Look at any homeschool group on Facebook and you will find countless people asking, “How long should I homeschool each day?” And then you’ll also find many comments saying, “1 Hour is plenty of time!” Guess what: 1 hour of homeschooling a day is NOT enough. Even in Kindergarten – it’s not enough.
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So many people fall into the trap of believing that all they need to teach their kids is reading, writing, and arithmetic. If you only cover those 3 subjects, you’re missing out on so many wonderful things! Kids need science and history. They need to learn art and music. They need a well rounded, rich education. And there is no way to do that in only 1 hour a day.
To teach reading, math, history, science, art, and writing in 1 hour per day, you could only spend 10 minutes on each subject! WHAT??? How could you really teach anything in that amount of time? You definitely couldn’t ever do any science experiments or hands-on projects because those take WAY longer than 10 minutes.
So let’s drop this narrative that homeschooling only takes 1 hour per day. It’s just not true.
Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying you need to have your kids sitting at a desk for 6 hours a day. You do not need to do school at home. You don’t need to use worksheets and busy work. You can still follow your child’s interests and bring new and exciting things to them as well.
It is our job as homeschool parents to ensure that our kids get a quality education! And that takes TIME! More time than 1 hour per day.
How Much Time Should You Homeschool Per Day
Obviously this does vary depending on age a little bit, but not as much as you might think!
From Kindergarten through 8th grade, you should aim for 4 hours of homeschooling per day. This is often adequate in high school as well, but depends on the students and the course of study.
The way each family approaches teaching will look different. Some days you might read a book, others do a hands on project, or watch a video. Look for opportunities to experience things in real life. Don’t limit yourself to sitting at a table or desk doing worksheets.
The optimal homeschool schedule will have you doing intentional learning 4 hours per day, 4 days a week.
4 Hour Per Day Homeschool
What subjects should you be covering in these 4 hours per day?
Math – 30 Minutes Per Day
Language Arts – 30 Minutes Per Day
Science – 30 Minutes Per Day or 1 Hour 2x a Week
History – 30 Minutes Per Day or 1 Hour 2x a Week
PE – 30 Minutes Per Day
Art – 30 Minutes 2x a Week
Music – 30 Minutes 2x a Week
Read Aloud – 30 Minutes Per Day
Special Extras – 30 Minutes Per Day
There are all kinds of extra, special subjects you can add to your homeschool schedule. These are the things that help make your homeschool magical. Here are some ideas:
- Poetry Teatime
- Nature Walk/Study
- Gameschool
- Character Development
- Growth Mindset
- Seasonal Study
What does that 30 minutes look like? Well it can look like pretty much anything! Maybe you read a book, do a hands-on project, watch a video, do research online, play a game, etc.
Part of the reason why I suggest 30 minutes for subjects like history and science is so that you also have plenty of time for your kids to ask questions or just let them talk to you about the subject.
You don’t have to be teaching for 30 minutes straight, but I do think that is an optimal amount of time for kids to settle into a subject and think about it so they can interact with it instead of just consume it.
You see now that you couldn’t possibly cover each subject adequately by homeschooling for 1 hour per day! It would be impossible to achieve any depth in your child’s education. With 4 hours per day, you will be able to dive deeper and enjoy the learning process more!
Only 4 Days a Week
I highly recommend having a 4 day a week homeschool schedule for the above subjects. The 5th day should be spent doing different kinds of learning. You might go on a field trip, participate in a homeschool co-op, or take other homeschool classes offered in your community.
Homeschooling for 1 Hour a Day is Not Enough
Don’t buy into the lie that you can give your child a quality education in only 1 hour per day. It’s just not true. You need to create a homeschool schedule that gives you 4 hours per day, 4 days a week, and plan enrichment activities and classes for the 5th day.
Do you need help making a plan?
- Follow these 7 Steps to Create a Personalized Homeschool Schedule
- See our Kindergarten Homeschool Schedule
- See our First Grade Homeschool Schedule
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good article. well thought out.
One hour of table work TOTAL is more than plenty for Kindergarten. Any lesson over 30min is not development appropriate. The first few years you really do not need anything more than the basic 3 R.
Like I said, I’m not talking about kindergarteners (or anyone) needing 4 hours of table work, but instead, 4 hour of intentional education. This can be so many different kinds of things, and different kids and families will find different ways to pursue learning. I disagree that kids only need the 3 Rs. The 3 Rs focus on the mechanics of reading, writing, and maths. While those things are important, it’s equally important to teach interesting, content rich subjects like history, science, art, etc.
I both agree and disagree with this article. We “homeschool” less than an hour a day. I alternate days with important subjects like math, reading, and writing.
But on the other hand, we homeschool 24/7 because learning is always happening. I don’t think you need to schedule (even 4 hours) of work.
All the research points to learning in a natural way. Kids comprehend more and internalize more when it’s relevant, natural, and not planned.
