How We Structure Our Three Day Homeschool Week

August 16, 2018 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

We’ve always been rather creative in the ways we homeschool. While the idea of schooling at home might conjure up images of hitting the books from 8 to 2 Monday through Friday, we’ve never done it that way. Frankly, that doesn’t work for most homeschoolers.

Instead, we structure our lessons to get done in a three day homeschool week, even though the program we use is designed to be covered in four days a week.

Shocker, right?

But it actually works for us and has worked well for a few years now.

Read on to see how we use a three day homeschool week in our family!

Note: We’re adapting BookShark with our youngest child to be a three-day-a-week program, but you could really make this work with any curriculum – as long as you’re willing to adjust a few things along the way.

Need to get more ideas for organizing your lesson plans? See how we use a homeschool binder to keep our objectives front and center during the year!

Disclosure: I am a brand ambassador for BookShark and am receiving free curriculum as part of my role. For details, see my Disclosure Policy.

Why You Might Need A Three Day Homeschool Week

Images c/o: Wavebreakmedia / depositphotos

How can using a three day homeschool week help you? If you think that you can’t homeschool because you’re too busy, compressing your school week can give you some much needed time in your schedule.

Personally, I’m a homeschooling parent who also works secularly. So I need to get our school lessons done for the week in about half of a normal workweek.

Generally, we complete our school lessons during those three days and then I use a couple of evenings and the other two full days of the week to work. That way, I can relax with the family on the weekends, instead of being chained to my computer trying to catch up.

Even if you don’t work, though, using a three day homeschool week can be a good thing. It will leave you with two extra days a week for chores, errands, appointments, or field trips.

How We Structure Our Three Day Homeschool Week with BookShark

If you take a look at our BookShark homeschool binder, you can see that each day’s lesson is completely planned in advance. This is a HUGE timesaver when it’s time to cover the material. Since we do a three day homeschool week, though, I have to make a few tweaks.

First, I put all of the week’s activities for ELA, history, and science together to see exactly what we should be covering. Then I count how many pages we need to read, experiments we need to complete, and worksheets we are expected to finish.

Finally, I just divide all of those activities by three to see how much we should do each day. Pretty simple!

BookShark is designed as a 36-week curriculum, so if you complete four days a week of the program, you should finish your child’s coursework within 36 weeks.

In our family, though, we homeschool year round. So I have a lot of wiggle room on the schedule. This means I can take out a day and make it up during our longer year without falling behind.

It’s working like a dream so far!

Need more homeschool planning ideas? Don’t miss these posts!

See even more ways to organize your homeschool year on my Homeschool Planning Pinterest board!

How to Afford Homeschooling eBook Download

Our Minimalist Homeschool Schedule

September 18, 2017 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

We’ve been homeschooling for nine years now. And, since I’m a planning junkie, I have tried literally scores of different homeschool schedules. In a way that’s been a good thing. Since we’re teaching kids with ADHD at home, being flexible has been one of the keys to our homeschool success.

But all kids, and kids with ADHD especially, need consistency. And one thing I have not been consistent in is our daily homeschool schedule. Know why? I was trying to cram way too much in every day. No human on Earth can possibly maintain the type-A kind of schedule I was attempting to follow every day.

Now that we’re practicing a minimalist style of homeschooling, I’m using a far more streamlined schedule and it is working wonders. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by lesson planning, get a look at our minimalist homeschool schedule! It’s a really simple way to get started.

Image c/o: massonforstock / depositphotos

A Minimalist Homeschool Schedule

Note: Our two oldest kids are using K12 at home this year, so this homeschool schedule is largely based on their live class times. Because they have live classes each day, those windows are excellent for working with my two younger children.

My third-grade son is working at a fourth-grade level in most subjects and at a third-grade level in others and he has ADHD, so I tend to use short lesson times to keep his interest. My kindergartner has her lessons as the same times, though with different materials.

