Working Full Time At Home? You Can Homeschool

Have you ever wondered if you could work full time at home and homeschool your child? I’m happy to share 5 vital keys to making it work and inspiration from two moms currently in the trenches.

If you work at home as I do, you know the struggle to get anything done is real.

If your kids aren’t interrupting your work time, then someone is at the door, or the phone rings. There is dinner to be made, spills to clean up, and general chaos can rule the roost, making you feel exhausted and unproductive.

Learning time management for busy moms can help you be more productive but the question remains, can work at home moms homeschool?

The quick answer is yes you can homeschool while working full time at home.

But don’t just take my word for it!

In this blog post, I’ll share with your the key to working full time at home while homeschooling and share tips and tricks from those who work at home.

5 Keys To Working At Home Full Time & Homeschooling

Being a mom is hard. Being a work at home mom while homeschooling is a whole new level of tough.

One way to make this job much more manageable is to have a few keys in place.

1. Create a routine or schedule.

I always recommend starting with a simple schedule. You have enough on your plate. Do not add to it by filling in every hour of every day. Be as scheduled as you need to be to make this work for your family.

2. Teach your kids to let you work.

One of the hardest parts of working at home is coping with distractions. When you work at home and homeschool, sometimes your kids are the distraction!

I use a timer with block scheduling. The key is to get a foundation in place and start slow.

Remember, it will take time to introduce anything new. Tell your kids what you are doing and why. Let them know what to expect from you, and be clear about how you plan to handle any interruptions.

For example, tell them you are working for the next 30 minutes. If they need you, they need to wait until you are done.

This is one of the best time management tips for work at home moms.

3. Let your kids know what to do when they get stuck and you can’t help them.

Children do not like guessing games. I mean the kind where they don’t know what they are supposed to do.

When my kids get stuck on a school subject, we have a system in place. They try it for a few minutes. If they are still stuck they set it aside until my time block is up. This prevents them from feeling overwhelmed and discouraged.

We use a clipboard to keep track of everything that I need to check on my next break.

Find or create a system for your homeschool. Keep it simple.

4. Outsource.

You do not have to teach all the things. Repeat after me: it is okay to let others teach your kids.

Sometimes our kids learn better from others. Use online programs, live programs, co-ops, tutors, etc., to help take the load off of you.

This is a great way to work on those social skills and help your kids find friends.

5. Get your kids involved in household activities.

I’m a big believer that if you live in my house and then you are part of our team. Which means you help clean up messes, cook meals and pick up.

Disclosure: I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

We use a chore system called Motivated Moms. I like it because I can print it off and stick it on the fridge. The kids like that they get to pick what they do.

These 5 keys will really help make working at home full time and homeschooling easier on everyone.

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How To Work Full At Home Full Time & Homeschool:

I’m not going to offer you rainbows and fairy tales because life as a mom, homeschooling or not, is a rollercoaster ride. Instead, I thought you might like to see it in action!

I asked two working full time at home moms, Lynsey and Kristine to share what has helped them in their working homeschool mom balance.

Ladies, please say hello and introduce yourself to us:

“I am Lynsey, my husband is Roger, and our daughter is Willow.”

“My name is Kristine, my husband is Alan, and we have one boy, Ty who is 9 – almost 10! He has ADD as well as auditory and visual processing and it was a constant struggle to try to “keep up” in school. I found myself spending all kinds of time at night and on the weekend trying to reteach what he should have learned in school and yet he was still falling way behind. So I took the plunge and decided to homeschool. This is now our second year of homeschooling.”

A Peek At Their Working Schedules:

One thing that is really hard as a working full time mom is to figure out a schedule that works for you.

I asked Lynsey and Kristine to share what their schedules look like. Remember it is best to get inspired and see what works for you and your family.

Lynsey says, “For the most part my (work) schedule is flexible as long as I am clocked in by 8 am, and get 10 hours in for each day Monday thru Friday. Most days I start at 5 am.”

Kristine says, “I work a 40+ hour job – I usually start between 6 and 7 am – depending on getting myself out of bed and finish between 5 and 6 pm. I also often work after my son goes to bed from about 9 to 11 pm. I work from home but I am a director and have 8 direct reports. As a result, I am on video conference calls most of the day – usually from about 10 am to 5 pm!”

Both of these moms have long days where they report to someone else. How can they homeschool their kids? Let’s see.

How To Fit Homeschooling Into Life:

With such full work schedules, it might seem that there is no way to fit homeschooling in, and yet these two moms do! I asked them to share how they are able to manage this.

Lynsey says, “On Sunday nights I sit down with my spreadsheet, that is divided up by days and 15 minute increments, I put in things that we have scheduled such as dance and other appointments and include the time to drive to and from them, then I schedule in my work time, next I schedule in school work, a good bit of it my daughter is able to do while I am working but I schedule in time for us to go over any questions she has, do our hands-on stuff, and do any heavy reading that needs to be done. Then I schedule in cleaning and chores.”

Kristine says, “I do a couple of things… First, I looked for programs that could help me out during the work day.

Last year, our first year, I used BJU Math and I bought the distance learning DVDs so that he could watch the DVD and then do the work. My hope had been that he would be more independent but that didn’t quite work as planned. He quickly got bored with the videos and didn’t stay focused long enough to really learn anything.

So we went back to the drawing board and I found a tutoring center nearby that decided to start offering homeschool classes. He went to the center two days a week for 2 1/2 hours. One day was an ELA class and one day was a STEM class. This helped tremendously because he did fun science experiments in the STEM class which would really have been a lot of work for me to do.

Also, I got another teacher’s input on his reading and while I feel I could have done this on my own, it was very helpful to get another perspective. It also helped greatly with his writing – which he hates to do.

