As a business owner, mum and home schooling family, I get asked a lot of questions about how I balance all my commitments and what my day actually looks like. So I thought I would answer some of the top questions from the home schooling side of things 😊
At the time of writing this post (August 2022), my girls are 15, 10 and 6 years old and would be going in to Years 11, 6 and 2 next month if they went to school
Mixing home schooling (normally called home education) with running a business definitely needs some planning to make sure that we get through everything we want to do but its something I’ve been doing for 6 years already so think I’m doing an alright job
Here’s some of the common questions I get asked about home education:
Do you learn throughout the school holidays?
We tend to chill out in the school holidays and spend that time seeing friends who are normally at school. Any home educated groups tend to break up as well so a lot of our regular activities stop (like gymnastics)
But one of the great things about home education is that learning can take place at any time and anywhere just through every day lives. So if the girls want to explore something, we will do it
Do you follow the National Curriculum?
No, as home educators we don’t have to follow it and can come up with our own type of curriculum. It can be used as a guide but we tend to choose topics to learn about and that then encompasses the different elements (reading, writing, maths, history, geography, art, science, music etc)
By also choosing topics that my girls are really interested in, learning becomes a million times easier! As questions naturally come up, we can explore those answers unlike at school which is difficult with so many children
What about exams, can you still do them?
Yes, we can still do exams we just have to sit them as a private candidate. The only difference is that we have to do iGCSE’s which are purely exams as we can’t do coursework. My eldest has already got 3 x iGCSE’s at 15 years old and will be sitting her final ones in January and summer next year
The other great thing about being home educated is that you can choose exactly what iGCSE’s to take and can focus on what is best for you
How do my kids socialise?
This, and the exams question, are the two that I will ALWAYS get asked when people find out we home educate. The simple answer is that we do lots of socialising – whether that’s at specially organised activities, groups or events, meeting up with friends, or at evening martial arts classes. My girls have built some really strong friendships as its with people they really want to spend time with and not just because they’re in the same class
In fact, they have lots of awesome relationships with both children and adults of different ages – from 3 up to 73
If you’re thinking of home educating and struggling to see how you can fit it round running a business as well, drop me a message as I’m always happy to give some top tips to help you make it work for you and your family
Hi, I’m Emma Walker and I’m a Business Coach supporting women and mums wanting to build an online business
My core mission and everything I do is about empowering women to be smart, savvy and successful entrepreneurs. By ditching the overwhelm, side stepping the guilt and becoming the business owner they always dreamed of being
Through coaching, online courses and digital products, I help awesome women to build successful and profitable online businesses!
I’m also a home schooling mum to 3 girls (since 2016) so I know what it’s like to juggle business round the kids 💯
