Making an income from home

marrbett

I just wanted to say that you have my sympathies, we home-ed our 4 children and my dh brings home a really low wage, thank heavens for tax credits!! It is a struggle financially, but the reward of spending time with your kids, and learning alongside them so makes up for any hardship.
If you end up on benefits, does it help to think of the money you are saving the taxpayer by not having to pay for their schooling- about £4000 each child isn't it?
Hope all goes well for you.

sleepless_saver

I wondered if you might be entitled to working tax credit, including the childcare element of WTC. If so, it would give you more options on the child care front. It would be worth checking out. Good luck!

saver6

Can I ask a question of all the home schoolers, and sorry of it's a little OT? Please please please don't take offence, but I am very curious as to the reasons why people do this, and as I've never met people who've home schooled their kids, so have never had the opportunity to ask. I'm unsure what it entails and the reasoning? I don't have children yet and never considered the possibility of home schooling, so am curious...

Honestly, I'm not criticising at all, as I have no basis to do so!

whatsername

Thank you Marrbett, we hard up home edders should form a club :rolleyes:

Sleepless Saver...I am awaiting a decision on Tax Credits at the moment, although it's based on the job that I am about to quit, so not going to be very accurate. I obviously need to be working 16 hours a week to qualify, so will need to see if I can make that happen, thanks for the suggestion, if I can get it, it will make a big difference.

Saver6...oh, where to start? Short answer is that I felt school would be the wrong environment for my very bright, but slightly aspie son, and was looking around for alternatives when I stumbled across home ed. It seemed like the answer to our prayers and has been great. Not being tied to school meant that last year we were able to take off and spent 6 months living in the States.

It just gives us the freedom to be able to live the way we like - although obviously in terms of money and jobs it has drawbacks...I have so many objections to school that I won't even start to bore you with it.

As far as how it works, it depends on the family. Everyone does it differently, personally we are a kind of mixture between structured and autonomous. For the most part we follow the kids' interests and plan work around whatever they want to learn about - having an interest in the subject makes learning about it far easier. I also print up worksheets and projects off the internet and out of books when something catches my eye. This morning we've done some maths and now I have one child on the laptop working on the latest chapter in the story he is writing, and the other is painting. But there is no typical day, some days we do loads of work, other days none. We also attend various groups and social activities. Phew!

Hope that answers some of your questions, if not, ask away

saver6

Yes, thank you whatsername. That's very helpful. Do you have to work to any sort of structured governmental subject list at all? I mean, surely if you register your kids as homeschooled there are support services for you, including textbooks and lesson plans. Or is it all a case of what YOU feel is necessary?

I like the idea of homeschooling. I think a school environment offers a wealth of benefits, but I think I understand where you're coming from in why you wouldn't want them going there! I had some horrible times, and kids are so exposed to peer pressure it can be more worrying than it's worth, especially when you hear of all the horror stories that seems to be more prevelant nowadays. I think as long as the kids get healthy "people" time there could be no reason for them to feel excluded from society.

Do your kids get much "stick" for being homeschooled at all> I can imagine it MAY prove a target for bullying, so would be interested in hearing if that is your experience at all.

I'm finding this really interesting, but sorry I can't be of help to your actual problem!

whatsername

No structured subject list at all, or anything even remotely close. If you withdraw your kids from school, you have to register them as home educated. If you've been doing it from the start - as we have - then you don't have to do anything, so technically you can pass completely under the radar with no problems or contact at all. That is not the case for us, we were discovered having been reported. At this point I can accept visits or I can - as I have chosen - just submit an annual report on our activities. As long as the education officer believes they are getting a reasonable education, that is all the contact we get. The education otherwise guy down here is pretty cool, so we're lucky, I understand others can get a lot of hassle.

As far as targeting...no, they have never been bullied, although a lot of parents don't seem to want their kids to mix with mine - probably in case they get any ideas!

saver6

Wow, you learn something new every day! I guess I just assumed homeschooling would have loads of red tape all of it's own. Are exams optional and if so, do you intend to have your own kids do GCSE's?

I'm glad that they're not stigmatised at all. I don't think that would be called for at all. After all first and foremost they are YOUR kids and therefore how you educate them should be your choice, regardless of the reasons.

I'm sorry, I really shouldn't be asking all these off-topic questions!

spanglish

Just a thought but have you considered writing a blog and/or website about home schooling? You could do sections about what's involved, including the red tape side of things and suggestions for lessons plus regular updates on the "trials and tribulations" and solutions for problems you experience and include a forum for other home schoolers.

If you add Google ads and affiliate links for relevant products eg text books, home income opportunities (referral links for surveys etc.) you could build up quite a steady income. Do a search on Google for homeworking and UK and you'll find a selection of sites that explain more about earning from blogs, affiliate programs etc.

marrbett

We started home-schooling as we hated the idea of our 4 yr old son going into formal education, much preferred the european idea of formal learning starting at 6-7 yrs old ,which boys in particular gain from.
Then once you start ,it becomes a natural way of life and you see your kids learn from things without you having to 'teach'them at all.
It progresses on to structuring 'lessons' around the things they love to do, my eldest son has a passion for all things football and it's amazing how much geography, history, maths etc can be learnt from resarching football.etc
(We had great fun pinpointing all the premiership teams on a large map of the UK, I learned so much!!)
Then more kids come along and you say to yourself, why not carry on? They love it, life is ours to do with as we want, and there is plenty of time to be under stress when you're an adult, why go through it un-necessarily as a child?
Life can be chaotic, particularly with all the kids at home, and my house is never tidy like I would like, but time is short, too much fun to be had for now!!
Hth a bit, it's definitely more common now, when we started qbout 10 years ago, it was considered very 'way out'!!!

whatsername

GCSE's are quite a way off for us now, but yes, they are optional. Obviously, it is a big advantage in today's exam-oriented culture, so when the time comes we'll see.

Spanglish, ironically, yes, I have - it occurred to me last week, before the crisis dawned...I really should....it will now be my story of picking up my life from utter devastation and trying to just survive - especially now my partner has just decided we 'have no future..'

This is going to be one pretty tough feat to get through the next few weeks without crumbling totally. Thank you all for your input so far.