Homeschool and Work At Home Balance

At times it can be difficult and downright stressful to try and run a work at home business out of your home while homeschooling. First, you may have the problem of phone calls coming in while you’re trying to teach a lesson. If you don’t answer the phone, you may lose money, but if you do, you may be interrupting an important lesson plan or worksheet explanation. To solve this problem, you need to make a time for work and a time for school.

Homeschool and Work at Home Balance

Yes, you can have a balance between homeschooling and working from home! I did it for ten years! You just need a bit of flexibility.

Homeschool and Work at Home Balance: Schedules

Everyone will have a different number of hours schooling is done. Most need at least 4 hours of homeschooling each day to fully benefit the child as well as to fulfill the requirement for most states. Schedule that time around your work schedule. Let’s say you need 8 hours of work time. Your work hours can be from 5 am to 1pm, allowing for breakfast time. Lunch can be at 1pm if you give a healthy snack in between. At 2pm, you can then start homeschool and finish at 6pm.
If your family prefers to eat dinner at 6pm, you can prepare dinner while teaching the kids. To do it this way, you will need to have plenty of things handy to keep the kids busy during your work time and since you will likely be the only parent available, be sure to give your kids love and attention during your work hours and to know where they are and what they are doing at all times. If both parents are present, this can be much easier. One can teach the kids and one can run the business. You can even take turns. Giving them educational activities like games and puzzles can help enhance their learning and is also fun for them.

Homeschool and Work at Home Balance: Older Children

If your children are older (past elementary age), you can also use the method where the child basically instructs him or herself, using your pre-written lesson instructions for each subject. If the child has questions, you are still there, but the questions won’t usually take very long to answer. Since most homeschooled kids learn faster, this method may even be possible at a younger age. Use your better judgement.

Homeschool and Work at Home Balance: Weekends Count Too!

Remember that field trips do not always have to occur during the school week when it isn’t possible. A field trip can be done during the weekend, when there is more time. By doing this, the field trip can also count for school hours, which means that the children could take some time off during the week, equivalent to the learning time spent on the field trip. If this time is taken off, the children can chip in with housework and the business, leaving more time for you to get your work done. Chores are an important part of learning, as your children will need these skills as they grow older and are out on their own. You can consider this part of home economics class.

Homeschool and Work at Home Balance: Virtual Services

Another way to solve the phone call problem is to use a virtual office service during your homeschooling hours, so that you don’t miss calls, but your kids still get their education As you can see, there are many ways to solve this. You just have to be creative and use whatever works best for your family. You can use the ideas here, or come up with your own unique way. Just brainstorm and make sure your idea works for all involved.

The most important thing to keep in mind is planning ahead for the homeschooling part. This will relieve stress greatly. You can take a weekend to plan and make all the assignments for two weeks or further. Put the assignments in order in the correct folders for ease of use. It’s not as hard as it may first appear. You just have to figure out what all the needs are and find a way that you can meet them all.


Originally published at Modern Homeschool Family.

Modern Homeschool Family

)
Modern Homeschool Family

Written by

Real, practical advice for real homeschoolers.

Modern Homeschool Family

Real, practical advice for real homeschoolers.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade