Cool gigs for homeschool parents

How to homeschool with a full-time job — and maybe even travel the world with your kids

Figuring out childcare when your child attends school is already complicated, but families thinking about homeschooling might wonder if teaching their child from home is even possible.

It’s definitely easier to homeschool in a household with a stay-at-home parent, and yet hundreds of thousands of single parents and dual-income households have found creative ways to teach their children from home.

In terms of academics, most homeschool families find that formally teaching their kids 20 minutes to 2 hours a day is more than enough to keep them at or above grade level, so the primary concern for most families who want to work and teach their children is more of a childcare one, than an academic one: they need to be in the same location as their child to keep them safe, but their child can be studying independently a large portion of the day.

Here are some popular jobs among a group of 30,000+ homeschooling parents we polled who tried out a bunch of options and found jobs that worked well for them with links.

Homeschool another child or children
$15–50/hr
My personal favorite. If your dream is to stay at home and teach your kids, consider bringing some other children in to the mix. Many families don’t want to or can’t homeschool kids themselves or are looking for pods for their kids to join. Here are some tips on how to start a learning pod.

Teach English online
VIP kids — $18–22/hr
Teach English to children in China, online, on your schedule, and all from home.
https://www.vipkid.com/teach

Rent out your extra room on Airbnb
Airbnb host — $500-$10,000/month
Have a spare room or sofa to spare? Or do you want to rent out your home while you travel the world with your kids? Rent your extra space on Airbnb.

Get paid to test products
Usertesting.com — get paid up to $60 per test
New products are always looking for parents to test. All you have to do at usertesting.com is review websites, apps, try them out and give your honest feedback.
https://www.usertesting.com/be-a-user-tester

Share your skills online
Outschool — up to $40/hr
Outschool is a new company geared towards the homeschooling community. If you have a skill you’d like to share, you can teach the class on outschool to kids around the world. No teaching experience required.
https://outschool.com/teach#abk6b6zbv5

Become a freelancer — $50–300/hr
If you have skills to share, freelancing can be a great way to create a flexible schedule. It can be challenging to launch a new business, but freelancing provides great flexibility and can also make a positive impact in other people’s jobs. Many homeschool parents are business coaches, life coaches, marketing consultants or other types of advisors Get started with the Freelancer’s Bible.

Do technical writing — $30–50/hr
If you’re creative and pay attention to grammar and spelling, lots of creative gigs await you in the technical writing industry. Don’t be intimidated. The field pays much better than creative writing or journalist and is accessible to any writer who is eager to learn and meticulous about their work.
Here are some tips on breaking into Technical Writing.
https://www.mediabistro.com/go-freelance/journalism-advice/technical-writing/

Start your own business
Have you always dreamed of starting your own business? As long as you’re getting creative with your child’s education, this can be a wonderful opportunity to get creative about your own professional future as well. Consult your local Small Business Association for advice or take a look at the Four-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. Starting your own business shouldn’t have to require any financial investment (and I wouldn’t recommend it for a parent who is using this path to support their homeschooling) I also like the Lean Canvas for creating a business plan that makes sense. https://leanstack.com/leancanvas

Become a teacher, nurse or software engineer: 20–$100/hr
Some of the more popular homeschool jobs are in nursing, teaching and coding. Nurses can often create flexible job schedules while classroom teachers also have flexible job schedules and summers off. Software engineers are in high demand and can often easily negotiate remote work. Online teachers and tutors have even more flexibility. The ideal teacher job may be bringing another child into your homeschool routine. Some parents have created daycares in their homes as well.

Ask for more job flexibility or to work remotely full time
Increasing numbers of companies are offering remote or flexible schedules as a job perk, as they find it appeals to employees and even increases productivity. Consider asking your boss to let you work remotely full-time.https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-ask-to-work-remotely-full-time

Modulo.app is developing resources for families considering educating their children from home. If you’d like more job advice or tips on getting started, please feel free to reach out by visiting modulo.app