33. We Hired A Sitter To Help Us Homeschool

We crawl out of tax season, admit why the podcast went quiet, and share how hiring a sitter became the simplest way to keep work and homeschooling from crushing us. We break down exactly how we found her, what we pay, how we structure the homeschool block, and why the “six hours back” changes everything!

Transcript

Buying Back Time With Help

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So either way, it was worth it to get that extra six hours back.

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Yeah, when you're working, you have to look at the price versus like how much you get paid to do whatever job it is. Our job pays more per hour than it is than we pay her. So it definitely makes sense. And that's coming from obviously two accountants. We're two full-time working parents who just made a crazy decision.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

After four years in public school, we're homeschooling our three kids and documenting the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Never in a million years did I think we would be homeschooled people.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Welcome to, well, this wasn't the plan podcast. I'm Slate, and school's in the kitchen now. I'm Scotty. We saw Scott when I say so. I'm a sailor, and this whole podcast was my idea. This podcast is our real-time journey, unexpectedly juggling homeschool, jobs, parenting, and everything in between.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Follow along each week as we document how it's going and share the good, the bad, and the ugly. Because we know some days are going to be ugly, and we're not holding back.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

We're learning to expect the unexpected. So let's get into it. Let's go.

Back From The Tax Season Break

SPEAKER_02 1:21

So we're back.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Here we are.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

We plan on taking a break, but I didn't realize how long it had been since we did a podcast, which was April 10th. And what is today? May 15th or something? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

So we're pretty professional, as you can see, with our podcasting. I mean, we're right up there with Joe Rogan, some of the big guys that, you know, take it super seriously and, you know, make lots of money and have billions of followers.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Definitely, definitely not us, but we will try to be a little bit more consistent. Honestly, we were just drowning at the end of tax season. And I was like, there's no reason we can't take a break.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Although if it makes you feel better, we put work and homeschool first, you know, and then we had to, and then the podcast came after that. And that's why. So maybe that is as much of a lesson about some of the things about homeschooling to, you know, that that is as much of a lesson as anything.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Absolutely. I think, you know, especially if you get on Reddit, people are like bashing people that homeschool, but they actually don't do it. And I get that, but I don't get I don't get why people do that. I think that that's awful. You should actually homeschool your kids. But I do think that we we do a good job of prioritizing their education. So we were prioritizing our work, which actually pays money, pays us the money, and then the kids school. So we made it through tax season

Florida Reset And Work Reality

SPEAKER_02 2:55

and we could recap a little bit. We went on a little after tax season trip, which we did when the kids were younger, but once they got in school, we never could do that because they were it was like the worst time of year to go on a trip.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

So this year we actually did get to go. We went to Florida and we just spent, I think we're there six days, and we just did whatever the heck we felt like doing. So being at the beach, our Airbnb had a pull and we just relaxed for a few days. Well, we're not very relaxing as a family, but we did things that weren't taxes.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

So we did have one beach day, but even that, you know, we're more like in the ocean and Taryn has that found that awesome ball that bounces off waves, which is so cool. And I really didn't sit down or lay down on the beach at all. So wouldn't say it was relaxing, but it was fun.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

We're not good at relaxing. Like our trips are, I feel like more of like a mental break. So we're not having to be at home with the laundry and the work and all of that. We just get to rest our brain, but then like we like to move our body. So we went parasailing, we went and, you know, played in the ocean and did all kinds of things. And I felt better when we got back, but definitely tired. So hence the reason why there were no podcasts for a while. And also people think that tax season just like wraps up April 15th, and then you're like good to go. And that is sadly not the truth. Like we are solidly still working on tax returns and people are being patient, trying to wait for their tax return. And it's, you know, mid-May. So we're still gonna be working on a lot of tax returns until end of June. Hopefully, we get them done by then.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Because if you think about it, if everyone brought their stuff April 10th and those were the people we extended, and then they can wait a little bit. You know, I don't feel bad about it. But I mean, some of these people, it's like our cutoff was March 15th. They brought in it March 16th, and they're understanding that, okay, you're gonna have to extend me, but then the deadline's over. It's been a month. They're like, okay, where's my stuff?

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Yeah, so it's really back to the grind right now. And that is not really gonna give us a big break until the summer.

