Work from Home and Home Educate tips continued

It was so easy to write the blog earlier (click here for the 1st Home Ed blog) for those of us that Home Educate and run Businesses from Home that I thought I should follow it up with a few more practical tips.

1. Get your kids involved. I’m not talking child labour. There are great lessons and a sense of achievement in contributing to the family income.
2. Enjoy the flexibility. Do work and learning when best suits. How cool is it being able to take advantage of new exhibits at museums? Scheduling a weekend day to get work done instead.
3. Get a child Free Time buddy. You’ll know of other Home Educators in your area. Find one or two to share childcare with. Every other week I get Monday from 9.30 am -1.30 pm to focus on whatever I want because every Monday morning in between I get a few extra kids at mine. And let’s be honest when your kids have friends over they are normally less demanding of your time too. Win Win Win.
4. Work in the Witching Hours. I do one to one meetings via Skype after the kids are in bed (well in their room). The joy of it being my business is that I can schedule meetings when it suits me, around my family commitments.
5. Bulk Batch Work. Every quarter, I take 4 clients away for the weekend. Get pure focus. Get more done in a weekend than a month of non-starts at home. Because I know that I have a weekend coming up I can just put none urgent stuff in a pile and take it with me, freeing up so much time.
6. Let your Kids Celebrate with You. Managed to close a deal, or finish a gruelling task? Thank the kids for letting you concentrate and celebrate together. Build it into your business model to take stock of a job well done regularly. It also helps children see that because you work, you can do more fun stuff together.
7. Quality over Quantity. This is a biggy. Drop the guilt around work, education and family time by making the most out of the time.
   • We as Home Educators know how to turn even little domestic jobs into learning opportunities that cover every subject. Supermarket Shop; Arithmetic – add or estimate the shop cost as you go along, Humanities- Social Responsibility to buy Fair Trade or Not. Science – How is that made … you get the idea.
   • You can also do the same with work to get the most out of that time with a little planning. i.e. writing a blog and then repurposing the content into images, posts, courses, ebooks etc.
   • Family time, need to be just that. Ditch the devices, all of them and just enjoy each others company. No learning agenda, no “I may need to check emails”. I sometimes think the biggest downside of home ed is we are so busy looking for what they are going to learn from doing that we forget to just be in the moment with them. Here is a blog on how to unplug with practical steps to take the day before.
8. Take the Time. Do you remember that old “when they are sleeping sleep” thing that never really worked when they were babies? Now flip it “When kids are independently engaged, you work”. I’m not saying don’t be available but have little jobs that you can do. Something you’ve been meaning to read to hand when the time allows. I always take books and a notepad with me when we go out to the bike park etc.
9. On Taxi Driving Duty? You can listen to podcasts or use programs like Dragon Naturally Speaking to utilise this time and work hands-free. Headphones with the mic are your friend take them with you.

There are 100’s of was we can make it easier to home educate and work so if you have any tried and true tips, please let me know in the comments.

If you’d like any help balancing working from home and being the right kind of mad to home educate your kids please get in contact or look at the services I offer.