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9 | Thoughts on Working and Homeschooling
Working from home while homeschooling your kids?
Me, too.
Y'all, it isn't easy. In fact, it isn't easy under normal circumstances. Right now we're talking about a whole new level of "not easy."
In this episode I share a few tips that may be helpful.
ResourcesDon't forget, you don't have to do this alone! Here are a few resources:
- Check your library for the Libby app (audio books)
Mystery Doug - free short science videos; also see Mystery Science for full lessons - The Brave Learner - great homeschool book for parents/guardians
- Math Mammoth is the math curriculum we use (1st-8th)
- Build Your Library is an affordable curriculum based on reading aloud for K-12. We do some but not all of this with my oldest.
- Blossom and Root is a naturey curriculum. 2nd grade incorporates botany and lots of herbal medicine projects.
- Podcasts my kids enjoy include Six Minutes/Remy's Life Interrupted; Finn Caspian; Wow in the World, Short & Curly; David Walliams' Marvellous Musical Podcast; Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest; Eleonor Amplified; Homeschool History; The Past & The Curious; Treasure Island 2020; Story Pirates; Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls; and Smash, Boom, Best.
- Curiosity Stream has a nice collection of documentaries.
- Outschool is a great place to outsource things you can't/don't want to/don't have time to teach. Or to sign the kids up for something to keep them busy. Referral link will get you a $20 credit.
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Transcript
(00:03)
Hi there, welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I am a registered herbalist and licensed nutritionist.
(00:10)
Today's topic is homeschooling while working from home full time. I know this doesn't apply to everyone and it loosely applies to being in the clinic.
(00:20)
So if this isn't for you, no hard feelings, I will be back next time with something more directly relevant to most or all clinicians.
(00:28)
But for those of you who are trying to work from home, see clients from home and have children who are home schooling at home, I wanted to share a few thoughts with you in case this is helpful.
(00:40)
For context, I have been homeschooling my children from the beginning. My oldest is in fifth grade and I also have a second grader. They've never been to regular school before. So I thought maybe it would be helpful to share some of what's working for us. I do work full time from home normally, and I also have a part time job and my clinical practice that I am balancing as well. The first thing I want to tell you, especially if you're new to homeschooling, is that what we're doing right now is not at all what normal homeschooling looks like.
(01:16)
Normally in pre-pandemic times, my children would be at their nature school one day a week for a full day, they would be at home schooling co-op for four to five hours, two days a week. They would have various play dates and meet ups that they would be going to or we would be going to. They'd have various classes, chess class and swimming class and all the things. And for the most part, none of that is happening now.
(01:42)
They are still going to outdoor school one day a week because it's outdoors and they do distancing and so forth. But other than that, they're at home all the time with me. A lot of the things that we normally do as part of our home schooling are closed, are not available right now. So it really is just us and me trying to work as full time as I can. So here are my suggestions to you if you are in a similar boat.
(02:08)
First of all, I want to tell you that I am not the Home-Schooling goddess mother, I'm certainly not the the paragon example of what you should be doing.
(02:16)
So please just take this as some ideas that may or may not be helpful. The first thing that I want to tell you is that if you're working from home and you're trying to home school, go ahead and think of a minimum amount of things either per day or per week that you would feel relatively good about and then cut it in half. And that's probably a good minimum. So to give you an idea for us, what I have in my head for the minimum that I want to do every week with my kids is for each of them to do math and some kind of language arts four days a week.
(02:52)
And by math, I mean a few pages in their math book. Maybe it takes us 15 to 30 minutes. And language arts I mean either some spelling, some copy work, some grammar or some writing, something along those lines and reading comprehension type things. And we'll do that for 15 or 30 minutes. If we do that four times a week, each child, then I'm like, great, we've done our minimum. A lot of times we get to more than that, but a lot of times we don't.
(03:18)
There are weeks when I'm busy at work, where somebody is sick or things are going on that that we get to that and are weeks where we don't get to that, quite frankly.