How We Found Homeschool Help

SPEAKER_02 5:09

But last episode, we did talk about that we were gonna be looking for like a sitter to help us out. And in this break, we actually did get a sitter and we made it through tax season because of her. So today's episode, which I promised like many weeks ago on my Instagram, is gonna be all about what that looks like. How we found her, how much we pay her, what she does, what it entails, how often she comes. We're answering all of your questions about getting some homeschool help. And I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I just didn't really think of this sooner because once she came, it was like a game changer for us. And we're like, well, maybe we just get help during tax season, more days a week, or what? And now I'm thinking we loved it so much. We're gonna have her come two days a week just for the foreseeable future because it's so nice to be able to just really focus on work for those two days, but also get a break. Like we could go to lunch or something like that. And that's something that a lot of times people don't talk about is just getting a little bit of break when you homeschool. I know not everyone can afford the help sometimes, but if we're talking to working parents, I do feel like this is something that you need to put into your budget, you know?

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Because you do have a little bit of the extra income if you're both still trying to work and homeschool, but it's just a lot to juggle without getting some sort of break.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Yeah, I don't think this is for people that have one of the parents that stay at home. I mean, that's not to say that you couldn't do it, but I mean, I guess that's probably your primary job is homeschooling if you are a stay-at-home parent. Uh so this might not necessarily be for you, but there are a lot of other people like us where both parents work and they're still trying to homeschool.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Right. And not to say that if you're a stay-at-home mom that you don't need a break too. Just saying, like in this certain situation, you are working to continue getting income. So you probably do have a little bit that you could put toward getting a break or getting a day or two a week where you can just really focus on work and not have to do both at the same time. So let's talk about how we found this girl and all of all of your questions. First, we did use like a service to look for someone. You know, there's so many of those. There's like Sitter City and oh, there's so many things like that. And we live in a city and there were so many people that came across. Well, I didn't end up finding anyone on there that like could come during the time frame. And I this was only like a couple of days, you know, I was trying to get someone like last minute for tax season because we were kind of like SOS, we're drowning. But I once a few people turned down my schedule request, then I started asking like friends, neighbors, things like that. And my neighbor actually texted me back like a day later and said, Hey, our sitter is actually interested. So I did not hesitate. I was like, yes, please come. I texted her and she could come two days a week in the morning and get homeschooled done with the kids. And so I said yes. The good thing is if you're working from home, like obviously people have a lot of trust issues with bringing someone new into your home, but we were there the entire time. You know, I got to see how she interacted with the kids. I was right there, Carson was right there. So it's not like we were leaving them at home with a stranger without really knowing who they were.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Yeah, we were at home. I mean, plus she's like a 20-year-old college girl that's hardly bigger than my 11-year-old. So I wasn't really worried about her absconding with the children.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

No, but people do like this is a hesitation a lot of people have. And I think that we don't have that hesitation as much because we don't have like grandparents that are watching the kids all the time. From a very, very early stage of parenting, we have had to hire sitters and kind of just be confident that the people that referred them and know them and everything, it's it's gonna be fine. So we had her come and I basically told her, hey, my kids need to run through their homeschool while you're here. They have been doing this routine for months now. They're really good at it. They don't need a lot of help. They just need you there to like answer a question they have or make them stay on track. And she said yes. And I was so thankful that she was willing to do that because it's kind of like, do you hire a tutor or do you hire just like a babysitter help? You know, like it's not really a job that is normal.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

But she did say that she had nanny's for someone in the summer and that she had helped with homeschool before, which I was like, wow, like I felt like kinda it was meant to be. So she showed up and she was phenomenal

Checklists And Keeping Kids On Track

SPEAKER_02 10:00

with the kids. And I just got them started that first day and went to my office to work and just kind of like listened in. And she was there for three hours. So we decided to have her come on Tuesday and Thursday for three hours, which it doesn't take the kids the full three hours to get everything done, especially when she's there, they do things a lot better. But that's kind of our schedule that we're gonna be sticking to. And it went great. Like we used her for a few weeks, it's been a few weeks. And so whenever tax season was over, then we got to go like have lunch together and kind of get out of the house while she was there homeschooling the kids. So it was really nice to have a break.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

