Can you homeschool and be a working mom? Yes, you can! Our guest today, veteran homeschool mom Jen Mackinnon, will help us walk through the best advice, schedules, and tips for the working homeschool mom.
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Welcome to the show notes for Episode #144 of the Homeschool with Moxie Podcast!
As a former classroom teacher, now homeschooling mom of five, I love to equip and encourage other homeschooling families.
On the Homeschool with Moxie Podcast our goal is to inspire and encourage you with actionable strategies to take you from overwhelmed to confident in your homeschool adventure. Listen to interviews with amazing influencers in the homeschool world and beyond.
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About our Guest: Jen Mackinnon
Jen is the writing voice, blogger, and coffee drinker behind Practical, By Default. She helps working parents by providing practical tips for balancing career, home & homeschooling.
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Working Homeschool Mom Tips
Abby: Welcome to episode 144. Today we’re chatting about how to homeschool as a working mom and our guest today is jen mckinnon you can find her at practical by default dot com and the working homeschool mom coffee club. It’s there where she helps working parents by providing practical tips for balancing career home and home schooling.
So if you are feeling like okay, I either want to or I need to get back into the workforce, but I’d still like to keep homeschooling my kids then this is the episode for you because so many moms come into this, being told that it’s impossible to do both and jen is here to say no, it’s not impossible. You just need strategies, you need support, you need to know some great time management tips and so she has so much wisdom to share with many years of home schooling and working and making it happen and making it successful.
So if you’re worried about burnout, if you’re worried about what do I do about childcare, you know, how do I actually fit it in and work? How do I home school and work then? This episode? Hopefully we’ll bring you all the answers you need or at least a really great overview of the whole process and then you’ll definitely want to deep dive into resources that jen has and we will link in the show notes. So everything we mentioned will be in the show notes at 4onemore.com/144.
Here is my conversation with Jen Mackinnon from PracticalByDefault.com.
All right, jen, thanks for joining us today. I wanted to start out by just getting to know you and have the audience get to know you. So tell us a little bit about your homeschooling journey. When did you start? Why did you start? I know you’ve graduated everyone, but let us know kind of what that looked like.
Homeschool Background & Style
Jen: Okay, well, thank you so much for having me. So as you said, my name is Jen Mackinnon and um, I homeschooled for over 14 years.
It was a long journey and there was a lot of learning and a lot of mistakes along the way, which was fun, more fun looking back than in the moment, but that’s what learning is all about. So I have two Children, I have a boy and a girl Who are now 18 and 20 and I have the coffee addiction to prove it.
Um, but I started at the homeschool mom because my son as we prepared to put him in public school, he was ahead of his peers and now when I tell the story, I always ask people to please remember that I’m in Canada first of all, So what happens here is a bit different from where you live and also this is 14 years ago, so things have changed and improved in the public school system, but at the time he was going to be in a rather large class with one teacher and so you know, I had full intentions of putting him in public school. He, he and I, I have really had to work over the years at our relationship because we’re very alike. You know, your mom always said, I hope you have a kid, just like you, yeah, I did.
And so um yeah, there was no way I was schooling him and the teacher said, you know, I, I can’t, she recommended homeschooling him because in her words, he would be bored and cause trouble. So he was like four this little tiny little boy, you know, big blue eyes, blonde hair and I was thinking, how could you say such a thing and I thought she was joking because he could read and he knew his numbers and he knew his colors and she said, you have to realize I’m one teacher with a massive classroom. I have no way to keep him occupied.
So I went home and told my husband and I thought he would like laugh and joke about it. And he said, why don’t you just try it? And basically I said he’s out of his mind. But we did, we tried it and uh yeah, as they say the rest is history. So that’s kind of where my homeschooling journey began.
Homeschool Approaches
Abby: Now when you started, were you also working at the time?
Jen: I was not, I started as a stay at home mom. My daughter is 22 months younger and uh, yeah, I had never planned to return to work. I was going to be a stay at home mom. I had kids, you know, in my mind you know, they say never say never. So I think everything I said never about I’ve actually done.
Finally, you know, after 14 years I think maybe I shouldn’t use that word.
Abby: And I know this is a funny question because everyone when they home school, I mean our styles change, right? We start out one way we change. But I mean would you describe your home schooling with a certain by a certain style or or did you just try everything or what did you land on over the years.
