Any Single Working Parents who Home School Middle School Aged Children? How do you do it?

Question

I know they can be parent taught at night, but anyone know of any online schools/programs/tutors where their p*****n/teen can be schooled while at home?

What curriculum do you most recommend for this age group?

Any single parent homeschool co-ops you know of (in the state of Georgia {Atlanta})?

Answer 1

Here's some info that may help you:

http://singleparenthomeschool.christianh...

Here are some programs that can be used independently:

http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/...

http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/...

Best wishes!

Answer 2

Following is a link to an online group for single (and married) people who homeschool children of all ages:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WORKandHOM...

I recommend Time4Learning as another responder did; it is affordable, has standardized curriculum, and is affordable.  If you pay monthly, it is $20 a month, but if you pay quarterly or yearly, it costs even less.

Regarding single parent homeschool coops, I don't believe any exist; most single parent homeschoolers just don't have the time to start coops.  Also, homeschooling single parents rely on family, afterschool programs, married homeschoolers, church members, etc. to help them with their children during the day.

I am a single parent homeschooler, and I literally rearranged my life to be home with my son.  Until he was about 6.5 yrs. old, I worked in an office, but now  I work from home for West at Home, do contract transcription work, and am a full-time online medical transcription (excellent career choice for those who want to work at home) student.

I hope this is helpful.

Answer 3

I use time4learning.com - the curriculum has different levels that i believe go up to grade 12. i could be wrong, but right now my son is working anywhere from a 6th to 8th grade level. The cost for time4learning will not break your pockets, it's a mere $20 per month. I have him do his curriculum in the day and i pick a few evenings a week, then spend different times on the wknd to go over work.

For subjects I am no good at like math, I send him out to a very reasonably priced tutor for a max of 4 hrs a week. He goes out for other activities as well such as physical (send him to a wrestling and soon to be kung-fu class), for speech it will most likely be a acting class. He takes art class out of the home as well.

Now you are in ATL and I am not sure how the transportation is out there. I am in NY and he can easily travel on the train and bus. And my job can sometimes be flexible so if I need to teach before I head in I can.

So basically his day is about 4 or so hours independent studies, which he needs to do because he is getting up there in the grades and has to learn this if he plans on going to college. The other time he spends traveling and at his other activities.

Hope that gives you an idea on how to work it. I'm sure things will be different for how you have to arrange it out in Atl.

Answer 4

I'm a working single mom and I work weekend nights so I can be home during the day on weekdays.

My kids stay with their dad on weekends.  Can your child stay with a relative while you work?  Could she possibly be a 'mother's helper' for another homeschooling family?

We don't use a curriculum so can't help you there.

Answer 5

In all honesty, I would worry about a child that age left home alone all day. They get into trouble. They don't mean to, but they have an unrealistic sense of their own powers. If you're talking about working from home, that would be a different issue.

I might consider, in this case, some form of private school/tutoring situation. I hate to discourage a homeschooler, but their natural drive in those years is towards peer bonding, and being unsupervised for hours at a time (even with homework assignments to complete) presents a big challenge.

I don't know what aspects of home-schooling appeal to your situation, but most of the benefits are available with work outside the regular school situation, so if you wanted, for example, to enrich their science learning, or to build a network of people with similar emphasis on family, or whatever, you could do it after school.

I might be able to be more helpful if I understood your aspirations better, but my first reaction is, it doesn't sound safe. I'm sorry. :o(