It wasn’t working. I was stressed out, the kids were miserable. Something had to change.
Our homeschool schedule was ruining our homeschool!
One of the big debates in homeschooling is how to schedule our days. The nice thing about homeschooling is that we are in charge of how we spend our days. Yes, there are state requirements for days and hours and all that, but we are ultimately in charge!
Yet, I think that there are so many options for homeschooling daily schedules that it can be overwhelming to choose one! We want to have this idyllic “everyone just sits around and learns and we do field trips every week” type of school, but that’s like wanting my homeschool room to look like my Pinterest newsfeed – it just ain’t happenin’!
So, what are some options for daily homeschool schedules? And how do you know which one is right for your family? Grab a cup of tea (coffee, whatevs) and let’s talk about just that.
This is the first post in a series about homeschool schedules. In the series we will discuss:
- Types of Daily Homeschool Schedules
- Yearly Schedule Options
- How to Choose a Homeschool Schedule that Works for Your Family
Today is all about Daily Homeschool Schedules. We will talk about eight types of daily schedules:
- The Daily Plan
- The Weekly Plan
- Loop Schedules
- Block Schedules
- The Un-Schedule
- The One-Hour School Day
- An Outside Help Schedule
- The Student-Led Schedule
Types of Daily Homeschool Schedules
Daily Plan
This type of schedule most resembles a traditional classroom schedule. You have the subjects that you want to cover and you do each subject every day. It might look something like this:
8:00-8:30 Breakfast
8:30-9:30 Morning Basket/Read Aloud
9:30- 10:00 Math
10:00-10:30 Language Arts
10:30-11:30 History
11:30-12:00 Science
12:00-1:00 Lunch/Break
1:00-2:00 Art/Music
2:00-3:00 Gameschooling
Your subjects vary, but the concept is the same. you set times for starting school, when to work on each subject, and then you just rinse and repeat every day.
Who is this Schedule Good for?
This schedule is good for families (or Moms) who need and thrive on routine. Some families really do well knowing what is coming up each day and knowing that each day will feel familiar.
This schedule also tends to work better for families without little ones as they can tend to *cough cough* not follow the schedule. So, if you’ve got all school aged-kids who are capable of working for extended times without breaks, then the Daily Schedule might be for you!
Weekly Plan
Planning by the week is where you look at the subjects you want to cover (and how many times you want to cover them) in one week. So, you might cover math and language arts 5 times, history 3 times, science twice, and music and art once. This is very similar to the Daily Schedule mentioned above, but each day’s schedule will be different. This lightens the load of each day, but still allows you to have a schedule to follow.
Instead of your kids knowing that “history always come after reading”, they’ll come to know that “it’s Wednesday, so today we will do history after lunch.” You can see in the sample below that every day has math and read-aloud time, but days differ when it comes to history, geography, music, art, writing, vocabulary, grammar, and science.
A weekly schedule gives you a few more “time slots” and allows you to cover more subjects without overloading your day.
Who is this Schedule Good for?
This schedule can work especially well for families with young children. It reserves that daily spot for math and reading, which is so important. It allows for a variety of topics, but it doesn’t cover them all in one day. Young minds can tire easily and young bodies have trouble sitting still and focusing for very long. This weekly plan takes all the needed subjects and splits them up over the course of a week – allowing lots of playtime for young learners.
Loop Schedule
A loop schedule is basically a list of subjects you want to cover in your homeschool. You work your way down the list and when you finish, you just start back at the top! I called it a ‘loop schedule’, but it’s more of a routine.
There is no certain number of subjects that you have to get done each day.
There is no ‘start’ and ‘end’ times for each subject.
You cover the subject in however short or long it takes. Then, you move onto the next subject.
A simple loop routine has one list. But, there are varieties with loops inside the loop, so that you are covering the core subjects more often than the fine arts or geography, etc. You can read more about loop schedules in my previous post.
Who is this Schedule Good for?
A loop schedule or homeschool routine is great for those moms who feel stressed out if you don’t get everything done on your daily schedule. This is totally me!