(03:28)
The other thing that we do every day is read for half an hour or an hour, and those books can be related to certain homeschooling topics like history or science or more language arts or whatever. So perhaps you could count that as well.
(03:42)
But that's a minimum for us. And it feels like hardly anything when you're looking at the plan and what you're supposed to be doing and blah, blah, blah. And I also think I've got to be realistic in terms of my energy and what I can do with these kids right now. I feel like there's a lot of value in independent play, in time for creativity and exploration, so I'm trusting that my kids are learning in other ways outside of the formal learning that we're doing together,
(04:09)
minimum though it may be. And for now, that's going to have to be enough. So a few other tips that I want to pass along with you, number one, and this is something that I'm constantly forgetting and remembering, which is that if all is hell is breaking loose and nothing is OK.
(04:26)
People are having breakdowns over long division or nobody wants to read the book you're reading or et cetera, et cetera, go outside. Just take yourself and take the children and go outside. You can go outside and have a snack or go outside to have a picnic and bring your math book outside. I don't recommend it if you're having a breakdown over math, but maybe you're not.
(04:43)
Take a game outside, go for a hike, go to the pond, throw rocks in the river, whatever it is, but just go outside. It will make everything a little bit better. So easy to forget that you have that option and just sit there and sort of wallow in how bad a day is going, badly it is going. Another small tip that I have for the working parent who is trying to homeschool as well is get yourself some podcasts that the children like and/or an audiobook that to children like, give them some coloring.
(05:18)
My 10 year old still loves to color if I print him out something that is he's interested in.
(05:24)
So get them some coloring or a puzzle or some Legos or some Playmobil or something they can do like that. Put on an audio book or a podcast that they like and just let it go. If you want suggestions about audio books and or podcasts that my children have enjoyed, I'm happy to provide them. Just let me know. But that will often buy me an hour or sometimes even two a day to get some work done, to get some emails done, things like that.
(05:50)
Obviously, it depends on your child and their ages, but for the past three years, this has been a reliable strategy for us and my youngest is currently seven. So that gives you some suggestion.
(06:02)
I also recommend having quiet time after lunch where people can do whatever they want quietly in their rooms, might be read, might be sleep, might be play with a toy, might make a huge mess. You just leave them alone. As long as they're being quiet, that will give you a little bit of time to get some work done at a consistent time. I also highly recommend movies as needed for important meetings or client visits. If you can get them set up with a movie or something relatively educational, such as a documentary on Curiosity Stream, which if you search around you can get a discount, is 12 dollars a year for Curiosity Stream.
(06:38)
They've got a kids filter and you can get some nice documentaries going on there. Netflix has lots of documentaries or just let them watch a regular old movie. If you've got a big thing going on, that's fine. It's a reasonable. You can do it. OK, so those are some of my biggest tips from my own perspective, I also like to know the minimum that I need to get done per day for my work. So when I wake up in the morning, ideally before my children, although that doesn't always pan out, I will make a list of three things that I need to do that day.
(07:12)
And sometimes it really is like I've just got to answer these emails and grade a few papers. I I've got to get this recommendation out to a client, whatever it is. But if I know the three things that I really need to do today, then I can fit it in.
(07:25)
When the kids happen to be playing quietly, when they go outside and play miraculously for an hour or two, whatever, then I've got my list and know exactly what I need to do and I can be as productive as possible.
(07:37)
Again, I think boredom is OK. I think there's value in children entertaining themselves, finding something to do. I think it's fine to kick them out of the house if you live in a relatively safe area and say, come back, come back at three, you get a snack or something along those lines. The other small tip I have for you is to add a little bit of excitement if things are not going well.
(07:59)
So if you know you're going to need to do long division or something that your child is not doing well with, add some brownies, add a candle, add a glitter sparkle pin, something like that. It will help. Or take a break from it for a week or two and come back later. Just do something else and come back to it. It's fine. Most of the stuff does not need to be done in order. Right.
