Hellobee Boards

I think this is great!! And with lots of educators and media specialists retiring, you should be able to get a job fairly easily (I think?)! Here in NY we are losing a lot of teachers.
I went back to school while working full time with 2 young kids, the youngest was 6 months, oldest was 3 and they are a HANDFUL 🥴 ! Then the pandemic hit, I was home with them obv with no childcare for 8 months. It was VERY difficult!
-What worked for me (eventually) was getting up super early to do my work. That's when I felt the most alert and no one was harassing me.
-Get some hired help. It's really hard to focus sitting a messy house when you know kids, husbands and pets are gonna be interrupting you
- Make some friend in your class. This is hard to do online. But I felt like I had NO ONE at all to talk to or to commiserate when I had loony professors and it was very isolating.
- It was really hard to absorb information online. I felt kinda unprepared for the classroom Printing stuff helped me.

I was so, so proud when I got my Advanced Certificate in ENL and I felt like I overcame so much. Everything in my life up to this point has been handed to me so it was extra special because I wanted to quit 239482309 times.
You got this!!!

And definitely print things like @pachamama said! I absorbed so much more that way!

I went to school with young kids. Started back up in Summer 2019 for a career change. I’m actually still in school and have been the student body President for 2 years now. Going back to school has been the best thing for me. And I am
Allowed to bring my daughter with me to work everyday. Do it! Even if you start out slow the first semester.

@LadyDi: I am currently doing this, and I'm almost done! I went back to school for my MBA when my kids were 1, 3, and 5. Me and my husband both work full time, him from home. The flexibility of his job, and his willingness to pick up more duties around the house and as a parent has been essential for this to work. My program is hybrid - the first year, classes were on campus in the evenings, 6-9:30 two nights per week. The second year is online, mostly synchronous, again 6-9:30 two nights per week. I will graduate this summer, and it took me a little over two years. My kids are now 3, 5, and almost 7.

I will say that it has been incredibly intense. A lot of people in my classes who are parents working full time stretch out the program to 3-4 years, which I'm sure works better for a lot of people. I sometimes think about if I could go back to the beginning - would I do it the same way? And I honestly think I would. I wanted to do this when my kids are these ages because they're not involved in many activities yet. If I had waited longer then it would be a lot harder to plan around sports, etc. I also intentionally waited until my youngest was 1.5 and sleeping well. I would not suggest doing this with an infant. I know for me at least, good sleep is crucial for my sanity. But I'm also so glad that I'm almost done. I wouldn't want to be doing this for another two years.

I typically do homework from 8-11pm. All my kids are generally sleeping by 8 and I'm kind of a night person so this works best for me. I didn't want to do grad school if it took away a large amount of family time. Depending on the classes and professors I have during a particular semester, I am typically working on homework 5-7 nights per week. I'm sure this widely varies depending on the school and program though. I agree that it would be a great idea to talk with some current students in the program you'd like to enroll in! I have had basically zero social life or "me-time" for the last two years, which is wearing on me a little bit, but I'm hanging in there. The most important thing for me was not having too much of an effect on family life. My kids are ready for me to be done leaving them for class twice a week, but I don't think it's had too much of a negative effect on them. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, which feels amazing!