Do you want to know how many hours a day to homeschool? Well, I'm Nicholeen Peck. I'm a
veteran homeschool parent. I speak all over the world at homeschool conferences. And I'm also a
parenting expert. So, I think some of my solutions to how many hours a day you should homeschool
are going to be great for your family as a whole.
Now, I don't know what age child you're homeschooling. Maybe you could write that down
in the chat below. In fact, if you happen to feel like you need something a little bit extra as far
as how many hours your age child might need, be sure to put a comment below and I'll try to watch
for those and answer those comments as I'm able. But really it depends on the age of the child
because certain ages need more time learning than others. The way that I structure my homeschool day
really is based on developmental needs. So, that's the vital thing. It's not really like how many
hours are ticking by on the clock so that you can tell the school, "Oh, yes. We did this many
hours." When you're a homeschooler, you know that every single thing you do in the day can be turned
into a homeschool lesson. I remember when I first started homeschooling, I heard this story about
"How does a homeschooler change a light bulb?" And there was this funny story about "Oh, a light
bulb's out." The whole family looks at the light bulb and just all of a sudden, they study Edison
and the light bulb and how to make a light bulb and what do the watts mean. And then they go to
the store and they plan how much does it take to buy a light bulb, what's a good deal for a light
bulb, which brand is the best. I mean, you could go into the history of the brands. And then they
come back and they talk about safety measures. And they turn off the power, they show the family
where the breakers are in the house. And then finally, they change the light bulb. Anyway, it
could take a whole day to change a light bulb when you're a homeschooler. So, let's not get too hung
up on time frames. But there are some gauges that you probably want to keep in mind. Just for what
the developmental needs are at specific ages. So, let's talk about the developmental needs of the
children. So, when your children are little ages 0 to 4, yes, I start thinking homeschool mindset
even when they're little. Then what they need most is just to be with you all the time. They need to
follow you around and learn from all the things you tell them. They need language development,
they need to learn how to communicate and decipher phrases and sentences and ideas. They need to
learn their opposites, they need to learn good social skills, they need to learn what's right
and wrong, good and bad, true and false. All of these core things that they're going to compare
all the rest of their education to. They also need to learn to work and to play, they're going
to be doing this with you. In fact, those lessons need to be learned you know all the way along. But
especially for ages zero to 8. But 0 to 4 is this key time. And really, if you sat down for like
20 minutes or 15 minutes structured in a day, at that point, that would be plenty. So, I never took
my children to preschools and things like that because I felt like that's just too long for
them. They need to have more time with me learning and getting their hands and things and less seat
time. Now, they do need to learn how to sit still and you can start teaching that at that time. So,
I recommend about 20 minutes of what I call "mom school" that happens when they're at those
little ages. In fact, even into age 5 and 6, you probably could do school for them in under an hour
in a day. So, really, there isn't much. And you could break it up in 15 minute time chunks. Now,
what you're going to find is that if you're excited about learning, then your child's going
to get more excited about learning. Before you know it, you will have thought we only need 1 hour
today and you'll be into it hours because all of a sudden you're building something out of play-doh
to go along with the lesson. And you're just carrying it on into life even more. During the
ages of like 5, 6, 7, 8, the children get really passionate about stuff. So, it's not unusual for
them to hyper-focus on one thing and want to spend a ton of time on it. Maybe they really
get into constructing things with lego or they get into cars or tractors and the parts of machinery
that's very common during those stages. And you want to capitalize on that. Just let them go for
it. Let them really study deep into some of those things. So, by the time your child hits about age
7 or 8, you're going to be probably increasing the time. Now, you can count some of their independent
study time as they're looking through books on swords or books on butterflies or whatever it is
that they happen to be interested in that week. But you also can count your time that you're
working with them. So, maybe you work with them for about one hour in the day. But the rest of
the day, they are digging things, building things, blowing things up, drawing things,
and reading some of their own books. Well, then they're probably going to be doing at least 2
hours a day and probably even up to about 55 or 6 hours a day if they just are really passionate
and really inclined to research and study a little bit more. In fact, all the way along in education,
a person needs to be engaged in research and find that research is good. Because the goal is not
to just stuff everything into them. The goal is for them to learn how to learn which means that
they need to be exploring all of the time and then talking to you about their findings. Now,
we're going to talk about ages 8 to 12. But before we do, I want you to know that at the end of this
video, I've got a bonus. I'm going to tell you what my homeschool day looks like in case that
is something that's interesting to you. Also, one of my secrets to making a great homeschool is that
my whole family knows how to govern themselves. We don't have to fight about math time or school time
because everybody knows basic skills. These basic skills are following instructions, accepting no
answers, accepting consequences, and disagreeing appropriately. We learn these when they're
little. If you want to learn more about these 4 basic skills, go to teachingselfgovernment.com
and you'll be able to learn how I teach self-government at my house. I've got courses,
books,, all kinds of resources that you can use to teach your children these skills which makes
your homeschool day way better. When children are between the ages of 8 and 12, they're
really getting into loving to learn. They've been hyper-focusing on things for a while but now they
start feeling like they want to work on some of their skills too. So, they're still going to keep
hyper-focusing on butterflies or ballet slippers or whatever it is that they're interested in.
