Hellobee Boards

Personally, if you can swing it financially I would pass this year - your daughter will only be this age once, and three is a great age for doing stuff - they're old enough to take advantage of more things and appreciate them more, while still young enough to be amazed and entertained by little stuff.

Is it a new prep or a course you've already taught? Is there anything you can do to make the schedule or class less demanding? Are you teaching the entire summer or can you just do one term? Not sure of the particulars at your institution, but I taught summers three years in grad school (at a private research university) and the first year was definitely rough. Not having a new prep made it easier, but I also negotiated on the time (my course had a lab and I negotiated to have the lab directly following the lecture once a week to minimize my time on campus) and grading (our school will pay graders a nominal amount per term depending on class size; I was teaching stats so I qualified). For grading, if applicable, you could lobby for it as a TA/learning experience for an early-year graduate student or an advanced undergrad. I also set my office hours for right before or after class once a week to minimize on-campus time (again, your flexibility here may vary depending on your institution). Another thing that may be useful depending on the course is arranging for tutoring so your students aren't only relying on you for outside help. In my case, our campus had a healthy tutoring program and I arranged for another grad student in my lab to join - he tutored a group of my students regularly and it reduced the amount of time I needed to spend in office hours with students.

@rpparker: My husband did a Jan term 5 days a week (and his commute was 150 miles round trip in Bay Area traffic) when our very colicky DS1 was 3 months old and I wanted to MURDER HIM. I get it. But we also got extra money and he got to reduce his course load by 1 class during the school year so he only had to commute in 2 days a week instead of 3 during the semester, so in the end it was better for our overall family schedule. Because he was an in-demand professor, the school also ended up working with him to be one of the first professors to offer online and hybrid courses. He actually got paid a $5,000 stipend to go through a training course on how to run an online course and through that program developed the curriculum for his classes. Then he went on to teach a bunch of evening classes from home that were so much more convenient! He would teach online one night a week from 6-9pm, then go in every other Saturday for a half day, and it was so much easier he had no issue picking up an extra summer school course or whatever like that. He used those extra classes as course releases during the school year or just for extra cash. So in the end it was a great investment of time and dues to be able to get that flexibility. The last year or two he was teaching he only drove in like 2 days a week and was around to help with the kids so much.

@rpparker: one more thought: if your DD will be 3 in June and is potty trained, that may open up your options for summer camp type offerings. not sure where you are located but in my area (NC) there are a lot of preschools/camps that offer half-day programs starting at 3/potty-trained. in my case, our MDO/preschool doesn't offer camp all summer but another one close by does and some of my son's classmates attend that for half-days. maybe you could combine something like that with a baby-sitter and get coverage for some portion of the 6 weeks, and then only ship off to grandparent care for a smaller amount of time?

I would teach it for one more summer but plan to figure out a better childcare situation so you don’t have to send DD away for the week. If that’s not possible then I would probably not do it. Agree with @DesertDreams88: that I would also probably not do it if I thought I’d be in the throes of bad morning sickness. It was a lifesaver for me both pregnancies as a teacher to be home over the summer of the first trimester!

There is no right or wrong answer here. It comes down to what you want to do. It sounds like you really like the idea of staying at home for the summer, so that’s what I would do. Plus, it might be the last summer you’ll have only one child, so I’d really live it up with your LO. If you aren’t struggling financially I wouldn’t even entertain the thought of teaching in the summer.

I would take the summer off if I was in your shoes (I’m taking the summer off unpaid to stay home with my 3 so I kind of am in your shoes ). In the grand scheme of life your kids are only this little for such a short time. You will have years and years of opportunity to teach in the summers when they are older and have their own lives and don’t want to hang out with you. I would soak up all the fun summer memories and cuddles!