I am thinking about homeschooling my kids this fall. But I also have a few littles starting this fall. One is 4 and the other is 2. I also have a 4 year old son.
I am wondering how the moms who homeschool as well as do childcare do it?
What is your routine like? How long does the homeschooling take per day and how much of it needs one on one supervision?
How do your kids feel about being homeschooled? Especially for those who also care for SA afterschool kids.
Any other thoughts or words of wisdom is also more than appreciated! Thanks

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We homeschooled and did daycare for 3 years (my youngest boys are now in public highschool- Sports!). My hubby and I run our daycare together and we do a full day preschool (we take 18 months and up) so it goes pretty naturally with homeschooling.

We worked up a daily schedule every year and tweeked it as needed. We keep our dc numbers under the allowance for 1 provider so we can take our kids to appointments, meets, groups, etc when needed. Since our kids were older they were able to work on their own some of the time.

Our schedule was something like this:

7a-8:30a- My kids slept in some and they got ready for the day. DC- free play/breakfast prep

8:30a - Ate breakfast all together and I went over their first assignments during breakfast.

9:00 -10:00 My kids worked on their assignments, helping each other and/or coming to me for help as needed. DC- Circle Time, writing/drawing time

10-11a - I taught a Science or History lesson w/ my kids, DC- hubby has outside time and learning activity

11-12:30 Hubby teaches PE/Health, then helps with morning assignments as needed.

12:30 Lunch all together

1:00-3:30 - Focused lessons w/ my kids- Math, Lang Arts, etc. Checking and going over the days work. DC- Hubby supervises nap time

3:30 Snack time all together

4:00-6:00 Extra curriculars / free time. DC- group activities, outside time, free play

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Its so funny, because as I was clicking onto the forum link I was just thinking about asking a questiong to other homeschooling providers lol....
anyhows...we have just started homeschooling our 5 year old daughter this past year. We used the confessions of a homeschooler curriculum...well it was mostly my husband....I run the daycare and he works an evening shift....he was more adamant about doing homeschool so I told him if he really wanted to do it then he would need to be the lead, I knew there was no way I could mentally juggle our own three children (8months, 2 years and 5 year old), PLUS the daycare children, our HOME and HOmeschooling....so after a whole year, my husband and daughter survived lol....she can now read, she is great in math..and much more....This year I have decided to close my daycare so I can devote my time and attention to my children....we are downsizing our home so we can live off of one income and not be forced to have a daycare or me go back to teaching public school, just to stay here....

So after all of that, I hope I didnt scare you....thats just my personal story....i am not an expert at juggling so many things ...so I know where I draw my limit...some other providers have sucessfully done it...but I am personally tired of being stuck at home, even with asisstants its hard to just get away and do things that a normal homeschooling family should be able to do.

My one peice of advice is to join a local homeschooling group or co-op with similar beleifs and ideas as yours. Also if you can manage doing daycare just part time, like 3 days a week that would also free you up and allow you to take your child on feild trips or library or any place that is usually not so crowded during the weekdays...or taking SA only so you have a good chunk of the day free....

there are so many curriculums that are sold online and its so easy to get overwhelmed...try finding a homeschool Expo in your area...they have many helpful booths and great discounts as well. We are joining Classical Conversations Co-Op.

Kindergarten should be easy and not too rigid, it should be a fun experience for the both of you.

You can PM if youd like

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I homeschooled my daughter for first and second grade and she had the option of doing regular third grade this last school year and she did. She will do fourth grade in the same school is coming year and come home for fifth grade after that. Sounds weird I know but when I gave her the option of third grade in regular school I made her give it a two year commitment and if she did good I'd let her choose for fifth grade. She already decided she wants to come back to homeschooling. She LOVES homeschooling and honestly so do I. My state makes it SO EASY and I love having no curriculum restrictions here.

It's really very simple to add into my daycare day. We homeschool FOUR days a week (Monday through Thursday) approximately 3 hours total instruction per day. I musta not done too bad because she's about to enter fourth grade and she has tested every subject out in percentages against 7th graders and reads and comprehends high school level.

I love homeschooling because I know EXACTLY what she's learning. SHE loves it because she gets more science than regular school provides and that's her favorite thing.

Nap time is an excellent time to get homeschooling done and it worked awesome for us like that and then reinforcement in reading etc after daycare hours like at bedtime.

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I am just curious...if she already decided to come back for homeschooling, why don't you just bring her back before school starts again? And what made her decide to go back to homechool?

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Because when I let her go to third grade this last year I told her we weren't going to do a year of this and a year of that etc and that it had to be a two year commitment. Fourth grade that starts in August will be her second year back in school. I don't want her to think that it's okay to change her mind every month and I wanted her to understand what commitment is about.

We live extremely rural and socialization is not easy. Without school about the only way to have the social aspect is sports, which we do also. The homeschool association in this county is a joke to say the least.

She loves homeschool mainly because she likes a faster paced learning environment and I can give her that. She doesn't like the fact that schools here don't have science at all until fifth grade. She also feels like they spend too much time only teaching them what they have to know simply to pass MCT testing. And I agree with her. Her favorite subject is science and I cater to her science side.

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Thats awesome to hear that she loves that....

