I tried to post this last week but am not sure it went through, so apologies if this is repetitious.

In short, I am a single parent and my family's income and insurance coverage come from my job. But I have also fighting against that reality that homeschooling may be the best option for my child. Is that possible??

Do all homeschoolers have partners with solid jobs or are there ways around such roadblocks like partnering up with other homeschooling families or other strategies I haven't considered?

I am curious to know what configurations folks have made work.
Thanks.

From the sounds of your post I'm thinking it's probably not the case, but - do you work from home or have some sort of flexibility thereof, such as flexible hours or an ability to do at least some work at home? Or, based on the previous question, could you partially homeschooling, or after school? How old is your child (a middle or high schooler could be left alone for part of the day, for example, if you could be work from home part of the day)? I'm sorry to ask so many questions (don't answer them if you don't want to), but the more information the better to know. I wouldn't yet say it's completely impossible, but (not being a homeschooled myself), there will always be challenges in homeschooling no matter your situation.
And welcome, by the way. :-)

I don't have exactly your situation, as I do have a partner who can stay home to supervise the children, but I do work full time, and do the majority of the homeschooling direct instruction. Of course, how much of what we do is applicable to you will be highly dependent on your circumstances, and the age/maturity of your children, but perhaps this can, at least, be a starting point for ideas:

I have a small amount of flexibility in my hours, which I've shifted to give us two afternoons a week at home, during which I work with our children. They spend one afternoon at a homeschool coop. The rest of the weekdays, they have task lists, which they work on independently (our oldest is an early adolescent, which makes this more realistic). I also check in with them in the evenings and on weekends.

If you can arrange for some kind of childcare during the day, maybe shift some of the extracurriculars to during your work hours, it might work to move instructional time to nights and weekends. There's no rule that says school has to be between 8 and 2 on Monday through Friday.

I am a single parent and I can't but others do. If your job pays well enough to pay for care or if you have a friend or relative who would provide cheap/free care, or if your child is old enough and OK with being alone (here not until 14) or if you can work from home or take the child to work.

I'm a single parent homeschooling, and I'm only able to make it work because the situation is right. I would say a single working parent needs two or more of the following:

- Flexible job hours;

- A big homeschooler community, offering lots of kid-swap and co-op classes;

- Plenty of money to hire as much help as you need;

- Relatives who are local and eager to help with childcare.