“How do I create a homeschool schedule?” This is the number one question I am asked by families who are considering homeschooling or who are just starting to homeschool. Heck, I ask my homeschooling friends this question now, because I am genuinely curious how home educating families spend their days and balance their time.

Before I began homeschooling I can recall spending hours on this question myself. Pouring over blogs and PDFs for download in an effort to find the perfect homeschool schedule for our family.

It was quite confusing and overwhelming at times. There were block schedules and loop schedules. There were no schedules at all! Which was right for us? Which schedule would maximize productivity, minimize frustration, and facilitate joy in our homeschool?

Which homeschool schedule would offer us the structure that we need to stay organized and have some predictably to our days, while also allowing for some flexibility when life inevitably happens? 

It seemed that every time I designated a specific time for a specific task or subject, something would pop up and throw us off course; a teething nap refusing baby, a broken appliance, a sick child or pet, or a lengthy phone conversation relating to any number of those issues.

I felt like I’d failed before I even began. The feeling of failure stemming from a deep fear of not being equipped to give my children the education they deserved was stressful and at times all consuming. 

If I couldn’t even create and stick to a schedule, how was I ever going to homeschool successfully?

I don’t quite know how it happened but one day I simply let go of the beautiful color coded schedules I’d found online. I tossed my pdf printables and I decided to take a different approach. 

How to Create a Homeschool Schedule or Daily Rhythm That is Unique to Your Family’s Needs.

Rather than looking at what everyone else was doing with their families I decided to consider my family. What were MY children’s personalities and needs? What were MY needs? What did WE need to THRIVE? I observed how our days flowed naturally and fashioned a daily rhythm around all of these considerations and it truly changed everything.

You’ll notice that I used the phrase daily rhythm rather than homeschool schedule and that is because I found that for our family, having a daily rhythm was much better than having a homeschool schedule. 

A homeschool schedule felt rigid and stressful. A daily rhythm felt flexible but still structured enough. 

A daily rhythm allows us to do all the things we need to do but also gives us the freedom to decide when to do them and that’s really the fundamental difference between the two. 

A homeschool schedule is exactly as it sounds,  you allot specific times for specific task.

With a daily rhythm you may have a plan for your days/weeks but it’s not necessarily time specific.

How to Create a Homeschool Schedule or Daily Rhythm That is Intentional.

For our family, joy in homeschooling is a priority so I keep that at the forefront when considering how our days learning at home might look. 

Having a daily rhythm has also given us the freedom to engage more deeply with our work and with one another as we are not beholden to a ticking clock. One of the many beautiful aspects of home education is time. Time for questions, creativity, and sharing our thoughts and feelings with one another. Time to dive in more deeply with our children and discover those wonderful pearls of wisdom and insight we might have otherwise missed had we moved on because, “it’s been 30 minutes and we need to start math.”

Some of our most brilliant and cherished moments homeschoolng have happened long past the time I had allotted for a specific activity. I have finished books with my children when I only intended to read a chapter or two and instead ended up reading eight. That happened very recently actually and it was glorious and so sweet! I love that we have that freedom and that we are able to be so flexible but it takes some intentionality to get there.

I understand that there may be days where time constrains are a reality. We can’t always sit on the couch and read for hours on end. Homeschooling isn’t our only obligation. There is also the meeting of legal requirements for homeschooling in your state. Here is a link to the HSLDA website with that information if you are curious what your state’s requirements are. https://hslda.org/legal.

So I understand the desire and even the necessity to have some sort of plan, I simply want to be an encouragement that it doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s plan and it doesn’t have to be rigid. If having a homeschool schedule is not working for your family or is causing you undo stress, that does not mean that you cannot successfully homeschool your children or meet your state’s academic requirements. You absolutely can, with creativity and intentionality you can create a daily rhythm that accomplishes all of your goals.

If you are concerned that a daily rhythm may be “too lax,” or if you are worried that you and/or your children lack the discipline to get the work done unless you plan out specific times to do it, or if the thought of not having a set schedule gives you anxiety, that is ok, “know thyself” and then determine what your family’s needs are. The beautiful thing is that as homeschoolers we get to decide.

How to Create a Homeschool Schedule or Daily Rhythm: Consider Your Motivations and Your Goals for Home Education.

