I'm in Colorado for the Women's Conference, Restoring Tradition. If you want to see my talk, which I think was surprising to many and seemingly well received — and maybe will be a chapter of a book I would like to get started on, about authentic womanhood — you can get the recording (and all the rest too!) here.
Last week I said I'd expand a bit on why your homeschooling week should only be four days. We did talk a little in the comments, but I'll explain it more here.
I recommend schooling Monday through Thursday. When you make your plans for the year, write them in that way, and leave Fridays as a day of catching up, doing some deeper housework together to get ready for a calm weekend, and meeting with friends at a playground or state park (or whatever) in the afternoon.
If you schedule every day, you'll soon feel burned out. There are days when someone (or everyone) is sick. Sometimes a lesson just takes longer, and that can feel like pressure or it can be an opportunity to, well, take your time! Why not? Well, if you don't have a pressure-valve, that extra day, you won't be able to.
It's important not to imagine school as a place where the schedule is barreling along, with high-quality learning happening every day from the minute the children walk in the door until the minute they leave, because if we all remember our days there, we know it's not true.
If you homeschooled and really don't know, go ask a teacher. Believe me, they watch videos. They take extra days to cover material that is stumping some kids. They go on field trips. They sometimes give the kids free time to do whatever they want!
And by the way, even each day is not about maximum performance! A good deal of school is spent getting from point A to point B. Since these days children aren't disciplined to respond and obey and teachers aren't allowed to punish, teachers have to build in time for coaxing, explaining, and generally dragging the kids to do the simplest things.
So at home, you are accomplishing things at a much greater rate than you think. If you look at the texts used in schools, you will see that the first few chapters are review and the last few chapters are either somewhat tangential material that doesn't need to be included or material for the following year.
If you remember how it was, you never got to those last chapters. Thinking about math books… I don't know, but we just never got there!
So relax.
You really can fit a public school day into an hour or two at home, and a public school week into four days, for sure. Homeschool has so many wonderful rabbit holes and opportunities and especially a large family has much to do; it's important to leave time for all the things.
I have a friend who worked for a landscaping company when he was younger. He told me that the owner, who was quite successful, always designated Fridays, at least the afternoons, not for the client but for his own site, where he had the men wash down the trucks, repair equipment, and tend to things that had fallen through the cracks during the week. Sometimes he had them spend a few hours on his own yard!
I thought about how important a habit that really is for all of us. We simply can't schedule every day to keep our noses at the grindstone! You'll have a calmer week, weekend, and year if you don't make Friday a full school day.
I'm on the run, so no links this week, but don't miss my other blog and the podcast!
follow us everywhere! share us with your friends!
Here is my affiliate link to my Amazon page — the only affiliate thing that goes on here on LMLD, which is why the page loads quickly and you don’t have to keep closing pop-ups etc! Thank you for opening it and shopping if you are so minded — as some have asked me. If not, don’t worry one bit!
My book, The Summa Domestica: Order and Wonder in Family Life is available from Sophia Press! Also in paperback now! All the thoughts from this blog collected into three volumes, beautifully presented with illustrations from Deirdre, an index in each volume, and ribbons!
My “random thoughts no pictures” blog, Happy Despite Them has moved over to Substack! — receive it by email if you like, or bookmark, so you don’t miss a thing! The old one is still up if you want to look at the comments on past posts. It will take me a while to get things organized, but you'll be patient, I know!
There you will find the weekly podcast done by Phil and me, called On the Home Front. Do let us know what you think!
My podcast, The Home Truths Society, can be found on the Restoration of Christian Culture website (and you can find it where you listen to such things) — be sure to check out the other offerings there!
Stay abreast of the posts here at LMLD, when they happen:
Consider subscribing to this blog by email. We would love to pop into your inbox! The subscription box is on this page on the sidebar!
We share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram, Rosie’s Instagram, Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow)
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest
Annie says
A four day homeschool week is a really intriguing idea. In my state, the ONLY regulation for homeschoolers is that we must have 180 days of instruction. So, if I do four day weeks, I would need to teach 45 weeks a year instead of 36. That doesn’t leave much space for a true summer and Christmas/fall/spring breaks. Do you have any thoughts on whether you would still recommend this in that situation? I know you’ve talked about how important you think it is to have a real summer.
Erica says
I have long done the 4 regular days of school and Fridays are a light day. I agree that it is a good method and allows me time to attend to weekly chores (like catching up on planning the next weekk, meal planning, and shopping). We do any weekly quizzes, and catch up work, and math that day, so (while it may seem like gaming the system) I absolutely count it as a day of school with virtually no compuntction. 🙂
Elizabeth says
As a former teacher, this is often what happens in school too. Fridays are a quiz day (which even the shortest 5 question quiz can take about 15-20 minutes to wait for the entire class to complete).
Michelle says
There were lots of great comments about this issue in last week’s post. In homeschooling, learning can happen anywhere and everywhere. If Friday is your chore day, call it home ec class – then you still have a five day week. Or, if you go to the park, it’s physical education or science class.