Jen: So I would originally describe my style as flying by the seat of my pants, but more organized because I’m a very organized person as far as not neat, tidy but organized. There is a difference, but I would say it’s more of an eclectic approach. You know, I was all for doing what worked until it stopped working And you know, as soon as it stopped working that it was time to reevaluate.
And I think one of the more important lessons I’ve learned is that even though my Children were 22 months apart, you know, they’re really close in age, they could not always use the same program or the same approach. They learned differently. They had strengths and weaknesses that were different.
So when they were younger, you know, because the law changed and my daughter wanted to learn as soon as her brother was in school, there were actually only one grade level apart. Where I live, you have to use grades. So I used the same programs for most, you know, when they were younger, but then when they hit the higher levels that didn’t work anymore, it was time to like let that gap form and start using different programs and different curriculum that worked for the Children worked for me.
We’ve used a lot of textbook and workbook approach, um, very structured because that’s what worked for my Children. And yeah, so I guess I don’t know if that’s a style, but I call it what worked for us
Working While Homeschooling
Abby: for sure and with an eclectic style you feel like you’re not stuck in a box, you can kind of pick and choose. So yeah, I I agree. I think a lot of families end up with that style of just like picking what works for us right now.
So you already said you were a stay at home mom at first when you started homeschooling, when did that change during your journey of homeschooling and that you actually went back to work and and kind of can you give us just a peek into into that situation?
Jen: Uh yeah, so a lot of you know a lot of families are in this position, we got to the point where we could no longer survive financially on one income and I will be the first to admit that I was very reluctant to going back to work, I did not want to go and I had a really bad attitude about it, which you know, attitude makes a big difference. I’m gonna just put that out there if you are not happy about going back to work, I encourage you to find the positives because it really will make life so much easier.
So I started working outside the home full time. I had two Children that were not old enough to stay home by themselves, so we had to, you know the first thing even before I found a job, the first thing I did was sit down with my husband was like okay, childcare, childcare is going to be a problem and it’s the first road block you know that I encourage people who are working sometimes even when you work at home you need childcare, you know, depending on your job, some places will not allow you to have Children in the room, some Children you need to be trained to let you work and when they’re at a certain age that’s difficult.
So childcare is always going to be one of those things that you need to look into and there are so many options out there. The first thing I did was I looked for a job in retail where I could hopefully get hours that were opposite to my husband. So it would be less of me going back to work to pay child care and then we had family and I had a babysitter, you know someone, so I had options and so I worked outside of the home.
I thought when I first started going back to work and I’m that I know this isn’t the question you asked but you didn’t ask what it looked like. And so first I thought you know I was a stay at home mom, so I did all the cleaning, all the grocery shopping, all the meals, my husband, I liked that we were home schooling but he was not involved in our home school.
So you know, everything that I had to do with homeschooling landed on my shoulders And for some reason in my mind I thought I could work 30 for eight hours a week, sometimes 60 hours a week and nothing would change. I thought I could still do it all because that’s what society and social media tells us and uh, that did not work.
Um, you know the first christmas black friday rush, I found myself sick. Um really, really sick. Uh you know, it was, it was bad. I went through survival mode, I went through burnout and I remember the key moment that I finally got it through my head that something had to change and I’m like standing in the living room having this argument with my husband and I’m like I can’t do it anymore and I’m crying and I’m so sick and in that moment he’s like, you never once asked for help. Like never once, never once did I and I just assumed that he would know, right?
So there’s a big moment there and I think it’s the reason I share is because I think as moms as women, sometimes we forget that one, we can’t do it all, but we also need to ask for help. You know, he didn’t know that, you know working till nine o’clock at night and then going to get groceries until midnight coming home, you know and getting up at six with the kids and it was tough.
So that’s kind of what it looked like until I figured out, you know, I didn’t have to do it all, I had to ask for help and I had to let things go. So it was a lot of learning like I said in mistakes, but at least I get to share that story with people now and hopefully they learned from that. I don’t have to go through it because it sucked.
Roadblocks and Other Challenges for the Working Homeschool Mom
Abby: absolutely. So that sounds like there’s a lot of strategies that we’re going to kind of talk about based on like your story and what you learned now. Like back to the question of a lot of moms, you know, they are feeling like okay, I need to go back to work to help financially and then they always think, you know, well then that means I absolutely can’t homeschool obviously you can, but like so one of the roadblocks you already mentioned is childcare.
