Guess what! You DO NOT have to be a morning person to be a successful homeschooler! There is no rule that says school must start at 8:30AM and wrap up by 3:00PM. Unless you want it to, that is.
One of the beauties of homeschooling is that you get to set your own schedule. You get to decide what works best for your family. Actually, you can decide what works for each child individually.
If you are a morning person and you have a child who is, as well, then by all means start your school day early. If you have a teenager who likes to sleep in, you can allow them to start school after lunch {if that works for you, too}.
Set Your Own Homeschool Schedule
I am a morning person. I am up before 7AM most mornings. My daughter is, too. So, it works well for us to get up and get our day started early. With one kid in public school, I try to start our school day at about the same time his day starts so we can be done before he gets home. That works for us most of the time.
However, homeschooling offers us a generous amount of flexibility to change our schedule as needed. Last year, my daughter was in a big ballet production in February. For about six weeks leading up to the show, we had rehearsals at least four days/week in addition to her regular dance classes. Many nights, we didn’t get home from dance until 9:30 or 10.
For those weeks, I allowed her to sleep in. I knew her little body needed to rest so that she could be at her best during dance class and rehearsal. We shortened our school days, too, just a bit on days when she had early rehearsals. We saved some things to work on in the car – reading, easier workbook pages, etc.
Do what works best for your family. Know that what works best today may change as schedules change, babies are born, opportunities arise, and so on. Create a schedule that has a bit of fluidity built in so that it can ebb and flow to meet your needs.
If you aren’t a morning person, homeschool in the afternoons. If you don’t have outside commitments, you could homeschool in the evenings or on the weekends. If Dad is off on Tuesdays, you may want to do school on Saturday or Sunday so you can have family time on Tuesdays.
What suggestions do you have for making your homeschool schedule work for you?
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Being flexible with the schedule so it fits with your family’s needs is one of the positive parts of homeschooling. You are right about learning at the times that fit for the kids.
I am NOT a morning person. We stay up late and start school late.
We were all very flexible in our homeschool, too. We usually started later in the day, and my high-schooler would sometimes go into the evening. But, he preferred that to getting up early in the morning. It’s so nice to work around things like dance or sports, too! I hope you have a wonderful school year 🙂
We start early so we can end our day before dance classes start. But, my daughter and I are morning people so it works well for us.
I’m not a morning person. I’m more of a 10am-4pm kinda person ???? I love that homeschooling gives us the flexibility to learn whenever we want.
MY DAUGHTER IS ALSO IN A DANCE PRODUCTION EVERY YEAR, AND I PLAN HER HOMESCHOOLING YEAR WITH THAT IN MIND. THOSE CRAZY WEEKS FULL OF REHEARSALS BEFORE HAND I ALSO PUT MORE FOCUS ON MAKING SURE SHE GETS ENOUGH SLEEP AND OUR SCHOOL DAYS ARE GREATLY REDUCED AS WELL. ALTHOUGH I DO CONSIDER DANCE A PART OF SCHOOL, IT’S LIKE GYM AND DRAMA ROLLED INTO ONE. 🙂 THANKS FOR LINKING THIS UP AT THE LEARNING KID LINK-UP.
I’m a morning person, but tend to hit a wall about 2PM. After a quick cat nap (while DD works on her own), I’m good to go again.
I am a morning person, but only when goin on a trip. In our daily lives I’m so sleeping in. But then the baby keeping me up at night my have something to do with that…