A Day in the Life of a Homeschooler: Blog/Social Media Challenge

It can be difficult to describe a day in the life of a homeschooler, because at least in my family’s homeschool, no two days look alike. I love that homeschooling gives us the flexibility to follow my children’s interests and learn through hands-on projects and activities. Here are some things to consider as you are creating a schedule for a typical day in your homeschool.

Scheduling Your Day

Depending on your homeschool philosophy, your schedule might look very different. Although it is important not to compare yourself to others, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Short Lessons

When homeschooling, it is important to make sure that lessons are an appropriate length for your child’s attention span. One way to figure out a good lesson length is to take your child’s age and multiply by 2-5 minutes. So, in our homeschool schedule, each of my 5-year old’s lessons is only 10-25 minutes long.

Try a Loop Schedule

If you are feeling like you never quite have enough time in your homeschool day for everything you would like to include, a loop schedule might be a good fit for your family. Loop schedules are also helpful for families that are in a season of life that leads to disruptions during homeschool time. To make a loop schedule, list all the subjects you would like to include in your homeschool. Then, when it’s time for homeschool, just work through the list in order.

Plan Your Day in Advance

It is important to make a plan for what you would like to accomplish before your homeschool day begins. Using a good homeschool lesson planner that is designed specifically for homeschool families can be a big help. It’s ok if you don’t finish everything in your plan every day, but the process of planning will help you to be more intentional with the time you spend.

Things to Do Every Day

No matter what your schedule looks like, there are a few things that are important to include every day. Here are the things that I always include.

Reading

Reading together is one of the most important parts of our homeschool time. Even though my son can read independently, I still try to read aloud to him every day. Studies show that kids who are read to at least 5 times per week develop better written and spoken language skills. And, reading together is a great bonding time for our family.

Math

Because math skills take time to develop, and because new concepts build sequentially on each other, it is important that my kids practice math every day. Other subjects like fine motor skills or foreign languages can also be important to practice daily when kids are learning new skills.

Family Time

One of the benefits of homeschooling is the relationships that we are building within our family. Because my kids’ primary socialization in homeschool is with each other, we try to do some of our lessons together each day.

No matter what your schedule looks like, it is important to remember that a day in the life of a homeschooler will be different for each family. Rather than comparing and trying to make your homeschool fit into someone else’s mold, it is important to design a unique schedule that works for your unique family.

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Thank you to Sarah at Homeschooling 4 Him for writing this post. Sarah is a homeschool mom of two and an educator with over a decade of experience teaching kids in preschool through high school. Her passion is to help homeschool parents get started homeschooling with confidence. You can connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.