(08:20)
So those are my small tips for you. Is it very much? No, we're just getting along as best we can right now, and I encourage you to do the same.
(08:29)
Lastly, I just wanted to share a few of our favorite curriculum items or curriculum things in case they're helpful to some of you folks who are newer. I've tried a lot of things and frankly, when I'm working full time and trying to homeschool them full time, there are a lot of things that we just can't do or just can't get to.
(08:48)
So some of these things I just shop out, you know, if if I can't get to history, I sign them up for a history class on Outschool and call it a day or week. Back in the old days, we would sign up for that at co-op and they would do art a co-op, because I'm just not I don't do art. If they want to do it on their own, great. So so shop around, look around, see if somebody else can teach the stuff that you don't want to.
(09:10)
But there are a few curriculum curricula that have really stuck, that have really worked well for my crew. So I'll share those in case they're helpful for you. Again, not everything is helpful for everyone, but few of the things that we really like are the Math Mammoth curriculum for I believe it starts in first grade and goes up through eighth. We find it very doable, very well explained. Easy to understand for both of my children. And we can get through it pretty easily in not very much time.
(09:39)
And they're learning it really well. So I encourage the Math Mammoth to have a look at it if you haven't already. We really like the Mystery Science. They have free videos that come out once a week.
(09:49)
If you are getting to no other science, at least you can do a little bit by watching their free five minute video.
(09:54)
And for, I think 60 or 70 bucks a year, you can get access to their full library of lessons, most of which the kids can do on their own without you.
(10:04)
So that's a reasonable homeschooling option for the time deficient.
(10:11)
And in terms of big picture, what should I do this year?
(10:14)
Type of plans I really enjoy the Build Your Library curriculum, which is largely based on reading aloud different books that align with different curricula and curriculum related initiatives, I particularly enjoy their book selections, and I also like the Blossom and Root curriculum for a more sort of nature based, relaxed, laid back adventure. They actually have a number of herbal medicine type assignments built into second grade, which we're doing right now, including making scarves and teas and bath salts and all kinds of things.
(10:50)
So that's one to check out if you are herbally inclined.
(10:55)
All right. So I hope those very few tips will be helpful. I encourage you to do what you can do. Call it good enough. It doesn't help anybody if you just constantly think to yourself that you're not doing enough, call it good enough for now. Do what you can do and when things open up, when things shift, you can adapt then, but for now, figure out your own minimums. Do your best, go outside when things break down and you will be OK.
(11:24)
All right, I'm her
(11:24)
if you need me, reach out any time and we'll be back with more directly, clinically relevant items with our next episode. Take care, everybody.
Hi there, welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I am a registered herbalist and licensed nutritionist.
(00:10)
Today's topic is homeschooling while working from home full time. I know this doesn't apply to everyone and it loosely applies to being in the clinic.
(00:20)
So if this isn't for you, no hard feelings, I will be back next time with something more directly relevant to most or all clinicians.
(00:28)
But for those of you who are trying to work from home, see clients from home and have children who are home schooling at home, I wanted to share a few thoughts with you in case this is helpful.
(00:40)
For context, I have been homeschooling my children from the beginning. My oldest is in fifth grade and I also have a second grader. They've never been to regular school before. So I thought maybe it would be helpful to share some of what's working for us. I do work full time from home normally, and I also have a part time job and my clinical practice that I am balancing as well. The first thing I want to tell you, especially if you're new to homeschooling, is that what we're doing right now is not at all what normal homeschooling looks like.
(01:16)
Normally in pre-pandemic times, my children would be at their nature school one day a week for a full day, they would be at home schooling co-op for four to five hours, two days a week. They would have various play dates and meet ups that they would be going to or we would be going to. They'd have various classes, chess class and swimming class and all the things. And for the most part, none of that is happening now.
