Homeschool Scheduling (Part 1)

How to schedule your homeschooling day is one of the hottest topics in the homeschool community. How do you get it all done? Can you get it all done? What should I be doing each day? How much is too much? How much is too little? What about co-ops, outside activities, and field trips? There are many factors that affect each of our families and our homeschooling schedules. Family dynamics also affect the way you schedule your day. Do you have little ones that require more one-on-one time? Do you have older children who can begin taking on more responsibilities? Family dynamics are always changing, so you need a flexible plan. Be sure not to be fooled by any one-size-fits-all plans that you may find out there while searching for what will work for you. Instead, look for ideas that fit your family. It is much easier to make a plan fit your family than trying to make your family fit a plan. I do find it helpful though to peek into someone else's day, so here is a glimpse of how we tend to plan our homeschooling day.

Building a Homeschool Schedule

When creating a schedule, I first prayerfully determine what the goals are for each subject or skill. Some goals may be yearly, some weekly, some daily, some may span over several years. It is important when defining goals to make sure you have done your homework with each child. By this I mean, you have taken time to study and pray for your child, to know his or her strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, temperament, and spiritual maturity. All of these characteristics should help you design goals that are challenging but not exasperating to your child. This does not have to be a well-organized typed up list, but writing it down somewhere does help.

Once goals are in place, I again prayerfully decide how much time should be devoted each day to lessons and required studies. One of my underlying goals is to provide each child with enough opportunity each day to explore his own interests and develop his own tastes for learning Charlotte Mason style. This weighs heavily with each decision I make about how to spend the time each day. I decide what reasonable amount of time should be spent working toward each goal. Should this time be spent daily, every other day, twice or once a week? Should lessons be finished in the morning, early afternoon, or after dinner? This is where knowing your child becomes a critical component in devising a schedule.

You need to know what amount of limits, what amount of challenges, and what amount of grace each child needs in order to help them be diligent in their studies. One child may love mathematics and want to spend an hour working on his studies, whereas another child may loathe mathematics and loses his ability to concentrate after 20 minutes. You may decide to limit the first child to 30 minutes so that he does not spend so much time on math that his energy is too spent for writing. You may challenge the second child to build up to 30 minutes of diligent work. In the afternoon, the mathematically-interested child may pursue extra math studies if he desires on his own. The other child will find other things that interests him. Both children will have the best opportunity to thrive in math, regardless of their natural interest, because the study was tailor fit to their God given characteristics and personalities. Note that the child who has an aversion to math was not given the option to not do math, rather he was challenged to pursue it to his fullest capacity, though without leading to exasperation. Another example of this give-and-take method is with writing. The younger the child, the less developed their spelling and grammar skills will be. Challenge your young child to write by being his editor. Especially when the actual practice of writing words on a page is difficult, I write the story as the child dictates it to me correcting the spelling as we go. Give the young child grace in his spelling and grammar (and ability to physically write the words) so that he may focus on the art of writing and creating. As they get older, they will be expected to do more and will be able to without having stunted their writing abilities and interests.

From here, knowing my goals and what amount of time needs to be spent working toward each of these goals, I can begin to form a schedule. This requires me to look at all of my children's goals at the same time. There will most likely be some gaps as well as some overlaps in their studies. All of this has to be considered. Younger children have different needs than teenagers to be sure. I try to plan for my younger children to have more one-on-one time in the mornings and leave the afternoons open for my oldest. I try. Since employing the Charlotte Mason method, I have opened up a great window of time for all of my children to have more time with me and their dad as well as more time with each other.

Another time saver for me is to know when to group studies. For example my middle children all share the same science lesson, same read-alouds, same writing lessons and the same history lesson. It has taken some time, but I have found curriculums that help me to do this well. These middle four children share the same general schedule with some differences when they need one-on-one time for such subjects as spelling, grammar, and math. The key is to know what each child needs. They can share the same science and history lessons as long as they approach the lessons with different goals. As for math, they each needed a different lesson because grouping them together was too difficult. Therefore, I picked a program that would work most efficiently for us by choosing one with DVD lessons that require less one-on-one time and let me have more of a tutoring role.

Allow for flexibility. Your schooling experience may look different each year, it may look different from one week to the next. By the time you view my schedule, it will be outdated to what we currently are doing. Each year as your children get older, your goals and schedules will need changing. Always be open to the Lord's leading when it comes to how you spend your time, your money, and your resources. Your children are His children. He knows them best. If you take the time to pray for them and to really get to know them intimately, you can begin to build a schedule that is not just times and tasks on a page, but a living plan that breathes fresh air into your days and fills your children's hearts with joy as they learn more about God's world and His plan for their lives.

Laying Out a Homeschooling Week

Want to peek into our homeschooling week? Just remember that every year is different and updating what we do from year to year for this website is not always possible. So this plan may become outdated, but it worked for this particular year and season in our lives.
Go to Homeschool Scheduling (II).