We tried following a daily schedule, but with a little one who needed to nurse or change her diaper and kids that love to play make-believe for hours, it just wasn’t working. I felt like a failure every day because everything didn’t get checked off the list.
When I switched to a loop routine, the pressure to ‘get it all done’ magically lifted and our homeschool routine was so much better! If you’ve got little-bitties or things that pop up during your day, a loop schedule might be right for you.
Block Schedule
When I taught math in public schools, this is the schedule that my school used. You work on fewer classes at a time, but work on each for longer. For example, you might only work on math, history, and language arts during the day. But, you work on each for 1.5 – 2 hours.
Then, after a certain number of weeks, you switch.
Next, you might cover geography, science, and art.
Now, in public school you had one set of classes for an entire semester, then switched the following semester – Like college. But, the beauty of homeschooling is that you can make your schedule however you like. So, maybe you work on math, writing and grammar, and science for a month. Then, the following month, you work on history, vocabulary and spelling, and art/music. The next month you can switch again or move on to another set of subjects.
The only thing you have to make sure with this schedule is that you work on the core subjects long enough in a year’s time to cover an entire grade level. With math, for instance, you probably can’t just do math for one month a year. But, you could work on math for three different cycles throughout the year and cover everything needed.
Who is this Schedule Good for?
Block scheduling is good for families who don’t want to cover a lot of topics in one day. For families who like to really spend a lot of time deep-diving on history or don’t want to stop when they are in the math groove – then block scheduling might for work well.
You might want to consider a block schedule if your child gets bored with your homeschool routine quickly. Changing what subjects you are studying every month or so is a good way to “keep it fresh”
The Un-Schedule
Another name for this homeschool schedule might be ‘The Relaxed Schedule‘. Families who use this schedule have a rough idea of what they want to cover that day, but they don’t necessarily know when they’ll do it, how long it will take, in what order subjects will get covered, or even if they will get to all of them. And they are OK with it.
This daily schedule is sometimes done on purpose and sometimes just happens because life makes it that way. We tend to swing between the Un-Schedule, Loop Scheduling, and the One-Hour School Day (see below).
My two school-age children are still young. Their attention span and ability to focus can vary wildly from day to day. One day they might want to just keep doing more school and more school. The next day they might just want to go play. The next it might be a bit of both. I believe unstructured play in elementary school is so valuable, so I try to be as flexible as possible as their minds are still doing a lot of developing in this phase of their lives.
I also have a little one running around, too. If you have a baby, toddler, or preschool-aged child at home then you know how much they can impact the daily schedule! Some days she is content to play on her own and other days…..not so much. It can be very hard to focus my attention on my older girls when their younger sister needs to go to the bathroom or change her diaper or wants a snack or just wants my attention. This is how The Un-Schedule can arise out of necessity. I know there will come a time when we can be a little more structured, but right now is not that time. And I just have to be OK with that.
Who is This Schedule Good For?
If you just can’t stand being told what to do on any given day and you want to be free to just learn whatever subject strikes your fancy that day, then this is for you! If you have a little one running around and can’t seem to stick to any schedule no matter how hard you try, then this if or you, too!
The Un-Schedule trades “daily goals” for broader goals. You know what you want to accomplish by the end of the year, but don’t have a set path for each day. If you like (or need) permission to have lots of freedom in your daily schedule, then The Un-Schedule might be for you.
One-Hour School Day
This sounds impossible, right? But, you’d be surprised just how much you can cover in ten-minute increments of a subject. Let’s say you do ten minutes every day of
math
reading
history
science
geography
writing/grammar
You will cover a lot that year! In fact, research shows that when it comes to subjects like math, reading, and writing, short frequent practice is very beneficial. If you are covering more than six subjects then you could always swap out a subject or two a few days each week.
Who is This Schedule Good For?
Do you have a child with a very short attention span? The One Hour School Day schedule might be just what you’ve been looking for! It accomplishes a lot of learning and still gives your active child plenty of time to go playing and exploring, too.
If you have health issues in your family that require a lot of attention or appointment, the One Hour School Day schedule works great when time is limited. You can even split it up throughout the day.
