I am a full-time entrepreneur and a mother of four who has decided to homeschool my last two babies, now headed into Kindergarten. My first two children (my sons) are headed to college, one will be a sophomore in college and the other a freshman. With my sons who are now in college, we have tried public school with them until they were in 5th and 6th grade. Which was a monumental change for us not just the switching of schools, but financially, oh boy! But we made sacrifices to send them to private school and were able to keep them there until they both graduated high school.
But wow, what an experience but, even after graduation, I can’t tell you I’m happy with that educational choice. Which is why I have chosen to homeschool my last two children (my girls).
First, let me tell you what brought on this homeschooling decision. When my boys were younger, meaning in grade school, I was really new to education as a parent. I had no idea how to help them or even find the resources to help them. One son had hearing difficulties as a child which truly delayed his speech and started a trail of academic struggles, that I had no idea how to support. He had an IEP at the public school, but they in turn required nothing of him academically, which made his struggles even worse. While we couldn’t afford it, my husband and I made the change to a private school in our area. But, we couldn’t just send one child, so we sent the other child as well, doubling our payment, but also doubling down on the fact that we couldn’t afford it. Think about it, at that time their tuition for both of them was $2,300 a month, when we were barely bringing home $4,000 a month. We had a mortgage, one car payment, lights, gas, and other utilities, which left us nothing at the end. But nonetheless, we put them both in private school, thinking this would help and improve their educational journey. It did to certain extent, but not to the point that I expected. The value didn’t exceed the costs and I found myself just trying to get them graduated versus appreciating the sacrifices we made for the last eight years to keep them there.
So, with my girls, I had to make a change.
Now, I am a much better equipped educational parent, as I run two education-based businesses. But, what I have realized during this homeschooling journey, while the financial component isn’t the main problem – restructuring my life is… more than a budget decision.
While, I’m not spending thousands of dollars per month on tuition, I am spending so much time and money on restructuring my life, my work, and my schedule.
When I first started, I realized, we couldn’t keep the same routine. Not only that, but what am I supposed to teach them. Yes, I have education-based businesses, but they are support and service based, not teaching based. So, it took months to figure out how to do this thing called Homeschooling.
Homeschooling is a big decision and to me an even bigger sacrifice. I’m not only sacrificing my wallet, but my time, energy, and work to make this work. Not complaining- just stating a fact. Then, while I have several degrees, not one of them is in education. So, am I really qualified to teach them? I felt overwhelmed, stressed out, and guilty, especially if I prioritized my work over their education. So, let me tell you what helped me…preparation!
I first started with a schedule. And no, my first schedule didn’t work, neither did my second schedule! Even though, I work from home, accessibility is still an issue, but then I realized, wait…we are homeschooling. I don’t have to stick to the regulations or regularity of the school system. Most people, I figured out, like to call it unschooling. So, we did that. I homeschool in the evenings, as a working parent.
I’ve created several schedules, but the evening schedule works the best for us. That’s the schedule I stick to…here is a copy of that schedule.
Then, there’s what am I going to teach them? Let me tell you that curriculum is NOT the issue…again I run two education-based businesses. So, I have curriculum coming out of my behind. I have everything you can think of…I promise, from Abeka to Teaching Strategies, I have it all. The struggle was how do I make it work for us? Once I picked a curriculum, I still had to come up with the lessons, supplemental materials, and course structure.
Nope! I still don’t have time for that.
So, I started with… what do I want my girls to do and how I want them to do it (yes, they have input) as well.
First, they can’t be on the TV all day and not on tablets all day either, even if it is an educational app. Then, according to their interest, I started building curriculum packs. Everything I wanted to focus on that week. I take off Friday afternoons and we do science experiments and hypothesize if it will work or not. I realized that learning takes place all day if I am intentional about it, so by the time we sit down for our seat work, I am dually prepared.
-EntreMama Who Homeschools