As you’ll see, we cover math and ELA every day. The rest of the subjects are done weekly. I schedule time in the afternoon for independent work so that they can practice what they learned in the morning. Friday is largely a review day, with time for elective subjects based on what they’re interested in that week.

Without further ado – here’s our minimalist homeschool schedule:

Monday:

9:00 – Math

9:30 – ELA

10:00 – Health

1:30 – Independent work

Tuesday:

9:00 – Math

9:30 – ELA

10:00 – Geography

1:30 – Independent work

Wednesday:

9:00 – Math

9:30 – ELA

10:00 – Science

1:30 – Independent work

Thursday:

9:00 – Math

9:30 – ELA

10:00 – Art

1:30 – Independent work

Friday:

9:00 – Math review

9:30 – ELA review

10:00 – Elective (Foreign language, music, coding)

And that’s it! It truly is a minimalist homeschool schedule, because we’re focusing on the most essential subjects right now. My number one goal is to help my hyper son get into the routine of having his school lessons daily. Then we can branch out into longer sessions or even more advanced subjects.

What homeschool schedule are you using this year? What have you learned from prior years that’s helped you develop a consistent routine? Share your experiences in the comments!

Want to simplify your homeschool? Try these tips!

Get more ideas for planning your school year on my Homeschool Planning Pinterest board!

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This post is part of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop hosted by iHomeschool Network! Click over to read more homeschool schedule ideas from our fellow bloggers!

Our K12 Daily Schedule for Two Grades

September 14, 2017 by Selena Robinson 4 Comments

Our two oldest children are trying a brand new method of home education this year: K12. And adjusting to it has been…an interesting experience.

After years of relaxed homeschooling, shifting into a full school day based around live classes, offline assignments, and readings was a complete course change. We’ve have seriously bumpy days, days that were awesome, and plenty in between.

Now, though, we’ve developed a K12 daily schedule for two grades that has simplified our daily routine quite a bit – something we really needed since we’re still homeschooling our two youngest kids. If you’re considering K12 for your kids, take a look at our daily schedule to see what it could look like in your family!

Image c/o: seregam / depositphotos

Our K12 Daily Schedule for Two Grades

As you look at this schedule, keep in mind that this is the routine for our kids, who are in seventh and fourth grade. Younger children who use K12 tend to spend very little time in online classes and the vast majority doing offline work with their learning coaches (usually parents).

In upper elementary grades, though, kids start to spend more time with their online teachers. In fourth grade, the ratio is about 2 hours of online education to 3.5 hours of offline education per day.

My seventh-grader, though, spends about 3.5 hours of class time online and about 2 hours in offline assignments. These totals vary by day, but it averages out to about this much.

Now – for a look at each child’s daily schedule.

Our K12 Seventh Grade Schedule

Each K12 student has live classes called “Class Connects”. These daily sessions feature live instruction from a professional teacher and interaction with other students. My seventh-grader has Class Connects in four subjects: Math, ELA, Social Studies, and Science.

Here’s her weekly Class Connect schedule:

Monday: 8:30 a.m. – Social Studies; 10:00 a.m. – ELA; 11:30 – Science

Tuesday: 8:30 a.m. – Math; 10:00 a.m. – ELA; 11:30 – Social Studies

Wednesday: 8:30 a.m. – Math; 10:00 a.m. – Social Studies; 11:30 a.m. – Science

Thursday: 8:30 a.m. – Math; 10:00 a.m. – ELA; 11:30 a.m. – Science

Friday: 8:30 a.m. – Math

Since she finishes her classes at the same time Monday through Thursday, she stops at 12:30 to have lunch and then gets started on homework. We encourage her to take a look at her assignments for the week on Sunday evening, so she can plan out how much work to do each day. Getting behind is NOT fun.

The remaining subjects (Art, Health, and Phys. Ed.) are self-paced, so we work on those day by day. By the time she completes all of her assignments, homework, and studying for the next day, she’s usually done at 3:00 p.m.

