Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: part time work, working and homeschooling

This topic has 26 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 1 month ago by Canoearoo.

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March 4, 2014 at 12:02 am
Sarai Mermigas-Bloor
Participant
I am working part -time and homedchooling. I was hopeing to quit my job at the end of May and I am not sure that I will be able to quit my job. My husband and I are praying for wisdom. Can I still do CM and work? Are there other parents in this forum that homeschool and work?
March 4, 2014 at 12:37 am
nerakr
Participant
I worked p/t out of the home for six years, the last three homeschooling. Of course, my dc were young and I worked afternoons/evenings, so we were finished before i had to take them to the babysitter. But yes, it can be done. Scheduling will be have to be done carefully, though.
March 4, 2014 at 12:47 am
Sarai Mermigas-Bloor
Participant
Can you give me any tips on scheduling? My husband just told me that I will need to still be part-time.
March 4, 2014 at 1:03 am
nerakr
Participant
Well, a lot depends on their ages and your work hours. My dd was still napping when I started homeschooling ds, so I scheduled anything I would have to work with him on at that time. When she stopped napping, the scheduling became more difficult. I had trouble keeping her busy while I was working with my son. (He’s highly distractible, so I couldn’t put her at the table while he was there. Still can’t).
If your children are old enough to work independently, even if you have a caregiver, you could send work with them or put dh in charge if you’re working days. I haven’t done this, but some people school on some weekends if they have to.
Maybe someone else can chime in with some more ideas.
March 4, 2014 at 2:00 am
Kristen
Participant
I work 40 hours a week out side the home for 4 years now. My kids are in 5th, 4th, 3rd & K. You can do CM style you just have to be more creative with the time you have! We start school at 8am and quit at 11 for lunch. On Mondays they go to ps in morning for music and gym class this year. So I send math, and either copywork or spelling and whatever book they are reading with them. I still have the Kindergartener at home and try to do fun stuff at this time with him. The rest of the week wedo math, history everyday; we alternate English with writing & or spelling (language arts) so they are doing something every day except Friday when we do science. This year we are doing 106 Days of creation but I am finding it to easy for my older ones so I double up and do two or three lessons on friday. I usually pick a science topic during the summer and do a unit study on it to keep up with science and/or nature. These always seem to fall by the side during the year but finally th I year I am not stressing about it. We will just cover more science in the summer to make up for it. For art and music study and poetry. I fit it in where and when I can but I dont stress about that either. Sure I would like to do more but I cant right now. We might pop in some classical music during lunch and for artist study I bought old calendars of famous artists and hang it on the wall. Then every Monday we change the picture. So one calendar lasts one term. I get a book from library or look them up online and read about that artist at the beginning of the calendar and that is it. Simple.
I usually read from a liturature selection when I am done eating and they are not done yet. Right now we have been working on Tanglewoods Secrets. It doesnt get done everyday and it takes us sometimes two months to finish but we just keep going!
After lunch they have chores and then they have to do math corrections, piano lessons, and reading from whatever book I have them reading. I learned the hard way that I have to make sure all this gets done before I leave for work at 2:30 otherwise it doesnt get done at all. DH works til 4:00 so they are on their own until he gets home at 4:15. He just got laid off of work but is working as EMT in three different counties so his hours are really messed up right now. Some day I hope and pray that I can be a sahm again or at least cut down to part time.
If you have other questions let me know!
March 4, 2014 at 2:03 am
Sarai Mermigas-Bloor
Participant
My husband a student, full-time and works 20 hrs. So during the weekdays it is hard for him to help do school. I know he can help on Saturdays. I have 5 children, 15, 13, 5,3&1.5. The older two do there indepent work and the little ones play while I am at work. I work from 8-12 4 days a week. DH wants me to only work the mornings and I am hoping that ithat I will only wrk 10-12 hours during the summer, I work at the Bible college that my DH goes to school at.
March 4, 2014 at 2:30 am
Sarai Mermigas-Bloor
Participant
How do you ladies “spread the feast”? I have been thinking about having my older ones do their independent work while I am at work and when I get home during lunch ; eat lunch with the children then at 1 do the Bible, history / geography. Have my younger ones take a nap for 2 hours. Then wake them up so I can work with them and so some more family work. I am not sure if I should spread the feast for have it on thursady through Saturday type thing. I want “perfection”but I k ow it won’t happen. How long does it take to do the family work together?
