Learn about the one thing you need in order to have the best homeschool high school schedule, and discover three different types of high school homeschool schedules that will keep your days running smoothly.
Watching ice skating, gymnastics, and ballet through the years leaves me in a bit of awe. The athletes are so incredibly flexible! This flexibility allows them to perform with both power and grace.
The same is true for you when you embrace flexibility in how you schedule your homeschool high school. Your schedules will be both powerful and full of grace.
The best homeschool high school schedule is the one that works for your family. And flexibility is the key!
Flexibility means “the quality of bending easily without breaking; the ability to be easily modified; willingness to change or compromise.”
Schedules will only work if you actually keep them! However, there are times when life happens and you simply cannot follow your regular schedule.
If you have to get off track for a few days or even weeks, jump back in where you left off as soon as you can. Your flexible homeschool schedule will work for you. Especially when life is chaotic. This isn’t the time to give up.
It’s kind of like dieting—when we mess up it often leads to a cycle of continuing to think, “Well, one more day won’t make a difference.” But that logic is flawed because it will never help you reach your real goal of getting healthy.
So if you get off your schedule, why not say, “We couldn’t keep the schedule the last few days, but we are flexible and can jump right back in today!”
Often we don’t know how well a specific schedule will work for us until we try it for a while. It’s like working with a budget. You set one, try it out, and make adjustments after the first few weeks or months. And you continue to make adjustments as needed.
Creating a high school schedule that can be modified is essential. This way you don’t have to start over completely when subjects don’t take the amount of time you planned for them to take. It’s also a benefit if you need to do something different for a few weeks because of something unexpected.
But what if you come up with the perfect homeschool schedule only to find your teen isn’t thriving with it? Remember why you have a schedule in the first place. Did you create a schedule to:
If one or more of these reasons was your motivation, then don’t be afraid to change or compromise. The type of homeschool schedule you choose needs to work for both you and your high school students. So if the schedule doesn’t move your teen toward their educational goals, find one that will.
Thankfully you can choose from several different types of schedules—traditional, block, or loop—to meet your family and children’s needs!
Before you choose the type of schedule you will use, please check state laws and guidelines for what constitutes a high school credit. Generally, credits can be awarded either on the basis of work completed or the number of hours spent on the subject. You can learn more about awarding credit in HSLDA’s article 3 Ways to Determine My Teen’s High School Course Credit.
With a traditional schedule, each subject is studied on a regular basis, usually daily. This is the type of schedule many of us grew up within the public schools. For example, your students might do math from 8:00–8:50 AM; language arts from 9:00–9:50 AM; science from 10:00–10:50 AM, etc.
You can also extend one of those 10-minute breaks to be a bit longer mid-way through the morning to allow your teen to refresh a bit. There are some great ways to take a break that don’t include hopping on the phone to check Instagram or Tik Tok. A quick walk around the neighborhood or some exercise in the backyard are great alternatives.
A traditional schedule does not mean your schedule has to look exactly the same every day. Based on outside activities and appointments, you can adjust the times for each subject as needed. But generally speaking, your student will do the same classes for approximately the same amount of time every day.
Block schedules allow students to spend more time on a subject each day so there isn’t as much transition time between studies. Though the amount varies depending on the study, research tells us that it takes valuable time to refocus with each interruption or change of task.
Proponents of block schedules believe that students are more productive when they aren’t constantly switching gears.
There are multiple types of block schedules, but there are a few I’d like to highlight for you. The first is called a 4×4 block. Using this kind of schedule, each day students will study four different subjects for 90-minute blocks of time. This allows them to finish a course in one semester, much like a college class.
The second option is the A/B block. Like the 4×4 block, students spend 90-minutes per day per subject, but instead of four courses, they do eight every other day for the full school year. This will mean you make a schedule for two weeks. Each class will be Monday/Wednesday/Friday for one week and Tuesday/Thursday for the other one.
Another option is to do a core class block. Like the A/B method, the mornings are filled with 90-minute blocks on alternating days, but in this case, the afternoon is filled with 50 to 60-minute classes that are studied daily.
With a loop schedule, students cycle through their subjects spending as much, or little, time as needed. When they complete a subject for the day, they can record the time they spent on it and move on to the next subject on their list. The same is true when the day is done; the following morning students simply go to the next subject on their list.
The disadvantage of this method is that it’s harder to keep track of how much time is spent on each subject. However, if you award credit based on work completed instead of the hours spent, this can be a great option that’s flexible enough to meet students’ unique needs.
Like those athletes and artists, flexibility will allow your schedule to be both powerful and full of grace. Homeschool high school schedules are powerful because they can keep your teens on track to complete their studies and move toward their goals.
But another important aspect of a schedule is the underlying grace. By making schedules that can be adapted and changed, you will be able to set up a gracious and doable routine that respects your unique high school student.
I hope these three different types of high school homeschool schedule ideas have helped your family today!
As you begin to process through what the best homeschooling schedule will be for you, why not grab these three FREE Homeschool High School Schedule Templates below!
These templates provide a shell for all three different types of schedules. With notes included to guide you in your schedule planning and homeschooling quotes to inspire you along the way, you will be set up for a successful year of homeschooling high school!
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One Response
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