I mean that’s a huge one, especially if your kids are really little. Are there other things that are standing in the way like why moms think this is impossible other than child care? What are some other um common issues that you’ve seen with moms that think okay, I can’t work and home school.
Jen: Mhm. Yeah, so the first thing that I would say is that nobody talks about it, you know? So when I started the reason I started my business was because I was alone, you know um nobody in my real world or local area, worked in home school, I had friends at home school and I have friends that worked and the most common thing that you’re going to hear is you can’t do both and it’s really hard to find people who understand what you’re going through.
And I think community is one of those things that people we just need so badly. So if you’re trying to work in home school, the first thing you’re going to be told is that it can’t be done which is not true because there are many of us out there but we’re so busy trying to make it work that we don’t share enough. Um you know, so that’s the first thing is overcoming that mentality and the next roadblock is how do you fit all the homeschooling your career, your job.
And some of us you know don’t work because we have to, it’s because like financially but it’s because we have this passion or we’re helping someone or it’s it makes us a better mom and those are great reasons to work. You know I don’t want anybody to think that because it might not be a financial thing that’s still not important.
It is you know I was just talking with someone in my mastermind just this week and they said I started my business because it was something people wouldn’t undo behind me. You know when you clean the house and you turn around your kids like run through it, you just watched all your hours of hard work literally go down the drain, it’s devastating but you know, so for her it was like this mental and self care kind of thing, it was really important.
So I think understanding that just you know the reason that you work is important, the reason your home school is important, but how do you fit those two big sections puzzle pieces into one life? And the key is understanding that you cannot do it all. Like you can be a great homeschool mom, you can be a great working mom, you can be a great housekeeper, you can take care of your health but you can’t do all those things at the same time.
So the phrase I like to use with my mom’s is you can have it all but you can’t have it all at the same time, you need to understand that something has to be a priority. And so being very intentional with your time um figuring out, you know what is the priority for the day, they’re going to be days where you’re going to go all in to work, you know, maybe you have a deadline, maybe you have a big project, maybe it’s black Friday and you have to be there and that’s okay.
And you know the guilt let the guilt go understand that it’s okay because there’s gonna be other days, days off holidays, evenings, weekends where you go all into homeschooling, you know those are the days where you’re doing your field trips and your science projects and your arts and crafts and you’re having fun with your kids and maybe the work stuff kind of slides and that’s okay and then being okay, maybe on day three we’re like, ok, we’re now knee deep in laundry and the garbage needs to be taken out.
So you know, you do spend a day cleaning the house and catching up and that’s the way it’s never balance, it’s always about juggling what is the priority and what you have for priorities are going to be completely different from what I have priorities and that’s okay. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Can Everyone Homeschool while Working?
Abby: That’s super helpful. I think it’s even very applicable even if we don’t work outside the home or whatever. Like that whole balance that you can’t do, you can’t multitask everything every day. It does make sense. You have to focus on your priority for that day. I love that was really helpful.
Now would you say there are certain personalities though that that there it’s easier for them to be a working homeschool moms, you know what I’m saying? Like are there any red flags for certain moms where you’re like, whoa, I don’t know if you’re going to be able to handle this or do you think everyone can given the right tools, the community and the support, What do you think?
Jen: So I’m one of those oddballs I guess you’d say. But home schooling is where I feel like everyone can hurt school. I don’t think everyone should, you know, there are, so it’s definitely not for people who moms or dads who like don’t want to do the research, you know, um they don’t want to try new things. They you could be in a situation as well because so I’m gonna back up. So first as far as I need his research, so there’s things that you need to do to home school and that’s not without the working, you know, just the homeschool side of things.
You know, you need to research your home school laws, you need to figure out how your kids learn. You need to figure out whether you’re going to use programs at all. I mean there are all kinds of methods of home schooling and if you are not interested in doing that work then you need to either find another way or maybe not home school. Um And I think there are personalities kind of, but You know, I I run a rather large Facebook community. Um it’s a free group on Facebook, they’re about 24,000 people in there.
