Once you’ve decided to homeschool your child, one of the first questions that come up, is how long should I teach my child every day. In other words, how long is a homeschool day?
When speaking to other homeschoolers, you will soon discover that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to the length of an average homeschool day.
There are general suggestions related to the grade a child is in, but in reality, it will take you a while to figure out how long your child should attend homeschool every day. It certainly doesn’t look the same for every homeschooling family.
If you also work from home, as many working mothers do these days, working out how long and when you teach your child, becomes even more challenging.
Factors to take into consideration
Stay within the law
The first consideration to influence your decision on how many days per year and hours per day to teach your child is the legal requirements of the state you live in.
You must be compliant with the law. The National Center for Education Statistics has provided a handy resource that you can consult to verify your state’s requirements.
You will notice that some states don’t specify a specific number of hours that kids must receive instruction.
1. Determine your child’s natural inclination
We are all different and we all have a different level of interest in learning. If your child is academically talented, he/she will need a shorter time to master the school work.
On the other hand, a child that is not academically-minded might not be motivated to learn and needs a different approach. This type of child will require more help from you and a range of incentives to study and complete assignments.
These factors will influence your decision on how many hours to homeschool each day.
2. Determine your child’s learning style
If you want to homeschool your child effectively, you have to determine your child’s learning style. Most children have a natural inclination toward one of four main learning styles.
When learning materials are offered to us in our learning style, we engage with it more meaningfully and retain new information better.
Most people don’t fit 100 per cent into one style, but will prefer one style most of the time.
There are four main learning styles: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and reading/writing.
1. Visual learners
A visual learner learns about things by seeing and observing things like pictures, videos, diagrams, and text. These children understand information best when it’s presented in a visual form. You will recognize this type of learner through behaviors like doodling, notetaking, and the love of drawing pictures.
If your child is a visual learner, you might want to present your child with handouts and presentations. Keep in mind that your visual learner may also need more time to process the learning material, so keep this in mind when you plan the length of your lessons.
2. Auditory learners
Auditory learners are happy to sit and listen to you presenting information to them. These learners don’t like to read text, they’d rather listen to the information being presented to them.
Therein also lies the secret of helping them to retain information. Auditory learners learn by using their voices to repeat information. These students love spelling words out loud and like to repeat concepts that they are learning. They enjoy speaking up in class.
You might find that this type of learner verbally repeat new information they have heard. At the same time, this type of learner might be slower at reading text.
Because these learners like to talk, a lot of time might be wasted in class, you need to be aware of this. This group enjoys videos and music – allow time for these learning activities in your planning if your child falls in this group.
3. Kinesthetic learners
Kinesthetic learners learn best through movement and activity. They are the children in your class who learn through doing rather than reading or listening. They are often practical and can excel at sports, dance, and drama.
If your child is a kinesthetic learner, he will find it difficult to sit still and concentrate for extended times. This type of learner needs frequent breaks, so you might need to allocate a longer time for academic subjects.
This kind of student learns literature by acting out the story or jumping while spelling words. Even walking up to a whiteboard and writing on it is helpful for these children.
4. Reading/writing learners
Reading/writing learners love written words. This group is fascinated with writing and reading. They enjoy learning to write and start reading on their own without your encouragement.
They read anything, from labels on food packages to shop signs. They’re always looking for a pencil and paper to draw or write. These are the children who will look up new words in the dictionary and will keep a diary. They love searching the internet for anything they want to know about.
When thinking about time allocation for lessons, keep in mind that these children need plenty of time to absorb information through text. Also, allow time for them to express themselves in writing.
Related posts:
3. Determine your goals for your child
This is a basic consideration when you plan your homeschooling day, week, and year.
What is your goal?
Is it important for you to give your child a rigorous academic education with the aim that your child will eventually go to university or college? Or do you simply want them to work through your chosen curriculum and enjoy the learning experience?
If you have high academic expectations for your child, you might consider a slightly longer school day.
How long you will homeschool and whether your child will be returning to traditional school at some point will also affect how you approach your homeschooling schedule.
Family dynamics
Your family dynamics are another factor to take into consideration when you decide the hours you will spend on homeschooling. The interaction between various members of the family is at the core of complicated family dynamics
In many families, family members don’t get along. It’s just a simple fact of life and you need to take that into consideration if you have a child that you don’t have an easy rapport. Also, ongoing sibling rivalry can turn a lesson into a half-hour from hell.
If you are teaching children that don’t get along, try to separate them, and have some ground rules. Don’t get involved in every squabble and when matters get too serious, first calm everyone down before you listen to their side of the story.
Whatever you do, don’t take sides. Get the children to come up with a solution themselves. If they can’t, suggest a few and let them choose one. Hopefully, they’ll learn that this will happen every time they have a disagreement.
How many hours should I homeschool according to grade?
Although children spend six to eight hours at school, you don’t have to feel obliged to do the same at home. After all, those six to eight hours at school are not taken up by academic instruction.
Think back to your school days and you’ll realize that a lot of time went to settling everyone down, taking out books and stationery, disruptions, reprimanding, taking in books, collecting homework, etc.
The actual teaching time is probably about ten minutes out of a total class time of thirty minutes.
In general, it is recommended that homeschoolers in elementary spend one or two hours a day at homeschooling; those in middle school two to three hours a day and high school three to four hours a day.
Specifically, the recommendations are as follows for each grade.
Kindergarten
The lessons should add up to 30 – 40 minutes each day, with each lesson broken up into chunks of no longer than 10 minutes as children this young have a super short attention span.
1st grade
For this group, you can allow plus minus an hour of formal studies are OK. This age group has an attention span of about 5 – 10 minutes.
2-3rd grade
These students can handle about 2 hours of lessons. Their attention span is 10 – 15 minutes.
4-5th grade
You can plan for up to 3 hours of classes per day.
6-7th grade
You can spend 3- 4 hours teaching this group. They can concentrate longer and need to get ready for the more challenging workload of the higher grades.
How many days per week should you homeschool?
Depending on your state’s requirements, it’s up to you to arrange your school week to best suit you and your students.
Some homeschoolers finish all their classes in the morning and do other activities in the afternoons.
I know of parents who work full-time and fit teaching early in the morning, and early evenings with some teaching over the weekends as well.
Other homeschoolers have four days of school and three days off. That is a schedule that most people can keep for an extended time. For a good example check out this 1st Grade Homeschool Schedule post.
Remember to take your child’s age and grade level into consideration when planning your school week.
Four days on, three days off schedule may be ideal for young children in kindergarten rather than a 5-day week while students in high school might not get enough work done during a 4-day school week.
At the end of the day remember to do what really works for you and your child.