Can we agree on something up front? Your homeschool days won’t feel or look much like your school experience unless you came from a homeschool. Think for a moment picture in your mind what a school day aught to look like. I’m not referring to the Pinterest perfect homeschool room here, I’m thinking about the organization and flow of the day. My experience before homeschool included homeroom, some academics, then lunch followed by PE and some more academics. I remember changing classrooms a lot as I got older but we never did the same thing for more than about an hour before we moved into another subject.

Does your picture look like how you learned? Probably, it looks like what you are familiar with. If so, please just set that preconceived notion aside and try to start with a blank slate in your mind. Your homeschool may look and feel like a library at times, maybe will look more like a quiet Saturday afternoon with all your people working on projects in separate areas of the family room or like a multi-ring circus with you as the ringmaster. In some moments of homeschool, it can feel like you aren’t doing enough, being effective or even doing the right thing. It can feel messy and look chaotic but, we know feelings are not where we place our faith.

[Pro 28:26 NKJV]
He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.

I point out these things because when I was new to homeschool I wasted time trying to make my homeschool days like the schools I grew up in. Before long, I found a dining room table or sofa, free from too many time requirements were far more comfortable for us all to work together. Some days we needed to rest because we’d had a huge day of learning the day before. Some days we were near a goal and pushed hard through academics to finish a chapter or build a science project or get 100 miles further down the road toward our field-trip destination. The best days were dictated by what was required to help my children love learning with a solid foundation in knowing God and what the Bible says.

As you might expect, a good homeschool day starts with a plan. Failing to plan is planning to fail! If you missed my post on planning, now might be time to go back and check it out. Remember, though, even the best laid plans can fall apart so, like many other things in life, hold your plan loosely. Be ready to respond to the needs of your kids and your family, trusting the Lord will all work out in the end. There have been entire months where my kids have just done math and reading and they have been successful in college and life. Don’t let the devil convince you that a tough day, week, month or season has turned your school into a big fail. Just pick yourself up, pray, regroup, adjust what needs adjusting (including any personal bad attitudes and negative self talk), redirect the kids and forge ahead!

Our homeschool days were a combination of play, writing, reading and the best days acknowledged that God was in control while I served my children’s academic needs and our family. After nearly 20+ years, I still believe that teaching my children to love God and to love learning are the best goals.

“Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. [Deu 11:18-19 NKJV]

Starting the day with a time of prayer and demonstrating regular service to God was a goal because most of all I wanted to raise balanced humans who looked to the Lord for their daily provision. At the time, I was just learning to do this myself so having the kids expect it as part of our schedule helped me stay on track, too! I wanted to demonstrate an active faith, not just Sunday routines. By daily inviting the Lord into our day, we were alert to His ways and could discuss our faith throughout the day. When they were small, this was as simple as a daily devotional together. As they grew older, this was self-directed and often in conjunction with a church youth group program. The daily devotionals, readings and prayer was like manna for my homeschooling efforts. God provided me with clear directions and grounding for the day. If I tried to store it up so I could disconnect and go on autopilot for a while (which I try with embarrassing frequency), it didn’t go well for me. But when I continually humbled myself in prayer, God was faithful to lead. Doing this with my kids daily meant accountability and a learning time for all of us.

As for academics, I quickly learned that elementary aged students need only a few hours of formal teaching each day. This really shocked me! In the beginning I figured I needed to fill the day between 8 and 3 with school but I learned that is completely unnecessary and usually unproductive. For one, your kids don’t want to sit in chairs that long. They have kid-sized attention spans. Much time at public or private school is spent learning to stand in line and waiting your turn. It takes much more time to lead 25 students through a math lesson or to the bathroom than it does to lead one or two in your own home. You can accomplish so much more learning in an hour when its done one-on-one versus one on 25. Your student will enjoy customized lessons in homeschool that, for the most part, maximizes everyone’s time and takes advantage of learning styles. Do yourself a favor and allow just a few hours a day for formal school for elementary ages and then practice play and life skills with your kids for the balance of their waking hours.

I mentioned that I don’t remember working on the same project in school for more than about an hour before we moved on to another topic. Please don’t forget that the time you spend doing proper lessons in reading, writing, and arithmetic can be driven by your kiddo’s attention span. For my youngest students we would accomplish learning tasks in 15 – 30 minute increments. As the age increased, so did the attention span and the time we’d spend engaged in an activity before moving into something else. You can also change the location for the shortest attention spans. For example, a friend of mine practiced spelling and phonics while hiking in the woods. Mom would say a word and a walking kid would spell it back to her. This picture of homeschool looks nothing like how I went to school but worked perfectly to turn her antsy elementary kid into a great speller and outdoors man!

So to help along your new picture of what an homeschool day might look like, consider this possible schedule. Remember, if you aren’t’ an early riser like me, just change the times.

Middle school students will need progressively more class time. Your sixth thru eighth graders may need 3-4 hours of class time and ninth through twelfth graders may need about 5 or more hours of class time but this is very dependent on their course of study and learning styles. By the time my students were in high school they were completing academics at home or at the local college between 8 am and 3 pm then were participating in extra curricular sports, clubs, church-activities and work in the afternoons and evenings. I considered most all of their out-of-school activities important to their education and preparedness for life so I might have measured some days at far more than 5 hours of “school.” Its also important to note that by the time my kids were in high school, my job was predominantly transportation, encouragement and problem solving and less time engaged in traditional teaching.

Scheduling days for middle and high school students worked best when I involved them in the planning and in curriculum selection. This helped them be invested in the outcome and they learned responsibility, research skills and self direction. By the time my students were in middle school, many of their studies were accomplished on their own with my oversight and help when there was a problem. My older students also helped with my younger students. For example, my older-elementary aged kids would often quiz my younger kids on phonics or read a history lesson to out loud to the non-readers. Practicing math facts and memorization tasks could easily be led by a upper grade student and functioned as a reinforcing activity.

If the Lord led you to homeschool, please don’t let exhaustion or unfamiliarity sway you from His path when your homeschool schedule falls apart. When your previously tidy home has books and science kits strewn in every room, when you sacrifice your personal care time and budget for a field trip or books, when your schedule is maxed and your little person is struggling to read their assignments, when you feel you just can’t take one more thing, consider waiting, trusting and obedience. Wait with patience and faith trusting that God designed you to be your child’s teacher and the product of your effort will be good but not perfect. But, good is plenty. And obey by denying self to do things sometimes you’d rather not do – like get up early to have quiet time with the Lord, to seek Him even when you think you have a great plan on your own.

Got a question about home schooling? Want to share a fabulous scheduling idea? Email me, please.