It was nice, and she did a really good job. I mean, uh it does help if you find a college kid, probably. It's not to say that every kid in college is a genius. She's really smart, but but in general, if you got into college, you can probably at least do elementary level work. I I'm not sure we haven't tried with like a 15 or 16-year-old babysitter. I would say you would need to be careful, maybe look at report cards because there are plenty of 15 and 16-year-olds whose reading level is below what my 11-year-old is. So be careful with that. But I'd assume somebody that got into Texas Tech is going to be, you know, capable of helping a 10-year-old, a 8-year-old, and a six-year-old with their schoolwork.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Yeah, and their ages obviously matter. And she's a very intelligent young lady. But we are also going in and checking their work afterwards. So our curriculum is so easy. Like you open the book and it says, read to the child. Okay, today we're going to do this. So she doesn't know have to know how to teach them anything. Like she can just read the from the book, from the curriculum, and then have them do their assessment that's at the end of the lesson. And then even if she were to do nothing else other than make sure that they did it, we we go and check their work the next day that we're homeschooling and just review it. So it's really dummy proof. You could have a grandma do it, you could have a sitter, you could have a retired teacher, you know, anyone in your family who's willing to help could come in and homeschool for a day or two.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Easily.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Even with some of the math concepts that we don't use anymore, I know that when my oldest gets to those, some of them, I mean, I kind of have to refresh myself, but luckily, because of the curriculum that we use, it's really easy for me to say, oh yeah, I remember this now once I see it, and then explain it to the kids. So and I'm sure that's the case for anybody that's been through, you know, at least sixth grade math.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Yeah. One thing I did that made it, I think, very helpful for her. She said that she liked it was I made a checklist for each of the kids. So like a daily checklist for when she comes. And it's like the first thing we do is go through our journal. So there was like journal is a first thing. And then when they get done with that, it's like a little dry erase, they check it off. And then they have like their math and all of that. And then after they're done, we always have them go read for 30 minutes. And so that is on there. So so it helps her because she knows what each kid needs to check off. Because, like, right now, when Sailor's done with her work, she'll do like the typing practice. So she's got a little typing thing on her computer. So each kid looks a little bit different. So I did each person's daily routine and printed them out for her so that she knows what it looks like for them start to finish without a lot of help. So I'll have to share that in the downloads at some point. But I think that made it super easy. And then I just put it in like a file folder things where you like clear that you can like write on and then erase it.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

So and I do think you mentioned earlier that they did better for her. I think that's because the same reason that in the fall they were doing better for us in the fall, it was as soon as we get all this done, we can go to the park or do something fun. And during the spring, when we were so busy with tax season, it was more like we took a break from work to do homeschool. And when we finish this, we have to go back to work and you're gonna have to like play in the backyard. But when the babysitter came, then it was back to that. You know, you finish your schoolwork and she took them to the park and did fun stuff with them. So there was some incentive there. And anyway, yeah, then they're not dragging their feet as much.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Yeah, I I think that helped a lot. And I was a little concerned with how they would do with her because they've been homeschooling with us for all these months, but they really liked her and they were really excited for her to come back. So they actually liked it and she was great with them. And then afterwards, like Kristen said, took them outside to play. So they were looking forward to playing, and everyone got wrapped up really quickly. And she actually sat down with them for like the 30 minutes of reading and like made sure that they were doing that and read with them. So I think that she in some ways made it like way more fun than we were doing when we were very stressed about tax seats.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Yeah, probably so.

Pay Rate And Why It’s Worth It

SPEAKER_02 15:05

So, of course, the biggest question that came up is how much do we pay her? And I asked her, how much do you want us to pay you? You know, what's your rate? And she she told me that her normal rate was $15, which was what she was charging the family down the street. And I said, Well, we normally pay $20 an hour, and that's because we had more kids and obviously we're asking her to homeschool. And we've just learned over our years of being parents that if you have someone that you truly like and is sitting for you, like pay them well and they'll continue to come back. So I didn't want to like negotiate with her on like the $15. I was just like, well, we're happy to pay you 20 as long as you they'll just keep coming.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

Yeah, it's worth it. And yeah, I feel like 15 is fine if you're watching one or two kids and if it's like the babysitting situation where you want to go on a date and they're gonna just literally come and sit and watch movies with your kid. Yeah, that's one thing. But when you're expecting them to, I mean, you know, be screen-free and we're gonna do homeschool and you have three kids, and as soon as they're done with that, we want you to take them to the park and play volleyball in the park or whatever. Like, I mean, that's a lot more to ask, and I do feel like that deserves a bit of a premium on the pay.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

So what it looks like for the week is she comes two days a week and she's coming for three hours. So you can do the math, how much money you're spending per week.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Right. So I mean six hours a week times twenty dollars is $120 a week.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

Which to us, we felt like it was worth it a hundred percent, just for us to feel more caught up with work and us to get a little bit of a break from having to do everything. So we just told her, like, please keep coming until you can't, which obviously she's a college student, her life will change and we'll be back in the situation where we need to find someone else who can help us and who can come in and help the kids with homeschool.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Right. And you could look at it two ways either I got six extra hours of work, which is well worth it for $120, or I was gonna have to do the same amount of work because I already agreed to do it, and I would have had to sacrifice six hours of sleep that week to get it done. And so either way, it was worth it to get that extra six hours back.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Yeah, when you're working, you know, the you have to look at the price versus like how much you get paid to do whatever job it is. And this is, you know, our job pays more per hour than it is than we pay her. So it definitely makes sense. And that's coming from obviously two accountants where like our time is worth it. But also, you know, never underestimate the power of getting to go to the gym uninterrupted, knowing someone is with the kids, you know, like you do need those breaks. And so as we slow down, if she comes and, you know, maybe we could have homeschooled the kids that day. I'm just gonna make sure that I take the breaks that I need because I didn't get them during tax season.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

