Your Homeschooling Schedule: Creating The Perfect Schedule
One of the best things about choosing to homeschool is that you get to create a schedule that works best for you and your children. However, if you are just starting your homeschool journey, creating the perfect homeschooling schedule can feel overwhelming!
Jump ahead to learn more about each of our tips to help you get started:
To learn more about each of these points, continue reading below. Or, if you have any questions about how to start your own homeschooling journey or where to find quality resources, contact the experts at EZ-Teach today.
Creating Your Perfect Homeschooling Schedule
1. Your Daily Homeschooling Schedule
Let’s start by getting one thing out of the way: there is no “one size fits all” homeschooling schedule because every homeschooling family is different! You and your child or children will have unique needs and a unique family rhythm that is already established.
While there is no one right way to homeschool or one perfect schedule for everyone, creating and sticking to a schedule and routine is definitely something homeschooling families will want to strive for. Research shows that routine and predictability are good for kids and their development.
While homeschooling offers amazing opportunities for flexibility that traditional schooling does not, most homeschooling parents do want to integrate a daily routine, as this makes it easier for both parent educators and children in their day-to-day lives.
Children thrive on routine and predictability
Understanding the importance of routine is one thing, but actually creating and sticking to a schedule is another! Here are some tips that will help you create a daily schedule that makes sense for you and your family.
Consider wake-up time: The start of your day is important, as it sets the tone for the rest of the day! Ensure you choose a start of day that works well for your family - not too late and not too early.
Try creating a routine rather than a strict schedule: Schedules can be hard to follow, and fellow homeschooling parents agree that it’s best to try to create a routine to follow rather than a strict schedule. You don’t want to constantly feel like you’ve “failed” if you go over time on an activity or decide to do something different one day.
Leave space in between activities/tasks: Remember transition times! Don’t bounce from one lesson or activity to the next without any breathing room. This is important for kids of all ages, but especially for younger ones who may need more time to transition from one task to another.
Consider outdoor time, lunch and snacks, and other natural pauses in the day: Ensure you plan around your typical meal times and ensure there is enough time to make food and eat it if you are cooking together.
Write out your daily plans: It’s a lot easier to remember your plan for the day if you have written it down somewhere. Consider using a large planner and hanging it on the wall where your children can see so that they know what to expect for the day and week ahead.
This list is by no means exhaustive, as creating the perfect daily schedule will take some thought, effort, and planning. However, with these tips in mind, you should be able to create a plan that works best for you - and remember, being flexible is great too!
When something unexpected comes up, it’s best to try to embrace it rather than fight it. It could end up being a fun adventure or perfect learning experience.
2. Your Weekly Homeschooling Schedule
Once you have created and solidified your daily homeschooling schedule, it will be a lot easier to create your weekly plan. Your week will essentially comprise of the daily schedule combined, but there are some unique considerations you should take when planning for a whole week rather than just one day.
Consider activities you would like to happen regularly but not every day
Here are some tips to help as you create your weekly homeschool schedule:
Consider subjects: While you don’t need to fit in teaching every subject every single day, you should ensure that the necessary subjects (Math, English, etc.) are taught regularly every week. Writing out your weekly schedule can ensure you have included each subject enough times throughout the week.
Plan for extracurriculars: It’s likely you won’t have extracurricular activities happening every day, but looking at your week at a glance can help you better plan for extracurriculars that occur during the school day.
Consider social opportunities/co-op schedule: If you are involved in a co-op or other homeschooling groups, ensure that this is properly scheduled into your week and that you know what activities/lessons are scheduled for those days or chunks of time.
Think about meal planning: Many homeschooling parents opt to do some sort of meal prepping to get ready for the week ahead. If that’s something you’re interested in, use your weekly schedule to plan for meals as well so that you stay organized and on budget!
As you think about your weekly schedule, it’s a good opportunity to plan for activities you would like to have regularly but don’t want to do every day, such as an extended outdoor activity (hike, farm visit, etc.).
3. Your Monthly Schedule
A monthly schedule will allow you to look at your long term lesson plans, activities, and educational themes. Monthly schedules combine your daily and weekly schedule while allowing you to keep track of activities that only happen every once in a while, such as field trips.
Your monthly schedule will allow you to better organize activities like field trips
A monthly schedule will not really look at the nitty-gritty of each day or even week, but instead, it will allow you to look at each day in the month as a whole. For example, you may end up with something like this planned out on a calendar:
Monday, June 1st - Regular at-home schedule
Tuesday, June 2nd - Field trip to the zoo
Wednesday, June 3rd - Regular at-home schedule
Thursday, June 4th - Co-op morning; Regular at-home schedule afternoon
Friday, June 5th - Morning swim; Co-op afternoon
The biggest thing to note when making your monthly schedule is to really keep it simple! Your daily and weekly schedules should be where all the details are kept.
Putting too much info in your monthly schedule may end up making it feel and look overcrowded and complicated - which will probably in turn make you want to just ignore it!
4. Sample Daily Homeschool Schedules
Now that you’ve read some tips about creating your own homeschool plan and schedule, see below for a few sample schedules that can help you visualize what your own may look like.
Sample Daily Schedule #1
This sample daily schedule integrates a lot of outdoor time and ensures that there is time for snacks and an end-of-day wrap up to help your child transition back to a non-school version of your home!
While it doesn’t explicitly say in this schedule, there is transition time between activities. If it would help you remember, consider writing that out in the schedule.
For example, instead of 8:30 for English Lesson, you could write 8:30 - 9:30 AM. That will help you remember to leave 15 minutes to transition to the next activity.
Sample Daily Schedule #2
Some homeschooling parents prefer to map out their entire day - not just the school day.
This can help you keep track of your entire daily routine and ensure things like wake-up, bedtime, and family dinner all happen around the same time of day so you can keep a strict routine.
The type of schedule you prefer totally depends on you! Whether you want to keep track of of it all, or just the school day is up to you and your personal preferences. It can also depend on how strict of a schedule you want to keep.
5. Your Free Homeschool Planner
Learn more about EZ-Teach’s free homeschool planner here
At EZ-Teach, we understand the importance of planning and routine, especially when it comes to homeschooling. Homeschooling parents may feel overwhelmed and stressed out when trying to create daily, weekly, or monthly schedules - and we don’t want that for you!
Keeping a schedule can ensure you feel confident as your start and continue your homeschool journey. It can also help you better plan for fun and enriching activities and experiences for your children.
That’s why we’ve created a free homeschool planner for you to download, print, or simply use on your computer. Our planner contains everything you need, including:
Daily planning schedules
Weekly planning schedules
Your week at a glance
Daily logs and daily activity planners
Weekly learning goals
Quote of the year
Reading list
Menu plan
Yearly field trip plan
Our planner helps you keep track of everything that a homeschooling parent needs, from a simple daily schedule to meal planning, field trips, and more.
EZ-Teach Helps You Get The Best Online Homeschool Curriculums & Resources
At EZ-Teach, we’re committed to enriching education and helping you choose the very best homeschool curriculum for your needs and your child’s needs. We offer unique resources that help connect parents to teachers with great curriculum, connect students to amazing teachers, and help homeschool parents get the support that they need. To learn more, contact us now!
