A schedule is the basic structure of every approach. You cannot start or pursue anything without a schedule. The schedule establishes the goal and the time frame to achieve that in a structured way. Home-schooling is gaining popularity across the globe due to its flexible and convenient approach. This approach also follows a standard format through its flexibility. Before going to the homeschool schedule, let’s take a glance at the basics of home-school.
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What is homeschooling?
This is an elective or home education. Here the parents continue the children’s education by staying at home instead of sending them to the traditional brick-mortar schools. Home-schooling is not a formal approach. This is a personal way of teaching, unlike the conventional schools. Homeschool’s are widely popular in the commonwealth countries and Europe.
If you are interested in home-schooling for your children, you have to follow few significant steps. The first is to select the home-school; then you have to choose the home-school curriculum; after that, you need to focus on the home-school schedule. This is one of the most crucial and challenging aspects in this context.
Most of the parents who are selecting homeschool’s for their children are educated traditional schools. In the traditional schools, the schedule was so easy but structured. Here you have to follow the school’s standard guidelines. But in the home-school aspect, you can craft the curriculum and daily home-schooling schedule according to your convenience only.
See – ONLINE HOMESCHOOL PROGRAMS – The Reason Students Favour It
Importance of creating a perfect homeschool schedule
There are several benefits of a home-school schedule. They are,
- The traditional schools follow the standard routine that all the students have to follow. That sometimes creates monotony and creates the learning method inefficient. After following few classes, students often do not feel like attending the following classes with intense concentration. But, the customized design of the home-school breaks that monotony. Home-schooling is student-focused. That’s why the parents craft the schedule according to the convenience of the child and family. Thus the learning process becomes exciting and convenient.
- You do not need to go to the school campus. Thus there is a question of delay in joining the learning sessions.
- In the morning, our brain functioning capacity stays at the optimum level. The parents can utilize those times when the child remains active and happy. The parents know these times better than anyone else. Thus the learning process becomes effective and prompts in the home-schooling.
- If the children start their home-school day early, it will finish early also. They can get enough time to follow the fun activity, passion, hobbies, and socialization after completing the school work.
- If the home-school schedule is well-crafted, an inbuilt biological clock will tick within the children. They will follow that in-built clock automatically. This will make their day systematic and structured. They will quickly obey the work ethics and time value.
Read- What are the Pros and Cons of Home-schooling? Everyone Must Know
Types of the homeschool schedule
The traditional schools follow a similar kind of schedule where all the students and parents know the timing of the schools, vacations, standard syllabus, and the class timings. But the home-school is entirely individual student-focused.
According to the individual’s convenience, the parents craft the daily schedule. Thus to create a home-school schedule become challenging. Let’s try to make the schedule understandable in the following way,
Yearly schedule:
The first thing is to determine the yearly schedule. The state where you are currently residing will play an important role here. You have to follow the home-schooling laws of that state or country. Few states mandate particular home-schooling hours yearly, whereas a few mandate specific numbers of home-schooling days. Few states do not require such strict rules as this mode of education is private. Most of the home-school publishers offer their products on the thirty-six weeks home school model. Generally, most homeschool’s follow a 180 days curriculum yearly. Considering the family convenience, the parents craft the home-school schedule and curriculum.
Enormous flexibility is still there to avail in the home-schooling format.
- Four-day school attendance until you fulfils the attendance criteria.
- Follow the country’s standard calendar days and holidays.
- They offer a week off after six weeks or two weeks off after a nine-week schedule. This happens every year.
Weekly schedule:
While you completed the yearly home-school planning, now be specific and precise to design the weekly schedule. Keep all the conveniences and to-do lists in your mind; you can prepare the weekly schedule for the children. In the home-schooling pattern, it is not mandatory that the children need to participate in the sessions from Monday to Friday. According to the parent’s work schedule, the children can join in the sessions. The parents also can customize the home-schooling days and timings if there is any change in their schedule. Thus the child can join the sessions without missing any of them.
Loop schedule:
This schedule shows what curriculum needs to be covered. But, it is not specific when and within how many days this has to be done. They follow a loop to touch every subject at a regular interval. Suppose you can’t cover all the subjects in a day and you skip geography for the day. But on the following day, you touch geography and skip the math. Thus by continuous skipping and adding different subjects creates loops. These loops repeat at a regular interval, and the student can get adequate knowledge on every subject.
