5 Steps to Successfully Create a Homeschool Daily Schedule

‘Help! How do I create a homeschool daily schedule for my kids?’ Does this question sound familiar? To be honest, its something that I struggled with for a LONG time. I always thought that my schedule has to look EXACTLY like Mary’s schedule for it to be perfect.

Or if I could see someone else’s preschool homeschool schedule, I am sure  I could create my own. For me, both scenarios ended in a train wreck. Thankfully after much trial and error, I now have two models and I alternate between them. Today I am going to help you avoid the heartache of creating a daily homeschool schedule.

 

 Creating your HOmeschool daily schedule

Step 1: Plan Your Time for Your Homeschool Daily Schedule

How long do you want your homeschool to last for each day?

If you are also a busy mom (who isn’t?), how much time can you sacrifice?

What days will you homeschool?

How long can your children (in my case a preschooler) sit still before they become restless?

These are four questions you have to be brutally honest about. If you are not honest, both you and your homeschool will suffer. In our case, we chose a two hour session from Tuesday to Friday. My daughter can sit still for a maximum of 20 minutes so I try to keep that in mind.

STEP 2: What Do You Want Your Children To Learn?

There are a few approaches to this and I will address two of them. You can either choose your subjects and follow a syllabus (e.g. Math and focus on the addition) or you can do a unit study.

A unit study is simply a fancy way of saying a themed study. My daughter J still loves dinosaurs and so I try to weave dinosaurs in the skills I want her to learn. As a result of this I created a Dinosaur Preschool Printable Pack and offered it for free to everyone who would like to use it.

Another thing that needs to be considered is when you will be teaching a particular subject. Will Math be taught everyday or will it be every other day? Will Science be once a week? How often will you teach Handwriting or any other subject?

STEP 3: How Long Will Each Lesson Last?

The key to this step of creating your homeschool daily schedule is to not have the lessons last too long o too short. You want the lesson to end on a high note. For us, each lesson lasts 15 minutes. Decide how long each lesson will last.

STEP 4: Adding breaks to your homeschool daily schedule

Will there be breaks? Account for bathroom breaks, snacks or simply time to move around in between lessons.

Also don’t forget to add a few minutes in between each subject so that your kids can transition throughout the day.

STEP 5: Putting your homeschool daily schedule All Together

Congrats! You have made it to STEP 5. It is now time to put all the pieces of your homeschool daily schedule puzzle together. You have:

1. Chosen your days for school
2. Figured out your time for school
3. Chosen your subjects
4. Assigned a time slot for each lesson
5. Decided what day to teach your lesson
6. Accounted for breaks

Also, check out the FREE Guided Homeschool Calendar! Its designed to guide you step by step to plan out your homeschool calendar!

Other Things to Consider

Once you have created your daily homeschool schedule, you may choose to use a planner. There are so many options available from paper and pencil to digital. Whatever you decide, simply ensure that it suits your family and your personality.

Below you will find a few planners that are popular among homeschoolers. Please note that affiliate links are used below for your convenience.

 Blue Sky 2020-2021 Academic Year Weekly & Monthly Planner, Flexible Cover, Twin-Wire Binding, 5 Teacher Created Resources Home Sweet Classroom Lesson Planner (TCR8294) The A+ Homeschool Planner: Plan, Record, and Celebrate Each Child’s Progress Lesson Planner: Weekly and Monthly Calendar Agenda with Inspirational Quotes | Academic Year August – July | Chaos Coordinator – Teal Floral Cover (2020-2021) Plan Your Year: Homeschool Planning for Purpose and Peace Blue Sky 2020-2021 Academic Year Teachers Weekly & Monthly Lesson Planner, CYO Cover, 8.5 Erin Condren 12 – Month 2020-2021 Wild Flower Teacher Lesson Planner (September 2020-August 2021) – Oh So Retro Interior Design, 210 Pages of Planning Potential

 

Want more information on homeschooling your kids? Check out HOW TO START HOMESCHOOLING YOUR KIDS!

What does your schedule look like? Let me know in the comments.