There’s only one live class on Friday, so we spend most of the day catching up on anything that’s unfinished or studying for quizzes. We generally wrap up by noon on that day and have a long weekend.

Our K12 Fourth Grade Schedule

My fourth-grader is a completely different story. Since so much of his work is completed offline, I am still the primary educator, which takes a significant amount of time each day.

Here is his Class Connect weekly schedule:

Monday: 9:00 a.m. – Science

Tuesday: 9:00 a.m. – ELA; 10:15 a.m. – Math; 12:45 – Social Studies

Wednesday: 9:00 a.m. – ELA; 10:15 a.m. – Math

Thursday: 9:00 a.m. – ELA; 10:15 a.m. – Math

I spend about an hour on Sunday evenings looking at his schedule and his upcoming assignments. The lesson plans are already written for the subjects I need to teach, but I still have to read over them and make sure we have the necessary supplies in advance.

We get a monthly instructional calendar from his school, which outlines how much to do for each subject per day. All of the assignments are related to the live classes, so I tend to wait until after he’s had a live class on the topic before I start an assignment.

So, I often hold off on teaching Social Studies for the week until after he’s had his Social Studies class on Tuesday. That way, he’s already been introduced to the topic. Fridays are his days “off” from Class Connects, so I save most of our science experiments for that day when we’ll have plenty of time to complete them.

As with my seventh-grader, my fourth-grader’s art, health, and phys. ed. classes are also self-paced, so we do some of those day by day to keep up with the hour requirement.

I’ll be sharing my homeschool schedule for my younger kids next week, but here’s a hint: It’s largely situated around our K12 daily schedule.

Are any of you using K12 with your kids this year? How do you schedule your routine? Share your ideas and experiences in the comments!

Need more school scheduling tips?

And see plenty of tips and ideas for structuring your homeschool year on my Homeschool Planning Pinterest board!

This post is part of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop hosted by iHomeschool Network! Click over to read more homeschool schedules you can use from our fellow bloggers!

P.S. Get regular tips, support, and ideas for teaching kids at home in my email newsletter! You can sign up using the widget below. 😉

How to Create a Flexible Homeschool Schedule

August 29, 2017 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

I’ve been known to overschedule my homeschool lesson plans just a tad.

Okay, maybe more than a tad. More like a WHOLE LOT.

Like so many homeschooling parents, I start the planning season with a huge amount of enthusiasm and excitement. We’ll study all the great civilizations of history! We’ll read every classic children’s book ever written! We’ll visit every museum in the United States!

Naturally, I’m running on fumes by October. By January, our homeschool year is practically dead in the water.

I was diligent about homeschool scheduling, but I was totally unreasonable in my method. When a child would need extra time to master a concept or to finish an assignment, everything I’d planned for that week or month would get pushed back. Eventually, we’d be so far behind we’d never catch up.

Last year, though, I learned a new way of lesson planning that was far more suited to our busy family life. Here are the three tips I’ve used to learn how to create a flexible homeschool schedule!

Disclosure: I was compensated for my time to write this post. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positively-slanted article.

Image c/o: Dragonimages / depositphotos

How to Create a Flexible Homeschool Schedule

Plan according to resources, not weeks of the year.

How many times have you scheduled a week’s worth of lessons for a specific week of the year? For example, you might choose the third week of September to learn about fall or the second week of April to study the Titanic. These themed schedule ideas are great for getting kids excited about events.

But if you overdo the exact scheduling, you can wear yourself out. You’ll find yourself saying things like:

“We NEED to finish this entire math unit by Friday!”

Or “If we don’t get this read-aloud done today, we’ll have to double up on Monday!”

There’s nothing like a time crunch to get kids to hate school.

Instead of obsessing over finishing lessons by a certain date, plan your lessons around your resources. If your Language Arts textbook has 20 units, then you can aim to complete half a unit a week if you want to finish the whole thing.

That’s a much more flexible way of structuring your lessons. You’ll have room to pause and stay on a topic a little longer or even suspend lessons for a week so you can go on vacation!

