Many of the things I have read about homeschooling seem to be geared towards families where the father is the provider and the mother does all of the homeschooling. But I have never been in that situation. Ever since Mr. Pete started his own company 12 years ago, I have had to help provide income for our family. For the past 11 years we have also homeschooled and much of that time we have homeschooled with a baby or a toddler in our midst! That’s a lot for one mom to have on her plate! Yet we have survived and one way or another even prospered! I’d like to share a little bit about how I manage to provide half of our income and homeschool.
Part of my adventure started before we even had children. When I was considering starting my family I knew I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom so I started to train and gear my work experience towards being a medical transcriptionist. I joined the local professional organization and I made a lot of friends and contacts and gained a lot of experience. That came in very handy when I was out on my own. Many, many moms work as medical transcriptionists at home and I think it is a perfect job that lends itself to that lifestyle.
Other homeschooling moms I know do medical billing, one teaches Jazzercise. Another good friend of mine sells on eBay. All of these ladies have kids and work from home
I learned one little gem that really works for me almost by accident. I had an night where one of the kids was sick all evening and when I finally got the little one to bed I was no longer sleepy As it was 5:00 a.m., I decided I might as well work since I wasn’t going to be able to get to sleep. I got a lot done between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. It really surprised at how much work I accomplished in those hours and now it is my preferred work time. I also work during nap times, but as the chldren have gotten older I have found that I need naptime to help with difficult school work or to drive them to different activities so that doesn’t always work for us. I also can get two more hours in between 9:00 and 11:00 and on the weekend. All told I can get about 20 hours in working in the extreme hours of every day.
There are times when work interferes with my homeschool life and that use to bother me until I reconciled the idea that my children need my clients to be happy as much as I do and so now I don’t find those calls to be such a distraction. I do find that I can minimize those distractions by staying on top of the work. Most of the phone calls I received were from doctor’s offices looking for dictation that wasn’t done yet. Yet as happens in a lot of offices, dictation that I have transcribed and turned in still gets lost from time to time in the office. What I try to do is let my voice mail pick up the calls and then I return them when I get a break in the morning. I check again at noon and then in the afternoon. But usually if I keep the work up to date there are minimal phone calls.
As the children have grown I have included them in my work. I have one job that requires that I drive down to the hospital to pick up and drop off dictation. When my boys have reached the age of 12 or so (sooner for Gabe because he is just so physically big) I let them run in and do this for me. That benefits me because I don’t have to pay for parking. I can drop them off and by the time I turn the car around, they’re waiting for me. It’s been good for them because they have learned how to carry out a task and deal with professionals like medical secretaries and receptionists. The medical secretary that I primarily work with sometimes treats my little couriers with a box full of pennies, or candy and they really enjoy that.
Over the past three years we have also become an eBay family. My daughter has really become my best little friend when it comes to shopping for items at yard sales and thrift stores to put on eBay! The kids have also learned about how to pack something so that it won’t break before it reaches its destination. They have also from time to time, posed for our eBay pictures. The sousaphone sale was the latest one.
I also had a huge American flag once that two of the kids held up for me because it was so big! Learning these skills, from running a good sale to following through with the packing and shipping are invaluable parts of their homeschooling experience that I think will assist them throughout their lives in many different areas.
Homeschooling and working for moms can be a tough and exhausting job. It takes a lot of time management skill and the ability to shift focus quickly between work and family. But if you’re determined you can find creative ways to make it work and perhaps even include your children that will be good for them and benefit the entire family.
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