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Working Parents and Homeschooling
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Question:
Are there many others out there like me who work FT and also homeschool? I
have been homeschooling my teen daughter since she was midway thru 7th
grade. I never see this addressed anywhere, unless it is a home-based
business.
Answer:
-I started homeschooling my 7th grader the last 6 weeks of this past
year. She has learning differences and was falling further and further
behind in the schools "resource" classes. She was at 5th grade level
math, 9th grade reading comprehension, 3rd grade spelling and
writting. Her esteem was nose diving and the the school was absolutely
no help.
My intent was to put her in private school but after a thorough
investigation, I did not see a great difference. I researched through
the 'net and decided to have a tutor come 5 days a week for the
dysgraphia and spelling (using Orten alphaphonics). A flute teacher
comes once a week.
I made out a daily schedule for her to follow with a point system to
reward her. I let her start staying up late at night with me so that she
would sleep later (til 10 AM). In the evening I reviewed the work and
based on the results, I set up the work for the next day and we sign off
on the points. The work I gave her included math, grammar, keyboarding
and literature.
She finished all this in 2-3 hours. The tutor was here at 1 pm each day
for an hour. The balance of the day she watched educational TV, took
care of her fish, cats, and bird and did a few assigned chores. As soon
as the public school was out she would call me at work and let me know
what friends house she was visiting.
She was just retested and after ONLY 6 weeks is now at 7th grade math.
She has made great strides in spelling and is continuing with
keyboarding.
I will grant that this has not been especially cheap but I would rather
have my daughter educated and confident than drive a new car! In the
Fall she will go to a Christian co-op school every Wednesday. A tutor
will come Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and she will go on fields trips
on Fridays. This website has been a fantastic resource for me. Thanks
to you..all! Barbara (from Texas)
-I have been homeschooling my son for two years. I am a single mom and I
must work for income. I was working a rotating shift whereby I would work
all of the 24 hrs/7days a week in a rotating 9 week cycle. Within the
last two months I started a new position and my schedule has changed to
days with weekends off. I/we had to do a total mind dump in what should
be and analyze what the real objectives were. When I was rotating we
would keep a large desk calendar that listed time of homeschooling,
chores, my work hrs, ect. Now I come home, change clothes, get him a
snack, and we start our book work. We school on many times 6 days a week
but our sit down sessions together are usually no more than 3hrs *max*.
He also does some independent work without me. Because I was unusual in
my homeschoolong lifestyle, I sought out other single parent homeschoolers
and started a support group in my county. Through that group I met a woman
that has two daughters and now does childcare for me. She does not teach
him but they do go to the library, she has enrolled them in a summer
reading club. Another woman in my group has a teenage daughter that is
ending a unit study with a play about Egypt and my son will be in that.
We school year round and take vacations as needed. We travel a lot and
I try to make each trip have some educational aspect wether that was the
main reason for the trip or not. I have found that his whole attitdue
towards learning has changed which was my first objective when I took him
out of public school. Also we have become very resourceful, using many
daily circumstances for learning: balancing a checkbook, using the
computer, videos from the library, his own business... Most of my stay
at home homeschool moms say they do not know how I do it. Actually I now
wonder why in the world I struggled so long with him in public school.
My son and I have both been blessed.
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