How Does Homeschooling Work? Homeschool in only 15 hours a week!

Are you worried you don’t have enough time to homeshool? Or are you a homeschooling family and you feel like all you do is homeschool and are looking for a new homeschool schedule? I find many parents wonder how many hours a day do you homeschool. Although there are variety of contributing factors such as a child’s grade, whether you are including extra curricular, and your state requirements, let me give you a glimpse at our homeschool day. Here is how we homeschool in only 15 hours a week!

How Does Homeschooling Work

First of all I want to preface this by saying no two homeschooling families are alike. We have different teaching styles, different learning styles, different likes/dislikes, and home schedules. Answering how many hours a day do you homeschool has many answers depending on state requirements, students grade, how quick your children grasp a new concept, and your relationship with your kids.

This post was written when all my kids were in elementary school. Now that my oldest is in high school, things have changed for him (and me), but my other 5 kiddos are still done with their core work by lunch. Again, this is meant to help you streamline your homeschool by getting an idea of what works really well for us so you can tailor it to fit your specific family. I encourage you to tweak this to fit your individual family.

Many parents wonder if they are doing enough when it comes to their homeschools. Like us, you may find you can homeschool 3 days a week, homeschool in 4 days a week, or homeschool in just 4 hours a day. Which probably leaves you worried – what am I missing! The public schools take a full 8 hour day. I MUST be missing something!

Homeschooling and Classroom learning are VERY different! Classroom teachers have to get groups of kids to line up, open their book, be quiet, wait for one another, talk about appropriate classroom behavior, have scheduled bathroom breaks, etc. That all takes time — more time than you realize! With your own child or children you can go at their pace and not dawdle on a concept they grasp (or slow down and keep exploring a concept until they understand it).

On average, most will say how long homeschooling takes every day:

• K-3rd grade – takes less than 2 hours a day
• 4th – 6th grade – takes 3-4 hours a day
• 7th-9th grade takes 4-5 hours a day
• 10th – 12th grade – takes about 7 hours a day

Teaching the Essentials

I consider the following to be essential in any good education (public, private, or home educated)

• Math
• Practice math facts for fluency
• Grammar
• Spelling
• Handwriting
• Writing / Composition
• Vocabulary
• Reading
• Reading Comprehension / Reports
• Bible (plus daily devotions and scripture memorization)
• Music (music education, learning about famous composers, piano)
• Art (instruction, time to create, and learning about famous artists)
• Social Studies (communities, government, US history, world history, and geography)
• Science (biology, zoology, chemistry, inventors, lots of hands on experiments, etc.)

You can see our homeschool curriculum choices here.

We also add to our schedule fieldtrips, playdates for “socialization” and exercise (gymnastics, sports teams, swimming, etc.)

You MUST teach kids to be independent learners

The goal of every parent is to teach and equip kids to be healthy, well-balanced, happy, productive, self sufficient adults. A good homeschooling parent will home educate with that in mind!

You will need to sit next to your kindergarten and first grade as they are learning for form letters and numbers, read words, and understand math principles. But as they master the basics (in 2nd or 3rd grade) you need to encourage them to be self motivated learners.

• teach teach the concept (usually in a 1/2 page instruction)
• try it together (to ensure they “get it”)
• allow them to complete the rest of the assignment on their own
• check back to help and correct their work as needed

Relationships Matter

I wrote about Homeschooling Parent / Child Relationships here are more length, but basically if you don’t have a great relationship it will make everything, from making their bed, clearing their dishes after dinner to homeschooling. more difficult.

If you feel like you are pulling teeth to get things done or that they aren’t listening to you I suggest you take take a peek at this article for some helpful suggestions.