Teachers- Balancing work/home?

[Rinn]

I have a question for the teachers who are around.

What do your children do in the afternoons when they have finished school, but you are still at work? Do they go to a relatives house? After school care? (is this an expensive option?) Babysitter/nanny? Come and meet you at the school/preschool that you are working in? Go home by themselves (for the much older children)?

Any other challenges you have found balancing teaching and your home life? Please be brutally honest.

Have always thought about being a special needs teacher and reviewing my short term financial needs has prompted a closer look at my long term career aspirations, and whether I can make them fit with my family goals.

Thank you in advance!

[xoxoxo]

Hey Rinn,

My DD is 5 and is starting school this year.

She will go to the school that I teach at. It was a big decision as to weather she would go with me or attend a school closer to where we live. As she is coming with me she will just come to my classroom after school and will be with me until I am ready to go. On staff meeting afternoons she will go to the Before and AFter school care that we have at school.

I am thinking it will be easier than the last 5 years that she has been at long daycare as I will already have her with me rather than having to go and pick her up.

Holidays are fine as I am on holidays when she is - the only possible drawback is we may need a little time apart from each other as we will be now spending much more time together - she will not be in my class obviously - but she will still be with me more than she was.

I think it is the perfect profession for raising kids. My mum was also a teacher and I loved that she was always with us in the holidays (I don't know that she always loved it - luckily she loved us!)

Good luck with your decision!

[Rinn]

Thank you so much for your reply.

If you don't mind me asking, is before/after school care expensive? Do they do organized activities etc, or are they basically just supervised?

How do you think you will work things once she is in high school?

[xoxoxo]

Do you know - I have no idea how much after school care is yet! She is enrolled but obviously hasn't gone yet (school starts next week) I only know that it will not be as much as the $99/day I paid at day care!!!

The AFter hours care we have at school is amazing. They provide the kids with afternoon tea, the bigger kids have a homework room they have to go to after they have eaten to do their homework. They have organised games, craft, cooking etc that the kids can do and they have free play time. I know in the holidays they take the kids out for excursions but they don't do that in school term time.

They have areas set up for different aged kids where they can get away from older or younger kids and they have all age group areas where they can mix if they want to.

I haven't actually thought about high school - except for where she will go. If I am still at the same primary school - her high school will be a short walk away and she will be able to stay at school with me for a while and then walk to school and walk back in the afternoon. Also by then I am sure she will have friends houses that she will want to go to after school.

[Japh]

My kids are only little still so don't know about oosh costs etc but worked in one before finishing my teaching degree and we had structured and unstructured activities - organised craft and free range drawing supplies, set outdoor ball games and free equipment, tv etc. Kids were free to roam and choose what they wanted. We also supplied arvo tea. Some kids did their homework too.

Special Ed is great! I currently teach two days a week in behaviour and mild disabilities in a mainstream school. One couple I work with leave as soon as the bell rings to pick up their son (his school is 5 mins away) then come back to school with him to finish their stuff before going home. In the morning one of them drops him off at 8.30 then comes in 10 mins late to school (we have a great principal who is very flexible with this).

The only warning I can give you about special Ed is that depending on what setting (mild, moderate, severe or behaviour) it is easy to become overly involved in planning for your students. I find it very hard to leave work at work as it is very individualized teaching compared to mainstream teaching (I have done both and found mainstream easy to leave behind). I'm not saying mainstream teachers don't put the effort in we do in special Ed but I find that special Ed requires a lot more work in that you need to write very individual programs as very few kids will require the same focus skills.