 6 year old they we happy to have her but nothing was age appropriate for her because they mainly had babies and a few preschoolers after school

Work around each other and taking kids along if needed/possible. I have friends who have taken their kids to the theatre where they worked (actors/writers/directors) and friends who run a chain of shops who sometimes take their kid and have stuff for him to do and play with in various places and also gets admin done at home. Some are split up so each parent has very firm boundaries which days they can work and which they have the kids, DP and I are together but we sort of had a wonky version of this for a while.

HE drop offs, they there are many in some areas and few in others so pot luck. You might struggle for a few years till the youngest is 5/6 though because that’s the minimum in some, others are from 8. My older two are hopefully starting 2 days a week in an outdoor setting.

Eventually you might build up enough of a network to have a sort of CoOp so you can help other parents out and get help in return

MrsSkylerWhite · 24/06/2025 08:45

Poopeepoopee · 23/06/2025 13:46

How can you home educate them if you're working? Surely only non-working parents are in a position to home educate

This.

Whats wrong with going to school?

cheesycheesy · 24/06/2025 08:53

iwentjasonwaterfalls · 23/06/2025 22:55

Why?

Because educating and looking after children isn’t possible when both parents work in the day

olderthanyouthink · 24/06/2025 08:59

@cheesycheesybut children at school spend a pretty small amount of the day actually being taught, this blog by a teacher suggests 2.5 hours of a 6 hour day. Which you could do in evenings and days off and weekends if you wanted.

https://monkeymum.blog/2015/09/13/time-is-precious/

But also they would still be learning in childcare or doing self directed activities while their parents are working. My son has had no formal teaching but actually knows more academically in some ways than his big sister at the same age who did 2 years of preschool 🤷‍♀️

There is also no requirement for the parents to do all the “teaching” or follow a curriculum so it can look nothing like school and still end up with an educated person. It’s hard to get your head around if you’ve only done school but there are other ways.

Time is Precious

How much time in school, is actually spent learning? I’ve been in the education system, one way or another, for 30 of my 35 years: first as a school pupil, then as a University student, and t…

https://monkeymum.blog/2015/09/13/time-is-precious/?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLHOQBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHus14HUhrRJ2m_Sdc7cPPiK-t_1ETTBH21NRgwadX7FfFa2gFtzBt_hBgeOm_aem_yJzy5LKoT2Pl4CrmoA1U5A

pharmer · 24/06/2025 09:03

Once they are of compulsory school age you legally need to provide them with a FULLTIME education.

olderthanyouthink · 24/06/2025 09:05

Full time does not have a legal definition of hours of active learning and people seem to forget evenings and weekends exist

for some reason my eldest wants to do the most in the evening!

pharmer · 24/06/2025 09:09

olderthanyouthink · 24/06/2025 08:59

@cheesycheesybut children at school spend a pretty small amount of the day actually being taught, this blog by a teacher suggests 2.5 hours of a 6 hour day. Which you could do in evenings and days off and weekends if you wanted.

https://monkeymum.blog/2015/09/13/time-is-precious/

But also they would still be learning in childcare or doing self directed activities while their parents are working. My son has had no formal teaching but actually knows more academically in some ways than his big sister at the same age who did 2 years of preschool 🤷‍♀️

There is also no requirement for the parents to do all the “teaching” or follow a curriculum so it can look nothing like school and still end up with an educated person. It’s hard to get your head around if you’ve only done school but there are other ways.

What a load of nonsense! She sounds very ignorant of how education works

olderthanyouthink · 24/06/2025 09:12

She was a teacher?!

iwentjasonwaterfalls · 24/06/2025 11:41

pharmer · 24/06/2025 09:03

Once they are of compulsory school age you legally need to provide them with a FULLTIME education.

Here's the official EHE guidance for England:

2.7 There is no legal definition of “full-time” in terms of education at home, or at school.
Children attending school normally have about five hours tuition a day for 190 days a
year, spread over about 38 weeks. However, home education does not have to mirror
this. In any case, in elective home education there is often almost continuous one-to-one
contact and education may sometimes take place outside normal “school hours”.

2.8 Home-educating parents are not required to:
• have a timetable
• set hours during which education will take place
• observe school hours, days or terms

2.9 In practice, the question of whether education for a specific child is full-time will
depend on the facts of each case; but you as parents should at least be able to quantify
and demonstrate the amount of time for which your child is being educated. Education
which clearly is not occupying a significant proportion of a child’s life (making due
allowance for holiday periods) will probably not meet the s.7 requirements.

Sometimes an average day for us here looks like DD spending an hour or two sat down working on Sociology practice questions, followed by English, followed by Maths, followed by something else. Sometimes it looks like twenty minutes of maths, then bouldering class, then music practice, then working on a Girlguiding badge, then theatre group or Guides in the evening. Sometimes it looks like leaving first thing in the morning, spending the entire day out somewhere, then coming home with zero paperwork done. All of those are educational. The LA is aware of what our days look like, and have assessed us as providing a full time, suitable education.

Slightyamusedandsilly · 24/06/2025 11:44

cheesycheesy · 24/06/2025 08:53

Because educating and looking after children isn’t possible when both parents work in the day

Learning can take place outside of the 9-3 schedule, you know.

Most of my daughter's learning takes place after school and at weekends (because her school isn't addressing her SEN at all).

Perfect28 · 24/06/2025 11:46

I don't think it's possible really, you'll need to ensure one of you is always off with the kids.
Home schooling is for the privileged few IMO.