Set individual objectives for each child.

Another tip that helped me be more flexible in my lesson planning was to evaluate each child’s progress from the previous year and set individualized goals accordingly. My third-grader, for instance, is not a fan of reading for fun. He has ADHD, so his attention span is so short that it’s hard for him to exercise the patience it takes to read aloud.

This year, his reading objectives are totally different from those of his fourth-grade brother. He’ll be working with short story collections on topics that interest him. That way, we can work through stories that he’s interested in reading and practice lengthening out his attention span as we go.

And it doesn’t matter if it takes us all year to complete one book. As long as he says he enjoys reading, I’m calling it a success.

Shift difficult concepts into future terms or even future school years.

My seventh-grader really has a hard time enjoying her math lessons, so when she and I looked at the list of objectives for the upcoming year, we both nearly had a panic attack.

Instead, we’ve decided to focus on strengthening the skills she struggled with last year. She’s already familiar with them, so it won’t take as long. Plus, she can focus on other math concepts as she builds. Since math is a comprehensive subject, kids will eventually learn it all. It’s perfectly alright to hold off for a while until our kids are ready to tackle new topics. That’s one of the beauties of homeschooling!

The Flexible School Schedule Digital App

So if you like to use homeschool planners, how can you find one that accommodates your flexible homeschool schedule? That’s what Flexible School Schedule is for!

This digital app is designed to be completely customizable to your family’s homeschool plans, no matter when your year begins, when it ends, or how long it takes!

With Flexible School Schedule, you can collect and organize all of your homeschool resources – digital, print, and even video – right in the app! No more sorting through your homeschool closet and coming across a resource you meant to use this year and forgot about. (I have totally done that, by the way.)

Keep an eye on how your individual students are doing this year with the student progress tracker. You can view their progress according to subject, topic, or a specific objective you’d like him or her to master.

Need a quick check on how your school year is progressing? View each child’s progress at a glance by the term and the year!

This app is truly designed for families that need a flexible homeschool schedule (like mine). It’s in development now, so be sure to visit the Flexible School Schedule Kickstarter campaign and make a donation to help make this project a reality!

For more ideas to plan your homeschool year, try these tips!

And don’t forget to follow my Homeschool Planning Pinterest board for more suggestions!

Why I’m Choosing to Homeschool Again

May 11, 2015 by Selena Robinson 6 Comments

As you might know, our family has recently experienced a serious change: we took a homeschooling break and put our children in public school. For us, that was a major adjustment – something I never thought I would do.

Well, after six months, we’ve decided to end the Great Homeschool Public School Experiment and bring our children back home after the school year ends. A few weeks ago, I mentioned that we were returning to homeschooling, but I wanted to explain exactly why we decided to do so.

Here’s why I’m returning to homeschooling.

Image: nadezhda1906 / Dollar Photo Club

Why I’m Returning to Homeschooling

1. I wanted a second chance with my kids.

When the kids went off to school, I had (a little) more time to think. I’d walk by our homeschooling space and think about how harried I had been and how much pressure I felt to teach them everything on the objectives list each year.

I remembered responding testily when one of my kids had a question. I remembered shouting at Tigger to “SIT DOWN!” I remembered how little I took my own advice about adjusting a homeschooling approach for kids with ADHD.

And I wanted a second chance, a do-over, so I could relax and enjoy homeschooling along with my children.

2. The public school schedule did not work for us.

For kids who’d been homeschooled from birth, getting up every morning at 6:25 a.m. was a real struggle. For a mom who’d homeschooled her kids from birth, getting out of the door by 7 a.m. every morning was a real struggle. But the morning chaos had nothing on what happened in the evenings.

When we homeschooled, evenings were for family time. We’d relax, prepare for our weekly congregation meetings together, have dinner, and let the kids play before bed. Once they were in public school, though, afternoons were a flurry of snacks, homework, school projects, papers for me to sign, hurriedly rushing through our meeting preparation, and finding something to throw in the oven for dinner. After dinner, it was time to rush everyone off to bed so they could get up at 6:25 a.m. all over again.

