Working and Home Schooling

A little over three years ago, life took a dramatic turn for our family. Someday I may go into the details of that situation but for now, it is enough to know that I became the head of household and the financial burdens of my family now lie squarely upon my own shoulders. In reality, the Holy Spirit is the Head of my Household but my role within my family has changed to include that of income producer as well as home school mom. I have tried to learn the skills to be able to be a work at home mom but for the time being, I am also working an outside job.

How does home schooling fit into a working mom's daily schedule? With great care, planning and cooperation from the children. I have to say that I have finally realized that life will never be the same again. It is time to put the past behind us and move forward. If our family is going to thrive, we must work together to accomplish our goals. I can no longer focus on homemaking like in the past. The children have had to learn to help with daily household tasks such as cooking, cleaning up after themselves, and kitchen and bathroom chores, etc. My children are older and don't need constant adult supervision but a schedule and weekly assignments are critical to achieving success.

I also have a work schedule that helps significantly to maintain the maximum number of hours I am home throughout the week. I work on a compressed schedule so I only work three 14-hour days per two week pay period. These are long, hard days but it gets my part-time work schedule finished with the least amount of disruption to my family's life schedule. It looks like they may be adding two days to my bi-weekly schedule which will be an answer to prayer for our financial needs but it will add more stress to our life.

Also, as another way to add to our family's income, I list home school and other merchandise on ebay. I highly recommend this to any home school family who needs to cushion their income. If you don't know where to start, I found a great resource to help me get started. It is a downloadable ebook written by a home school mom who has used ebay to build her 4000+ volume library FOR FREE! using the techniques she teaches in this book. How To Sell Books Using Online Auctions has been a wonderful source of advice and I believe it would be helpful for those just starting to learn about ebay as well as those who already have some experience selling on ebay because she goes into all of the smallest details to help you be successful.

If you are a home school mom who finds herself needing outside employment just to meet her family's financial need, please share with us how you are able to manage your time and resources.

In future postings, I will be going into more detail on successfully combining home school with work so be sure to check back often.

And as always, I desire to speak God's blessings to everyone I meet.
Blessings,
Julie Anderson