So there are all kinds of personalities and they all make it work in a different way. You know, some are very structured. They like all their lists and some really hate planning and so you know, it’s all about what are you willing to do to make it work and of course then there’s the kids that just really thrive in public school and so, you know, if public school is working for you and you know, that seems to be working for your family, I’m a big believer and just do what works for your family and I have, you know, families where two kids are in public school, one is using an online program, one is being homeschooled, they have four kids, so it’s all about that flexibility and embracing what works for you.
Top Tips for Working Homeschool Moms
Abby: Okay. Absolutely. That makes that makes a lot of sense. Now we’ve mentioned some of these areas already, but I’m gonna circle back anyway to this question because people want to know like what are the main tricks or the main advice, the tips for trying to juggle the home schooling and the working. So, I mean you’ve mentioned somebody if you want to dive into those again, like the childcare, but it sounds to me like the time management is a huge issue. What, what are the main tips you give to moms?
Jen: Okay, so I believe there are three things you need in order to be a successful working mom who also home schools. So the main one is support and I’ve mentioned this before, but you know, support and trying to do it almost moms, we feel so lonely, you know, the journey you’re walking is very unique and not want a lot of people understand like the sheer amount of pressure that you’re under by society or even that we put on ourselves because most of us are not only asked to do it all.
But we want to, you know, we want to be The best month or possibly can we want to give our kids 110% every day And we want to give our jobs 110% every day and we want to be the best wife and sister and friend and we can’t and that can be for some of us very hard. Like inside it can be soul crushing. So if you get support from those who are on that journey with you, it gives you a safe place to be like boy today was really rough and you know, they’re not gonna say, well then put the kids back in school or they’re not going to say, hey, quit your job because that’s not what you’re saying. You’re just saying, hey, today, it’s hard because we all have hard days.
But sometimes we feel like we don’t have the freedom to say that because it makes us look weak and it’s also inside the communities. You know, if you have that support, you can reach out and help other moms and when you do that, you also help yourself. So I feel like support is the key if you don’t get anything else out of this, please look for your online communities or support either in person online.
And then the second thing that you need is really like routines and schedules. So this is like your time management piece. You know, you need routines that will help you get supper on the table, You need routines that when are you going to home school, you know, you need your schedules because we can’t keep it all in our brains. So a planner is important, but it’s how you use your planner.
So and that brings us to, the third thing is tools, so support so that you can keep going and the good days and bad days you have a place to celebrate with you resources and routines and because they are adjustable. Right? So frameworks, I do a lot of frameworks because every family is different, but you know, you have the basic outline and then you can adjust as you go and then the tools that help you go make those things work. So planners, curriculum, that type of thing.
Curriculum Advice & Teaching Kids to Be Independent
Abby: Okay, so talking about some of the tools, I’m gonna guess that there’s maybe some curriculum that you found or styles that work better when you’re a working homeschool mom, like I’m guessing now, correct me if I’m wrong, like when you homeschooled where you like on your time off sitting down and individually teaching the kids or were you kind of looking for things that help them be more independent and not needing you as much like how did that look as far as homeschool styles while you’re working.
Jen: So I would say it’s really important that you teach your kids to be independent but that always brings me back to what does independence look like for you? What is that goal and how old are your kids their age and the stage that they’re in, it’s really not an instant thing, you know, it’s not like instant coffee where you put the coffee in is here you have to teach your kids to be independent and that takes time.
Um so what homeschooling looked like for us, we used a lot of um like I said a mix of online and offline programs when you’re choosing your curriculum as a working mom, there are some things that you look a little bit different. For example, you need to not only figure out you know how your kids learn but you also need to ask yourself like how much time am I going to need to plan, prepare teach or correct the work, can I fit this in and am I okay with not fitting all the pieces in.
So I’ll give you an example a lot of when I was homeschooling a story of the world was history program that you used and I love story of the world, it is not all inclusive but it was designed to be done a certain way. Now I encourage working moms to break the rules and what I mean by that is take your program, look at the way it’s supposed to be used and then decide is this going to work for us as is and if it’s not, how can I change it? It was designed to be done a certain way and that’s not the way we did it.
