6 Wise Ways To Turn Your Business Into Homeschooling Opportunities (2023)

Many homeschool parents have chosen to run a business in addition to pulling their kids from private schools and public schools. Trying to balance work, school, and home at the same time in the same space can be incredibly difficult, especially when you’re working from home. A great way for homeschool families to cohesively make it all work is to make your home business part of your homeschool, just like you make caring for your home part of your homeschool with home economics and cooking you can make accounting and even fulfilling orders a valuable part of your homeschool as well.

While hiring private tutors is a great way to help free up some time, creating parts of your own curriculum to include completing tasks within your small business may turn out to be greatly beneficial. Not only are you teaching your children about business, but you’re maximizing the best use of your time and sanity. This can even happen with your young children.

Benefits of running a home business while homeschooling

Want to give your homeschool students a sense of purpose and the feeling that they are contributing to society, but don’t want them just sitting around while you work?

Homeschooling opens your family up to many amazing options for learning in the real world that they can not get elsewhere. Your home business offers many great learning opportunities for your kids as well as overall benefits for the entire family. When your children see you working hard every day to achieve your dreams in your home business and provide for your family they see you setting an example of how hard work pays off.

Working from home running your own business allows you to make the most of your time each day choosing what hours you work so you can fit work around your child’s education. Running your own business allows you to bring in your own income to your home without the stress of having to answer to someone else while dealing with home and family life.

Continuing to run a business while homeschooling also allows you to continue earning extra money while homeschooling, and eliminates the need to pay for expensive childcare or tutors. For many families, the cost of childcare can make having a 2nd income nearly useless. Running your own business takes away this stress from families (especially single parents). When families chose to homeschool they often lose one income as well making this a practical way to help replace some or even all of the lost income.

Benefits of making your home business part of your homeschool

Teach kids about hard work. So often today kids do not learn the value of hard work or to take pride in the work they do. When you make a home business part of your homeschool you teach your child that hard work pays off and to be proud of their accomplishments

Making your home business part of your homeschool can help to fit more into your day. Learning and work can happen together in the same room to allow you to run your business while they are learning. For moms running websites or crafting businesses, this is a great opportunity to multitask.

Making your business part of your homeschool allows your business to be a true family business. Kids love feeling part of the bigger picture and take pride in being part of the family business. Encourage your partner to join the family business as well to make it a great opportunity for family time.

How your kids can learn from your home business

Teaching your children how to get creative in learning to make money for themselves is one of the best things you can do for your child.

Showing them how to run a home business is a great way to give them the foundation to financial freedom as an adult. No one can fire your child from their own business, and having the skills to start and advance a business can help your child learn to weather economic downturns.

Plus there are great benefits in learning manners, customer service, geography, marketing skills, communication skills, writing skills (especially sales copy), and cultural awareness that comes with running an online business.

6 ways to put your kids to work in your home business

There are a few different ways to invite your kids to help you with your business. Each of them teaches children and teens a variety of valuable lessons that will enrich their lives as they reach adulthood.

Have them start their own section of the family business.

Having their own section of your business to experiment with their own ideas is a brilliant way of enabling them to learn about money management, creative thinking, and also help them feel important and included.

Many teens are struggling to find their first jobs in this economy, and more and more children are coming up with brilliant business ideas that could be easily fostered by giving them their own projects to work on. Instead of having them struggle to find a job or feel shut down for not entertaining putting their ideas to use, bring them into the family business and have them start to do their own thing.

For financial reasons putting your child’s business under your own LLC is likely the best option but give them the freedom to learn, explore, and offer the world something all their own. One day his knowledge will help them.

Have them help with your business accounting tasks

Accounting is a great way to show kids how math can be used in the real world. So kids wonder when they will ever use what they learn in math in the real world. While you can teach them a lot of math in the kitchen your business allows you to teach math from a business point of view. Teach your children how to track inventory and how to do the basic accounting for your business. While you will need to double-check your books if you have them doing it the data entry teaches them so much and helps save you some time.

I remember helping my mom out by managing the front desk of her hair salon. I started working for her when I was 6, after deciding to ditch my after-school child care program. She wasn’t too pleased with me, but I couldn’t continue being watched in an emotionally toxic situation, and affording someone else wasn’t an option.

Have your kids help with order fulfillment in your business.

Most home businesses do not have storefronts where kids can help out, but there is plenty to do in a home office from helping with the accounting and inventory to packing boxes and adding personal touches to your orders before they are shipped out.

Use shipping products to customers as a chance to teach geography.

As you package each order to send out, have your child look up the location the order is going to mark it on a map to track where all of your orders have gone.

Then have them search online to find a cool new fast about the town your order is going to. This is a great way to bring geography to life and keep your kids busy while you are filling in orders. (I love using the Brave web search tool and browser. If you’re enrolled in their rewards program, you can also earn cryptocurrency for allowing them to show you their ads, and determine how many ads you see each hour/day. Their ads are respectful and don’t reduce your experience viewing other websites. Plus they have built-in ad blockers and block trackers too, promoting your privacy.)

Encourage your kids to help you with customer appreciation tasks

My kids started helping me with my business when the oldest was 4. We would send personalized, hand-written letters to all my customers and coaching clients. My kids were in charge of decorating the blank cards for me, placing the letters into the envelopes, and applying our return address stickers and stamps.

My clients LOVED the extra little effort they helped with.

Put your kids to work brainstorming new projects for your business.

If your child is creative, sit down with them and encourage them to tap into their creativity by inviting them to help come up with new ideas to expand your family business. Some of their ideas may surprise you too.

I’ll never forget my 6-year-old walking up to me to provide me with unsolicited business advice. At first, I wanted to laugh. It was really cute, and I pride myself on being a very skilled business strategist, having pieced together brilliant business plans in the past that merge my clients’ wild and different ideas into one cohesive business model (like merging self-care products, homesteading, and travel together). I was stunned. Not only were his ideas were brilliant and completely aligned with what I was doing, but he had a major confidence boost when I asked him to sit with me and work out a plan together.

Kids love feeling involved and part of the entire process from start to finish. It encourages them to embrace and grow critical thinking skills, enhances their confidence, and also provides an excellent means to grow their bond and trust with you.

Put your kids to work on marketing.

Kids are inherently creative and can often come up with great ideas to help grow your marketing plan. They’re bombarded with advertising aimed at them all day long, and are likely to take notice of good ideas that actually get their attention as well. Plus, it always helps to have some fresh ideas.

Understanding your local child labor laws

Working for a family business changes things with child labor laws a bit. In most states, children under the age of 16 are typically allowed to work unlimited hours any time of day for a business owned by their parents. This means you may typically make your home business a family affair and mix it into your homeschool day without worrying about breaking child labor laws. As always, it is good practice to consult with a local attorney to make sure.