I really encourage thoughtfulness and prayer when determining how you will spend your days home educating your children. For me, feeling the NEED to create the perfect homeschool schedule was the result of fear. Fear that I was going to fail my children if we didn’t start Language Arts promptly at 9:00am, following my perfectly curated Morning Basket. 

I don’t want to homeschool or parent for that matter from a place of fear. When I am fearful that transfers onto my children. I am less patient and I am less kind. The children are aware of this. They in turn become anxious as well; which affects their cognitive processes and inhibits their working memory; which is obviously counter productive to learning.

Below is an article from Edutopia which discusses how fear affects our working memory. Knowing this information has helped me to be that much more intentional about our homeschool experience. I want to be sure that I am providing my children with an abundant education, one that is in line with their development and is presented in a way that helps them to engage fully in a pleasant environment with a peaceful and loving parent. Fear does not serve us. It does not serve our relationships, and it will not bear fruit in our homes or homeschools. Using fear and control is not the way our children learn best. Here is that article. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/the-science-of-fear-ainissa-ramirez

More importantly, 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear. I believe that God has called me to motherhood and to home education so I trust that HE who began this work in me and placed this conviction on my heart will see me through. God gave me these children and this family to steward, so while I can certainly draw inspiration and encouragement from other families, I must consider what my family’s unique needs are first. Trying to fit someone else’s mold by force will not yield positive results.

How to Create a Homeschool Schedule or Daily Rhythm That is Both Joyful and Productive.

For our family, a successful homeschool week is not measured solely by how many items we cross off our to do list, how many boxes we check, or how many pages we turn.

Homeschooling success for us means joy, connection, freedom, creativity and peace. Productivity can absolutely be a part of this. Joy and productivity are not mutually exclusive, despite the pervasive narrative. 

What a lovely thing to sow into our children. In a culture that seems to value output above all else.  What an awesome opportunity to flip the script and to say, that “there is more to success than simply how much we are able to accomplish or manufacture at the end of our days and weeks. That the process and the experience also matter; that learning can be enjoyable, and that rigor is not necessary in order to provide our children with a solid education.”

Our experience with creating a simple daily rhythm has been that we have been happier and more productive, academically and otherwise. For me personally, the looming stress of a time specific schedule was stifling. Our days simply did not flow so we actually got less done which may be surprising to hear.

I am including some tips below for creating your own homeschool schedule or daily rhythm and including a sample of what our days look like currently in the Summer. Our rhythm does change with the seasons both the literal and the figurative seasons of life. I have found that to be such an incredible benefit to having a daily rhythm over a homeschool schedule because it offers us the freedom to ebb and to flow as needed with our environment and our circumstances at the time. Having a daily rhythm has been liberating in more ways than one for our family but of course, every family must consider their own unique needs and circumstances.

Tips for Creating a Homeschool Schedule or Daily Rhythm.

Observe: What is the natural rhythm or flow of your days? Are you typically more productive and/or alert in the mornings or afternoons? What is the weather like presently? If getting outdoors is a priority for your family, when is the best time of day to do that? Do you have little ones who nap? Would utilizing nap times to do homeschool with your other children be something to consider? Or is that time needed for work, household responsibilities, or for you to have some quiet time? What obligations do you have outside of the home? 

Consider: What you would like your homeschool days to feel like? How do you want your children to experience home education academically, emotionally, spiritually, and otherwise? If homeschooling means more than just academics (which I believe is the case for many families, especially as we progress in our homeschool journey) how do we ensure that we are living out our days in alignment with our values?  This is one of the most fundamental underpinnings of The Heart Centered Homeschool. Choosing to be more intentional with our families in homeschool and in home life and making choices around that intentionality. 

Be creative: There are innumerable ways to achieve the goals you have for your children’s education. There is no one size fits all formula because every family is special and unique. Let go of comparison. Find what what works for you and your children. What serves your family and what doesn’t? This will undoubtably take some trial and error and that is ok. We can learn alongside our children. We can model creativity and flexibility for them as we learn and we can also model grace when it’s needed; yet another blessing of this beautiful and abundant lifestyle. We are not just providing a sound academic education but also and dare I say more importantly, nurturing souls and training up our children’s character which must be taken into prayerful consideration when creating a homeschool schedule or daily rhythm for our families.

