So often, new homeschoolers will try to create a schedule that is very similar to the traditional public school system that they are used to. They decide that learning must happen Monday through Friday and even try to create schedules such as 8 AM mathematics and 9 AM science and so on.
However, learning can happen all seven days a week, or perhaps it will formally happen on only three days of the week. Understand that homeschoolers tend to find learning opportunities everywhere they go, so it is difficult to say if they ever take a day off completely. You have been warned! Learning becomes a part of life, as well it should be.
Learning can also happen at any time of day or night that makes sense for the student and family. Some people are naturally night owls whereas others are early birds. We know human development shows a pattern in that people will change their sleeping habits according to their needs. Teenagers will often stay up late and sleep in, with 10 PM sleep time and 10 AM wake time not being abnormal.
When scheduling learning activities, it’s important to know that one does not have to do the same type of learning at the same time everyday. However, some students will find that they can do certain types of tasks more easily at certain times of day versus others, so they could schedule according to that. This is another reason why ongoing communication is so important; sometimes it takes trying things different ways at different times to know what is going to work, and having these conversations can help your child become more self-aware of this, and help you guide them in adjusting as needed.
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The above is an excerpt from the Homeschool Quickstart class, available as stand-alone or as part of the Parent Empowerment Project.