It’s too bad that I don’t have super powers. They sure would come in handy. Especially that one where I could transport myself (and my kids) from place to place in a nanosecond. When my kids were babies, I kept thinking that things would get easier as they got older.  I mean, they can dress themselves, feed themselves, and even help out around the house.  What I failed to factor into the equation was all driving I would have to do.  I guess when I stop and think about it, my mom did a lot of driving, too.  We carpooled but I did spend a lot of time being shuttled back and forth to soccer, ballet, piano, Girl Scouts, and so on.  So, now it’s my turn.  This summer was spent driving the kids to camps and activities all while trying to keep up with my workload.  Last year, I commuted twice a day to their schools which was a 45-minute drive each way.  That equaled 3 hours per day just getting them to and from school.  The cruel irony is that I work from home.

This year, I’ve made the crazy bold decision to have them attend school online.  The Georgia Cyber Academy, now in its fourth year, is a public school option for parents who have the flexibility to act as Learning Coaches to their kids.  What that means is that while I will oversee their coursework, I am not their teacher.  My son has a “homeroom” teacher and we are still in the process of “meeting” (everything is done online) his other teachers.  He starts on Monday and so far, I have been very impressed with the efficiency of the communication and the presentations that have been done online.  They use a software called elluminate to run the meetings and teach classes and it’s been very easy to interact with everyone using other tools like Twitter and Facebook.  The school also has a closed social networking system just for Learning Coaches where we can discuss the daily challenges of educating children in this new, technologically-advanced way.  What’s great about this option is the flexibility of it.  We have the entire week (all seven days) to complete the work.  And, I’ll have help.  My dad is a retired college professor who is looking forward to being a Learning Coach as well. We can “attend” school from anywhere which means we can travel during off-peak times of the year.

So, while I won’t be driving them to school anymore, I’m sure this option will come with its own set of challenges.  And, I’ve now committed myself to quite a few after-school activities so I’ll be working “on the go” a lot.

Being a working parent isn’t easy and one of the reasons I work for myself is so that I can have the flexibility that I need to be there for my kids.  That being said, I do have clients who depend on me so it’s always a balancing act no matter what.  It would be really nice to have a super power or two but until that happens, I’ll just settle for being really good at multitasking.

Tagged as: Georgia Cyber Academy, homeschooling, kids, work/life balance, working mother

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