But they also are going to spend times going, "I want my handwriting to be just so. Oh, I want to
do this brain teaser, this math problem. I want to get into why is it that bubbles rise to the top of
a glass." You know, or whatever those things are that they're studying in their academic pursuits.
Also, their social pursuits are going to be increasing which means they do still need
lots of family time, time connecting with siblings and they need to have lots of time with mom or dad
or whoever's conducting the teaching for them. But during this time, usually, their attention span
increases. So, they're going to be getting up to probably for sure 5 or 6 hours a day. By the time
they hit 12 years old, they're going to cross over a big milestone and start increasing their hours
of study. If your 8 to 12 year old really can only put in like 3 hours in a day even including their
own personal time before they are just done, then that's okay. You haven't failed there. It just
means that their attention span needs to improve. One of the best ways to improve their attention
span is by reading to them. So ,make sure that you're always doing read alouds every day
and then that child will have the opportunity to sit a little bit longer and think. And then
at the end if you've read for like 45 minutes or an hour, you can say, "You guys, we just sat here
for an hour. And it felt like 5 minutes. Wasn't that amazing?" Let them know they are capable
of sitting longer because sometimes when they have long study sessions, they just lose focus and they
feel like "I can't sit anymore. This is too long. It's too long." Especially between the ages of 8
and 12, that becomes a factor for them. They start overthinking the process of studying and focusing
less on how much they love it which should be their main focus during that time. So, what
about the 12 to 18-year-olds? Now, in our family, by the time they hit age 12 or 18, they really are
focusing on their future. Especially by the time they hit 14. So, maybe 12, they're transitioning
out of this kind of loving to learn phase where they're not really taking their learning totally
seriously. But they're starting to fill in some of the academic pieces that they need. But by
the time they hit 14 usually, especially, they've got a concrete plan for college and for the things
they want to do with their lives. Now, when I say concrete, that doesn't mean it can't ever change.
It just means they have a focus in mind. They want to get married and have a family.
They want to maybe work in this type of a field. They don't have to have all that nailed down,
but some. And then also that they are planning on attending this kind of a school or that they want
to do this type of a project with their lives. Maybe they're engaged in art or something else
that doesn't necessarily require a traditional school track. They're going to start to get those
feelings at those times. But this is the time to grow that breadth of education so that no
matter what they choose, they are prepared for it. So, what is breadth breath means? You know
quite a bit about a lot of things. Instead of just hyper-focused on one thing. In order to get that
breadth, they've got to extend their study time. So, usually, my children who are between the ages
of 12 and 18 study between 6 and sometimes even 12 hours a day. Now, my children usually have started
college when they're 16 or 17 years old. And by the time they start their college studies, they
definitely are putting in like 10 and 12 hours a day. But they still maintain some time for social,
sometimes to do things with family and with their siblings. They have to keep that balance in place.
Sometimes they can throw themselves out of balance with their academics. We need to make sure
that they still have time to connect with the people around them which is so very important
for them and their overall sense of well-being and happiness during those teen years. So, remember,
I promised you a bonus if you stayed here to the end. And that is what my homeschool day looks
like. So, in our family, we've traditionally started the homeschool day at 9:00 am. So,
I get up early and I do my exercise, my own personal study time and kind of get things going
for the day and then we start at 9am. And then we go in mom school time. Even if they're older, they
do some read aloud time with us and we do some devotional time together. We do all of that in the
morning. Sometimes it lasts until 10:30, sometimes it lasts until noon. Usually, the older children
are allowed to leave before that time though. They stick with us for maybe about 1 hour. The youngers
stay with mom all the way up until lunchtime. Once we hit lunch, we have lunchtime and then everyone
tells me what they're going to do for their independent study time. Now, I know the youngers,
independent study time might be legos some days or painting a picture and that's totally fine.
It's developmentally appropriate for them. The olders are going to tell me, "Well, right now,
I'm studying about the Quran and I'm studying about Islam. And I'm finding out where Mecca
is." And you know all these different things and they're putting together pieces. And they're like,
"So, I'm going to be working on that. I'm reading this book or I'm writing a report on the founding
of America. And so, I have been studying these founding fathers and putting together a list of
some of their great attributes that they have that led and contributed to what our country became
at its founding." So, maybe they have a big project that they're working on. Some of them
might be working on a piano piece that they're creating or trying to master for a recital.
They might spend time working on that too. That can all be incorporated into those study hours.
Now, I allow them at the older ages to determine how much study they're going to put in.
They set goals with me each week. During this time, I say, "How many hours do you
think you're going to be putting in and what do you think you're going to be working on?" So,
then they set a goal and at the end of that time frame, we have a time where they report
to me and we see how they've done. And I praise their progress. And we say, "We'll do better on
it next time if we didn't have such a good day." Only about 1 in 10 homeschool days go perfect. So,
remember that. It's okay. You can turn out a great success with one in 10 days going perfect.
Just always know where you're going. That's the most important thing. If you've liked this video,
I'm pretty sure you're going to love my next video which is called Does Homeschooling
Affect Getting into College? In this video, I'll talk about the process that we've gone through
getting into college and what kinds of things you can expect for the good and for the bad.