Be encouraged: All this to say that it is not entirely up to us mamas. The Lord sanctifies us through this experience of mothering and of homeschooling and we in turn have great influence over our children’s growth and development but God is truly sovereign over all of it so keep your eyes fixed on Him. Train your children up in the way they should go and trust in the Lord with all your heart. For His plans are greater than our own.

Proverbs 16:9 says We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.

I personally find great comfort in that. I hope this was encouraging.

Summer School: A Sample of Our Current Daily Rhythm.

We start our mornings tending to the garden and the chickens. The children collect eggs, water the backyard flock and the garden, harvest veggies, cut flowers and pull weeds.

They play while I cook breakfast. 

I call them to the table after they’ve washed their hands and we enjoy our meal together. I read to them. Usually a picture book or three!  We love utilizing the resources from Read Aloud Revival.  https://readaloudrevival.com. We’ve discovered some of our favorite books and authors there. I recommend her website, podcast and the books she’s written to all homeschooling families. Reading over meals is a great way to cover a myriad of subjects. We cover a lot of History, Social Studies, Science, Bible and Poetry at the table. People ask me often, “how do I get my children to sit quietly while I read aloud?” My advice, “Give them food!”

After our meal and our reading is done; the children run off to make beds, brush teeth, and get dressed for the day. I may ask them to help feed the indoor pets or do another small chore if needed. 

I clean the kitchen, start laundry and take a quick shower. If there is any business pertaining to the household I try to handle it then. 

After this, I really pour into my youngest. He’s newly 5 and is just expressing some interest in more formal learning. He and I may read some more books, play with a literacy kit from our library ( these are backpacks filled with books and activities pertaining to a certain subject or theme.)  We count trains, trucks, buttons, or blocks, we sort objects, play store or pizza shop, play with play doh or paint. He also has a Pre K curriculum we do a few times per week and he loves to write in his Scholastic Wipe Clean Workbook https://amzn.to/3m9UxHD. I buy the big pack of Expo Dry Erase Markers so he has a variety of colors to choose from. https://amzn.to/3z2bICo. Sometimes they’re markers, other times they are fashioned together to make a Lightsaber! Either way, he’s having fun!

I have found I have a much easier and quieter time homeschooling my oldest (twins) once I have really filled my little one’s tank. At this point he has already been outside, had a meal with the family, had some one on one time with me, and played with his siblings while I did what I needed to do. He is now much more content to play on his own and let us start our work.

After he’s set up with an activity, the twins join me in the school room. They do a couple of neat pages of handwriting or some copy work. 

Once handwriting is complete we begin our Language Arts lesson, Math follows and finally we loop (or rotate) our other subjects throughout the week. One day the children do Social Studies, another day Science. We do Art Study and Poetry Study as well.  We also have Geography Notebooks we work in and we read devotionals and scripture.

We read from our Chapter book and do some informal narration. The children will naturally go into some type of art, craft, play doh or Lego activity while I read.

We have lunch and then the children practice their instruments and do their personal reading. They are participating in our local library’s Summer Reading Challenge which is so fun and such a great incentive for them to read even more. They also have journals they write in, though it’s not a daily practice. 

We usually get back outside again in the afternoon to exercise and to play or we go to the pool.

The kids like to play educational board games, card games, chess, or with Bananagrams https://amzn.to/3xxUdc7 while I prepare dinner. Following dinner- it’s baths, bedtime reading and finally lights out.

We do have days we are out of the house mornings or afternoons for Co-op , Music lessons, Forest and Farm School, Park days with friends or Ballet so our rhythm shifts; but ultimately our days look mostly the same. Schooling year round affords us even more flexibility and free time for play and creative endeavors.

For us, simplicity is key. The grand plans left me feeling overwhelmed and inadequate. Creating a sustainable and flexible daily rhythm with plenty of margin has really helped us to obtain a joyful and productive homeschool that is true to our academic, social, emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual goals.

How do you plan your homeschool? Do you have a homeschool schedule or daily rhythm? How has it changed overtime? I would love to hear from you in the comments. There is so much creativity, wisdom and encouragement to be found in the homeschool community. As always, I am truly honored to be in this with you.

I have created this space because I genuinely want to encourage families to take a heart centered approach to their homeschools but that does not mean that my way, is THE way. While I love sharing our experiences in home education, I also love gleaning from your experiences and valuable insight as well.

I look forward to hearing from you!

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.