I totally agree that learning is ALWAYS happening. Most kids do not naturally learn how to read – instead they need to be taught phonics. The same can be said for MANY other subjects. I’m not advocating for sitting kids down for 4 hours a day and doing worksheets! The way that we pursue learning with our kids can look different, but I do think that it needs to be intentional with planning. In those plans needs to be space to follow rabbit trails and dive deep into things kids find interesting. There are so many things that our kids are unlikely to learn about if we don’t first introduce them to it. That really is part of the job of homeschool parents – to show our kids the vast array of things we can know, but that we are unlikely to naturally encounter in our daily lives.
I guess I’m wondering what’s so magical about 4 hours and what makes this schedule and the amount of minutes assigned to each subject the right way? Please know I am saying this with love and respect – not intending to be argumentative – but the title of the article seems to indicate there will be reasons given why 1 hour is not enough, but the content seems like pure opinion (that doesn’t answer the question the article title poses) and while you’re certainly entitled to this opinion, I have concerns when it’s being presented as a “should”, because it just grieves me to see so many homeschooling mamas struggle with all of the “shoulds”.
While I agree that no one should just do a little school and then let their kids go watch TV the rest of the day, this kind of formula (“this many hours, these subjects, this many minutes”) seems like the kind of thing that could easily STRESS a new homeschool mama out. I’ve been that mama just starting out, and thankfully I’ve stopped listening to these voices telling me that what I’m doing isn’t enough. Because what happens when things come up and we don’t check the boxes? For many of us, we then struggle with feelings of self-doubt and failure. I used to be in that cycle and it’s not good for me or my kids. What broke me out of it was discovering the freedom in homeschooling to provide a robust education while not being bound to formulas or the opinions of others.
I firmly believe in intentional learning through life – this happens all day in my home, and if a lot of mamas really paid attention, they’d see that intentional learning is happening as they do life with their kids. We do our intentional “school” time with handwriting, math, hands-on projects, and then – PLAY. Unstructured play. Chores, fixing meals together, interest-led activities, reading out loud, hours (yes, hours) of outside free-play, audiobooks, board games, handicrafts.. this is enough. We don’t have to hit every subject and check each box when life learning is covering so many of those things organically. If I’m being intentional about pulling things out of these daily activities to talk about and discuss, we’re hitting the marks.
I guess my encouragement here is for any homeschooling mama reading this and having another moment of “oh crap, I’m failing my kids, I’m not doing what this says I should be doing!” I’ve had plenty of those moments. What works for some people might not work for others. There is not a right and a wrong. You ARE enough. We have been entrusted with our kids and their UNIQUE individual gifts, abilities, interests, and needs – so there is not a one-size-fits-all formula to how you homeschool. The pull to compare and follow “a formula” is strong, but as a believer, I have the freedom to rest in the fact that God is leading me in this call to homeschool my kids, and I answer to Him. Maybe this 4 hour thing resonates with you and you think it’ll work well for your family – great. But don’t cling to it as if it’s the only right way, and don’t be hard on yourself if your homeschool day looks different from others. There is such freedom in homeschooling, and there are so MANY ways to provide a rich and robust education in outside-the-box ways. Press on, mamas.
Maybe my ideas didn’t come across quite right because I truly do agree with you! I just find that many important subjects are often left out of people’s homeschools and it really does a disservice to the kids. They need to learn science and history, art and music!
You said yourself that you are intentional with how you use your unstructured time with your kids! I’m not necessarily talking about 4 hours of structured learning, but intentional learning. The intent is what matters here, NOT HOW the learning is accomplished.
I’ve seen a trend within the homeschool community to lean really hard into unschooling and while it probably works well for some families, there are many times where it just ends up with kids playing video games all day. I just think we owe it to our kids to make sure they get a well rounded education.
Thanks for sharing your schedule. It is always interesting to see what others do! I agree one hour would never be enough! We try to do about 2-3 more structured hours (3rd and 6th grade) and then in the afternoons, read, draw, practice musical instruments, code, complete chores, cook, etc.. PE or recess is in the middle of the day!
Yay! It’s so good to hear from someone else who agrees. Sounds like our day is pretty similar to yours actually!
How do you balance homeschool with multiple ages? I have a kindergartener, 2 year old, and I’m due to give birth in a few months.
I agree but also see how some would be put off by this. We homeschool intentionally for about 3-3.5 hrs a day, which includes reading, math, writing, history, Bible, Bible and read-alouds daily. We do science a few days a week and fine arts occasionally, though I am working on incorporating more of that. This is our first year homeschooling (grades K and 2) so we are still figuring things out. But as a former teacher, I know they don’t need 6-7 hours of teaching , but they do need more than one hour, especially if you want to allow time for kids to process and dive deeper. Also, as their teacher, I take that job seriously and want to do the best I can for them.