Working Dads and Homeschooling
What does homeschooling and working a nine-to-five have in common? Both require hard work and dedication and can easily be exhausting at times. So what makes someone like myself think he can do both at the same time?
When my wife and I decided to pursue homeschooling, I was the one holding a job. She did have a career earlier but since we realized early homeschooling is like having a full-time job (more on that in a later post), we agreed I’ll continue working while she opted to become a stay-at-home mother and teacher to our now growing daughter.
Because I had to work during the day, I couldn’t be there to help when our daughter was being homeschooled. Part of me thought it was just fair since I was already holding my end of the bargain by working and concluded my wife should be able to handle it. However, part of me also thought it shouldn’t be like that or at least our thinking shouldn’t be such.
Homeschooling shouldn’t be a chore. If you think about it, it’s actually one avenue to build your relationship with your children by spending time with them during their formative years. It’s a way to intentionally build their character through the different lessons and activities that homeschooling offers.
And so I thought, how can I participate given I had to be in the office for most of the day? See, that’s the nice thing with homeschooling. You can be as flexible as needed.
Where a traditional school will more likely follow regular school hours (albeit I know some who offer a much later schedule), homeschooling isn’t as constrained and offers flexibility for both parents and the kids.
Teaching my favorite subject
Nouelle and I sat down and talked about how I can help with homeschooling our daughter RyRy, who was 4 years old back then. Given the wide range of subjects, she asked me, “which one would you be willing to teach?” Right then and there I exclaimed, “Math!” given it was one of my favorite subjects back in high school and college.
Based on the curriculum we were following back then, we made use of Steve Demme’s Math-U-See program to teach our daughter the fundamental concepts of math.
Math-U-See’s unique instructional approach makes it easier for instructors (parents, teachers, and tutors) to help students progress in mastering fundamental math skills and concepts.
The set included colorful manipulatives, instructional videos and textbooks, and student workbooks. All of which were easy and intuitive to use.
Homeschooling is whenever-schooling
My job required me to be in the office from 9 in the morning until 6 in the evening which meant I only had after-office hours to teach our daughter math. We decided to hold the session at 8 in the evening right after we’ve all had dinner.
This worked very well for our family during this time in our lives as we usually slept a little later at night. It also helped that Math-U-See’s format fit like a glove into this schedule. RyRy and I will watch the 3-minute instructional video then proceed to her working on two pages in her workbook with little guidance from me.
Flexibility played an extremely crucial role. We only did this on nights I was able to. On evenings where I had to stay in the office longer, we adjusted easily with Nouelle taking over the math lessons for that day.
Homeschooling is wherever-schooling
Did I already mention flexibility? As I write this from a position of privilege knowing that not everyone has a dedicated space in their house for homeschooling, I’d like to share that when we started, we also didn’t have such space. When we were still living with my parents, we often found ourselves in the living room trying to filter the noise coming from everywhere in the house while going through the lessons.
But the nice thing about homeschooling, at least for me, is that you are not confined into a single place. Much like days when I’m working from home, if I needed some time to focus, I just head to the nearest coffee shop and work from there instead. I quickly discovered having a large desk, good coffee, and an environment conducive to work actually helps one become productive.
The same is true with homeschooling. There are times when there’s too much going on in the house causing noise or distraction that we decide to go to a coffee shop, lugging all our materials along, and holding our session there instead.
The drinks are a small price to pay for the sturdy table, comfortable seats, and air conditioning if you think about it. Soft music playing in the background, a definite plus.
COVID-19
When COVID-19 hit, I was still working in Singapore. I had to give up teaching math given I was working in a different country. However, because of the pandemic, I flew back to Manila the moment I had a chance. I haven’t been back since.
Working remotely, while confined in our home due to restrictions brought about by the community quarantine imposed by the government, it suddenly became harder to juggle everything since I had to work and my wife and the kids had to homeschool. It became some sort of a dance between us four (there were four of us now having welcomed Miguel in 2014) moving around the house keeping rooms to ourselves.
In the morning, right after breakfast, I head to our room to go through my morning calls to catch-up with everyone from work—now scattered in different parts of the globe. The kids’ homeschooling schedule back then was from 8 to 10 in the morning which gave me the chance to work from the dining area in the afternoon where I had access to a better chair and a much wider desk.
And that’s kind of how it’s been working for the four of us. From time to time or whenever Nouelle’s feeling under the weather, I take over homeschooling duties—trying my best to balance everything without going crazy.
Epilogue
Your family’s setup might be different from ours. It might be the mother who’s working and the dad who’s homeschooling the kids. It might be that both parents are working or you might be a single parent. At the end of the day, it all comes down to commitment.
Homeschooling might feel daunting in the very beginning but what makes homeschooling ideal, at least for our family, is that it works itself around everyone’s schedule—you are not confined to a strict timetable. In the same manner, you are also not confined to a specific place. You can homeschool anywhere. Learning happens everywhere anyway.
If you’re the one working in your family, I hope this would serve as an inspiration to participate in your family’s homeschool journey (yes, it’s also a journey for the parents and not just the kids) and be intentional in building not just your children’s character but also a long and lasting relationship with them.
If this post resonated with you, please leave a comment below. You can also send us an email at hello@lifewithkids.blog.