Starting out Home Ed with two working parents

[mand1982]

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!

The options are clear really, work around each other or use childcare, same as for people who's children go to school.

As your children are still very young I'd look for a childminder or nanny. An au pair alongside home-schooling groups etc. could be a good option once they're both school age.

People love to say this without any understanding of the situations people end up home educating in. Not all home ed families are privileged; many of us are about as far from it as you can get.

@iwentjasonwaterfallsAMEN. I don’t have the good fortune to have kids who are fine in school. To me it’s a privilege to have the option to just put your kid in school and not be terrified it will damage them in a really big way.

It clearly is doable as the thread has suggested. I suspect I would be hard work to have two working parents and two children at home, with parents working around each other trying to fit everything in.

The home educating families I know are either very wealthy (dad works, mum does the lions share but children attend a lot of classes) or families with lots of kids and fund through a mix of benefits and small odd jobs here and there.

i know peopel from all walks of life who home educate. I know single parents on disability benefits and I know families wealthy enough to be able to travel the world with their kids without having to save up first. The majority of course are in between the two,
Some people make it work because they have no other choice, others actively choose hone ed and create a life that makes it possible, be it flexible working, self employment, working around their partner, sacrificing other things like the area you live in, the lifestyle you lead etc.

I’ll be honest I hate that time is precious blog post, I hate seeing it trotted out every other day on home ed groups.

And this is based on what?

That sounds like quite an unusual demographic mix - do you have lots of home ed families that you know?

What do you think 'full time' is 🤔

Who looks after a two and four year old when the parents are working?

I know 3 families where husband works and mum does it all and two families with a similar set up where one has 5 and other has 6 kids and there’s a mixture of disability (either parent or one child) and the parents do very hippy odd jobs (spoon making workshops at festivals etc)

I also realise I know 3 families forced into home ed who have working parents but the kids spend some time at alternate provision but not full
time.

What a strange question, especially on a parenting site?
Who do you think looks after children when parents are working - informal (friends and family) or formal (settings or childminders) childcare arrangements.

Interesting, where do you live?
It must vary a lot.

That wasn’t the point - if the parents are working, how can they home educate a Reception age and look after a toddler without formal schooling and childcare.

I live in Gloucestershire although one of the big families is up north.

You don't have to educate a Reception age child if they are below compulsory school age for one thing.

The OP and her husband are both self employed and she works part time. The kids aren't going to be in childcare 60 hours a week.

I'm not that far from you and it's very different near me, just normal families - health workers, shop managers, cleaners, admin/office staff, teachers.

It’s challenging but do-able - a lot of it depends on how flexible work is and how you define ‘part time’. A lot of home educators I know take work with them to social groups, and split their work day up so they’re working a few hours at groups, then in the evening. I also know of home educators that work half a week each and rotate the home ed days between them. Good luck!

Another solution to that would have been school.

You paid for childcare rather than send your child to a local authority school, which would have been free. Him or her would have had a qualified teacher, not an unqualified childminder, who presumably have no teaching qualifications. Your "very sociable" child also would have had exposure to thirty other children with the opportunity to go to their households and get a glimpse into their lives at parties and playing with them. Rather than just one or two other child whose parent also home educates.

Unless there are severe special or educational or other needs that cannot be met by a mainstream school, I don't understand why parents home school. What are you avoiding? You think school is damaging for a normal, healthy child? You're a conspiracy theorist?

What is it.

I'm possibly one of the only ones who's qualified to comment on this thread, because I was home schooled. I will never forgive my mother for it.

I still look at children, specifically teenage girls in groups coming out of Starbucks after school in uniform having a giggle together. Looking really happy and I was completely and utterly denied that. I feel as if I missed a massive life experience and no it wasn't better to be home educated.

I did not end up with a full set of gcses.
I got enough to be able to go to uni & get a decent career, but my path was not straightforward. And it took me so much longer than it would have done had I just done.What everybody else did and gone to school and got a decent set of qualifications rather than having to explain why. I was severely limited in the a a level choices and then degree choices. That had an impact on me accordingly. Where I ended up whilst is ok?Would not be what I had chosen.

Honestly put your kids in school
Don't do it to them.Don't dump them with child minders. To keep them off school, just to dump them on a childminder to do it for you instead what's the point

You just fooling yourselves if your children aren't going to be behind or in any way disadvantaged.

They can't avoid ordinary life forever. One days are going to have to go to college university and then the work environment going to sixth form college. Having never done the school bit. Yeah, if you think that's going to be seamless... Suddenly going to institutionalized education when you've never been in it for several years.

Did you just compare home education to religion? That's what it is really or a cult rather.

Why would anyone sign up to something to do with education when the spelling on the name is incorrect!

To choose HE at these ages, when you don’t know if they will struggle with school, only to try to work out sub-par childcare to get you through - seems mad. If you are looking for childcare in the day so you can work, just send them to school! It’s childcare with qualified teachers. You are making your life needlessly difficult. They will have changing groups of other children they interact with, possibly changing care providers, no solid group of friends from age 5 onwards. I understand lots of children can’t access this but to deliberately choose against it is sad.

To be clear re my post - if you were HEing yourself, it’s very different I think. You would be the stability, could make strong networks with other families, and so on. If you are both working that won’t happen.

Home education works for some families buts it’s a full time job! I’ve done it between house moves and it requires input from me during the day plus prep ahead to ensure that they receive an education that’s equal or better than school. It’s also not cheap, buying in resources comes at a cost, even free things need printing. One of my dc thrived with home ed, the other struggled because (later) we found out she was dyslexic and I wasn’t using the right techniques because I’m not a trained teacher. We did a lot of trips as part of their education and went to home school groups but no way could I have worked. Using childcare is not sufficient, they need education so if you need childcare send them to school - supplement their education at home with complimentary activities like music and trips which state education is lacking in

OP I'd say it's really tough to do with you both working but actually your job is probably one of the best positioned to do it because presumably most of your tutoring hours will be evenings and weekends, assuming your husband mostly works in the day?
I think your challenge will be to have any family time altogether, or time for you as a couple with this set up so make sure you carve some out into your weekly routine?

I know someone who does similar to you with a job fairly similar to yours. (Ie evenings and weekend working hours.)

She is along the lines of running a tennis school so she can take her kids along as well for the after school sessions. (When the kids were little they just joined in the sessions - as they got older they were obviously really good tennis players so could demonstrate.) Her husband works 9-5 so looks after them in the evenings although the older ones often come to these sessions as they are suitable for them.

It seems to work but - as an outsider - it seems really really hard. She never seems to stop. Easier now as her kids are older but when they were little it was just exhausting just watching her.