| As lifestyle challenges go, combining earning a living | | | | are aware. E.g. the pros and cons of using fluoride as |
| whilst at the same time home educating your children, | | | | a means of protecting teeth. |
| has to be one of the toughest. I'm assuming, for the | | | | There are many other ideas on the internet if you |
| purposes of this article, that you're not one of the few | | | | search on "frugal living". For single parents and for |
| home educating families where the parents can afford | | | | those with very young or disabled children, using more |
| to go out to work and employ someone to supervise | | | | than a few of the above examples is likely to present |
| and home educate their children for them. For most | | | | more of a challenge. In this case, it can be beneficial to |
| families these days, school provides a large chunk of | | | | get involved with other home educating families or to |
| free child-care and this is what many parents exploit in | | | | engage other members of the extended family for |
| order for them to be able to earn a living whilst raising | | | | mutual support. |
| children. So, what do you do when you do not have | | | | Many cost-saving measures are healthier for us as |
| access to hours of child-free work time each day? | | | | well as providing our children with interesting |
| What can you do if you are a single parent and/or | | | | educational opportunities. Maintaining good health, after |
| home educating very young or disabled children? | | | | all, is also a cost saving exercise. |
| Tough challenges indeed, but certainly not impossible | | | | What are your options for generating an income? |
| judging by the number of families I've come across | | | | I find it uplifting to hear of the many resourceful and |
| who are, apparently successfully and happily, doing just | | | | imaginative ways in which home educating parents |
| that. There are many different ways in which families | | | | choose to earn money. During my time as a "stay at |
| achieve this, although the process of changing their | | | | home mum" when my boys were young, I watched |
| lifestyle has often taken place over several years. | | | | the freedom with which they chose what to learn and |
| How do they manage it? | | | | how to spend their days. I decided to emulate them |
| Balancing income and costs. | | | | and choose a vocation that my heart was in and that I |
| In absolute terms, of course, it doesn't matter how | | | | absolutely enjoyed. Also, having felt the twinge of |
| much income we have so long as it is equal to or | | | | resentment at the thought of reducing our income and |
| greater than our costs. Most of us can decide, to a | | | | our buying power at the outset, I was determined not |
| large extent, what our costs will be and therefore how | | | | to head down that route again. Rather than take any |
| much of an income we need, but if our income drops, | | | | job that would earn us a decent income, my aim was |
| then it follows that our costs must decrease too. | | | | to use the situation as an opportunity to re-train in |
| When I decided to take my two boys out of school in | | | | something I loved. For me that job was life coaching. |
| 1998, I was already running a small business from | | | | Here are some examples of what others have done. |
| home, but it quickly became apparent that I would not | | | | These are taken from the experiences related to me |
| be able to continue with this. My job, though | | | | by friends and acquaintances or else by parents I've |
| home-based and part-time, took up around 30 hours | | | | coached: |
| per week, some of it spent away from home. I wasn't | | | | A married couple with 4 children who both teach |
| happy spending that amount of time working or being | | | | musical instruments. When their children were too |
| away from my children while they were young (age 8 | | | | young to be left unsupervised at all, they took it in turns |
| and 6). So, I quit my job in order to home educate. My | | | | to teach. As they got older, they increased their |
| doing that left us with one income (I was married at | | | | teaching hours. |
| the time and my husband was working) which was | | | | A single mum who, in return for food and |
| not sufficient to cover our bills as they stood. So, we | | | | accommodation for her and her two children, carries |
| decided to downshift to a part of the country where it | | | | out voluntary work for a charity in several different |
| was less expensive to live, buy a much less expensive | | | | countries. |
| home and lower our sights in materialistic terms. | | | | A married couple where the mother is a journalist and |
| During the months and weeks that followed, I read | | | | technical author and the father looks after the children. |
| many books and websites on home education and, | | | | A married couple with 3 young children where both |
| just as importantly as it turned out, I started learning | | | | partners are business consultants and take it in turns |
| about something called "Voluntary Simplicity". The | | | | to work. When they occasionally have to work away |
| tenets of Voluntary Simplicity are frugal consumption, | | | | from home together for a day or two, the children's |
| ecological awareness and personal growth. However, | | | | grandparents provide childcare. |
| this change in life path and priorities i.e. my children's | | | | A single mum who re-trained as an herbalist and sees |
| education now rated above my quest for material | | | | clients at her home. |
| possessions, felt like deprivation or even poverty | | | | Other jobs that I've know home-educating parents to |
| sometimes. I realised there were seeds of resentment | | | | do, either as a couple or alone, are: |
| threatening to germinate as a result of our decision to | | | | Running a franchise business selling clothes or books in |
| home educate. I needed to stop feeding them. I | | | | people's homes or running an after school club. |
| needed a change of perspective. | | | | Making and selling specialist foods, home-made clothes, |
| It was a revelation for me to discover that taking the | | | | soap, and jewellery. |
| path of voluntary simplicity was not about poverty at | | | | Providing accommodation for foreign students who |