We all hated what happened to our evenings. It really started to erode our sense of togetherness.

3. My kids wanted to come back home.

Most of all, the kids wanted to come back home. They missed the freedom of learning we had when they were homeschooled. Sometimes I’d pick them up from school and the first thing out of their mouth would be “Can we go back to homeschool?”

I’d hear them talk with each other about field trips we’d taken, lessons we’d covered, and crafts we’d made together. It made me realize how much they enjoyed learning at home, even though they gave me a hard time occasionally. 😉

So that’s why I’m returning to homeschooling!

Have you been homeschooling since birth? Did you start later? What makes you sure about your choice to homeschool? Let us know in the comments!

See more about our public school experience below!

And see more about how we make homeschooling work on my Homeschooling Posts Pinterest board!

This post is part of the “Why We Chose to Homeschool” linky from iHomeschool Network! Click over to read even more great posts from my fellow bloggers!

How to Keep a Homeschool Tantrum from Derailing Your School Day

September 24, 2014 by Selena Robinson 10 Comments

Homeschooling moms have the dual challenge of serving as parents AND teachers during the day, which means we often have to deal with a homeschool tantrum or two on occasion. Yay! Not.

When a child throws a temper tantrum, it can disrupt the entire school day. And if you’re homeschooling more than one child, it can distract the other kids from their lessons, make you angry, and throw off your whole schedule for the week. Since we’re homeschooling children with ADHD, it’s essential that we stick to our regular school schedule, so I just cannot afford to have the school day disrupted by a temper tantrum.

Today, I thought I’d share a few of the things that have worked for us in keeping a homeschool tantrum at bay. I’ll also be including a few things that did NOT work, just for comparison. 🙂

Image © fasphotographic / Dollar Photo Club

Tips for Dealing with a Homeschool Tantrum

Find out what’s wrong. Before you even attempt to handle the tantrum, try to learn why your child is upset. Trust me, this can be difficult. Especially if they’re screaming incoherently at the time. Is your child frustrated because he can’t understand a concept? Is she feeling overwhelmed? Ask your child what’s wrong and then try to listen patiently as he explains.

What does NOT work: Shouting at your child to “Be quiet!”

Establish a regular schedule. Pooh, our oldest boy, is extremely cranky in the mornings. He tends to sleep restlessly and he frequently has night terrors. As a result, he really needs time to wake up at his own pace without being rushed. So, we decided to begin school a bit later in the day to avoid making him concentrate at an early hour. Before I realized that was a problem, he had tantrums almost every day. When we stick with the schedule, though, he rests better and he behaves better.

What does NOT work: Beginning school at a different time each morning

Keep right on teaching. This one is probably the most important. No matter what you do, continue with your lesson plan to the extent you possibly can. Naturally, if you have a kicking and screaming child in your school room, you may have to stop to remove him or her to a safe place. (I’ve had to do that on occasion.) But, if you drop your lesson plan completely, you’ve just told your child that he or she can make school “stop” by throwing a fit. Once you send that message, you’ll have a hard time teaching every day afterward.

What does NOT work: Stopping your lesson for that day

When I follow these three tips, temper tantrums in our family become minor hiccups instead of major obstacles. How do you handle homeschool tantrums? Do you have any suggestions for how to manage temper tantrums while homeschooling? Let us know in the comments!

Don’t miss these other parenting and homeschooling posts!

Get more parenting tips on my Parenting with Joy board on Pinterest!

Our Simple ADHD Homeschool Schedule

August 25, 2014 by Selena Robinson 14 Comments

We’ve been homeschooling for several years, but we still make adjustments to our homeschool schedule each year. And once we learned that some of our children had ADHD, we had to make some drastic changes to our daily routine.

I’ve been reading some great books on managing ADHD with kids, and I’ve learned some excellent tips about time and school management for kids with ADHD.