So I think that is most of the

Year Round Homeschooling Through Summer

SPEAKER_02 18:03

questions. We're gonna continue homeschooling over the summer. She's gonna continue coming as often as she can. She's gonna be out of town some in the summer. And so it definitely won't look the same. Our kids are doing some camps, and our plan with that is that every summer day that we're home and we just don't really have much to do, like no one's in a camp or anything, we are gonna continue working on homeschool. So we're not gonna stress about the number of days. Sailor has like six camps she's doing, but the days that she's home, like it's literally two hours. It's usually nice to just sit down and do it, and that gives you something to do.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

And it'll be great because you know, this first year that we did it, we started with a different curriculum. And so when we switched, we started over. And so we were really starting homeschool like mid-September. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we started before that, but we switched. So we kind of started over. And now, I mean, we're gonna be done by the end of May for sure with the first year of curriculum. So as we go through the summer, that's just gonna be getting a head start on the next year. And we think that'll help a lot, not because we want to rush ahead and well, you know, have them graduate when they're 12 or anything. It's just that if we want to go on vacation or if we have some things that come up and we have to miss a few days that we planned on working, it's not the end of the world because we're already ahead anyway.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Yeah, we want to get ahead. That's we've tried it both ways. We tried it where we took all of the schoolwork with us to Costa Rica. And it was fine. We did the schoolwork, but we we just felt like we prefer not having to take it with us whenever we go on like a trip or something and having one less thing to worry about because we're there to like do all the things, right? And so that skiing, and then we went to Florida. We just decided we're gonna take those breaks, like take them, because that will be like a week at a time, and we're just not gonna bring school. So it was nice to be like, we can take it wherever we go. And that was a good thought and good in theory. It just for us, so I think it's just gonna work better if we just truly take more breaks and then keep going through the summer. Because the other part of that is that the kids don't backslide with anything. They don't forget it, you don't have to reteach it, and you're just keep going a little bit along the way.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

So even if we only average, because there would be some weeks we do none, and our normal schedule is that we do four days a week. So our average mind only be one or two days a week of schooling, but that will certainly keep them from backsliding and they'll progress a little bit, just not, you know, nearly as much as they do during the normal year.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Right. And a mom did a post, she uses the same curriculum as us, which I thought was like so clear. So whatever you choose, just look at the number of lessons and divide them by how many months you're homeschooling to figure out like what you really need to stick to if you want to make that happen. Like some moms, they want to be done with school by April. And so that they're done by like before the normal school is out, I guess. And so we decided that we want to do year-round. And some moms decide they want to do that. So everyone does it differently, but our curriculum has 120 lessons. So just take the 120 lessons and divide by the months and see how many that you need to get done in that month. And I'll link our curriculum in the podcast notes in case anyone wants to check it out. They also give you a step-by-step for the first five days homeschooling to help you like look up your state requirements and do all that. So if you click on the link, it will bring you straight to that. And it also has those placement tests that we use from the beginning. So I will link that in the show notes.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Yes, that is a very helpful thing because you know, if you're in Texas, Florida, basically you can do whatever you want. If you're in other states, there's a lot of rules you have to follow and and they can help you with what those are.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

And those placement tests were the easiest ones, they're also free. So if you just want to grab them on your website and just to see where your kids are. At the end of the year, they're just like so good. We tried a couple and that that was absolutely the best. Yes.

Next Change Tease And Subscribe

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Well, moving forward, we do hope to have some more episodes for you guys consistently, but our hopes are that whenever an episode drops, it's gonna pop up on your phone. It doesn't matter if it's been a week or four weeks, you're gonna see when the episode drops. So hopefully you will stick around and bear with us as we go through the summer, because we're definitely gonna be releasing less episodes this summer, and then we'll ramp it up more once school starts back again and maybe everyone's preparing to start homeschooling, all of that.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

And I think that unless something comes up, I mean, it kind of makes sense. In the beginning, there was a lot more episodes to share, and then there's a lot of good information there. But as time goes on, everything's gonna be more routine. And when, you know, changes either in laws or in curriculums or in just our personal situation come up that are interesting, then we can always talk about those.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

Oh, and because you said that on our next episode, we do have a big change coming up, and it was just too much to share on this episode. So we will give you those juicy details on the next episode. That's our cliffhanger for today.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Well, that's all we have for today. So until next time, thank you so much for listening to Well, this was the Planned Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

We will be really hard on this podcast. Make your subscribe so you don't miss a single podcast episode. Thank you, have a good day.