Homeschooling Tips for Single Parents

by Lyn Lomasi

Homeschooling is a challenging educational choice. When I became a single parent and decided to go back to homeschooling two of my four kids at the same time, many wondered if it was the right choice. Sure, schooling the kids at home can be challenging  -- especially for single parents. But I knew it was the right choice for my kids, so I made it work. 

Relax. This is crucial to remember. If you are calm, things go much smoother. When you stress, so do the kids -- and that isn’t a conducive learning or teaching environment. We like to do yoga together before starting the day. This helps clear the mind for better focus and is also extremely relaxing and energizing at the same time.

Scheduling should make sense. Remember that if you homeschool, you do not have to teach and learn in a strict time period. Just be sure that your child is learning at least the required number of hours in your area. Check with your local educational department for homeschooling regulations. Single parents generally have a work schedule and other things to work around. Keep that in mind when making time for learning. 

Don't forget the fun! We like to take frequent field trips, use games for teaching, and go hiking on the trails with the dogs. Most local venues can double as fun and education. For instance, on a tour in a food factory, children may have fun tasting. But they will also learn how that food was made, which could enhance current lessons. These fun trips can help relieve the stress of doing the school thing on your own. We sometimes meet other homeschooling families, which helps as well. 

Work remotely when possible. If you can, find a job that allows you to work from home. If this isn’t possible in your field, check with your boss to see if there are certain tasks you can do at home to cut down on the hours you need to be at the office. Some parents may not be able to do this. However, working at home has helped me immensely with homeschooling as a single parent. It is much easier to make arrangements the rare times when I do need to go to the office than to do so every day. I somehow feel more comforted knowing that even if I have a large workload, I can still supervise my children with their lessons because we are all in the same place. 

Split up schooling times. If you have other kids who are not homeschooling (like me) or have a job outside the home, this may be the best way to handle things. For instance, if you work a traditional 9-5 job and your child needs 6 hours of school per day, you can teach from 6 a.m. - 8 a.m. and again from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. During the day when you are at work, if the kids are younger, they could attend day camps. If they are older, they could do the same or attend extracurricular classes, such as photography, art, dance, or music. They can also study some of that time if there are things they can do without your assistance. 

Have more than one teacher. Is the other parent available to teach some of the classes? What about a grandparent, nanny, tutor, or daycare provider? Before setting this up, be sure the homeschooling laws in your state allow for this, as some only allow the legal guardian to be the teacher. If you are able to split schooling time with another responsible adult, this can help get around some common scheduling issues single homeschool parents face. 

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Author Blurb

Lyn Lomasi is the Community Advocate at Yahoo! Contributor Network. She's also a freelance web journalist and founder of Write W.A.V.E. Media, parent company to LifeSuccessfully.com and several others. From parenting techniques, to energy usage, to humane animal treatment, homeless aid, reducing waste and more, Lyn is committed to saving the Earth as a whole. For this self-made momtrepreneur, green living and sustainability is not about a few small product choices. It s a way of life and a labor of love. She is currently raising her kids and pets in Colorado.

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Little Boys Love Their Urinators

If this blog sounds familiar, I apologize. You see, I have been warned by Google – again – that by mentioning the male anatomy, I have violated the terms of Adsense, so in a repeat (twice – because the url of the blog didn't change after I changed the title and the name of the male anatomy) of the blog I originally published on July 5, 2010, which Google demanded I delete, I am now complying once again with the Adsense rules by changing the name of the male anatomy from what it is actually called anatomically to what I hope will appeal to Google's terms – for the sake of this blog, the official name of the male anatomy is now called a urinator. Phew! That was one looooong sentence.

And now back to the original blog (with changes) for the blog which is now called, Little Boys Love Their Urinators:
Already I hear women applauding everywhere, because as everybody knows, from the time they discover their "private parts" in the earliest year of their lives, little boys can't stop playing with them and they can't stop showing them off.

I will not embarrass any one of my grandsons in this blog (I can already hear the older ones sighing relief), nor will I embarrass my own son (HUGE sigh of relief), but I have to blog about this new situation. 

Before I begin, let me explain something – having never been a boy, I can only imagine what it must feel like to find something hanging from my body that had previously been hidden inside a diaper.

Little boys LOVE their "urinators" and they LOVE what they can do with them. The love, praise, admiration, and excitement for anything "urinator" related is a genetically male birthright. From the time they first discover theirs, they flaunt it and show it to everybody they know (and to everybody they don't know).

"Look what I can do! Look what I can do!"

You will find little boys watering the lawn, spraying the entire bathroom, targeting diamond shapes on the shower curtains, and even building puddles on the rugs.

Their entire lives, beginning when they are very young, they hear the words, "Keep it in your pants."

Just this morning, one of my (nameless) grandsons was walking around holding his "urinator" as a weapon, daring to pee on anybody within spray range.

"That is your private part and you are supposed to keep it in your pants," one of my nameless children told him.

My grandson wasn't even slightly upset about the admonition, because he rolled his eyes and remarked, "It's not my pirate part" as he continued to "psssshhhhh psssshhhhh," his way around the house.

Of course, eventually, he placed his multi-tasking machine back into his pants. And, who knows, maybe when he pulls out his "pirate part" again, he'll be able to hoist a ship with it. "Ahoy, Maties! Look what I can do!"

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