Can you really homeschool in a just a few hours a day? Advice from a homeschool consultant
Before I began homeschooling my own children, I researched as much as I could on the topic. That is just in my nature and probably what makes me such a teacher at heart. One of the first homeschool leaders I started to follow Arianna Blandon: an educator with over 15 years of teaching experience in secondary and higher education. She also happens to run a specialized homeschool company called Eaton Academics. She always drops these gems of knowledge on her page, and she gave us permission to share this one:
Homeschool Question: I heard that homeschooling takes a few hours a day, is that enough to cover all the subjects?
Let’s take a look at a school schedule. Have you ever wondered how many hours are truly focused on teaching/learning? Take some time and deduct the time spent in homeroom, students waking to another class, time the teacher spends taking attendance in each class, time spent getting the computers to work, the endless amount of time testing, the time the teacher had to redirect another student, etc...
Once you add up all that time, ask yourself how many hours of learning truly take place in a school day? Now with that in mind I’ll provide you with the answer: depending on the age I do not recommend more than 3 hours of instruction. At the elementary level two hours at most, at the middle 2-3 and high school 3 (4 if the child/family request). Instruction can take place five times a week or seven (whatever works best for your family).
Will everything be covered? I will take my sons schedule as an example. Sebastian has 2.5 hours of instruction a day, six times a week. The hours of instruction are the core subjects taught by me or his father.
Prior to the virus he was also attending
Science at Deering Estate (Wednesday),
volunteered at a local soup kitchen (Thursday),
was in a local theater production in the fall (Saturday),
swimming and art through ProjectArt Miami (Wednesday).
Lastly, throughout the week he would work on his two FLVS classes.
The results: -The GoMath series that take a whole school year: has one chapter left -The FLVS classes that take a whole school year: finished in February -FSA/PARCC: at the beginning of the year I printed out all FSA item specs, PARCC released test and gave a question or two as a warm up. Completed in February. -Writing: has two notebooks filled with free write entries and we are considering him starting a blog. -ELA: four novel studies completed. Novels and curriculum were taken from a school district. He follows the ELA curriculum from a top performing school district and we are almost finished. -Social Science: Chinese Dynasty, Native studies, American colonial history, etc. He found his love for social science this year. He is done with the curriculum and is now doing research on the economic impact of the transcontinental railroad. -Science curriculum done. Now reinforcing all topics covered with projects. -Started a business in November “Seabass Waits.” Worked wonderful with his studies. -Performed in local theater production “Aladdin.”
With 2.5 hours a day for 7 months, he has been able to accomplish so much. So yes, homeschooling hours are not as long, but the results that are attained with just a few hours speaks volumes.
As always, big hugs to all of you.