The 4 day week changed my homeschool so much! We rarely finished anything when I did 5 days a week. But switching to 4 days, now we sometimes/often complete my lesson plans. It’s so helpful knowing I have a day to make those calls to the insurance company or go shopping or whatever, so I can focus on school the other 4 days.
Dixie says
Friday is still a school day. It’s just for other things besides the regular desk work. It is for art projects, adventures, home ec, shop, field trips, birdwatching, extracurriculars…you can definitely still count it.
B. says
We take it easy on Friday, and I certainly still count it as a school day.
Elle says
Annie, I might not be so strict as to what qualifies for hours “teaching.” That’s the sort of absurd thing about “required hours” anyway: Are you cleaning together? Home ec. Are you working in the yard and discussing plants? Science. Are you mediating sibling rivalry? Good citizenship. Talking about grandparents? History. Cooking? Chemistry. And on and on. And if you’re following Auntie Leila’s advice with nature walks and field trips, then that certainly counts. A busy, productive home is far more educational than we give credit for — so I would be gentle on myself if I were you of what qualifies as “school time” or not. (Of course within reason and you obviously know if it’s really just a day “off.”)
Annie says
I think there is so much to be said for this, even/especially as the children get older and more advanced in their studies. There is a meme out there among those of my age (mid 30s/millenial) of “they taught us about the mitochondria being the powerhouse of the cell, but they didn’t teach us how to file our taxes” or whatever practical, real-world skill. This knowledge, of how a real household works and what is really required to live in the world as an adult, is valuable, and by and large it is not being conveyed in all those years of 180 classroom days.
Carol says
As a former elementary school teacher (public and private) and a veteran homeschooler I can tell you that there is a lot of time spend in school just getting from place to place, as Leila says. I used to call it crowd control—so much time and energy on controlling the crowd and getting them all in the same spot—whether physically or mentally (as much as possible). I think homeschooling is more akin to tutoring—no one schedules a 6 hour tutoring session. 30 minutes or an hour depending on the age. As a homeschooler you are tutoring your kids and shepherding them through teaching themselves. We always had Friday for social, practical, catch up or just for fun—all of that also counts as school!
Ellen says
Another former teacher turned homeschool mom. It used to drive me batty how often regular classes were interrupted for programs, special events, and other things. In the school year, it seemed we rarely had a full week of a normal schedule.
I live in a zero regulation state for homeschool so i do wonder, what is the oversight for families in other states? The state school board certainly doesn’t care about my child’s mind and soul growth as i do, so i wouldn’t worry about proving it all to an auditor, if my husband and I are satisfied with our children’s progress.
Katie says
Not quite what you’re saying but we have Wednesday as our break day— in nice weather we always do our nature walk and nature journaling, in the winter we often go to the conservatory or a museum. If it rains or just happens that Friday is looking like nicer weather, we can switch it easily but then our week feels soooo long! I really love our midweek break and having consistent nature study. I protect it fervently! (Friday often ends up being a bit lighter even so, and we live in the same neighborhood as a lot of other Catholic homeschoolers so my kids still get plenty of social time)
Just another idea to consider 😊
Anita says
This reminds me of when my mom was a little girl in Limburg (southern part of the Netherlands quite different culturally from the rest), everyone took a break from school or work on Wednesday afternoons. It was with the idea to catch up on household duties. They did sometimes work or go to school on Saturday mornings to make up for it though. It is not like that now, but my mom felt that she had a “medieval” childhood in many ways.
Dixie says
Such good advice, especially for elementary school! I always try, too, to make sure there is one day in the week that is kept free of extracurricular commitments, appointments, etc. so that we can do a field trip or something special if we’d like to (or just have a restorative day at home). If everything is tightly scheduled, it’s hard to respond to the needs of the particular week. So it’s good to have a plan for where you will adjust when you inevitably need to adjust.
I would also advise thinking about things like when you will need to go to the grocery store when designing your homeschooling and extracurricular schedule. Don’t fill everything so tightly that you don’t have space for 1-2 regular, predictable trips to the store, plus wiggle room for needed to go unexpectedly on occasion! When the kids are young, it’s easy to fit this into the mornings, as school only takes a couple of hours. But as they get older and your days become more full, you’ll thank yourself for blocking off time for errands so that you don’t have to do them regularly at 9:30 at night!
Erin says
Do you happen to remember where you got the icon in the upper left corner of your picture – the one with the tree – and what it is called? It is stunning!
I also do the four day a week home school. My older kids do sometimes do work on that day, but they schedule themselves so it is up to them. I just give them the list of assignments for the week and schedule anything they have to do with me or a sibling (like history discussions). The littles do nothing unless we didn’t get to something during the week. It makes a huge difference as far as pressure to get things done. If there is a holy day in the middle of the week I shift it around so that is the light day.
I also take a shorter summer break and then take random a few weeks off in the fall and spring. It is kind of the same concept as a four day week in that it allows me to tackle anything major that needs done, as well as to get out to our favorite hiking spot a few times.