So I would read aloud the story and then I would orally do the questions with the kids and then when I was at work the kids would do the activities. They would do the coloring pages or they would cook the recipe or they would do the fun hands on stuff and sometimes we save them for the days off. Um, I tried to take my day off as our activity day. So we go to the park. That was our socialization. We go to the library, we do arts and crafts. We do museums. But we also did like science boxes which were great. Anything that comes in a box where everything was included was perfect for me because I’m the mom who like bought the candy for the science experiment and then ate it. Yeah.
So you know, you want to look for things that make your life easier. You know, you want, I used online programs. CTC math is one of my favorite math programs because they did it all. I didn’t have to do anything except make sure she did the work. Um that program didn’t work for my son. So he used, um, all in one home school, also known as Easy peasy. They have a high school program, it’s all free. He used that worked great for him. Um, he always says he taught himself math because math is my weakness.
So if you don’t excel at a program, don’t forget that’s what the internet’s for. Um So yeah, that was like kind of some of the things that when it comes to your home school, you know, you have to decide but realizing also that your kids are always learning. So I used a lot of like games, board games, computer games, nature study. Um you know, building with legos all through the years and counted that as homeschooling.
I just never told the kids, you know, the kids didn’t realize that they actually homeschooled year round because my husband like they need a summer break. And I was like, yeah, absolutely. And so for the summer we did, they slid kind of into an unschooling method. But I wrote down and documented everything that they did. I just never told them. Mm hmm. And you know, they did a ton of learning throughout the summer. That was more off the books kind of style.
Schedules for Homeschool Working Moms
Abby: Okay, that makes sense to like really being creative with it. You know, with your time, your seasons. That’s really interesting now along those lines. People who’ve never worked outside the home and they’re like okay, homeschooling takes up this big chunk of my, you know morning or whatever.
They’re like, how like how do you actually schedule that some people said like do you do school five days a week? Do you still make them do every subject every day now? You kind of answered it a little with your activity days on your day off. But like what creative, what have you seen even with other moms in your communities like that, it worked crazy hours or maybe they worked during the actual day. Like how have they fit in the home schooling, you know, in creative ways.
Jen: So the first thing that you need to consider is what is your law required. So some people need to hit so many hours and some people need to hit so many days. So once you figure out like I didn’t have to meet any of those, but I did have subjects that I needed to cover and um they wanted us to cover them all. I mean sometimes one time I wrote it it was like nine different subjects, which was insane, right? Because they included foreign language, they had math and english and we didn’t have social studies, we had it all broken up. So we had geography and history and science and it was like never ending list.
The first thing is to realize what is required and then get really creative on how you’re going to do it. So unit studies are a great way to combine a lot of subject for example um you can do a unit study on say a country um no booking pages has like a free country set so you can take that printed off and then you can gather books and you can watch a documentary and you could cook a recipe from it and so there you’ve covered you know cooking and science and history and reading and art and you know you can mark that, it’s the way you document it. So you need to get creative that way. Another way is to realize that Learning with your Children doesn’t happen between like nine and 3 monday to friday right?
Your Children are always learning. So that bedtime story that you read to your kids at night, you know it can be a fun story and then you can ask questions that help them understand maybe the moral of the story or sentence structure or you know you get your child to read to you, you can count that as homeschooling a lot of new homeschooling parents especially get caught up on what counts and what doesn’t and the easy answer is everything counts. But then it gets really complicated right? So you just kind of my favorite way to do this and this was my big lightbulb moment when I realized my kids were learning without me if we have time for a story.
Abby: Yes, absolutely.
Jen: Okay so I had returned to work and my son was, you know, with his grandmother for the day and I came and I picked him up and he was telling me all about the solar system. We hadn’t studied the solar system, I didn’t, he knew all the planets, he knew fun facts, he had drawn a picture and I was like, when, when did you learn this? Like I didn’t teach them, this wasn’t something we covered in school.
So how was he doing this? You know, I was at work, I think I worked 8-3 that day and he’s like, oh, nanny, let me, you know, pull out books off her bookshelf and she had read with him and you know, pointed out things and she got them to watch a video and in that moment it was like that light bulb, like, okay, I don’t have to be sitting beside my kids, you know, with the table because I had not be schooled.
So in my mind my kids only learned when they were sitting down and so you know, this was like, oh wait a minute and it made homeschooling while working so much easier because I could have fun with my kids and they were still learning and so what I would do is at the end of the day, I would ask my kids, hey, what did you do today? And as they told me, I would pull out my journal and I would write down everything that they did from like puzzles to walking outside, um you know, playing at the playground.