Socialization is the biggest argument I have with my family about homeschooling...such an over rated topic IMHO

this video came to my mind first

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJHt-m3VX6o

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The best advice I got was to look at large families who homeschool. I mean, if a family of 8 kids (or more!) can homeschool successfully, I can certainly learn some tips of how to deal with my 3 plus 2-4 more. There are several large family homeschooling blogs. They run the gamut from highly structured to unschoolers, so you can find inspiration for whatever your personal style is.

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I should have homeschooled. I just find that kids are just rushed thru everything. When my dd was 4 she knew things that a grade 1 child knew but I put her in junior kindy (preschool for you guys) well she was so bored that she decided not to do any of the work. I like school for socialization because we are in the county but as for the learning aspect it sucks here. Luckily my kids love doing work books, so at least they are learning all year round with me.

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I homeschool my 8th grader. What works best for us is for her to work independently in the morning on english, history or other interests and then she does math and science and projects in the afternoon when the kids are sleeping so she can spread out and I'm available to help her if she needs it. I do her lessons up a few weeks at a time in each subject and she chooses what she does each day for the most part. She gets more lessons when she's completed everything in the binder. We do our own curriculum which loosely follows the local curriculum but with our own material and lots of extra topics. She's considering going to public high school so we want to make sure she's learning the same topics....just in a better way with more extensive coverage. I get most of our materials online.

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I will be homeschooling my oldest next year, the second will be in specialized preschool, the two youngest are babies. I will have three daycare kids on top of this but only one is full time. My oldest will do most of the work during nap time but she is only in kinder. She did fantastic in K4 in a traditional private school and we are going to continue using the same curriculum at home. I am not worried about it at all. We can always do some in the evenings and weekends.

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We homeschooled for 7 years before starting public school. It was prett easy when younger but as the child moved up in grades it did become more challenging as they needed more help in certain subjects. The main reason that we went to public school is I ended up having to take on a full childcare again and couldn't do it all and keep the childs schooling up also. I would only work about prechool hours, shortened days or not have a full childcare during the majority of our homeschoolig years.

Also, I had to make sure I balanced it with the preschool/childcare pretty carefully even withut a full childcare. The parents were great about us homeschooling BUT at the same time you have to remember that they are paying you to be with their child.

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You bring up a good point. I do wonder how the parents would feel about me homeschooling while doing daycare. I'm not sure how I would feel about it as a parent..I would likely wonder how much time is being spent doing activities and teaching with my little one while the DP was working with her own kids.

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Have you always homeschooled your daughter? If not, may I ask what made you take her out of the public school system.
Also, how do you decide what to teach and how to teach it?

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She's been home almost a year. She was in public school before that. We decided to homeschool her because she wasn't being challenged in school and was started to act out due to boredom, she didn't relate well to many of her peers and she was dealing with some anxiety that I knew we could relieve just by changing the situation. She wasn't being bullied but she wasn't happy in school with her peers, her teachers and the schoolwork. She also happens to have a very heavy dance schedule so it's worked out very, very well in that area too. If she wasn't an excellent student I'm not sure if it would be as smooth as it is.

I decide what to teach mostly based on her interests and the local curriculum (which for me is available online). We do a science program that is based entirely online and we use khanacademy.org for math. English and social studies are alot of reading because she loves it. She also watches alot of documentaries. The guidelines where I live are very loose.

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We homeschool our 2 daughters (going into 1st and 3rd grade) and I have a full daycare/preschool (8 kids between 2-5 yrs). I do not take infants and young toddlers. I find homeschooling and daycare go well together. It can be stressful at times, but it all works out. Here is our schedule:

7:00-8:30 Daycare- arrivals/Breakfast. Homeschool- get ready and breakfast.
8:30-9:00 Daycare- Circle Time. Homeschool- Handwriting, Math Drills
9:00-9:30 Daycare- Morning art/learning activites. Homeschool- Break
9:30-11:00 Daycare- Learning Centers/Playtime. Homeschool- Spelling, Lang. Arts
11:00-11:30 Everyone Outside Playtime
11:30-12:00 Video Time while I prepare lunch
12:00-12:30 Everyone Lunch
12:30- 1:00 Daycare- Prepare for nap/clean up Homeschool- Independent Reading in room.
1:00-3:00 Daycare- Nap. Homeschool- Math, Science, Social Studies
3:00-3:30 Everyone Snack
3:30-5:30 Everyone Free Pay Inside or Outside

Evening and Weekend:
PE- Organized sports such as swimming and soccer
Art/Music- Classes we sign the kids up for
Socialization with kids their age- Homeschool Girl scout troop

If homechooling is a priority for you then it can be done even with a full daycare. I have done it for 3 years (homeschooling). SOmetimes my hubby helps with things as well but it is mostly me. I have chosen curriculum that allows for more independent school work rather than teacher intensive curriculum options. We also school 4 days per week and leave Fridays open for catch up or a deserved break.

As for daycare parents... I have not had any problems with enrolling families because of homeschooling. Sometimes prospective parents ask me how I do it but that is about it. I am choosing to use a pre-packaged curriculum this year(Mother Goose Time). I am trying it out this summer and so far I LOVE it. I think it will help me keep everything balanced and cut down on time needed for shopping for special supplies and endless searching of the internet and printing off papers at the last minute.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

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I agree with others that public school doesn't challenge children... In general... An our public school is one of the best in the state.


I've found that the last few years they ONKY teach what's necessary to pass MCT and that's it.

And that's not good enough for me.

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