March 4, 2014 at 1:15 pm
Sue
Participant
Well, I personally wouldn’t enjoy doing this (I like my sleep!), but I know of one family where everyone gets up at 5:30 in the morning so the dad can help with schoolwork for an hour or so while the mom gets the 2yo & 4yo up & dressed, makes breakfast, and starts a couple of laundry loads or other chores. They do family Bible study and he helps the two older girls & one boy (9, 8, and 6) get a subject or two done before he has to leave for work. He works 10-hour days, so when he comes home from work, they want to have dinner & family time, not do more school.
Of course, they then limit their evening activities on weekdays (we adjusted our Keepers of the Faith meeting time to 6:30 so they can attend & leave by 8 without missing anything), but it seems to work for them. They are using an online curriculum, not CM methods, but I think the dad could provide even more help at that early hour if they were using CM methods since there could be more family subjects first.
March 4, 2014 at 4:06 pm
bethanna
Participant
Keep in mind that “spreading the feast” does not mean doing poetry, artist study, composer study, etc. every school day. Most do those things once a week. Some families alternate subjects like history & science also.
March 4, 2014 at 10:17 pm
Canoearoo
Participant
I work part time and homeschool. I would say the hardest part is keeping up with house work. Everything goes well.
March 5, 2014 at 1:17 am
4myboys
Participant
Hi and Welcome.
I am also working part-time, and grantd, it’s not easy, but it is possiblle. Finding a routine that works for your family is the key. If your children have been to PS as mine were, you may find it difficult to alter their thinking towards a Monday to Friday week with summers off, but using your Saturdays and summers is definately one way of making it work.
I work mornings, Monday to Friday until noon. During this time my boys are expected to do their independent work and chores. I get home about 12:20, we have lunch and try to get to our afternoon work by 1pm. Most of this time is family work — bible. history, geography, etc (about 1hour to 1 1/2 a day). Then we check morning work and take care of any corrections, or guided learning that needs to be done. We do our family read aloud in the evening. Sometimes we only have one literature book going, sometimes we have more. Sometimes we’ll have a family one as well as a seperate one for each of the boys at bedtime — thankfully we just have the two.)
In our province we do not have to keep records, and there is no specified number of days or hours we have to log. If we did it could be a little more tricky.
If I were you I would focus on getting your 15 and 13 year old going, getting them as independent as possible, before worrying too much about working with your five year old. You can accomplish a great deal with a child that age in a very short amount of time. Read to your little ones as much as you can (your olders can share in this), work for 5 or 10 mins a day each on printing and math and reading as he/she shows readiness/interest, and include him/her in famly studies where appropriate. Don’t try to do too much at once. Get outside as much as you can.
You may have to start small — start with the basics, get a routine going. Figure out what the daily minimum you can live with will be, and start there. Be realistic in what you can expect from yourself as well as your kids.
March 5, 2014 at 3:02 am
Sarai Mermigas-Bloor
Participant
Thank you ladies for your encouragement and ideas.

Sarai
March 25, 2014 at 12:47 am
Nina
Participant
Sarai,
I just started working fulll time in November for the first time in 15 years. It has been very rough. We have been struggling to find any sort of routine.My husband is also going to school full time. I read through the other peoples responses and they are a great help and encouragement to me too. So glad you posted and just know you’re not alone. I know home is where my children should be. I can’t bare the thought of having to send them to school. I hope you and I both can figure this out 🙂
March 25, 2014 at 1:23 am
Sarai Mermigas-Bloor
Participant
Nina,
Thank you for your comment. It encourages me that I am not alone here. I had to realize that every semester and summer is going to be different. I am at peace with that right now. I figure as long as I can have a routnie down depending on my husband’s school schedule and the student that works in my office all should be well. I know there will be ups and downs but I personally need a sense of rhythm to my life. It does not help that I have hashimoto’s and adrenal issues. Learning to have rhythm again has become difficult for me and I am really learning to go with the season that I am in.
March 25, 2014 at 1:44 am
Kristen
Participant
It took us a long while to get a routine! But don’t give up! You can do it!