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Ideas on how to continue homeschooling
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My husband has been out of work for about five months now, and finally got a part-time job yesterday. While this is a blessing, it is only part-time, and doesn’t come with affordable health insurance, which means my job is still a necessary component of our household income.
Since he will be working overnight and sleeping during the day, he wants us to just enroll DD in public school and be done with it. He does support homeschooling in an hands-off theoretical kind of way, and it’s worked for us when I have been able to take DD to the park, on field trips, and be the teacher. But since we started again after Labor Day, he’s been the teacher 2 or 3 days a week and is only willing to cover Bible, the three R’s, and take her to homeschool ballet on Monday afternoons. He’s very shy, and not willing to take her to playgroup, etc. He doesn’t do “extras” (nature walks, reading living books or literature to her, artist or music study, character study, etc.) I cover them on my days when I can, but it pales in comparison to what I had pictured. Still, I’d rather deal with it for this season and keep her out of public school than send her there.
His schedule will involve working every other weekend (which we will set up to be the opposite schedule as my weekend rotations) and one or two days during the week from 9:30-3:30. I would like to just pay a homeschool mom to watch her for those 6-12 hours a week, and then in addition to a few hours on weekday mornings, I’ll homeschool her on the weekends that I’m home. I only have a week to find someone, though.
We just moved to the area, so I don’t know a lot of moms. I just posted on the area homeschoolers board, but where else would you look if you needed to find someone? Do you even think that this plan is realistic? Is there any point that you would just throw in the towel and enroll your children in school?
I would welcome any insight or suggestions, and a lot of prayer for wisdom as God leads our family through this time of transition.
Thank you!
April
April,
My husband was out of work for over a year recently, so I understand how hard this can be. We came through it as a stronger family and I pray that you will as well. Have you checked for homeschool support groups in the area where there might be a message board (such as this one) where you could ask for help? How about homeschool supply stores? Ours has a bulletin board where you can put messages such as yours.
How old is your daughter? Where do you live? Maybe someone here on the SCM boards is near you and would know of a family who could help you out.
April,
I can’t remember how old your daughter is? As you don’t need the sitter to do ‘school’ with her try checking with a local church for someone who does daycare or is available to watch her. Maybe even go into it with a “can someone help me out for a few weeks/a month” to give you time to find a more permanent sitter?
Also, depending on your daughter’s age, there are lots of things she can learn to do on her own on the days you are not available. Workboxes are a neat concept to help train a child to be more independent in a few areas (we used them for a while, tweaked to fit our family). For example, even a 1st grader can do her copywork on her own or a practice page in math.
April – Where are you? Never know if someone on the board might be close by.
I agree with Tristan – if I were in the same situation I know there’s lots my 6 & 8 year olds could do on their own or with ANY babysitter. You may not be able to do some things like artist and composer study with her right now, but maybe you could pick up some living books from the library and just ask her sitter to read them to her…
Thanks for the replies and the suggestions. To answer a few questions, DD is 6 years old and in 1st grade. She’s reading at about a high second grade, low third grade level, right on par for math and handwriting, and still learning to tie her sneakers. 😉 We live in Lincoln, IL.
I do have a homeschool mom from our area who offered to fill the gap for a few weeks/a month. DH is only willing to go that route if I have a solid plan for long term; otherwise, he sees it as delaying the inevitable.
There is one more person from church who may also be willing to fill in, but she currently has a houseful because another homeschool mom from our church is having a lot of health problems, and she has those kids almost every day at this point. I’m not in the position to “swap” sitting with another mom, because I am going to school right now as well, so between homeschooling DD and studying for my own classes, my days at home are pretty well packed.
DD is fairly independent about her work. On the days DH “schools”, I assign the work before I leave in the morning, and he teaches her Bible, but just checks her work with the other subjects. On the days I’m home, I introduce new math concepts and using living math methods for her to learn/practice; on the days he’s in charge, we use worksheets for her to practice what she’s learned with me. I encourage them to play games together like Yahtzee, Qwirkle, etc. and she tabulates and records her own points for each turn, so she practices writing and basic addition that way. We play Scrabble at night, which offers more basic addition, introduces the concept of multiplication, and of course covers some spelling and new vocabulary. She reads to one of us at least 15 minutes a day, and loves to pore through books on her own. She has a copywork book that we use daily, and she loves to write letters to penpals, grandparents, etc., which offer opportunities to practice penmanship and spelling. So learning comes through life, and I think we’d still be OK if she just played when she was with a sitter. It’s simply a matter of finding one.
I have put a message on our local group’s private Facebook page, but I know they also have a Google group, so I’ll find out how to post there. That also gave me the idea to post on a physical bulletin board at our church, so thank you for that! 🙂
April
April,
It sounds as if you’re doing a wonderful job educating your daughter. I would encourage you and your husband to “stay the course”. This is a tough season for you, but it will pass. I have been convicted lately to do a better job of waiting on the Lord. I know this is difficult because obviously you need a plan in place, but it sounds as if you’ve done what you could, now rest and pray, thanking God that He has already promised to provide for all you need.
Have you tried contacting IL Christian Home Educators? They have all sorts of contacts with homeschool co-ops and support groups throughout the state.
Is the time you need help in short or long chunks? I only ask because my oldest friend lives in Morton, IL, not too far from Lincoln….but probably too far if it’s just a few hours of sitting needed. She just started a home daycare and is looking for a few more kids. She also homeschools her 6th grader. Her licensing is almost approved. I totally trust her w/my own kids…sweet, Christian gal. If you happen to want more info., you can pm me. Hope you find a solution! Blessings, Gina
I agree, It is a time that you must “stay the course”. It is really not that hard especially if she is a good reader. Most ps homework is reading and writing. Most kids in first grade are not that far. So, she may even be bored at school. I think if you put her school work in the workbox (suggested above) She could probably do it everyday when your husband was sleeping or may have a sitter.
It sounds like she is a self motivated girl and you won’t have to much to worry about. She could do computer learning games and reading to finish up the extra time that she isn’t doing the school workbox stuff. If you go on Sue Patricks workbox website she has webinars that could give you more help with ideas that could help you out. She says there are alot of sites out there with the work already done for you. You could have her do some of the computer work that she suggests. You can call her and get some really good ideas from her.
There was a time when my husband was out of work. There was a time he worked out of state and we were here by ourselves. There is a time for every season in life. We continue to move on and ahead. Always changing our plans. Don’t give up your desire to homeschool just because there is a way out that is simple. Look at it more like there is no way out how are we going to work this out. 🙂
Blessings to you and I will pray for you and your family. Blessings
Thank you for the suggestion, momto2blessings, and for the encouragement and dose of truth, chocodog. Unfortunately, Morton is north of Lincoln, and I work south of Lincoln.
Someone suggested posting on the bulletin boards for a local group, and I had tried this in our new city, but not in the city where I worked. So I posted there. I now have two options for sitters, two completely different situations, but both godly women whom I have known for the past couple of year, and whom I am completely comfortable leaving my daughter.
Thank you for all of the ideas! I’m looking forward to continuing on this homeschooling journey!
April
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