During 2020 many families not only learned how to work from home, but they also had to learn how to homeschool their children. There are many different ways to homeschool and it widely depends on the state you live in. In the state of Arizona we have the option to have K12 which is a public school option that you can have your children at home. They still have teachers and state accredited curriculum, but they are not physically at school.
How do you work though and have your children at home? What other options might you look into if you want to both work from home and have your children outside the public school system?
Flexible Hours
One of the beautiful things about schooling at home is it gives you more flexibility. You can choose what time of the day works best for you and your children’s schedule. Do you have a meeting at 11? If it works best to have your children working on some reading during that time have them read. Do you have baseball practice at 3:30? Do your work beforehand and take the kids to practice.
Working from home, or remote work, doesn’t have to be an 8-5 job. Schooling from home does not have to be an 8-3 affair either. Learn what is best for you and your children throughout the seasons of the school year and as they grow.
Schooling Options
Some of the options you can choose to use when home schooling your children include: Pod schooling, microschools, video schooling, and online schooling. There are many cities and communities that have home school coops which provide many different opportunities for your children. Again, schedule your time around these opportunities for the best result for you and your family. Micro schools or pod schooling can be an excellent opportunity for your family if you want to keep your kids out of the public school system, but you don’t want to do everything regarding schooling for your kids. If your work requires you to have specific hours, micro schooling can really be beneficial for both you and your children.
Cost
If you have been sending your children to public school you might reasonably be wondering how schooling at home will impact your budget! There are many creative ways to teach your kids at home. Depending on your state regulations you may have more or less options. In the state of Arizona, where I live, we have many options because the state doesn’t regulate us to death.
One of the newest benefits in the state of Arizona is the passing of the Empowerment Scholarship Account which is for private institutions and homeschooling families. It gives money to help cover the cost of private tuition or curriculum for schooling at home. This is a huge opportunity for homeschooling and private schooling families in the state of Arizona.
If your state does not have a similar program, keep a look out for secondhand curriculum. Websites such as Thriftbooksks is really helpful for finding literature and workbooks for a fraction of the price. Many coops will have libraries where you can find a plethora of material for your children.
Conclusion
Going through 2020 taught us a lot about working and schooling at home. If you are wanting to work from home and homeschool your children it is very doable if you have the tools to make it work for your specific family. Fortunately there are many different ways to school at home and you’re only limited by your state regulations and community. There are so many options for curriculum and paying for all the things that come with schooling at home. Check out what is available in your state and area to best serve your family.
What did you learn from 2020 and working and schooling from home?
Thanks so much for your comments. I couldn’t agree more with your point about working and schooling from home allows so much flexibility. It’s not to say that it can’t be extremely challenging balancing a career schedule with the needs of your family each day, but once you find something that works, it can be extremely rewarding. We are also taking advantage of Arizona’s ESA program and it’s been a tremendous blessing to our family financially, as well as enabling us to purchase homeschooling items we normally wouldn’t buy. Hopefully other states will follow suit shortly.