Block schedule:
Loop and block schedule can function simultaneously. Block schedule shows which subjects the child has to follow at what time or on which days. This makes the schedule organized and structured by allocating time for each subject.
Daily schedule:
Most people consider the daily home-schooling schedule as a crucial decision. Each day how can the children grasp or how much they are learning? Is that sufficient? The parents should not set the traditional school’s learning time to the daily schooling time. Few activities are excluded in homeschool’s. The children are availing home-schooling doesn’t mean all the day they need to spend in learning. They also need time for extracurricular activities and socializing.
Another thing the parents should keep in mind that home-schooling focuses on individual students. So it will not take a long time in the learning process. So the sessions should be smaller than the traditional schools.
In the extra hours, the home schoolers can follow their hobbies and other activities. Keep child psychology in mind; you need to structure the daily schedule you’re your children.
See- A Complete Guide, How To Organise Home-school Room?
Factors to Consider for making a homeschool schedule
It’s better to craft a routine rather than a schedule. Now, what is the difference between them? Routine is a chronic and regular procedure, whereas schedule establishes a timed-plan. The program often created pressure and stress on the home-school moms and children. So, it’s better to follow a home-school routine.
Design the work chunks. Just keep in mind what activities and subjects a child needs to follow daily instead of setting a time frame. Setting time frames often spoilt the learning process inefficient and created pressure on the home-schooling mom and child.
You can mingle similar kinds of exercises and makes a broader work chunk in a day but not in a monotonous way. That means if the Latin practice and spelling require massive writing activities. Put a reading session in between of them. Thus the home schooler could go out of the writing-monotony.
Realistic Approach
Set a margin in-between between the sessions. As a mom, you have substantial household chaos and responsibilities. You cannot spend the entire five hours in the home-schooling at a stretch. To perform those, take a break in between. Thus you can maintain the household works and home-schooling in a balanced way.
While setting the home-school schedule template, prioritize the sibling’s scheduling. Otherwise, the schedule will be messy and non-effective. Find out the most convenient times when the home schooler read aloud, the pre-schoolers’ nap time, and the other free times, then structure the schedule.
It is not necessary to cover all the subjects daily. Here you can follow the loop schedule. This means, at a regular interval, a subject-loop will rotate, and every issue gets the same attention every week.
Find out the basic priorities and plan the daily home-school schedule.
Follow the natural course of the daily activities. You cannot hamper the mode of daily activities of your family for the sake of home-schooling schedule. You have to perform all the daily activities and responsibilities such as morning chores, family requirements, social requirements, and kids’ responsibility. Furthermore, you need a ‘me time. You cannot sacrifice that at all.
See- Top Home-school Math Curriculum for Students in Need
Sample daily schedule
The following layout is a daily home-schooling schedule template.
- 8 AM: Take a shower, get dressed, prayer and devotion and ready for the day
- 8:30 AM: Complete the breakfast and cleaning the kitchen
- 9 AM: Start the home-school
- 2-3PM in the afternoon: End of the home-school for the day
- 3:30 PM: Chore time
- 4 PM: ‘Me time’ for moms and children
- 4:30 to 6:30 PM: Preparation time for the dinner and advance-preparation for the next day’s activity
- 6:30 PM: It’s DAD time with family
- 7 PM: Exercise time for parents and playtime for the children
- 8 PM: Final brief-cleaning time
- 8:15 PM: Preparation for the bedtime for the children
- 9 PM onwards: MOM-DAD time
F A Q’s:
How many hours a day do you home-school?
The parents officially crafted the home-schooling time for two to three hours daily.
What time do home schoolers wake up?
Usually, the home schoolers wake up between 6:30 to 7 AM.
Are home-schooled students happier?
According to different trusted survey reports, home schooler are happier and more active than conventional school goers. They also follow and perform much better in higher education than other students.
Final words
The remarkable fact of the USA is around two million children follow the home-schooling and home-school schedule. The increase in home-schooling is seven to fifteen percent yearly. The rate is significantly impressive. It is found that the students who follow the home-school schedule strictly perform much better in exams.
They become emotionally more independent and socialize in much better ways. These students understand the family value and fulfil every responsibility for their families. They can pursue their hobbies other than formal education in a much intense way. The home schoolers are always more independent and happier than the others. So what are you waiting for… Select a good home-school curriculum and design a better home-school schedule to give your child a better future.