| all, but about unearthing a simpler, freer way of living | | | | are in the UK on school trips. |
| that gave us more time together. I quickly realised that | | | | Childminding |
| this was really an opportunity for us to lead a much | | | | Bed and breakfast accommodation |
| richer, more meaningful life emotionally, physically and | | | | Travelling with the children and being employed in a |
| spiritually. | | | | variety of casual or temporary jobs. |
| What are your options for cutting costs? | | | | Writing |
| When we take our children out of school (or decide | | | | Performing (e.g. music, circus skills). |
| not to start sending them) and home educate, it can | | | | The Benefit Dilemma |
| appear that we have lost the time necessary to earn | | | | Something that I've had considerable trouble facing |
| a living. So one of the things we need to do is re-gain | | | | since starting home education is the idea of being |
| that time some other way. How do we do that? One | | | | dependent on someone else for my income, whether it |
| option is to view our time spent with the children as a | | | | was my ex-husband or the state. The latest efforts |
| time to practice frugality. At the same time we can be | | | | by the Government to get single parents "back to |
| educating our children. Here are some examples of the | | | | work" under the mistaken impression that all single |
| sort of activities I mean: | | | | parents of over 7 year olds must have nothing |
| 1. Home education eliminates the need for the school | | | | constructive to do with their time, has not helped to |
| run. This reduces the number of miles travelled and | | | | quash this social stigma. |
| therefore the cost of transport (although some of | | | | Time again for a change in perspective, I think. By |
| these miles will be made up by families travelling to | | | | home educating each child, we are saving the state |
| events and social gatherings). Perhaps you can find a | | | | several thousand pounds per year and yet we receive |
| way to reduce your car use further by walking, cycling | | | | nothing from the state to fund our home education. |
| or using public transport. This can be much more | | | | We can view social security benefits as a way in |
| interesting for the children and lead to many questions | | | | which the state (i.e. society at large) is supporting us |
| and discussions about what you all observe during | | | | for fulfilling this vital role. This is especially true, I believe, |
| your journey. | | | | for those of us who home educate young or disabled |
| 2. By being at home more, all the family have the | | | | children, since they require a large degree of |
| opportunity to take part in daily cost saving activities | | | | supervision, commitment and specialised care. To |
| such as recycling, composting, growing and cooking | | | | expect a single, home educating parent to work at |
| their own food, maintaining the house and garden, | | | | some other job too in these circumstances is beyond |
| learning how to reuse and repair items rather than just | | | | belief and yet this expectation is a situation we are |
| throw them away. (Thus learning about how things | | | | going to have to accept and deal with until such time |
| work and about the materials from which they are | | | | as the Government sees reason. |
| made.) You can learn how to make necessary | | | | The benefit that home educated children (and |
| everyday items, from sweaters, skirts and scarves to | | | | therefore society as a whole as they grow up) |
| soap, plant pots, bird-tables, garden tools and even | | | | receive from being nurtured in this way is something |
| computers. There are further savings to be had by | | | | that the rest of society finds it hard to acknowledge |
| buying your food locally and through farmers' markets | | | | and value at the moment. In the meantime, if you're in |
| and by forming a food co-op with other local home | | | | the situation where you're reliant on benefits, my |
| educating families. All of these are much richer in | | | | suggestion from personal experience and from talking |
| interesting experiences, human interactions and | | | | with others is to do everything you can to |
| problem solving opportunities than a quick trip round | | | | acknowledge to yourself the value of the "unpaid |
| your local supermarket. | | | | work" that you do. Also remember that as your |
| 3. If you decide to cut your costs by minimising your | | | | children grow up so your life and work situation will |
| expenditure on "educational materials" you can actually | | | | change. Being at home with your children is a |
| find yourself presenting information to your children in a | | | | wonderful opportunity to learn new skills and broaden |
| way that promotes a more holistic perspective. For | | | | your horizons before returning to work or re-training if |
| example, using real money instead of plastic money, | | | | that's what you choose to do. |
| real items to weigh instead of artificial weights and | | | | My experience during my 9 years of home educating |
| measures, items from your kitchen or garden for | | | | so far is that home educators are a feisty bunch and |
| science experiments rather than science kits. Many | | | | not people to be too daunted by a challenge or two. |
| materials used in schools are produced with the | | | | Combining earning an income with home education |
| assumption that consumerism is the norm. Some are | | | | requires above all an open and creative mind, capable |
| sponsored by private enterprises that have a vested | | | | of thinking outside the box. If parents don't have those |
| interest in encouraging children to start using their | | | | perspectives when they first start home educating, |
| products from an early age e.g. worksheets on dental | | | | many learn to cultivate them as a result! This puts |
| hygiene produced by a leading manufacturer of | | | | them in the perfect frame of mind to create a means |
| toothpaste who promote the use of fluoride. At home, | | | | of income generation at the right time, that meets their |
| parents may point out all the alternatives of which they | | | | needs and that they enjoy. |