This year, they expanded their program and added a third day which they call an “immersion” class which combines ELA and STEM. I also added some additional tutoring to help him with his math and writing, beyond what I am doing at home. Also, the classes are small – last year was 4 kids, this year, they are up to 6.

As for the rest, we do math, reading, writing, cursive, geography, and a little history this year. We stick largely to the basics and I use curriculum from BJU for math. I pull the rest from various websites.

Every morning I give my son a list of what he needs to do and all the worksheets he needs. He can do a lot of it on his own but for the things that he needs me for, he has to do it when I am between meetings – usually before about 10 am or just randomly between the day.

He doesn’t get electronics until his work is done so he’s pretty good about getting it done when I tell him he needs to because once I start my busy meeting schedule, he’s stuck! It’s actually a good life lesson!

Finally, I find other things to help round out his “curriculum”. We do piano lessons for music, we do a farm class at a local farm once a week that gets him out and is more for socialization than anything else – I can drop him off and pick him up… And we do cub scouts also for socialization but he also learns stuff – like the other night they did a badge on geology.

My husband does what he can to help but it’s very hard for him to take my son – my work is more mobile – even though I am on video conference calls, I can take my work with me and do a call from the car. My mom helps me once a week and takes him to piano for me. Finding programs that support me has been the key for me.”

What Works Best Routines or Schedules?

As I mentioned earlier, having a routine or schedule is key to being a work at home mom. I use a combination of both but I was interested to see what Lynsey and Kristine use.

Lynsey says, “I use a routine and a schedule, dishes have to be loaded into the dishwasher, sinks empty, counters clear, and floors swept, every night before bed. In the morning my daughter empties the dishwasher, once a week she is to wipe down baseboards, twice a week she cleans the bathrooms, and keeps her room every night.

I mop floors every other day, Friday night or Saturday morning I do a fairly deep clean of the whole house, but since we moved into a bigger house, I am sure I will have to alter my cleaning schedule a bit, so it’s not overwhelming.

Each person has their own laundry day, I only do my laundry and towels. My work and schooling schedule varies based on what day is and what extracurricular activities we have going on.”

Kristine says, “I give my son a list every morning of his work. It’s just a simple spiral notebook. I put the day and date, make the list – I even include chores – and he checks the work off. When the list is finished, he lets me know, I review it, and if it really is done, he gets his electronics. If he has a class at the tutoring center, that is just one thing on the list, he still has other work to do before or after the class.”

What Is A Challenge You May Need To Overcome:

No matter what you choose to do in life there are always challenges to overcome. I asked both Lynsey and Kristine to share one challenge they had to overcome as a full time work at home mom.

Lynsey says, “Actually figuring out how to make everything work without anything slacking.”

Lynsey is not alone in this challenge which is why I love sharing interviews like this so you can get some creative ideas from checking out how other working moms are making it work for them.

Kristine says, “Figuring out how to keep him busy and get the work done around my busy work schedule.

Also, I feel like I could do so much more if I wasn’t working. We tried to do a nature class with one of the local co-ops and it was a great class but I ended up having to either take the day off or find someone to take him because it wasn’t something I could do any work while he was at. I also tried a few field trips last year but again, I had to take the day off.

This year, we plan trips on the weekends and do things either with scouts or on our own.”

Trying new things is a great way to see what works and what doesn’t.

Are There Any Benefits To Working And Homeschooling?

One question most working moms ask at one point or another is if there are any benefits for working and homeschooling?

Lynsey says, “The income, and my daughter, seeing that anything is possible if you put your mind to it.”

Kristine says, “Honestly, homeschooling is hard but it’s easier than the struggle we were doing trying to keep up with some arbitrary standard. I am able to pick the curriculum that fits my son, we can take extra time when we need it, and I immediately know when he is not getting something and can adapt – rather than finding out when he is weeks behind. He is doing so much better than he was in school as a result.”

Personally, I agree. My kids have watched me work hard to overcome challenges, learn how to manage my time and energy, see the value of hard work and seeing tasks through when they watch me work at home. These are life lessons and skills I am not sure they would learn if they didn’t have a live example each day.

What Advice Would You Give?

One of my favorite questions to ask is, “If you could give a piece of advice to a mom who is considering homeschooling, who is also working, what would it be?”

Lynsey says, “Take a deep breath, it won’t all fall into place overnight, if you start to feel overwhelmed figure out if you are doing too much or if there is a better way to break up your time.”

Kristen says, “I would say, start with the basics – Math, Reading, Writing. You don’t have to do it all to start off. Figure out what works for your child and then once you get that working, slowly add to it if you want. We didn’t do anything outside the basics and the classes at the tutoring center our first year. Then we gradually added in other stuff. And most importantly, remember, that you don’t have to homeschool forever. If it’s not working, you can change it or you can put your child back in school. I don’t know if we will do it forever – for us, its a year by year decision.”

And Lynsey has one final reminder, she says, “If it was easy everyone would do it, but having to work hard for what you want for your family and child(ren) is well worth it in the end. “

Working Full Time At Home Moms Can Homeschool

You can homeschool your children and work full time at home.

As you can see, it looks different for each person and each family but with a little creativity and a lot of determination you can make it work for you.

Take your time and figure out what schedule, routine or mix of both works for you. Don’t be afraid to try new things. And if something isn’t working, step back and reevaluate.

There are going to be days where you wonder if you should quit. That’s normal.

If you are looking for more working moms to get inspired, see if our online community is right for you.

Do you work full time at home and homeschool? I’d love to hear how you are making that work for you. Leave me a comment below.

Take care,

Jen

PS. One thing that is vital as a working mom is creating a simple schedule. Sign up below to learn how to do that!

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