The great thing about home education is that each school day can look different to the one before. It’s ok to start late, finish early, go outside, spend an entire day focusing on one single subject or project. The homeschool timetable you create can be as flexible or as rigid as your learners/family need it to be.
In 10 years home-educating, we’ve tried many, many homeschool routines..hourly timetables, homeschool timetables with lesson blocks, dedicated subject days. Gradually, we’ve found a homeschool formula that is more a rhythm than an indelible plan, that allows flexibility for each individual student, accommodates our family lifestyle (rural, semi-off grid, abroad = unpredictable daily life!) and makes it easy for me (teacher/co-ordinator/Mum) to track each kid’s educational goals/progress.
Planning a weekly homeschool timetable
We use a weekly checklist (signed by the home learners when assigned, similar to a home-ed contract) to make sure all lessons are covered for the week, and follow a topic-by-topic, block-scheduling approach to teacher-led curriculum subjects, with subjects being taught in a loop schedule: Eg. 3 weeks geography/ 3 weeks history/3 weeks economics, etc.
Our home learners are more responsive to learning in this way – completing one subject topic before moving onto a different subject’s topic – rather than a school-led approach, which might start a ‘Waves’ topic on Wednesday and complete it the following week, introducing a (eg.) History topic in between.
Scheduling subjects in a loop sequence –1 History topic, followed by 1 Geography topic, etc – helps stay on track with curriculum goals for the year and gives home learners more time to delve deeper into any topics that are of particular interest because we’re not rushing to move to the next subject’s topic.
Our 4-Step Homeschool Day
Mornings = Independent Learning
Morning ‘school’ starts 30 mins after breakfast, so anytime between 8-10am.
While I spend focused time with Mr 4, Mr 13 & Mr 14 work through study tasks independently.
- Maths – Khan Academy: 45mins + Targeted Worksheets: 15 minutes
- OR Science – MyGCSEScience + textbook(s)
- Foreign Language: 30mins Duolingo + Targetted Worksheets: 15 minutes
- 45 mins ‘Weekly Folder’ work : This includes second language study (bilingual family), topics of interest & English language practice (eg. grammar worksheets)
Each homeschooler has an individually customised Weekly Home-Ed Folder containing all paper-based school work (& occasionally online learning tasks). After they’ve finished the above tasks, the rest of the morning is spent reading or on productive projects of their choice (eg. art/music)
While the older children are working independently, I’m available to provide any 1-1 help. The efficiency of providing 1-1 tuition as and when they need it makes it easier to teach multiple-grade homeschooling.
Lunch as a Family = The Biggest Bonus of Home Education
Lunch is a sit-down-at-the-table meal, every single day. Whichever kid wants to help with the cooking does so, and they take it in turns to set the table/load the dishwasher.
It’s a lovely way to all connect as a family in the middle of the day (my husband WFH) and helps keep the balance between home/school.
Keeping the children involved in the prep, cooking and clearing up of meals adds to the ethos of homeschooling (and everything that practically involves) being a team effort, as well as teaching practical life skills.
Afternoon School = Guided Learning
Afternoon school is split into three sections and these can follow any order. If there’s excess energy after lunch, we’ll get outside/do an active activity for an hour and come back to the classroom later; if Mr 4 needs connection time before entertaining himself to allow me to teach his siblings, reading aloud comes before the teacher-led lesson.
Teacher-led lesson (45mins – 1 hour)
We lean towards teaching in subject blocks (ie. one textbook cover-cover over 3 weeks rather than multiple subjects at once) and study either a topic from these loop subjects or an additional non-core-curriculum subject lesson during these scheduled lessons.
Reading aloud (45mins – 1 hour+)
Reading aloud is an incredibly important part of our homeschool. It’s an activity that everyone views as more fun/parent-child connection than ‘school’ and we read aloud every single day; mostly from a read-aloud book (novel) but some days, poetry, and other days relevant newspaper/magazine articles.
Reading aloud helps with language fluency, improves vocabulary and helps boost confidence speaking aloud in other situations – giving a presentation etc. Whilst reading, our learners are encouraged to practice accents/different pronunciation styles while narrating the chapters.
Reading aloud time doubles as an active listening activity/miniature book study: We start each session by recapping what happened in the previous chapter and have a book-club-style discussion to end the lesson. Weekly study folders often include English or translation exercises related to the book of the moment.
Listening for prolonged periods and sitting still are skills that take a long time to cultivate. To help them stay focused on listening during read-aloud time, our homeschoolers complete what I think of as passive-fidget activities- things that don’t require engaged thinking but allow undisruptive movement: Activities like colouring, knitting (surprisingly popular!), modelling clay/playdough etc.
Mr 4 loves read-aloud time because he joins in the same ‘lesson’ as his siblings.
1-1 Tuition/Independent study
Every afternoon our homeschoolers have a check-in with me. It might be just a progress check to make sure their weekly folder work is going ok or to look at any ongoing projects; some days, it’s a 1-1 lesson to problem-solve any issues they’ve/I’ve flagged up, or an additional lesson according to individual student needs (ie. an extension lesson for a MFL).
While one learner is having a one-on-one catch-up/lesson with me, the other continues independent study.
A fun activity together!
This doesn’t always happen because at 13 and 14, our eldest homeschoolers have their own hobbies, but if there’s nothing else scheduled, we end the homeschool day with an activity together. It might be a nature walk, a game of tag, a board game or an improv music session. What we do doesn’t matter -what’s important is reconnecting as parent-child/siblings after a day being parent-teacher/classmates.
Scheduled time for learning-not-school activities
One morning a week, we choose an activity or work on a project study together. The activity might be something like Marmalade Day (and run over into the afternoon), a (physical/online) museum trip, a ‘Find it, Fix it, Use it’ task*, a gardening project or an activity they choose and lead. This gives them a break from the routine of core subjects every day and some autonomy with how their school week looks.
Over the years, we’ve used many different approaches to timetabling home-ed lessons, from an unschooling approach to an every-hour-is-scheduled approach and all of them were effective in different ways.
There are SO many ways to schedule a home-ed day. What works for us might not work for you. Play around with your timetable/routine until you find a structure to the days/weeks that makes everyone in your homeschool happy.
If you’re looking for a simple timetable to start planning the structure of your home-ed days, you can find a copy of our basic homeschool timetable here. Use it as a guide and edit to suit your lifestyle/goals/learners.
*Find it, Fix it, Use it
Find it: Identify an object that needs fixing or an academic problem they’re struggling with.
Fix it: Eg. for a board game missing a piece, the solution might be to design & 3D print a new one // a MFL grammar rule they’re struggling with, we’ll deep-dive into learning
Use it: Play the game // Complete a writing exercise using the grammar they now understand