Our Winter Homeschool Schedule
Our homeschool schedule tends to change with the seasons. Not only does having a flexible homeschool schedule fit our lifestyle it also keeps things fresh and keeps the kids engaged.
I love that our homeschool schedule allows us to work for about two hours a day four days per week. (Keep in mind that I have three children, so if you have more it will likely take more time to homeschool your kiddos.) Keeping our structured homeschooling time to just two hours per day allows me to have time to work from home and gives us time for unschooling as the boys’ interests lead us.
Read on to find out all about our winter homeschool schedule and how we fit extracurriculars and working from home into the mix.
Read about our last fall homeschool schedule and how I balanced working full time and homeschooling. (Here’s a quick day-in-the-life of working full time and homeschooling, as well.)
Our Daily Homeschool Schedule – Winter 2017 Edition
Homeschooling this winter is all about efficiency for our family. My oldest son (15) joined a state-wide soccer program that is much more time consuming than his travel soccer club experience.
He practices an hour from home on Tuesday and 2.5 hours from home on Thursday. I’m carpooling with a couple of other parents, but we’ll spend most weekends traveling and I’m lessening schoolwork demands on my oldest to ensure that he gets enough rest this winter and spring.
Here’s what our modified winter homeschool schedule looks like:
9:00 AM – My 11- and 13-year-olds begin their daily math operations. (One addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problem each day (with varying levels of difficulty) to stay in practice.)
In the fall, we did math one day and language arts one day, but we’re focusing solely on math this winter. We’ll reincorporate language arts in the spring.
My 11-year-old is usually up early and always gets started right away on his math. If he’s done with math early we move on to piano and reading, instead of making him wait to do his piano lesson/practice until the end of the school day or do his reading at a set reading time.
I find that younger children tend to need more one-on-one time for homeschooling than older children who are more self-directed and better at comprehension. I use the first twenty minutes of the homeschool day to focus on my youngest if he needs more individual instruction that day.
9:20 AM – I wake my 15-year-old.
I help anyone who needs extra math help.
(You’re probably wondering when my kids eat breakfast. They don’t eat breakfast everyday. We believe in letting them decide if they are hungry. It teaches them to listen to their bodies, which is important for good long-term health.
If they want breakfast they usually eat while we’re watching the day’s educational videos.)
9:30 AM – Science lessons. (We use Crash Course, Khan Academy, and CK-12 and then unschool science outside of that.)
We’re focusing solely on science this winter. We finished our last history book in the fall and won’t start the next one until spring. That means we do science every day instead of history one day and science the next like we did in the fall.
10:00 AM – I supervise piano with my 13-year-old. My 15-year-old works on math.
My youngest is usually done with school by this time because he gets up earlier than his brothers.
We have a snack if anyone needs one.
The boys and I decided that a P.E/recess break was unnecessary on winter mornings since they play outside when it warms up in the afternoon. They preferred to power ahead and get done with school sooner instead of taking a break halfway through.
10:30 AM – I send my 13-year-old off to read for 20 minutes. I work with my oldest on new math concepts (different from what his brothers are learning). He’s pretty self-directed at this point, so he doesn’t always need my help or instruction.
He practices piano after we’re done with math. I don’t give us a set amount of time to finish math. We just take as much time as he needs. It’s usually between 15-30 minutes.
When we’re done with math and piano, I send him off to read for 20 minutes.
And we’re done!
What’s Missing From Our Winter Homeschool Schedule
As you can see our winter homeschool schedule doesn’t cover all subjects. I tend to have a bent toward unschooling versus school-at-home after experimenting with different homeschooling styles for nearly a decade.
I know we have plenty of time to cover all possible subjects several times and learn more about the kids’ individual interests. There is simply no need to get to every single subject every single season. That style of homeschooling has no place in our simple and flexible homeschooling style.
(You can read more about homeschool styles and decide which homeschool style is best for your family.)
After we get used to our new soccer schedule for winter we’ll add back in journaling, character education, critical thinking/philosophy, Spanish, history and language arts.
We’re keeping things as light as possible for now. This is exactly why we homeschool and why we homeschool year around, four days a week.
We don’t have to spend hours and hours each day covering all of the subjects. I love the freedom of homeschooling and feel so blessed to have such balance.
How I Work From Home and Homeschool
Now that I’ve left my full-time corporate job to return to my life as a work-at-home mom, I’m often asked how I find time to work from home and homeschool.
I’ll tell you – it’s way less stressful than working full-time outside of the home and homeschooling, but it’s harder to keep the different areas of my life from infringing on each other. As a result, I work seven days a week. I’m not complaining, though. Just stating the facts. I love my work and worked hard to be able to work from home.
Here are the most typical times I work from home on a weekday:
6:00 AM – 8:30 or 9:00 AM
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
12:30 PM – 3:00 PM
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
It takes self-discipline, of course. It also takes flexibility and grace for myself when I don’t meet my goals.
Check out our Spring Homeschool Schedule!