FOR most people, there aren’t enough hours in the day to balance work and family.

There is the school run, commuting, after-school clubs, sports, children’s parties, supermarket shopping — the list goes on.

Many families struggle to cope with two children, so imagine having five, running your own businesses . . . and home educating your youngsters.

That is the reality for Adam and Lu Etchells — and they couldn’t be happier.

Plumber Adam, aged 37, now runs his own handyman business, Odd Jobs Bury, and Lu, aged 35, runs Time Saving Heroes, offering executive and administration services to businesses and individuals, including social media training, bookkeeping, CVs and references — in addition to five children aged six months to seven years.

The couple first considered home education in March last year, when Georgia, now aged seven, was taking Year Two SATS and Charlotte, now aged six, was in reception.

The law regarding education is that education is compulsory, school is not.

Lu said: “Bury Council has been fantastic and the person who came to deal with us was one of Adam’s old teachers!

“Georgia was stressed and went from being lively and bubbly to a scared little girl. She wasn’t happy or passionate about school any more.

“Charlotte was in reception and once we made the decision, we haven’t looked back.

“As parents, we give them what they need to develop.

“We do not follow the curriculum, but we have to show we are providing education for our children and doing something practical and structured and things that are age appropriate.

“They do not have to take exams but we will pick GCSEs such as English, maths and science so that they will each be doing 10 between the ages of 13 and 16.”

Colleges and universities have provisions for home-educated students to embark on higher education, including foundation courses to ensure they are at the same level as their peers.

A Bury Council spokesman said: “We are currently aware of 135 children who receive their education outside of school.

“We provide support to families who home educate and we see some fantastic examples of education being provided in very creative and imaginative ways.

“It is not for everyone, though. For those families who are struggling to provide an education, or those who soon realise that home educating is not an easy option, we will help them with their application for a new school place.”

Lu and Adam feel that home education was the only option to juggle family life with their businesses.

Lu said: “Because we have our own businesses, we do not work nine-to-five so work and education fit in together. We could not manage it with school so why try to force ourselves into a rat race?

“You have to accept you can’t control everything. We have always both been busy and we make a good team.

“We can be ships that pass in the night if I’m at a meeting then Adam’s got a job, we can be communicating with Post-it notes.

“The kids are really good and help out, but it is a balancing act making sure they are still children enjoying their childhood and not just giving them more responsibility — they are helping out.”

As well as keeping in touch with former school friends, the couple make sure their children are involved with youngsters their own ages, with clubs and activities such as dance and performing arts.

Lu said: “One of my big concerns was that the do not grow up in a bubble.

“Helen’s Angels has been brilliant and gives them a different kind of and they love it.”

When the couple decided to go down the home-education route, they realised their businesses would have to adapt too.

Adam’s kitchens and bathrooms business had to change for everything to work.

Lu said: “Adam is doing odd jobs rather than big projects which were taking anything up to 10 days. It now all works, but it is about being organised.”

The change has also seen Lu adapt her way of working with Time Saving Heroes.

She said: “We do have a schedule of what needs to be achieved by when each day.

“I manage five to six hours of work a day, but it is not always in normal office hours.

“It is accepting that it is chaos, but we just have to deal with it. We just manage it without putting too much pressure on ourselves. We live our life the way we want to and that is the message I try to get across to clients.”