And then after I would sit down and assign it a subject, a homeschool subject. And I would write like a little paragraph about academically what it was so that I was documenting everything and it was really eye opening to how much your kids learn outside the structured learning. We still had seat works. I don’t want you to think that we never sat down to learn things because when it comes to harder subjects or introducing something new, they needed me there. So we often did school on Saturdays and sunday afternoons, you know, in the evenings holidays, those were great times for us to catch up on those things now.
Keeping Track of Learning
Abby: Were you writing stuff down? Like what they learned was that for your own sake to go, okay, my kids are learning or did you have to do that legally paperwork wise or anything like that?
Jen: For me it was for my own like mental state because as a working mom, you have this guilt, right? A lot of working moms have this like I’m not with my kids all day, so they’re not learning, they’re not doing anything. Um what if I’m behind what if I’m not doing enough?
And so this helped me see on paper in black and white what my kids were actually learning and it helped release that guilt because I was like, okay, they’re fine. You know, we’re on track. Um and you know, I did have to report records for where I live. It was like, this is what you’re gonna do and then this is what we did and we could switch in the middle, but I had to get what I was going to do, approved what I did approve and then send like basic samples.
Preventing Burnout
Abby: now as we’re kind of wrapping up, I want to just hit on a couple more little issues, which I know are, is really important about this whole burnout issue. And, and I mean moms of all sorts, we deal with burnout, but I’m sure there’s a specific kind of where you get burned out if you’re trying to be a working homeschool mom juggling both those things.
So what have you seen in your own story or with moms you work with? How do working homeschool moms fight that burnout that’s going to come if I guess if they’re trying to do it all, what what suggestions do you have?
Jen: I think the first thing is to realize that it can burn out can happen to anyone and it varies from person to person because a lot of people are like, oh, I’m just tired, you know, but it’s, it’s more than that burnout is like characterized by chronic exhaustion, feeling of frustration and feeling powerless and then being overwhelmed right with all the decisions that you need to make.
So you know, there’s the first thing that you need to do is figure out your priorities, Um, and recognize you only have 24 hours a day and I know you hear that all the time, but I will say I’ve tried a lot of things that I’ve never managed to figure out how to add our 25 to my day, right? That’s all we get. So as working moms, you need to be intentional. I’m not saying you need to have every hour planned out, but it’s how we use the time that we have.
That’s really important. And it makes a huge difference and then realizing that there’s only one of you. So again, I’m circling back to that. You cannot do it all. So you really need to figure out like what’s important, what needs to be done by you.
I have a question that I give people when they feel overwhelmed for the day. And I asked them to ask this question like what needs to be done by you today? So the first part of the question is what needs to be done? Like what, what is required to be done by the end of the day? Do the kids need to be dropped off somewhere? Do you need to show up at work? Is there a meal that needs to go on the table? Okay, so you’ve got your list of needs, right?
And now what needs to be done by you? So what can you outsource? Can you toss supper in the crock pot? Okay, great. You know, because people think outsourcing is paying someone to do it and that’s not always the case. Sometimes we can, that’s great. If you can hire a housekeeper by all means, please do it. But you can also, you know, ask the other adult in the house, your spouse, your partner, Hey, can you throw a load of laundry in? Okay. That’s something that you don’t need to do.
Can you know a friend who’s going in town? You know how they always say, hey, if anything let me know and then we don’t because that’s really hard. Right? So if they say that you’re like, yeah, I really need these library drop books dropped off. Okay, great.
Or you know, grouping like tasks. So you’re going in to do the library, can you do the bank runs, Can you grab groceries? Can you do multiple things while you’re in town? So that’s less gas, less time. So making decisions like that.
Getting those systems and routines in place, asking that question. You know, what needs to be done by you?
And then today? So are you doing tasks today that are actually don’t need to be done today, You know, can it be done another day? So that’s one way to like really understand how you’re using your time and that’s how to avoid burnout? If you’re already in burnout?
I would sit down and really look at what’s on your plate, like really understand exactly what you’re doing, where you’re time is going and then open the lines of communication within your family. So this is where I failed. And I know not asking for help is a bad idea.
