Up until now we have always gone by the five day a week school model. Mainly because I felt pressure to. It’s so easy for us to feel like we need to do five days a week because that’s what public school does. As we continue down our homeschool journey however, I am learning to let go of the traditional school model more and more. One of the ways I’m learning to let go is in the area of scheduling our school into four days a week.
Less stress with a four day week
The biggest reason I’m making the switch is to lighten up my load. When I felt I needed to do five full days of school it was like there was this pressure to perform. Pressure put on myself by myself. There is no rule after all that our homeschooled children must have school five days a week (in Minnesota anyway).
I also noticed that there were some classes I don’t need to do everyday to get through the curriculum. The couple classes that do require five days of school to complete the curriculum have shorter lessons per class. This means it’s really easy to slip two lessons in one day and we won’t be behind.
The household chores, and the time required to work from home were mounting. There are so many hours in the day and I was constantly stressed trying to fit it all in everyday. The solution to less stress, shorten the school week!
Opportunity to Teach Life Skills
Like I said, there are some classes I was already only doing four days a week anyway. I will not be reducing Grasshopper’s education by shortening up our school week. In fact, shortening the school week means I will have more opportunities to teach life skills on our “day off”.
When we were on a five day a week schedule, I was so hurried to get everything done. I wasn’t taking the time to teach Grasshopper any of these things. Things like how to load the dishwasher, sweep the floor (without missing anything), fold laundry…. you get the idea. Now by having a day set aside when I don’t need to worry about getting all of our school subjects in, I can take the time to teach him these life skills. His future wife will thank me.
Opportunity to do More Activities
Shortening our school week to four days means we can use the fifth day for all the extra fun activities we wouldn’t have time for otherwise. More time for nature walks, homeschool group activities, play games, go on field trips, do all those fun pinterest projects you have pinned. The possibilities are endless! Use the time for some delight directed learning.
Recently we went ice skating (ok I watched) with our homeschool group. We were able to go and I didn’t for a moment worry about how we could do the activity and still squeeze school into our day. He had a blast skating with kids, and I had the opportunity to talk with other homeschool moms.
I’m starting to think Grasshopper’s education will be more rounded by going to a four day school week.
How many days of school do you do each week?
I agree teaching kiddos how to do housework is also important. I love the idea of a 4 day week for Homeschool.
Me too, my son thinks it’s the best idea ever too 🙂
I love that homeschooling gives us the freedom to do what works best for our families! Yay, for 4 day weeks!
Exactly!
The best thing about homeschooling IS throwing that old school model out the window! Kudos to you for finding what works for your family, right where you are.
So True Jackie! Thanks.
Sounds like that will work really well for you! We tend to school 5 days a week but almost always have one day that’s a field trip or includes get togethers with others. Often we do 5 shortened days and include some errands and housework in and around our schoolwork. I just love the freedom we have!
Yes, I don’t think we could give up our homeschooling freedom!
Yes, a four day week rocks! We have done so in the past & loved it. We moved again to a five day week this year to accommodate for shorter days due to driving my older boys around with soccer. Going to reevaluate it b/c I miss having that extra day! Thanks for sharing:)
I actually do 3 1/2 days because #life. Thanks so much for linking up at #familyfriday we appreciate it! We hope you come back next week.
Thanks Jen! 3 1/2 days sounds good too, especially since we know they’re really learning every day
We homeschooled four days a week for a couple of years when my first group of kids were younger, then we went to 4 days with a science co-op on Fridays- and we did that for years too. Fridays have always been more of a flex day- even now with two high schoolers. We just can’t commit to all day on Fridays! 🙂
it’s so nice to have that flex day isn’t it!