Headed back to school

[.46caliber]

I've started school again and wanted to pick the brains here.

I have a BFA already and am not planning on earning another degree. Married with kids. I work in an IT/Help Desk role and taking a Windows Server class to build my back end skills. I'm trying to get my hands on a server to set up at home so I can work on labs there.

Any tricks, insights or lessons learned on balancing family, work and school from those of you that have traveled this path before?

[Ryno12]

Kudos to you!

I went back to school late in life also. Towards the end, I was working full time, building a 2300 sq ft addition on to my house and I had 3 kids under the age of 4. While the school work (for the most part) was easy, balancing everything was not. The best way I found was to...
~Take your time. Family & work come first so don't bite off more than you can chew.
~Pick a dedicated day/time to concentrate on your school work each week. Make your wife/kids aware so they can plan accordingly.
~Find a quiet place to study away from distractions. Your short on time already so make every minute count.
-Last but not least, have a supportive wife/spouse. I swear at times it was harder on her than it was me.

Good luck

[Dist. Expert 26]

I work full time, go to school full time and have a 7 month old at home. Needless to say its a lot to deal with at times, and I've made a few mistakes along the way.

The biggest thing I learned was you HAVE to find time to study and get work done, if not every day than at least every other day. Set aside an hour or two where your wife can watch the kids and you can work with no interruptions. Put in enough study time to pass your tests, don't miss assignments and you'll be fine.

[SeriousStudent]

If you are going to be an IT geek, go into security. It's the last area to be outsourced.

PM me what area of the country you are in, regarding obtaining a server for cheap.

[eightmillimeter]

I sincerely wish you the best of luck. Your wife needs to be on board with leaving you alone so you can work at least a couple days a week. I fully recommend actually leaving the house and going to a library or coffee shop. I did 18 months full time online with no breaks to finish my BS. I'm glad I did it but it was very trying. Also, I made it through regular school probably never reading a textbook. In the online environment the textbook really is the foundation of the class so take the reading seriously.

[.46caliber]

Thanks for the input guys. Wife and I talked about a schedule that I think will maximize the time available to study and minimize the impact on family time.

Serious, PM inbound. My immediate supervisor and I talked about their security courses and I may pick one up next semester. We're at a small but rapidly growing family owned. I'm not really looking to find another job but rather build my skills so I can meet needs here and expand my responsibilities. Being an ecommerce, security is high priority.