Home Schooling Hours

Homeschooling hours is one of the most asked-about topics by parents who are home schooling, as well as some parents who are not home schooling. Some parents feel that if they are not teaching their children while other kids are at school, then it is not school for their children and they will not learn. This is just psychological. Homeschool hours is about practicality and what is convenient for you and your children, rather than how much they will learn.

Although you pick the time and the hours to homeschool your children, it may be wise to stick to the same home schooling hours daily. People usually learn better when they have a routine to follow. For example, if your kids always get up at 7am, keep it the same everyday. Strict schedule tells children of the how serious parents are about home schooling. It will also help the kids to do the 'usual' and every life (such as get up, brush teeth, eat breakfast, etc) without thinking, hence freeing their minds to fully learn about other more important subjects. If your child has to think about what time to get up everyday, he or she won't be fully concentrating on the subject taught.

The environment that you live in might be that early home schooling hours makes sense. For example, if you have to travel, getting up early in the morning allows more time to travel and avoid rush hours traffic in the afternoon. Also, if you live in noisy neighborhood, you may want to teach your child lessons that require quietness in the morning because when your neighbors get home, it may be too noisy for your child to concentrate fully.

How many hours of home schooling per day?

Again, this depends on the home schooling curriculum your have chosen for your child. There is no need to adhere to the same home schooling hours as a public school or private school. You should do what is best for your child's learning ability. Perhaps, a few hours of textbook study in the morning and a visit to local museums in the afternoon would be good for your child. Maybe your child has expressed more time to learn from textbooks. Whatever works best is what you should do. Don't let public schools or private schools dictate your home schooling plan. Usually, the following amount of one-on-one time is enough:

Grade	Hours per day
First - Third	1.5 - 2.5
Fourth - Fifth	2 - 3
Sixth - Seventh	2.5 - 3
Eighth	3 - 4
High School	3.5 - 4

Of course, the more hours you and your child put in, the more learning is achieved. That is why many home schooling kids appear smarter and more mature than kids attending regular schools.