As a result, we’ve instituted a simple ADHD homeschool schedule. And it’s made a world of difference in making homeschooling days run more smoothly – for me AND the kids!

Read on to get a look at our typical day. And if you need more flexibility in your homeschool day, check our list of 15 different ADHD homeschool schedule ideas!

A Look at Our ADHD Homeschool Schedule

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Image c/o: belchonock / depositphotos

If you look at our ADHD homeschool schedule, you’ll notice that all of the school lessons are limited to 30 minutes MAX. That’s one of the important adjustments of this year, but so far, I’ve already seen improvements.

We also try to cover the basic subjects as early in the morning as possible. It generally makes the afternoon run smoother.

Morning:

7:30 a.m. (ish) – Wake up

I don’t really set a strict wake up time for the kids. They’re generally up by 7:30 a.m., but if they’re not, I let them sleep until they wake on their own. Pooh, in particular, needs time to wake up before he starts his day.

8:00 a.m. – Breakfast

8:30 a.m. – Copywork/Handwriting

We go over a different scripture each day and I use that verse as our copywork for the day. The kids clean up the breakfast dishes and bring their notebooks to the table to do copywork. Piglet generally sits in and draws with her Color Wonder markers.

9:00 a.m. – Math

I separate the kids for math. Tigger does her own work on the computer. We use several programs, including A+ Interactive Math, Khan Academy, and TenMarks. I let her go at her own pace, and I generally keep the entire lesson to 30 minutes or less.

The boys and I do a math lesson in the living room using “Life of Fred” and math manipulatives.

9:30 a.m. – Daily chores

The kids do their chores (usually two tasks per person) and then they make their lunches for the day.

10:00 a.m. – Language Arts

I don’t require that we have a structured language arts lesson each day, but we do cover all of the subjects (spelling, English, and writing) several times a week.

10:30 a.m. – Individual Reading

Each child gets to read with me for a few minutes alone. I generally read a short story with Roo first, then Pooh and I read a section of an early reader chapter book. Tigger and I are working our way through the Nancy Drew series and we’re on Book 1: The Secret of the Old Clock.

11:00 a.m. – Family Lesson

Everyday, we have a family lesson where we all cover the same subject together. Monday is Science, Tuesday is History, Wednesday is Geography, Thursday is Art/Music, and Friday is Foreign Language. (More about these in a future post.)

11:30 a.m – Family Unit Study

I try to pick at least one topic per month for our family unit studies. We usually read from a textbook or storybook and do an activity together each day.

Afternoon

In the afternoon, our ADHD homeschool schedule includes more of the “extras”. Unless we don’t finish covering the essentials in the morning.

12:00 p.m. – Lunch

Since they make the lunch themselves earlier in the morning, I don’t have to do much during lunch. Tigger generally helps Piglet with her food and I get a little break.

12:30 p.m. – Clean up and change for P.E.

We’re having the kids “dress for school” this year, so after lunch they change into play clothes for P.E.

1:00 p.m. – P.E.

We use Family Time Fitness for P.E. So far, we’ve been focusing on basic physical movements and helping the kids learn the difference between sports terms like “pass”, “throw”, “jump”, “hop”, etc.

1:45 p.m. – Showers and change clothes

I’ve recently made the decision to start giving showers earlier in the day. By the end of the day, we’re all exhausted and Jay and I just don’t feel up to the task. The kids seem to relax a bit more for quiet time when they’ve had a shower beforehand as well.

2:15 p.m. – Storytime

I generally read a story or part of a story before quiet time. I try to choose calm stories that won’t work them up too much. Otherwise, they’ll get in the bed and play around the whole time…lol.

2:30 p.m. – Quiet Time

This is the first year that I am NOT requiring a longer quiet time for the kids. Tigger is actually sleeping more this year than last. We suspect that it’s because she’s entering puberty and her body needs the rest.

If she goes to sleep, then I don’t wake her. We can always move the other tasks to later in the day. (One of the many perks of homeschooling!)

