As a homeschooler, you have the freedom to create your own homeschool schedule. You and your family get to decide what you’ll do and how you’ll get it done. Whether your schedule ends up super structured, very loose, or somewhere in-between, finding your groove is well worth the effort.
It took me a year or two to figure out what ultimately worked for us. Since then, we’ve stuck with the same format for about twelve years. It’s simple, very straightforward, and serves several purposes.
Your Schedule Should Reflect Your Overall Goals
As an example, I designed my homeschool schedule to:
- Set clear expectations
- Accommodate quicker or slower learning in each subject area
- Give my children some independence
- Serve as a rough documentation of progress
There are many homeschool student schedules and planners available for download or purchase. All I use is a google doc with a table on it. The table has the days of the week across the top and the subjects listed on the left side. Every week I print up a new blank schedule and pencil in assignments, field trips, sports, etc. Although you could type in all the activities, I find pencil much easier. I’m able to add or erase and make changes as needed.
Expectations
By filling this out, I’m setting clear expectations for each day. The “Extras/Notes” at the top include any sports or outside the home commitments. Many of these are typed in as they don’t change from week to week.
I also have a block at the bottom labeled “Other”. Notes in this section can range from a special project or field trip to reminders to e-mail someone or to feed the neighbor’s cats. My kids are encouraged to add in things that they need to remember to do as well.
On the far right of the schedule is room for any ideas we want to include on next week’s schedule. Things we don’t have time to get to this week and don’t want to forget.
Accommodations
I don’t fill in a whole week at a time. I’ll fill in all of Monday and parts of the other days. Then I update it as we go along, depending on whether we need more time on an assignment or can move more quickly to the next.
I do get input from my kids. We might decide to go with a different writing assignment because we stumbled across something super interesting in history. Or, I just might erase a whole day if we decide to do a spontaneous field trip. (As a homeschooler, you can do that!)
Independence in Learning
I don’t mark in any starting or ending times for each subject. I think that letting students establish their own learning routine is important. It sets them on the path toward independent learning. By independent learning, I don’t mean that they’re learning without any help. Instead, they’re taking ownership and responsibility for getting their work done. They’re learning how to manage their time and ask for help when needed.
Some kids like to get the hardest stuff done first. Others want to ease into things. When you homeschool, you can allow them to work through things in the way that feels best to them. My experience is that this approach doesn’t limit their ability to succeed in scenarios where they have less control over their schedules such as sports, part-time jobs, and college course work. In fact, it seems to help them objectively look at what’s required and then successfully complete it.
There are some constraints on my family’s homeschool schedule. They have had to wait for me to finish with their sibling before I can help them. Or they’ve had to work with me on a subject sooner rather than later for that same reason.
If you know who’s going to need help with what subject and juggle that around, each student can get one on one time with you. That also holds true if there’s a computer or other resources that need to be shared.
Documentation of Progress
One of the best things about these schedules is that they easily allow me to look back and see what we’ve covered over the course of the year. They’re invaluable when I go to write my year-end student evaluations. And it’s fun to see all we’ve accomplished.
I think it’s important that you play around with your homeschool student schedules. Maybe you’ll come up with something more structured than what I have. Or you’ll come up with something much looser. Choose what works for you. Make it resonate with your homeschool philosophy. Make it easily do-able. Then be flexible and adjust it as both you and your students grow and change.
Enjoy your journey!
This post was originally published in July, 2020. Post has been edited and updated.