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You Don’t Have to Choose Between Doing Your Job and Homeschooling

Laura Vanderkam
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Published in
4 min readMar 26, 2020

A father looks over from his laptop at his son’s school work at home.
Photo: mediaphotos/E+/Getty Images

Laura Vanderkam, the time management expert who wrote Off the Clock and Juliet’s School of Possibilities, is here to answer your scheduling questions. Check back every week for more advice, and send your own productivity problems to asklaura@medium.com. (Your name will not be used.)

Dear Laura: Like many people during this global pandemic, I’m working from home for the foreseeable future, and my kids’ school is closed. They have a pile of schoolwork to do online, and once they’re done with that, I’d prefer they do something more educational than watch YouTube videos. But my schedule is still packed with work and remote meetings. Any suggestions for managing the logistics of homeschooling and working?

YYou’re far from the only person struggling with this right now. (If you really want to feel seen, check out this viral rant by an Israeli mom about her kids’ homeschooling.) Doing the job of a trained and qualified teacher, plus your own job, sounds close to impossible.

But it can be done. Even before the global pandemic, plenty of parents with flexible jobs had figured out how to do both, and still have some time…

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Forge
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Published in Forge

A former publication from Medium on personal development. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Laura Vanderkam
Laura Vanderkam

Written by Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management books including Off the Clock and 168 Hours. She blogs at LauraVanderkam.com.

Responses (6)

What are your thoughts?

This sounds great on paper… but I’m a single mom with twin 3-year-old boys. They go to preschool normally, but can’t really be left alone on the other side of a closed door or expected to do some kind of activity on their own. They’re also just…

I liked this… but was a bit disappointed by the ending to be honest: for me, you gave such a good undertsanding about what real learning is, and your suggestions were kind of seeing through the regimented ‘edcuation’ that is supposed to be nurturing…

We have been advised that in Alberta we will not be returning to school until September, the balance of the school year has been cancelled. I suspect that we are just the first of many jurisdictions that will come the the same conclusion.
Just saying…