{"id":35546,"date":"2025-10-17T14:21:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/homeschooling-my-kids-while-running-my-own-businesses-is-not-easy-i-do-it-for-the-freedom-it-gives-us-to-travel\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T14:21:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:21:25","slug":"homeschooling-my-kids-while-running-my-own-businesses-is-not-easy-i-do-it-for-the-freedom-it-gives-us-to-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/homeschooling-my-kids-while-running-my-own-businesses-is-not-easy-i-do-it-for-the-freedom-it-gives-us-to-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeschooling my kids while running my own businesses is not easy. I do it for the freedom it gives us to travel."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68dfe4501c1f80efbec4dd98?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Janelle Jones with kids.\"\/><figcaption>Janelle Jones homeschools her two kids and runs her businesses from home.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Janelle Jones<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Janelle Jones is a marketing strategist and runs a kids&#039; event company.<\/li>\n<li>She also homeschools her kids, ages 5 and 9.<\/li>\n<li>She&#039;s reframed business success from financial to flexibility.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with <\/em>Janelle Jones<em>, founder of<\/em> 4Kiddos<em>. It has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I have always known that I wanted to homeschool my children. I planned for it before they were even born. I had a rental property that I would list on Airbnb, allowing me more flexibility to dedicate my days to schooling.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, my plan was upended when my condo association changed its rules about short-term rentals. I continued my longtime work as a marketing consultant while homeschooling. Earlier this year, I also started a company focused on kids&#039; events.<\/p>\n<p>Being a mom who&#039;s running two businesses while homeschooling two kids isn&#039;t easy. The bill that keeps me up at night isn&#039;t groceries or the mortgage: it&#039;s childcare. Like other female entrepreneurs, I&#039;m constantly weighing the cost of each professional opportunity in terms of the time I&#039;ll need to spend on childcare.<\/p>\n<h2>I work morning, afternoon, and night<\/h2>\n<p>On a typical day, I wake up and work from 6 to 8 a.m. That&#039;s my time for checking emails, making my to-do lists, and getting my mind right for my day as an educator, entrepreneur, and parent.<\/p>\n<p>Then, I wake my daughter up (my son is an early riser) and switch to being a mom and teacher. We spend the morning doing homeschool assignments. Mid-morning, we try to go for a nature walk or on an educational outing.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68dfea0ccc993f9955cf7a43?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Janelle Jones and kids\"\/><figcaption>Janelle Jones can take her kids&#039; school and her businesses on the road.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Janelle Jones<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After lunch, the kids take a rest and have some alone time. I don&#039;t mind what they&#039;re doing, as long as they&#039;re in their rooms. My son likes to write during this time, while my daughter has dance parties. I book client calls and meetings in my home office during this time. I&#039;m clear with the kids that I expect them to leave me to my work for these hours.<\/p>\n<p>I work again after the kids are in bed, from about 7 to 10 p.m. That&#039;s when I do my most intensive work: the writing, planning, and strategizing that keep business flowing.<\/p>\n<h2>I budget for childcare, but finding help isn&#039;t always easy<\/h2>\n<p>This system works, but it&#039;s a lot. If a client call or meeting pops up outside the usual time, I tend to put the TV on for the kids. I often weigh whether it&#039;s worth having a babysitter come in so I can get more work done.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, that&#039;s easier said than done. It takes a special soul to watch my son. He&#039;s very intelligent, but he&#039;s constantly asking questions and doesn&#039;t always behave himself. So, even if I wanted to throw money at the problem, it wouldn&#039;t be a simple solution.<\/p>\n<p>Still, I budget $150 for a few hours of childcare each week, using a sitter I know or an on-call babysitting service. My work sometimes requires me to go meet clients in person, and that&#039;s when I bring in outside help. I also take advantage of local camps that happen during school breaks, giving myself more concentrated work time every few months.<\/p>\n<h2>I sometimes decline work because of childcare concerns<\/h2>\n<p>I sometimes say no to work because it&#039;s not worth adding to my mental load, even if it pays well. I&#039;m currently scaling back with one particular client. I just can&#039;t justify how much of my capacity she takes up.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68dfeb561c1f80efbec4df35?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Janelle Jones and kids\"\/><figcaption>Janelle Jones budgets for childcare but says that finding it is not always easy.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of Janelle Jones<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I&#039;m an emotional person, and that often dictates whether a client is worth the hassle. If I enjoy the work and see that we can grow together, I&#039;m more likely to cover the cost of childcare. If not, I don&#039;t hesitate to let the client go.<\/p>\n<h2>The freedom to travel makes the scramble worth it<\/h2>\n<p>For me, running a business is about more than financial success. I want freedom. Of course, money can give you freedom, but so can time.<\/p>\n<p>My dream is to travel the world with my kids. My business and their school can both go on the road. Two years ago, we spent a month in India; we&#039;ve also traveled in Europe and Mexico. I&#039;m dreaming about a trip to Thailand. If I&#039;m able to go out of the country for a month each year, I consider myself successful.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Janelle Jones homeschools her two kids and runs her businesses from home. Courtesy of Janelle Jones Janelle Jones is a marketing strategist and runs a kids&#039; event company. She also homeschools her kids, ages 5 and 9. She&#039;s reframed business success from financial to flexibility. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Janelle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-35546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}