So let others help, let your spouse partner friends chip in, let your kids handle even small kids can help around the house. And I know some people like I don’t like my kids doing chores, but if we think about it, our job as parents is to prepare our kids to leave the house and I don’t know about you, but I don’t like cleaning the house. I don’t want to go clean their house. So they need to know how to do basic skills. Even just picking up toys and putting them in a basket is a massive help.
It’s one thing you don’t have to do. It won’t be done the way that you want it done. It won’t be done the right way. But it helps. Right? So asking for help doesn’t make you any less capable of running your own life. I know that’s hard, but it’s so worth it. And the last thing I would say is make sure you are looking after yourself with self care and every time I bring that up, mom’s like, I don’t have time but self care is anything that recharges you.
So it doesn’t have to be a full day at the spa would be nice again, but we’re being realistic and practical, right? Most of us don’t have time to take a full day off, but do you have five minutes in the morning to sit and like prepare yourself for the day. So I love my morning routine. I try to get up even five minutes before the kids and don’t make any noise because they will hear you and they will find you.
But you know, it gives me a minute to look over my planner to have a cup of coffee to read and to like, okay, this is what’s going on for the day. I get a few minutes to breathe, I try to do 5 to 10 minutes three times a day. So the other things that recharge me personally is walking so I go outside and I do circles in my yard. I know it sounds stupid but it gives me a chance to breathe. The kids are not, you know when they were little they were like mom mom, mom, mom mom, I got tired of hearing mom. So you know three or five minutes to yourself, it just really helps you release that stress and remember the purpose. So those are the three things I would definitely start with.
Resources for the Working Homeschool Mom
Abby: that’s helpful now as we wrap up. I know there are some moms that are like okay, I know I need to go back to work, but I need that um blog post that jen wrote or a resource or something where it just helps me get started at step one.
So do you have a place that you would send moms that are like, okay, this is me, I’m getting back into the work force. Do you have like um a place you would tell them to start and whatever you mentioned will link to as well in the show notes. So where would you tell them to start?
Jen: So I would start with um I have an article on my website called can you successfully work and home school your kids at the same time? And in that article I walk you through um you know the five things you need to keep in mind. So it’s like keys to making your home school and life work, choosing curriculum and programs, childcare and learning opportunities while you work planning and schedules and where to find community and support. So I would start there um it kind of gives you that overview and then of course you can always reach out to me on facebook. I’m happy to talk
Abby: awesome. We’ll link to the facebook group as well. So you have a free facebook group but then you also tell us just about your and I hope I get this right. The working homeschool mom coffee club is that right, Okay,so tell us about that.
Jen: So I do have a free large group and free is great, right? There’s lots of people in there. And the problem that members were having is that the group moves really fast, It’s super active and when you ask a question sometimes it feels like drinking out of a water hose, right? Like all this information and it’s not really tailored for you because people don’t know you.
So what I did is they at their request, they asked for a smaller community, So this is a small community that combines two things. So we have um workshops and sessions that cover things like meal planning. They cover, you know, being a single mom who’s working in home schooling, how does that work? Which it covers getting started De schooling, what’s the difference between the schooling and on schooling? So there’s about 33 workshops in there right now and we have a lot coming up for this year I’m super excited about.
And so those subjects cover those sessions cover three subjects, We talk about business, we talked about family management, so things like meal planning and decluttering and cleaning your house and building relationships with your kids and home schooling and then it’s also paired with the community. So we have a small facebook group as well where we do monthly challenges, You can come in and ask questions, you can get support and we have coworking sessions where you jump on zoom and you get to hang out with us and it’s a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. It’s a small group
Abby: awesome. We will link to all that in the show notes, but this has been super helpful and very interesting as a, I mean, I have never worked outside the home while I’ve been homeschooling. I work inside the home, but I mean, I can imagine like the challenges are very unique. So I’m grateful that you were able to spend some time with us. Um kind of walking us through this really important topic. So jen thanks again for your wisdom and for your time today.
Jen: Thank you so much for having me. It was a lot of fun.
Abby: I hope this episode has been really helpful for you if you want to get back into the workforce and you’re wondering how to juggle it all. There has been so many great ideas shared and I know you’ll find more on jen’s blog and also in her membership, which you can find all the links to in the show notes at 4onemore.com/144. Thanks for joining us today. And in the meantime, happy home schooling.
