Summer is half way over and perhaps you are still in the investigative phase as you contemplate whether to homeschool or not. In the future, we will discuss the challenges and discussions that often go on between parents, but today, let me ask you to be rather introspective.

Are YOU really ready to homeschool your child?

Is YOUR life set up to teach your child?

Sorry, today, I have no interest in talking about whether you think your kid can handle it or whether your school system will allow you to bring your child home. I want you to sit back and really think about whether you really want to make this commitment.

Exercise is a part of my life and no matter when, where and how much I have worked over the last 20 years, I made time to exercise. That meant training at 4am, 5pm (which is absolutely the worst time to train in any gym) and 11pm. It was a priority for me and to not exercise was far worst than whatever less than optimal conditions I had to train in.

This is the kind of commitment I want you to make with homeschooling your kids. If you have done so, let’s begin working on some strategies to get you ready for the 2016-2107 school term.

First, start with how you can exercise your freedom at work.

What I want you to evaluate right now is your time. There are 168 hours in a week, so how many can you devote to teaching your kids? Flexibility is the key, and in the 21st century, this is your greatest advantage. The Wall Street Journal reported that people just simply do not feel they can exercise their freedom and based on my experience, I’ve found this to be true. My main hustle has always offered tremendous flexibility and most do not take advantage of the opportunity. Here was my personal progression:

• 20 years ago I made a decision that I would not take a job that required me to work weekends
• Six years ago, I began working from home one day per week
• Three years ago, I started expanding this to two when possible
• Upon relocating last year, a made the decision to work from home full-time.

My wife and I split the homeschooling years as follows:
– K – 6: She is the primary teacher
– 7 – 10 (or 12th by high school standards): I am primary teacher

Therefore, as the kids get older, my role increases and yes, as I move further in my career, that’s added stress juggling my professional life and homeschooling life. But I would not have it any other way as it is not her sole responsibility to teach while I go out and kill something for a paycheck.

Now there are some “old school” managers that do approve or are not fans and I’ll touch on that more in a moment. But what I have found is that a vast majority of people simply do not want to use that flexibility and work remotely because they do not trust themselves. Now, if that works for you and you like it, well I love it. But don’t lie to yourself and say, “I’d love to homeschool but I just don’t have the time with work” and your job pays you to produce results, not just to be present and produce a product.

Now some managers may not support you working remotely or outside the usual 9-to-5 because they don’t trust themselves or perhaps they just have a factory/cubicle mindset. But what nearly all of us have in common (and Reg touched on this HERE) is that we were taught in schools that were designed to train us for the factory. In the factory, you go to work at a specified time, take a break at a specified time, go home at a specified time and you follow orders, produce the widget, until you retire and die…and pray it’s in that order and that you have some space in-between the latter two.

So are you willing to use your freedom to free your children?

Always Be Teaching Action Plan for today:
What I would like you to begin doing, if you can work remotely, research your company’s policy and see what makes it possible. The process may be much easier than you think and it means absolutely nothing if no one else is doing it. You start the trend. If there is one thing you’ll hear often here is that your family cannot be afraid to be different. Next, I want you to just start with one day a week, to prove to yourself and management that you can probably be more effective performing your job exercising this flexibility. Why? Because you will be creating harmony between your family and your occupation, something that we have not had as a society in over 100 years before Industrialization.

The above advice goes for whether you are a single parent or two-parent household. However, perhaps it is not possible due to your company or perhaps you are in a blended household where your kids are with you only partially during the week. That means will need to find another way in that 168 hours and we will look at that next time!

But in the meantime, check out what you can do and remember, just because it may be hard, you should Always Be Teaching!