(01:42)
They are still going to outdoor school one day a week because it's outdoors and they do distancing and so forth. But other than that, they're at home all the time with me. A lot of the things that we normally do as part of our home schooling are closed, are not available right now. So it really is just us and me trying to work as full time as I can. So here are my suggestions to you if you are in a similar boat.
(02:08)
First of all, I want to tell you that I am not the Home-Schooling goddess mother, I'm certainly not the the paragon example of what you should be doing.
(02:16)
So please just take this as some ideas that may or may not be helpful. The first thing that I want to tell you is that if you're working from home and you're trying to home school, go ahead and think of a minimum amount of things either per day or per week that you would feel relatively good about and then cut it in half. And that's probably a good minimum. So to give you an idea for us, what I have in my head for the minimum that I want to do every week with my kids is for each of them to do math and some kind of language arts four days a week.
(02:52)
And by math, I mean a few pages in their math book. Maybe it takes us 15 to 30 minutes. And language arts I mean either some spelling, some copy work, some grammar or some writing, something along those lines and reading comprehension type things. And we'll do that for 15 or 30 minutes. If we do that four times a week, each child, then I'm like, great, we've done our minimum. A lot of times we get to more than that, but a lot of times we don't.
(03:18)
There are weeks when I'm busy at work, where somebody is sick or things are going on that that we get to that and are weeks where we don't get to that, quite frankly.
(03:28)
The other thing that we do every day is read for half an hour or an hour, and those books can be related to certain homeschooling topics like history or science or more language arts or whatever. So perhaps you could count that as well.
(03:42)
But that's a minimum for us. And it feels like hardly anything when you're looking at the plan and what you're supposed to be doing and blah, blah, blah. And I also think I've got to be realistic in terms of my energy and what I can do with these kids right now. I feel like there's a lot of value in independent play, in time for creativity and exploration, so I'm trusting that my kids are learning in other ways outside of the formal learning that we're doing together,
(04:09)
minimum though it may be. And for now, that's going to have to be enough. So a few other tips that I want to pass along with you, number one, and this is something that I'm constantly forgetting and remembering, which is that if all is hell is breaking loose and nothing is OK.
(04:26)
People are having breakdowns over long division or nobody wants to read the book you're reading or et cetera, et cetera, go outside. Just take yourself and take the children and go outside. You can go outside and have a snack or go outside to have a picnic and bring your math book outside. I don't recommend it if you're having a breakdown over math, but maybe you're not.
(04:43)
Take a game outside, go for a hike, go to the pond, throw rocks in the river, whatever it is, but just go outside. It will make everything a little bit better. So easy to forget that you have that option and just sit there and sort of wallow in how bad a day is going, badly it is going. Another small tip that I have for the working parent who is trying to homeschool as well is get yourself some podcasts that the children like and/or an audiobook that to children like, give them some coloring.
(05:18)
My 10 year old still loves to color if I print him out something that is he's interested in.
(05:24)
So get them some coloring or a puzzle or some Legos or some Playmobil or something they can do like that. Put on an audio book or a podcast that they like and just let it go. If you want suggestions about audio books and or podcasts that my children have enjoyed, I'm happy to provide them. Just let me know. But that will often buy me an hour or sometimes even two a day to get some work done, to get some emails done, things like that.
(05:50)
Obviously, it depends on your child and their ages, but for the past three years, this has been a reliable strategy for us and my youngest is currently seven. So that gives you some suggestion.
(06:02)
I also recommend having quiet time after lunch where people can do whatever they want quietly in their rooms, might be read, might be sleep, might be play with a toy, might make a huge mess. You just leave them alone. As long as they're being quiet, that will give you a little bit of time to get some work done at a consistent time. I also highly recommend movies as needed for important meetings or client visits. If you can get them set up with a movie or something relatively educational, such as a documentary on Curiosity Stream, which if you search around you can get a discount, is 12 dollars a year for Curiosity Stream.
