Can you Homeschool While Working from Home
This post contains affiliate links.
Are you homeschooling but need to earn some extra money by working at home? You make be wondering how to make it work. Can you homeschool while working from home? Yes, but it requires a bit of creativity.
As a work-at-home mom who has also been a homeschooling mom for the better part of the last 14 years, I know how hard it can be when you feel pulled to homeschool but know you need to bring in an income.
The good news is there are so many more work-at-home options available today than there were when I first started out (be sure and check out our Busy Work-at-Home Moms Facebook group to see some current remote job listings).
Before you look for a remote job:
- Remember that working as an employee means your time needs to be 100% dedicated to your job during working hours. If you are going to go this route, you will need to hire a tutor, have older kids who are good at self-directed work, or adjust your homeschooling hours to work with your job.
- Consider looking for jobs that offer a moderate amount of flexibility so you can be available to help your kids with school or participate in direct homeschool instruction when needed.
- Look for side gigs that your kids may be able to participate in. Learning to run a home-based business can be great experience for older kids. Mine spent some time running a produce business from home that was fairly profitable. Get creative and see if there is something that can help you teach your kids important skills while earning an income.
Some work-at-home jobs may be a better fit for homeschooling parents than others. I have personally had good luck running my own business or teaching online part-time.
These 25+ work-at-home jobs without set hours are a great place to start your remote job search.
Tips for Homeschooling while Working from Home
If you want to successfully work at home while homeschooling, it is important to create a homeschool that carves out time in the day for you to work without distraction and simplify as much as possible.
Homeschool with Study.com and Give Kids the Ability to Work Independently
I think one of the most important skills my kids have learned through homeschooling is learning how to learn. They’ve had to work independently at times, while I worked. This has helped them learn how to get curious and find information to answer their own questions. Because of this, I always love giving independent learning opportunities.
Study.com offers interactive lessons from kindergarten through 12th grade and beyond, with test prep and additional certification training.
Use the code “BusyMommy” to save 30% on your first three months at Study.com!
My kids have loved Study.com. They have a huge variety of classes, including core math and language arts and a great selection of science and history classes.
We often do Study.com together so we can discuss what they are learning. When I need to work they are able to work independently. This one choice has made our homeschool days go so much smoother. I also love not having to worry about them having any gaps in their learning because each subject matter is so thorough.
Schedule your Day in Blocks
I used to try and stick to an hourly schedule but I found it just complicated our days. Now I like to schedule our homeschool day in blocks. We separate things out into a morning work period, afternoon work period, and evening work period (which usually consists of chores and any catchup work).
Scheduling in blocks lets my kids keep going if they are engaged in a project. It just seems to help our days flow better and we’ll never go back to our old homeschool schedule.
Batch your Homeschool Days
Have you tried batching your work? This means putting all similar work together to do all at once. I’ve used this technique in my work-at-home career for years. I finally discovered that it works equally as well for our homeschool.
The way this looks for us is we choose 1-2 academic subjects a day. For example, we don’t do math daily. We have two days a week focused on math and science. We knock out several lessons on each of those days. We do the same for language arts and history (which tend to go well together anyway). The extra day of the week (Fridays for us) is reserved for projects, field trips, or independent learning.
We used to try and fit every subject in daily and that left us scrambling to finish everything. We rarely felt like we had enough time to get in the zone with our lessons. Working in batches feels much more effective and allows me to give my kids more independent work time so I can get some work done too.
If you are trying to figure out a way to homeschool while working from home, I hope these tips have helped you. It is challenging to do both but it can be so rewarding when you find a way to thrive as both a work-at-home mom and a homeschooling mom.
