How To Create a Homeschool Schedule That Works For Your Family
Creating a homeschooling schedule offers the freedom and flexibility that allows you to tailor education to your family’s needs. However, finding the right schedule can take some trial and error. A well-structured plan ensures productivity while embracing the freedom that homeschooling allows.
Here’s how to create a schedule that works best for your family, along with common types of homeschooling schedules to consider.
Things to Consider When Building a Homeschooling Schedule:
Your Family’s Routine
Your Children’s Learning Styles
State Requirements
Extracurricular Activities
Parent-Teacher Energy Levels
Your Family’s Routine
Start by assessing your family’s natural rhythm. Are you early risers, or do you function better later in the day? This can vary based on the age and stage of your children. Most medical experts advise that tweens and teens get 8-10 hours of sleep a night. Tween from 6-13 years of age should be getting between 9–12 hours. While teens from 14–17 years should be getting 8–10 hours.
Consider your meal times. Does everyone eat when they wake up or do you like to eat together? Same thing with lunch. These are some things to consider when your creating your schedule.
Mom eating with three children at a table.
Your Children’s Learning Styles
Some children thrive on structure, while others prefer a more relaxed approach. Consider learning styles, which are ways they best process and retain information and adjust schedules accordingly. . One common model identifies three primary learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.
Visual learners grasp concepts better through images, diagrams, charts, and written instructions. They often enjoy activities like drawing, reading, and observing demonstrations.
Auditory learners thrive when they hear information. They benefit from discussions, storytelling, and verbal instructions, as well as rhythmic learning tools like songs or rhymes.
Kinesthetic learners prefer a hands-on approach, engaging their sense of touch and movement to understand new ideas. They excel in activities that involve building, experimenting, or physically manipulating objects. Beyond these categories, some children may learn best through a combination of these methods, emphasizing the need for varied teaching approaches. Understanding a child’s preferred learning style can help educators and caregivers tailor educational experiences to support their growth and curiosity.
Little girl playing at kitchen with fine motor skill wooden toys.
State Requirements
Be aware of your state’s homeschooling regulations, which may dictate the number of days or hours of instruction required. Use this as a baseline to plan your schedule. To find all your state requirements by going to the Home School Legal Defense Association website.
After you have established your required days or hours, now you have to decide how many days & what days of the week your going to have school. As well as how many hours of school per day. One of the many benefits of homeschooling is you can pick what days you're doing school. As far as I’m aware of, no state says on what days of the week you have to do school.
So by taking the number of hours or days your planning, then dividing that by the number of hours or days required by the state, will determine how many weeks.
For example: Wisconsin requires 875 hours of instructed hours in a school year. We do 5 hours a day, 5 days a week. That’s 25 hours a week, divide that by 875, gives us 35 weeks in a school year.
Extracurricular Activities
Factor in things such as: sports, music lessons, co-op groups, or other activities. These can influence how much time you have for formal lessons during the day. Check your state requirements, sometimes these can be factored into your child’s instructional hours.
Parent-Teacher Energy Levels
Remember to account for your energy levels. How you wake up in the morning and how you start out your day determines the day for everyone else. If you’re not a morning person, avoid packing challenging subjects like math or science into the early hours. See what time of the day you are at your best and do those more challenging subjects then.
We like to ease into our school day. We’ll start out with our Bible time after we eat breakfast, just to get our brains waking up. Then we start to tackle the more intense subjects. Keep in mind what many subjects are more challenging for you, may not be the same as your child. For example: Math is my daughter’s most challenging subject, while math comes very easy & natural for me. For her, history and science are very natural for her and not for me. So you may have to play around to find the right rhythm that works best for both of you.
Two people working on a problem together.
Types of Homeschooling Schedules
Traditional Schedule Modeled after a typical school day, this schedule includes set start and end times, with distinct periods for each subject.
Example:
8:30–9:00: Morning meeting and review
9:00–10:00: Math
10:00–10:30: Break
10:30–11:30: Language Arts
11:30–12:00: Science or Social Studies
12:00–1:00: Lunch
1:00–2:00: Electives or Creative Time
Block Schedule Instead of covering all subjects daily, focus on a few subjects deeply on specific days. This method can reduce daily transitions and allow for in-depth exploration.
Example:
Monday/Wednesday: Math and Science
Tuesday/Thursday: Language Arts and History
Friday: Art, Music, and Life Skills
Loop Schedule A loop schedule rotates through a list of subjects or activities in order. Instead of assigning specific days to topics, you simply pick up where you left off.
Example:
Day 1: Math, Science, Art
Day 2: Language Arts, History, Music
Repeat
Relaxed or Unschooling Schedule This approach prioritizes interest-led learning, with less emphasis on rigid schedules. Parents act as facilitators, providing resources and guidance as children explore topics at their own pace.
Four-Day Week Reserve one day for field trips, errands, or catch-up time by condensing your lessons into four days. This schedule offers flexibility while maintaining structure.
Example:
Monday–Thursday: Core subjects
Friday: Experiential learning, co-op group, or family time
Year-Round Schedule Spread out your school year to include shorter breaks throughout, reducing burnout and allowing for flexibility in vacation planning.
Example:
Six weeks on, one week off
Longer breaks in summer or winter
Boy at a desk with schedule in the background.
Tips for Success
Set Realistic Goals: Plan your day with achievable targets, considering your child’s attention span and energy levels.
Include Breaks: Regular breaks can help maintain focus and energy, especially for younger children.
Stay Flexible: Don’t be afraid to adjust your schedule as needed. What works one month might not work the next.
Involve Your Children: Allow your kids to provide input on the schedule. They may feel more invested in their education if they have a say in the planning.
Reflect and Adjust: Periodically review what’s working and what’s not. Tweaking your schedule is a normal part of homeschooling.
By considering your family’s unique needs and experimenting with different scheduling methods, you’ll find a rhythm that fosters both learning and harmony in your home. The beauty of homeschooling lies in its adaptability—embrace it!
Related