(06:38)
They've got a kids filter and you can get some nice documentaries going on there. Netflix has lots of documentaries or just let them watch a regular old movie. If you've got a big thing going on, that's fine. It's a reasonable. You can do it. OK, so those are some of my biggest tips from my own perspective, I also like to know the minimum that I need to get done per day for my work. So when I wake up in the morning, ideally before my children, although that doesn't always pan out, I will make a list of three things that I need to do that day.
(07:12)
And sometimes it really is like I've just got to answer these emails and grade a few papers. I I've got to get this recommendation out to a client, whatever it is. But if I know the three things that I really need to do today, then I can fit it in.
(07:25)
When the kids happen to be playing quietly, when they go outside and play miraculously for an hour or two, whatever, then I've got my list and know exactly what I need to do and I can be as productive as possible.
(07:37)
Again, I think boredom is OK. I think there's value in children entertaining themselves, finding something to do. I think it's fine to kick them out of the house if you live in a relatively safe area and say, come back, come back at three, you get a snack or something along those lines. The other small tip I have for you is to add a little bit of excitement if things are not going well.
(07:59)
So if you know you're going to need to do long division or something that your child is not doing well with, add some brownies, add a candle, add a glitter sparkle pin, something like that. It will help. Or take a break from it for a week or two and come back later. Just do something else and come back to it. It's fine. Most of the stuff does not need to be done in order. Right.
(08:20)
So those are my small tips for you. Is it very much? No, we're just getting along as best we can right now, and I encourage you to do the same.
(08:29)
Lastly, I just wanted to share a few of our favorite curriculum items or curriculum things in case they're helpful to some of you folks who are newer. I've tried a lot of things and frankly, when I'm working full time and trying to homeschool them full time, there are a lot of things that we just can't do or just can't get to.
(08:48)
So some of these things I just shop out, you know, if if I can't get to history, I sign them up for a history class on Outschool and call it a day or week. Back in the old days, we would sign up for that at co-op and they would do art a co-op, because I'm just not I don't do art. If they want to do it on their own, great. So so shop around, look around, see if somebody else can teach the stuff that you don't want to.
(09:10)
But there are a few curriculum curricula that have really stuck, that have really worked well for my crew. So I'll share those in case they're helpful for you. Again, not everything is helpful for everyone, but few of the things that we really like are the Math Mammoth curriculum for I believe it starts in first grade and goes up through eighth. We find it very doable, very well explained. Easy to understand for both of my children. And we can get through it pretty easily in not very much time.
(09:39)
And they're learning it really well. So I encourage the Math Mammoth to have a look at it if you haven't already. We really like the Mystery Science. They have free videos that come out once a week.
(09:49)
If you are getting to no other science, at least you can do a little bit by watching their free five minute video.
(09:54)
And for, I think 60 or 70 bucks a year, you can get access to their full library of lessons, most of which the kids can do on their own without you.
(10:04)
So that's a reasonable homeschooling option for the time deficient.
(10:11)
And in terms of big picture, what should I do this year?
(10:14)
Type of plans I really enjoy the Build Your Library curriculum, which is largely based on reading aloud different books that align with different curricula and curriculum related initiatives, I particularly enjoy their book selections, and I also like the Blossom and Root curriculum for a more sort of nature based, relaxed, laid back adventure. They actually have a number of herbal medicine type assignments built into second grade, which we're doing right now, including making scarves and teas and bath salts and all kinds of things.
(10:50)
So that's one to check out if you are herbally inclined.
(10:55)
All right. So I hope those very few tips will be helpful. I encourage you to do what you can do. Call it good enough. It doesn't help anybody if you just constantly think to yourself that you're not doing enough, call it good enough for now. Do what you can do and when things open up, when things shift, you can adapt then, but for now, figure out your own minimums. Do your best, go outside when things break down and you will be OK.
(11:24)
All right, I'm her
(11:24)
if you need me, reach out any time and we'll be back with more directly, clinically relevant items with our next episode. Take care, everybody.
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