Outside Help Schedule
Homeschool families often take advantage of things like local tutors, a la carte private schools, or online classes, just to name a few. Maybe your child has an interest in something that you aren’t very skilled in…say computer programming. You might enroll them in an online class that meets three days each week.
Some families enlist outside help for all their schooling. Your child might go to the local private school for language arts, have a math tutor come to the house for math, and do some classes online. Music lessons is another popular topic where homeschooling families often enlist the help of a professional.
These are all valid options for homeschooling!
If you choose to enlist some or a lot of outside help, then your schedule has to conform to the schedule of those doing the helping. Each family’s schedule will be different depending on the help they choose.
Who is This Schedule Good For?
If you have an older child and just don’t feel like you are the best person to instruct them, then enlisting outside help is a great way to homeschool. If your child has interests that you don’t know anything about, like linguistics or something, then enlisting the help of a professional is a great way to feed that passion.
If you work from home and still want to homeschool, enlisting outside help is a great way to let your child keep learning while you are working.
Student-Led Schedule
Student-led learning is just what it sounds like – your child gets to choose what subjects get covered each day. If your child is resistant to school, this approach can be a great way to get them excited about (or at least willing to do) school.
Your child may wake up and want to learn about the Civil War, photosynthesis, and geometry. Great! That’s what you do.
To make planning easier on your part, you may want to talk to your child at the beginning of the week and see what they want to learn about that week or month. This lets you pull together some resources before the day when you will actually use them.
I do this often with my young children. I might ask them what they want to learn about next. One time my middle daughter said giraffes, so I found a bunch of books on giraffes, a giraffe lapbook, and some videos. Next time we go to the zoo, she’ll get to see the giraffe.
This schedule works really great with unit studies. You study one topic for a while and then move onto something else. But, what if your child never says they want to learn “grammar” or “math”???
Core subjects are very easy to work into almost any subject. Let’s go back to giraffes.
You can look up together (or have your child do it on their own if they are older) facts about giraffes: average height, how much they eat, how much they sleep, how long they live, etc. You could then compare these statistics to other animals and create bar-graphs to show how the animals compare.
You could have your child do a project or report on the 5 Most Amazing Facts About Giraffes. They could do it as an oral report and work on public speaking. So many options here. They could learn to draw giraffes and write a children’s story about giraffes (grammar and writing).
Anything can be used to teach anything.
Who is This Schedule Good For?
If your child resists doing schoolwork because “it’s boring”, then letting them take the reins might change their attitude. If your child is obsessed with Minecraft, knights, or WWII, then use those interests to guide your homeschool.
Even if your child’s interest doesn’t seem “appropriate” to you, just go with it for a bit and see what happens.
When I was a teenager I was very interested in Charles Manson and serial killers/murderers in general. Sounds totally weird, right? But, I also wanted to work for the FBI or CIA, both of which are admiral career goals. I wasn’t homeschooled, but my mom allowed me to get books on the subjects.
If your child’s interests make you a bit uncomfortable, then just see how it goes and change as necessary. But, maybe they’re interested in giraffes and there’s nothing to worry about!
If your child is interested in learning, but maybe not interested in learning what you have planned, then go with their interest if at all possible. Learning should be fun and interesting!
Choosing a Schedule that Works
Whew! That’s a lot of daily homeschool schedule options! How the heck are you supposed to choose?!
Well, there are a few ways you can go about it.
1) Try them out! Pick a few that seem like they might be a good fit and see which one (or ones) work best with your family.
2) Take stock of your family. Do you have little ones? Lots of doctor appointments? Does your child need familiarity and structure?
3) Ask your child(ren). I know….ground-breaking. But, your children have to live the schedule as much as you do, so asking their input might be helpful.
Remember, you get to decide how you homeschool. If you try one type of schedule and it’s not working, then you have permission to try a different schedule.
You might also find that one schedule works well for a season of your life and another type of schedule works well in a different season.
Be sure to save this post for later, so you can refer back to it next time your homeschool needs a schedule change!