Now that you’ve decided to start homeschooling, you will find that one of the most difficult things about homeschooling is sticking to a schedule. I’ve found that the first thing to do when learning how to start homeschooling is to establish a consistent routine enables you and your children to more easily stick to a schedule.
Establishing a Routine
“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.” This quote from W.H. Auden hit home to me while reading a book titled Tools of the Titans. A routine is a sequence of regular events or a fixed program. If your struggle is how to start homeschooling at an early enough hour, you can try a daily routine. Maybe it looks something like this:
7:30 am – Rise & Shine
7:45 am – Breakfast
8:00 am – Get ready for the day
8:30 am – Start homeschool curriculum (see schedule below)
1:00 pm – Chores
1:30 pm – Free Time
If there is a regular sequence of events that take place each day, you will find that sticking to a homeschool schedule will then fall into place.
Establishing a Homeschool Schedule
A schedule is a written timetable allotting a certain amount of time for an event. When determining how to homeschool your children, consider what type of schedule is best for your family. Do you want a traditional public school day approach where you teach 5-6 subjects daily? Or would you prefer a 3 subject per day approach allowing you to dive deeper into each subject? Is scheduling a weekly field trip or co-op day the option for your family? Whatever you decide, write it down in a simple and clear way. It may look something like this:
8:30 am – Math
9:15 am – Reading/Language/English
10:00 am – Break
10:15 am – Science
11:00 am – History
11:45 am – Art
12:30 pm – Lunch
Keep in mind, this is simply an example. Tailor your daily and weekly homeschool schedule to meet the needs of your individual family.
How to Start Homeschooling in Style
If you are just starting your homeschooling journey, you’ve probably noticed there are multiple styles of how to homeschool. You may gravitate towards a classic approach or find that unschooling is the right move for your child. You can read more about different ways of how to homeschool on my website, here. Whichever style you choose, find the routine and schedule that will be easy for you to follow on a weekly and yearly basis.