Nov. 16, 2009 - Working & Homeschooling - Making Different Choices
~~~ Working and Homeschooling ~~~
I have to admit it -- I am a news junkie. However, with working outside the home, I have made the choice to cut back on my TV time. I will watch about the first 15-20 minutes of the news, and then the TV is turned off.
I am making the choice to try to make time to either play games with dd in the evening or watch family-oriented DVDs with her. Often, you will find the two of us cuddling on the couch with the cat.
I used to be an avid reader. If I got a new book, I could immerse myself in it and forget about everything/everyone else. With working, I have had to push that passion on the back burner. If I do any reading at all, it is a couple of pages before I nod off to sleep. I even try to do my devotions on my lunch break so that I have more time with my family when I am home.
I have also had to cut back on emails. I used to be signed up to a lot of different mailing lists. Time just doesn't allow me the opportunity to continue receiving so many emails, so I have cut way back, in order to give me more time with my family.
I used to love to sit and chat with a friend on the phone. I will admit -- I miss those times. I do it occasionally, but over all, I rarely call my friends. And I have to admit -- I get lonely for them. I really miss them. However, rather than focus on what I am missing, I must choose to focus on what working is doing for our family. It is paying the bills, which would otherwise be way behind at this point. I know that this is where God has placed me. As hard as it is sometimes, I prefer to be in center of His will. Being anywhere else would just be misery.
You see, working outside the home and homeschooling can be done. You just need to learn to make different choices on some things.
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Nov. 14, 2009 - Saturday
~~~ Working and Homeschooling ~~~
I have been trying to get as much as possible done on the days when I do work, so that when I have the day off, I can actually relax and unwind a bit. Unfortunately, that isn't how yesterday played out for me. Instead of resting, here is what I did:
- a load of laundry
- posted an ad on vegsource for some hs items I want to sell
- organized a cabinet in the kitchen
- made bbq sauce
- made granola
- made soap (recipe is posted in the body care category)
- blogged
- made some phone calls
- planned a girls' group meeting for next week
- contacted someone about using their facility for our local 4-H clogging group
- swept
- made supper
- got my lunch prepared for today
- did school w/dd
- organized some hs items
- washed dishes at least 4 times
- got all my stuff together so it would be ready for me as I got ready for work this morning
- went to bed at 7:30 because I was
While it felt good to know that I was making a lot of progress, I have to admit that by evening time, I was less-than-pleasant. 
It is hard to balance keeping a home, working outside the home, and hs'ing. 
And when your hormones are amuck, it's all the more difficult. 
Would anyone care to give me a nice, long back rub? 
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Nov. 9, 2009 - My #1 Hint
~~~ Working and Homeschooling ~~~
If I had to come up with only ONE hint for making working outside the home also work with homeschooling, it would be to get in the habit of making a menu plan. I do mine for a month because I have my schedule for the entire month. If you only know your schedule for a week or two weeks in advance, then plan it for that length of time. This has been the biggest help for me. Being able to come home and know in advance what I'm doing for supper is a HUGE relief. No more wondering, "What in the world am I going to make?" No temptations for stopping at McDonald's and paying a small fortune for unhealthy food that is going to make all of us feel sick. It also alleviates constantly running to the store to pick up something.
Yes, it may take some extra time and discipline up front, but the savings down the road in my time, energy, and $, are priceless!
For more hints on how to start menu planning, visit my other blog:
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Nov. 2, 2009 - Working & Homeschooling #1
~~~ Working and Homeschooling ~~~
Several people have stopped by my blog and asked, "How do you manage to work and still homeschool?" I decided to start a category, dedicated just to that topic.
For starters, I have an "only." She is in 8th grade, so at this point, she doesn't really need me as a "teacher." Instead, she needs me as a facilitator.
Since dd is in 8th grade, we are trying to do as many subjects as possible this year that can count toward her high school transcript. With also facing the emotional highs of lows of puberty, I also knew that it was unwise to expect her to do a full course load during the school year. To alleviate the chances of her "melting down," she knew she would have to complete some subjects over the summer months.
She completed her Home Ec course over the summer. Shortly after school officially started this fall, she finished up the A Beka high school health course. She is nearly done with her World Geography. We used Challenging Geography as well as the game Where in the World? to complete this course. She has done really well learning the countries of the world and she enjoys it, so it was a good fit. I am "quizzing" her on the countries, and that is what will earn her course credit. I will likely have her pick a country on which to write an essay. So there are three courses, nearly done. She should finish up the first semester of her language arts course around Thanksgiving. (For more info on what types of courses we are using for high school, read the "High School" category.)
We are not unschoolers, so most of our curriculum is already laid out for us, which is a huge help since I started working. The only subject I really need to plan ahead is her language arts. We are using an old version of Easy Grammar and Easy Writing. Over the weekend, I will pull out the next week's assignments and put them in a folder for her.
She knows that any assignments that stump her can be set aside until I get home in the evening. DH has been helping out some. On evenings when I work later hours, he will grade her work. He has also been helping her with her spelling.
It isn't taking her all that long to complete her assignments. If she gets out of bed when she is supposed to, she can usually have most of it done before lunch time, or shortly thereafter. Right now, she is doing LA, Pre-algebra, vocabulary, and science. She still chooses to work on her geography, but only does so a couple of times a week.
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