Questions About Homeschooling: How Long Does it Take Each Day?

In this series of posts I am going to try and answer some of the most common questions people have about homeschooling.  One of the first questions I am asked is about the time commitment.  I am not an expert, I can only write about my experiences over the last 15 years in homeschooling my 7 children.

I do have to say that each state has it own set of regulations.  You need to look into what your state requires of homeschoolers and follow the homeschool laws in your state.  Here in Arkansas we have no regulations on what subjects we are required to teach, or how many hours we must spend, or how may days must be in our school year. 

Homeschools are not the same as the public school and you cannot use the 6-7 hour a day guideline that they use to determine how long it will take you to homeschool.  In a homeschool you are working one on one with your children not teaching to an entire class.  You also do not need time to line children up to go to recess or art or the lunchroom.  This cuts down a significant portion of time.  So how do you know how much time to spend, how long to spend on each subject or how many subjects your children should be learning?

When it comes to deciding how many subjects your child should be learning, that is going to vary not just from family to family, but from child to child.  When people are just starting homeschooling I recommend starting with the basics; reading, writing, and arithmetic. Then I suggest basing other subjects on their child's interest.  For example when my son Nicholas was 7 he was fascinated with American History and learning all of the presidents so for history that year we studied the presidents.  Anthony loved the stars one year so our science focus was on astronomy.  4 of my children have used a spelling curriculum each year, the other 3 were natural spellers and there was no point making them write lists of words that they could already spell.  I spend lots of time reading aloud.  You would be surprised too how much children can learn about a wide variety of subjects just by listening to you read aloud good, living books. I choose both fiction and nonfiction books about things that the children are interested in.  I have learned so much with them by reading to them! Do not base your subjects on what other people do/do not do. You have to figure out what subjects work best for you and what your children are interested in learning. 

How long do you need to spend on each subject?  For some subjects that is pretty easy to figure out. Most math books for example are set up to complete a page a day. Other curricula come with a Teacher's Guide telling you what you should complete each day.  But some things are not so cut and dry.  I read this recommendation once that said spend 2 to 2.5 times the child's age per subject every school day. A 6 year old should spend around 12-15 minutes per day on each subject, while a 12 year old should spend 25-30 minutes. This to me makes perfect sense. By using the age as a guideline, it helps me keep the lessons age appropriate for the child's attention span. It is not a hard and fast rule, but a guideline to follow. There are times when we get finished with some things a little faster or times when something may take a bit longer. When I combine subjects with many different ages, like our Bible lesson, I try to keep it towards the lower end of the age range.

How much of a time commitment will you really need to spend on schooling each day?  That will depend on the ages of your children and the curriculum you choose. In my house I currently have 5 children homeschooling ages 9-16.  We follow a 4 days per week schedule and take Fridays off.  My school hours are from 9:30-11 and then 12:30-2.  That does not mean that all of the children are working every minute of that time.  It's the amount of time that I plan on each day for working with or reading to my children.  Our morning hours are for together subjects and our afternoon hours are for individual subjects.


 Don't stress about whether or not you are spending the "right" amount of time on school. Each individual situation is different. Do what works for you and your family at this point in your life and try not to compare your homeschool to anyone else's.

Happy Homeschooling!