Oct. 30, 2009 - Homeschooling Through Unemployment

Homeschooling through my husband’s unemployment has been a mixed bag of blessings and difficulties.  First of all, let me address some of the difficulties – most of which you could probably come up with on your own. 

1. 24/7 Family Togetherness – Homeschooling families spend a lot of time together.  Togetherness goes hand-in-hand with homeschooling and, indeed, may be the reason for many families’ decisions to homeschool, but usually at least one member of the family goes off to work during the day. 
2. Trouble Staying On-Task – Husbands like to have projects to do.  They like to stay busy and feel a sense of accomplishment whether they are getting paid or not.  The children oftentimes see what Dad is working on and want to “help.”  If this is a weekend project, it doesn’t usually interfere with school, but when it’s a weekday morning project it becomes a whole different story.
3. Coming and Going – During the course of these projects, invariably a trip to the store becomes necessary.  Then come the echoes of “Can I go too?  Can I go too?”  Everybody is bound to need something from the store, so a shopping list must be created.

I could probably come up with one or two more problem areas, but I really want to focus on the blessings.  Most would not agree that unemployment could possibly bring anything good with it, but I have found some true blessings in the midst.

1. Help With Teaching Math – Language Arts is my area of expertise and enjoyment.  My math skills are quite limited, and I have a knack for not only confusing my children but myself as well.  My husband is our family math whiz.  Instead of calling him at work to get his guidance through a math problem, we have him right here. 
2. Running Errands – There are days that get eaten up by being on the road running hither and yon: pick up a prescription at the pharmacy, one of the kids’ has outgrown his shoes (again!) and needs new ones, we’re out of milk, we need stamps . . .  It’s nice to have my husband run those errands while the rest of us stay at home getting schoolwork done.  I think he offers because he wants to get away from the house; but if it keeps us from losing a day of school, I won’t take it personally.
3. Help with Chores – My husband is a real pro at loading the dishwasher (those engineering skills are useful),   After I get all the dishes that will fit crammed into the dishwasher, he will invariably find a way to sqeeze in 4 more bowls and a few more glasses.  It’s a real talent.  Not only that, but when my husband cleans an appliance, he takes it apart to clean it thoroughly inside and out and then puts it back together again.  It would have never occurred to me to take apart the oven door to clean the stuff that dripped down between the inner and outer panes of glass (not that I could have put the oven door back on even if I had actually figured out how to remove it in the first place).
4. Help with Computer Troubles – If you ask my children what I’m most likely to say while sitting in front of my computer, they would tell you, “I should really take this thing out to the backyard and just shoot it!”  Unfortunately, my reliance on my computer far surpasses my knowledge of how to make it do what I want it to do.  My onsite computer expert always comes to my rescue (or maybe he’s actually rescuing the computer).  Working at my computer was much more frustrating when my husband was going off to work everyday.  I would have to wait for him to get home in the evening, and by then I would probably have attempted every possible “fix” that I knew, thereby making a bigger mess for my husband to undo.  Luckily for my computer – I don’t have a gun.

So, you see, unemployment is not ALL bad.  I have to admit, I’m not totally looking forward to having my husband go back to work.  I’ll have to go back to running my own errands and limping my way through math problems, but I do think I’ll appreciate payday much more. 

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Oct. 30, 2009 - I understand!

Posted by lmb1128

I'm so glad you mentioned the ups and downs of unemployment. I recently went through this and while we are not a traditional homeschooling family, we had our positives and negatives too. C was out of work for 5 months, but I was working full time. It was great for him to get to stay home with our daughter, but I was REALLY glad when he found another job. Sometimes I miss him being home when I get off though:-(

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