3:00 p.m. – Workbox Time

We do our workbox time right after Quiet Time, since it’s a quiet activity the older kids can do while Piglet is asleep. She generally naps for an hour and, by the time 3:30 rolls around, she’s up and raring to go!

3:30 p.m. – One-on-One Time with Mom

In my dream world, I’d have individual time with each child everyday. That’s just not practical, though – at least not when we’re following our regular school schedule.

So the kids alternate one-on-one time with me each day. Pooh gets Monday, Roo gets Tuesday, Tigger gets Wednesday, and Piglet gets Thursday. Friday is Mom’s one-on-one time with herself.

4:00 p.m. – Media Time

Media time is saved for the absolute very last part of the day. It’s a treat that they get to enjoy if we’ve gotten everything else done that day.

In the past, I would let them watch some TV around 11:30 p.m., particularly while I was making lunch. But they got so worked up after watching TV that they made a colossal mess while eating. Now I save media time until the end and things are better.

And that’s a look at our ADHD homeschool schedule, for this year at least. I’d love to hear about your daily homeschooling plans this year! Feel free to share them in the comments.

Don’t miss these other ideas for planning your homeschool year!

And see more ways to schedule your homeschool on my Homeschool Planning Pinterest board!

This post is part of the “2014 Not Back to School Hop” from iHomeschool Network! Click on over to read how our fellow bloggers schedule their homeschooling days!

Tips for Homeschool Time Management

June 9, 2014 by Selena Robinson 13 Comments

Today we’re talking about homeschool time management, which helps us deal with one of the biggest obstacles to happy homeschooling in our home: NOT ENOUGH TIME!

We have four children, including some with ADHD, plus I’m a full-time minister and I work – so time is extra precious around here. But, I’ve learned a few great tips for managing our homeschooling time and I’m thrilled to share them with you all!

How to Improve Your Homeschool Time Management

1. Make a Schedule and Stick to It

I’ve previously sung the praises of a consistent homeschooling schedule and I’m still a huge fan of scheduling. When time is at a premium, using a daily homeschool schedule can literally save your lesson plan. So if your days are extra busy, block out a regular time for your schooling and hold class at the same time each day.

Tricia over at Hodgepodge has a great homeschool routine that works for her family. It involves a great early morning routine that calls for all of the kids to be up, dressed, and ready for school by 8:45. Genius!

2. Delegate Housekeeping to Your Kids!

What if you’re drowning in housework? Get your kids involved! Assigning daily, age-appropriate chores to your children accomplishes two things: 1) It reduces your workload and 2) It teaches them valuable life skills. With a little planning, you can even incorporate it into your school day. 🙂

Tristan from Our Busy Homeschool is a homeschooling mom of 8. Eight! One of the things that keeps her homeschool on track is having her kids do chores everyday. She even manages to get her toddlers and preschoolers involved!

3. Restructure Your Lessons

One of the many wonderful things about homeschooling is that we don’t have to follow a regimented lesson plan. We can rearrange our lessons whenever we like. For example, Tigger finished her language lessons early last year, so had a chance to double up on math for a few weeks.

Beth at 123 Homeschool 4 Me manages to work in schooling, housework, and errands in a single day! How? She keeps the “school” time to three hours a day and uses other activities to teach, including library visits, storybooks, and educational iPad games. Beth also makes use of the workbox system, which is great for assigning work to each individual child without disturbing the others.

Great Books for Homeschool Time Management

There are a lot of great books for homeschooling parents who need to work on their time management. I’ve enjoyed the tips in these two in particular:

The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling: Barbara Frank

Scheduling – The Secret to Homeschool Sanity: Plan Your Way Back to Mental Health – Lee Binz

Use these tips for better homeschool planning!

For even more homeschool scheduling and planning tips, follow our Homeschool Planning board on Pinterest!

This post is part of the “I Can’t Homeschool Because… linkup at iHomeschool Network ! Click on over to read how some of our fellow bloggers overcome obstacles to homeschooling!