Working Part time

[songstress75]

Hi everyone

Thanks for letting me join the group. I am currently thinking about homeschooling my 6 year old son in the future, probably from October.

I have been reading up on it and am going to visit a group on Wednesday and chat to some other parents.

I also have a 5 year old son who is quite happy at school, but I think it would be easier if I homeschooled both of them so we wouldn't be constrained by term dates etc. Is that other people's experience?

I was wondering if anyone else on here is a home educating single parent whilst working part time.

If so, how do you manage it?

Thanks for your help
Song
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[CaisleanDraiochta]

Like you say it probably will be easier to home ed both as you won't have to still work around school hours/terms etc. Also as your DC are close in age, it will be easier to do things with them together, more so than if you had a teenager and a 5yo say.

My experience was that I started researching home ed at the beginning of the year, with a view to withdrawing my 8yo DD in September 2014. To cut a long story short she was utterly miserable in school and not receiving much of an education either. By March she was school refusing most days so I decided to bring the home ed start date forward. I was still going to send my 7yo DS to school though for the time being as he was obviously unhappy in school in the way that DD had been. He had other ideas though and on the day of de-registration for DD, I also ended up taking DS out too! So don't be surprised if you younger child thinks the same way, especially when they see what fun their sibling is having

I am also a single parent and I work part time too, although my hours are quite irregular. I'm quite fortunate though that I can take my DC with me to work so I don't need to organise childcare. They don't have any contact with their dad either and we don't have family near by either so I get very little child free time and also the responsibility for everything (including their education) is solely down to me!

[songstress75]

Thanks for that. Good to know someone else can manage it! Gives me hope :-)

Sorry to hear about your children being unhappy - they're lucky they've got you! I think school as a concept doesn't suit DS1 at the moment at least. They have tried hard with him. He's very bright but he only wants to learn what he wants to learn when he wants to learn it!

I work from home so my plan would be to work at the same time although not entirely sure if will work out. My kids are really independent so I'm hoping they'll be times they get on with stuff alone.

With your job, do they sit and do formal learning while you are working? Or are they having their free time while you work? Or are they doing informal learning with you dipping in and out? (Sorry for all the questions!!)

I have one day off a week which will be our out and about day and I might be able to convince my Mum (not particularly involved and most likely dead against it!) to do a couple of hours a week with them.

It's scary but I know it will be best for DS1. The school environment is just turning him off learning altogether unfortunately.

Their Dad is involved. He currently has them every other weekend but recently DS1 has been asking to go to church. It's doubtful ExH would want to take them but I think being part of something would be really good for the kids so I might see if he can do every Saturday instead.

He is bound to be dead against homeschooling however so I'll have a huge mountain to climb to convince him.

Thanks so much for your response it means a lot
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[CaisleanDraiochta]

well we have only been doing home ed for a couple of months so far but yes we seem to be managing- well at least no one has killed each other yet anyway! Most of all the DC are happy and I think that was my most important reason for doing it.

I work in a childcare setting (after school and holiday club) so my DC are free to do what ever activity they choose, just like all the other children that attend. I guess I would class it as informal learning as I don't really ever set work for them, either while we are there or at home. There are quiet zones though where they could go to do reading when they choose to and some of the older children will do their homework in there after school. Mainly I feel that children tend to instinctively seek out activities that will facilitate their learning as and when they want to and are ready to.

I can see that it might be hard work having to convince your DC's dad that home ed is a good thing. Most of my friends and family were quite unsure about it when I raised the subject too. For me though it was a bit easier as I just didn't tell any of them we were going to do it for certain until after I had de-registered, so there was no point in them trying to persuade me to not do it I guess though with their dad being involved in their lives he does also have a right to have a say in their education too. Would it work if you sold it to him as a 'trial' type of thing, where you would both review it after a set time and rethink if things weren't going too well?

[songstress75]

Definitely the whole trial thing could sell it. DS1 has a couple of favourite teachers so I had thought he could do an hour a week with one of them in "formal" learning then we would be able to see how his levels are.

I could be selling XH short. He used to work in informal education as a Youth Worker. I've sent him an email broaching the subject. Either way we'll probably try year 2 and see if it's any better.

Thanks so much for all the info. It's great that you work at the afterschool club - readymade socialising for them!

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[maggi]

Hi Song,
Though not single, we have both kept up full time work (50hrs me and 48hrs dh). I work as a childminder and foster carer so can easily fit in education at home. It is getting more difficult as ds is starting to study for gcse's. He had liked to do his formal work early in the morning but we have to catch time where we can now, to be able to fit everything in.

So it depends on what your work is and what education style you are following. You can use a childminder whilst you work (£3.50ph per child = country average). Maybe another home educator will watch yours in return for you watching theirs (recent court case decided to allow this type of reciprocal childcare arrangement, as technically you would both be childminders without being registered).

[songstress75]

Thanks Maggi that's really helpful. I was planning on a structured hour a day and the rest informal yet would have to be able to work for a certain number of hours per day. Hours missed can be made up at night or a Saturday if they're with their Dad. I guess people just try it and work it out as they go along
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