In our area, the rents are astronomical. This means that many parents work outside the home. However, our area also has large and growing numbers of home learners. How do parents juggle the two?
First, we have flexible work schedules. I work three days out of the week, but I am taking a morning off a week and using flex time to cover this. This means that I have an extra morning to do some home learning activities.
We also use weekends and evenings. Now, since we’re fairly causal learners, we life learn on weekends and evenings as everyone does. It’s just that now these life learning experiences or classes count as part of our curriculum. We consider them to be part of the whole life learning experience that our child enjoys.
We also find excellent and educational care for our children. In our community, there are a number of part time learning programs that children can attend, all geared towards home learners or those who wish to attend school part time. Two mornings a week, my daughter will be attending one of those schools, which is a democratic and unschooling-based environment where she can play and explore her interests. When I am at work, she is also with her grandparents part time, all of whom enjoy playing with her, take her to scheduled lessons if there are any, and often interact with her in a far less harried manner than her mother might.
Part time home learning is a choice that more and more parents are making around here. Some of those parents would have sent their children to full time school if the part time programs were not available. Others want their homeschooled children to have a place to go to play and learn with other children once or twice a week. Others must work, so the homeschooling programs are an excellent way to get together with other families who have similar learning philosophies.
Have you balanced your own work, homeschooling, and courses for your child?