What do you think? Can you work and homeschool at the same time? We're gonna talk about that.
My name is Nicholeen Peck and I am the creator of teachingselfgovernment.com. I happen to also be
a homeschooler. In fact, I have always homeschooled my children. So, I think I can really talk to:
Can you work and homeschool at the same time? That's what we're going to talk about today.
So the short answer is "YES". I am living proof that you absolutely can homeschool and work at the same time.
But there are certain jobs that are going to lend better to homeschooling than others. I have to
be honest about that. It really isn't a good idea to be gone from your children all day every day
and still then try to do homeschooling. Because homeschooling does not happen as well at night.
Everyone's tired, the brain doesn't work as well and you just need that family bonding time.
So, if you have the type of job where you have flexibility. Maybe only work a little bit of
the week and the rest of the week you can go full in on home school. Then that could work or maybe
you work at home. So my office is in my house and that's where I run an international organization from.
As well as teaching self-government.com which is my main business that I created years ago.
As well as working to protect parental rights and things like that at legislatures and in congress.
That type of advocacy work that I do on the side and I homeschool. All those things happen in my
little office. So you can do more than you think. But what I want to share with you today is how to
structure your day or key elements that you're going to need in order to work and home school
at the same time. I definitely would not be able to work in homeschool at the same time.
Without understanding the principle of self-government and without my children being self-governed.
So, self-government is being able to determine the cause and effect of any given situation, and
possessing a knowledge of your own behavior so that you can control them. That means a person
is constantly analyzing themselves and cause and effect, and making good decisions taking ownership
over their own behaviors. So I needed to master self-government so that I would make the most of
my time and connection moments with the children, and everybody else that I needed to work with for
all of my different jobs, and causes that I'm part of. But my children also needed self-government.
Because if there's whining and complaining, and people not following through with what they
should do. Not doing their chores, not getting along, having attitude problems. It's going to be really
hard to do both. So, the first lesson in homeschool is going to be how do we self-govern ourselves.
The best place you can go for answers for that is to teachingselfgovernment.com. I'll tell you all about
the four basic skills, about the five teaching styles, about the meetings you can have to help
your children make goals and hold themselves accountable. So that everyone accomplishes
that homeschool goal and creates a good family culture at the same time. Because we know as
homeschoolers it's really about the type of family that we're becoming not so much about the academic.
Even though we do need to do some academics. In fact, people would say our family was a really
successful homeschool family. But my main focus was definitely not on the academics even though
my children excelled there. My emphasis in our home was on our home culture our bond and our family relationships.
That's where the self-government comes in. So I taught my children self-government.
How to problem-solve, how to communicate, and that made everything else more effective that I did.
So, learn self-government that's going to be a big boon to your homeschool work combination.
Now, here are some other tips. Make sure that you always put the children first and the home
school first. So if you're in the middle of you know writing an email or you're having a phone
call or something like that. Make sure that you tell yourself the children's needs do come first.
Now, the children should be taught to say, "Excuse me" Wait for their turn to talk to you. But if the
call is going on long. Then I tell the call, "Can you hold on just a minute? I need to talk to one
of my children." or, "I have something very important to do." And, so then I put them on mute and I talk to
my child. That is most important they need to be the number one. I know some families who've had
nannies come in to run the homeschool just so that they could answer their business emails. Well, I've
definitely done the opposite. I have assistants and secretaries and they check my emails, schedule my
flights do stuff like that. So that I can do just the home school. Listen, I want to do the thing
that's the most important. The thing i'm going to remember for the rest of my life. Making a
flight reservation is not going to be a crucial thing in my life. But being there when my child
learns to read or tie their shoes, that's going to be the most important. So you do have to keep
your priorities really straight. Make sure that you outsource the things that anyone can do. But those
things with the family you keep for yourself. If you do that the family will support you as well.
Now, there's a big thing I teach in the teaching self-government parenting course. That you're going
to want to really pay attention to and that is creating a family vision. The family needs to know
who they're becoming as a group and if you also talk about family mission, and what mission your
family has, or how your family is going to make the world a better place. Then, they see you living a
mission to do a job or some other cause. They'll be able to understand that and support that as well.
So make sure you open up those conversations with your children. Do the upfront teaching so
that they know what to expect. One of the key principles of being a self-governed person
is pre-teaching before you take any action. So you need to pre-teach your children and your husband,
everybody that's involved your co-workers. What your top priorities are and how you're gonna
run your life and then you calmly just do it. And sure occasionally, you might have to miss one of
the games that the children has or you might have to have an older child help a younger child with something.
Because there is something pressing with business. But have those be the exceptions? Not the rule.
The rule should be you go to them first and if you can budget your work day later in the day
and give the family the morning. Because the best school time happens in the morning that's when the
brains are the most fresh. what I did for a while is I did my work stuff early in the morning then
I did school for a while. Come afternoon and into evening I did work again. Sometimes, if you have
that flexibility that makes all the difference. On the teaching self-government channel there
are multiple videos about family schedules, about homeschooling. Feel free to look around for those.
So if you've liked this video. I'm pretty sure you're gonna love the next video. Which is:
"How to help your child deal with disappointment." Click on that link, I'll meet you there.
And, I just want to give you a heads up. There's a free gift in that video that you're not going
to want to miss. Because it will help you along your self-government journey.