by Lorinda K. F. Newton

Across the nation, many parents are fighting against the public schools’ focus on masks, comprehensive sex education, and Critical Race Theory while leaving academics on the back burner. Others have chosen to abandon the public schools. This has caused the number of homeschooling families to double from 2.5 million to 5 million in the past year.

Locally, I’ve seen the same trend and have spoken with several people about homeschooling. In addition, I’ve sought for a solution for families who must work full-time.

According to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), most states have low homeschool regulations. Twelve have moderate regulations, and five have high regulations (all in the Northeast).

HSLDA ranks Washington as a moderate regulation state. The most challenging rule is the teacher qualification: only the parents may instruct their own children. Most states allow anyone to homeschool someone’s children. Obviously, this Washington requirement makes it difficult for working parents to homeschool. Many write off the possibility because they can’t quit their jobs.

However, with some creativity and sacrifice, working parents can juggle their job and homeschooling.

Biggest Obstacle: Child Care

When the parents must be their children’s teachers, who will watch the kids while mom and dad work? This dilemma appears as an insurmountable obstacle to many. Below, I’ve listed some possible ways to clear this hurdle. See if one might work for your family.

Live on One Income

Could your family live on only one income? Perhaps one parent can work part-time. See what you can cut out of your budget. Perhaps you can sell a car or another asset. Maybe you could move to a less expensive home. This might mean moving in with a relative.

However, for many who are just making ends meet, this may not be feasible.

Adjust Your Work Schedule

If you are a two-parent household, you could adjust your schedules, so one parent can teach the children while the other is working. However, this can be hard on a marriage. So, make sure to incorporate couple time each week! My husband and I started our date nights when our son attended AWANA at church.

Some people have jobs with flexible schedules during which they can incorporate school time. For example, a guest blogger on the Homeschool Academy website described how she and her husband work in real estate. Due to their irregular work hours, they could fit in time to educate their fifth-grade daughter.

Some days get crazy, but the author adds, “I will agree that as Em gets older, it is getting easier because she can complete more assignments with less supervision. So I can do things like send emails and load the dishwasher while she does math problems or builds a project.”

Also, don’t get stuck in the traditional 9:00 to 3:00 school schedule mindset. Homeschooling can happen early in the morning or in the evening after work. Some people do weekend school. Consider that homeschooling, particularly with younger kids, doesn’t require six hours a day. You can complete a day’s worth of assignments in much less time. (While you have much more flexibility in determining the schedule of your homeschool versus conventional schooling, be aware that you will still need to meet the total hours of education per year as required by your state.)

Work from Home

Due to COVID, many still work from home. Some families have found they can teach and work in shifts. For instance, after breakfast, mom can instruct the kids for a short time then give them an independent assignment. While they work on their own, she can attend to her job.

How successful this method works depends on how independent your children are. You might only be able to do this for 30 minutes at a time. As the children get used to this style of schooling and get older, it should get easier.

Creative Childcare: Educational Partners

But what if your job is outside the home, and you can’t afford childcare? Or maybe working from home with the kids doesn’t work for you. Many families find themselves in this situation.

For this, I’ve developed the concept of Educational Partners. Families who need free childcare and homeschool support should try to connect with other homeschool families or stay-at-home adults they can partner with. For example,

• Enlist grandparents. When my son was a preschooler, senior neighbors watched their grandson while his single mother worked. When mom was off work, she taught her son.
• Partner with another homeschool family. The children can work side by side on their individual assignments and have playtime together when finished.
• Adopt a senior who might enjoy being an honorary grandparent, teacher aid, and childcare worker. For some lonely seniors, such an arrangement could benefit you both. Perhaps your child could do a few chores for the senior in exchange for the supervision.

To make such a system work, educational partners, such as established homeschoolers, need to reach out to families they know who might like to homeschool but think they can’t. If you can make room for one or more children in your homeschool, offer to help in this way.

Churches or other community organizations should encourage seniors and other stay-at-home adults to partner with working parents in their homeschooling endeavors.

One family’s experience:

“Over the years, we worked in tandem on the childcare duties. Whenever my work schedule overlapped my husband’s, we would arrange for childcare. Sometimes the grandparents would help out. Other times we traded childcare with another homeschool family whose parents also worked full-time.” – Christine

Make a Plan to Homeschool

1. Work with your mate: If married, make your plans together. Homeschooling will not work if your spouse doesn’t support it.
2. Streamline your life: You may need to drop a hobby, a social activity, or a volunteer position to free up your schedule to teach. You may also need to simplify how your run your home.
3. Set up a schedule: Block out time for school. You don’t need to follow a typical school schedule. You can do school any time of day on any day of the week. Take vacation when it works for your family.
4. Select ready-made curriculum: You won’t have time to prep complicated lesson plans. Select curricula with lesson plans ready to go and with projects that need little prep time.
5. Outsource some instruction: Make use of community classes such as sports clubs, music or art lessons.  Hire a tutor or join a homeschool co-op. If you are interested in accreditation, along with maximum support and guidance, consider partnering with a school that offers a home education extension program, such as Academy Northwest.
6. Find support: At times, you will need emotional support, or even physical or financial support, during your homeschool journey. Join a homeschool support group; find friends, relatives, or church family members who will give you a shoulder to lean on or a helping hand.

Teach Independence

If working from home with young children, plan on attending to your job duties in short sprints while your kids do independent assignments. Also, don’t get frustrated over interruptions. They will happen. But as your children get older, you can stretch their ability to study on their own.

Schedule break times when your kids can ask you questions. That way, they will know that at 10:00  they can get some help on a math problem instead of barging into your 9:30 video meeting. If they have trouble remembering their questions, teach them to write them down. Such a skill will serve them later in life.

Homeschool blogger Rebecca Devitt gives this advice:

“If you let all of this [interruptions] really bother you, your frustrations will soon get the better of you. And you won’t be able to focus on your work, nor will you feel great about your homeschooling adventure.

“I know it will be very difficult, but I urge you to teach yourself how to take it easy, and not allow either the interruptions or the tantrums to get to you.

“Yes, work is important, school is important, but if you try to reframe the situations, you’ll find you feel much better about any downsides that arise.”

Self-Care and Grace

Even though I didn’t hold a job, I needed regular mom breaks. To refresh myself, I attended a weekly scrapbooking time at a friend’s house. This helped me to maintain my sanity.

For you, rejuvenation might mean a regular coffee date with a friend or a scheduled bubble bath with no interruptions. Find an activity that restores your soul.

Be aware, it will take time to work out the bugs of your new homeschooling routine. Some days end in disaster. We all have days like that. Give yourself some grace, and remember, tomorrow is a new day.

Homeschool blogger Kelly Mantoan adds that we need to give our homeschooling and work to God:

 “God will strengthen you to work full-time and homeschool, and He will give you guidance if you just make time to listen to Him. Pray with your kids and remember to turn to God when you feel completely frazzled and overwhelmed (like all of us!).”

Lorinda K. F. Newton began homeschooling her children in 2004, and her family joined Academy Northwest in 2014. Her family lives on beautiful Whidbey Island north of Seattle, Washington. She writes about faith, culture, and governing from a biblical worldview at Lorinda’s Ponderings. ©2021 by Lorinda K. F. Newton.