Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Homeschooling and Working

Hi

I initially posted this as a reply to another thread. But I thought I would bring it up to the top here.

It is possible to homeschool and work. I have 3 years experience doing just that. I am a physician and DH is an engineer. We had no intentions of homeschooling until a principal pulled me aside and gave me an honest opinion that my kids were not going to be served in his district because there was no gifted funding. We searched for a suitable option and found none that could accommodate more than a moderately gifted child.

When the kids were younger we had a lady up the street with a small in home day care. She had raised a gifted son and loved our kids being there during the day. We laid out their lessons and they did them there. After we moved away from her, we used a nanny, who didn't teach but was available for questions etc, and did a lot of field trips.

Now, DH works from home. We have the lessons laid out for the week and go over new topics on Sunday night. During the week they work through lessons, watch educational videos and do projects and do online classes. The blessing of gifted kids is that they get things so fast it makes homeschooling easier. Mine are old enough that if DH has to go out of town they can stay at home alone. Big difference!

Of course there are days where we get off track or have less motivation. But it is by far less frustrating than having them bored in a school that simply doesn't have suitable classes.

The biggest factor is the kids personalities. They WANT to homeschool. (good thing because I was very reluctant) They are overall highly motivated and love the challenge and the freedom to schedule things in their own way. This wouldn't work for every child or every work situation. But, with so many posts here on people thinking of trying it- I wanted to post something. If you are serious- look into it. It may be easier than you think!

We homeschooled while both parents worked, as well.

I was working as a pharmacology researcher, and DH as a senior engineer at a high tech company.

I worked part time and in the evenings, and my DH was able to work flexibly from home several afternoons each week. I also had the ability to take DD to work with me occasionally, where she could work with a laptop computer, in a workbook, or just read (what she did most often). She also used to follow me around and ask a lot of questions as long as I wasn't using radiation or serious biological or chemical hazards.



We were able to successfully balance this way for almost a decade.

It isn't easy, though-- and the down side is that doing things the way we did (with no respite or additional caregivers) is exhausting with any child, and with a PG highly intense child it is even moreso.

I'll also say that as DD became a middle school student, it became much harder, and when she entered 8th grade was when I had to admit that we needed a full-time at home parent to continue. I couldn't be in two places at once, and I couldn't be doing my job well and be a good homeschooling parent for a PG 10 yo as well as a successful advocate for her and spouse to my husband.

With a regular daily (non-parent) caregiver, it might well have been different.

@3timemom and @HowlerKarma - just curious how old are your kids and what age you started homeschooling.
Please keep posting. Your experiences are inspiring. Thanks for sharing!

My children are now 13, 10 and 7. I started homeschooling when the oldest was in 3rd grade, then we went to school again(thinking a new school would work) and 2 years later we homeschooled again.

I think that the part for me that is easiest is the control. I was so tired of the lack of challenge and my kids frustration and not being able to do anything because the school just didn't have options. Now I can do something about it.

I can't help but think this area will grow and I wish there was a way for gifted homeschoolers to form partnerships other than word of mouth.

We started with simply after schooling. Then I got to the point when my oldest was in 2nd grade, that I would take him out for a day and just let him learn something at home, or we would go to the library and just read for hours. I realized how much more he learned. But when I couldn't do that everyday with work I had to look for options. It wasn't as hard as I thought to find a nanny. In fact our nanny was a part time social worker for an inner city school and she totally understood why we were doing this even though I never told her my kids were gifted. (It had to have been obvious)

I have only one child, and she has never attended a conventional school.

From the time she was four, we allowed her to do educational activities (informally, sort of a Montessori-but-not-really at home approach).

We switched to more formal instructional materials (workbooks, Reader Rabbit computer games, and Singapore math in addition to library books... HUNDREDS of library books) when she was five, and by the time she was six, she was working at about 3rd grade level and accelerating.

We enrolled her in a virtual charter school at that point since we were concerned about her ability to work on weaknesses like writing, and her asynchrony was worsening with eclectic, child-led homeschooling.

She has been with the virtual school for the past six years, and is now (at 13) a rising high school junior.

I worked at least 12-20 hours a week as a research faculty member during the period when DD was three until she was ten.

There were a series of factors associated with the decision to have me leave my job; soft $ funding, which ran out and we opted not to renew, my DH's employer increasing output demands upon reducing global workforce, and DD's increasing need for more hours from a parent.

For us personally, it has never worked very well to have Dh do 'school' with DD. She doesn't take him seriously and resents the intrusion of schoolwork (which she often regards with significant disdain) into the Daddy-Daughter let-the-good-times-roll dynamic that they've established from day one. (Yes, this would make me "Bad Cop.") As asynchrony peaked during middle school (organizational demands, work output increases, especially written, and increased cognitive ability in a PG child meaning increasing boredom with school and impatience/intolerance for developing study skills and academic weaknesses) and paired off with nacsent adolescence into a toxic brew, it was really important to have a parent on-duty all the time. The same parent, actually-- DD is quite manipulative.

As I said before, though, if we'd had a nanny (as we did when DD was a baby, when DH and I were both tenure-track faculty) it could have worked indefinitely with sufficiently flexible employers.


HTH.