Mrs. Bee says
I don’t know where our hostess got the icon, but that’s a Root of Jesse/Tree of Jesse icon. It doesn’t seem to be a common subject, they are very hard to find. Often there is Mary at the center, holding Our Lord. If you cannot find a real one to buy, you can adopt the shortcut Auntie Leila and David Clayton suggest in The Little Oratory – go with a paper version. Clayton provided several illustrations of his own icons and invited the readers to simply tear them off the book and use them at home. I’ve gone beyond this and even printed images of icons off the internet: I make sure the printer has plenty of ink and use the best printing setting, then I glue the print to wood boards of matching size that I find at Michael’s. I know it’s “cheating” and it’s not a real icon and an Orthodox would likely be horrified… But now my little oratory is graced by two very beautiful images of twin icons of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart that are very dear to me, I have no regrets!
Katrina says
Orthodox Christians wouldn’t say that’s “not a real icon”! Some myrrh-streaming icons are prints/reproductions, so a paper icon is certainly valid. The question is copyright/respect/etc. if you’re getting it off the internet, and there are circumstances where I’m sure that must be acceptable (plus a lot of gray areas).
Erin says
Thanks!
Marie says
My husband has only Mondays off, so we’re planning to try Tuesday through Friday school. Not exactly what you’ve explained, but I guess Saturday can be that Friday release for us.
Kathleen L. says
Yes to all you said! I found that homeschooling 4 days a week with Fridays off opening up more opportunities for, Mass, field trips, catch up or snow days or sunshine outside days was the best idea ever!!! Helped prevent burnout for both me and the kiddos!
Katie says
Oh, we’re just doing things all sort of wrong over here at our house 😆 We sort of default to doing 5 days a week. Tuesday is usually for co-op, so I don’t even know if I should count that, actually. If something fun pops up during the week I have no issue skipping a day for it. We follow the “do the next thing” type of plan, so it’s fairly easy to pick up where we left off. We also do school year-round, so that we can take breaks (or at least lighten the load) when it’s nice in the spring & fall. We definitely don’t stress over finishing a curriculum in a set amount of time, which I think is really the underlying cause of a lot of stress for homeschoolers. There’s been some curricula we didn’t finish at all, actually 😂 We use what works, while it works, and if it doesn’t suit needs we don’t force ourselves to suffer through it.
Mary says
This is me! Tuesday co-op which is very academic at the parish but I consider it enrichment because my kids love it, they get to see their friends, they get catechism with our priests, play soccer, music class, etc. It’s a lot of work bringing all the kids but they all love it. We try to squeeze in the rest of our homeschool during the week. If it doesn’t get done, I don’t sweat it though.
Mary Keane says
Right here on the brink of another school year, I’m rethinking just about everything I so conscientiously prayed a novena about and then typed out as far as scheduling goes. We have our eldest boy going to high school this year, and for sanity’s sake we need to key our schedule to his. I had planned on a Friday light day, but in fact we will start a co-op every other week in mid-September for which I am teaching a class, so guaranteed I’m not going to want to come home and bust out a chunk of housecleaning on those afternoons. My son in school has a number of random Mondays off for civic holidays and teacher in-services. So it might make more sense for Monday to be the catch-up day!
Spooz says
We average three days a week year round, with a 6yo, 4yo and 2yo. We live in the UK so have no requirements like 180 days. Some weeks we do five or even six days, some weeks it’s one or two. Mostly it’s three with an outing on a fourth day and maybe someone coming to us on a fifth day. We just do whatever the next thing is – we don’t follow a scheduled curriculum. So there is no ahead or behind! I like that a lot! We are always perfectly “on time” 🙂 We take random time off round the year as needed rather than following school term times.
But I already find that there are so many good opportunities that it would be so easy to overschedule us. I have been invited to join two different committed homeschool co ops, we go to a monthly Catholic homeschool drop in and a fortnightly local one. We have memberships at two different museums that we try to visit every month. Facebook is awash with special workshops and classes. I am being badgered to sign the big uns up for regular swimming lessons. And we just plain have friends that we’d like to see!
I’m trying fervently to keep a lid on it all to keep myself from burning out before we’ve even really started.
My husband floated the idea of piano lessons the other day and I gave him a death stare and said “NO.” He was, understandably, taken aback and thought it would take some work off my plate to have someone come in to teach the kids something. I pointed out that I would have to find the piano teacher, schedule the lessons, make sure we were all home, make sure the little ones didn’t disturb the lesson, pay the teacher, make the children practice on the other days… He got the point!
It’s really hard to protect our free time at home, and sometimes it seems ungrateful to turn down all these opportunities, but whenever the children have extended free time at home they end up doing all sorts of wonderful things. My 4yo has been making up dances for her and the 2yo that tell stories. They have all been on a colouring craze and my 6yo has suddenly exhibited design sense in his colour choices. My 4yo has also taken up flower arranging (weeds from our garden in jam jars). My 6yo read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in about 24h. They found some cardboard in the recycling and drew on it to make their own “computers” with buttons that do different things and different sections on the screen – gardening, books, clothes, pets. I was relieved to find out what they think we do on the computer! They make train scenery out of Lego.
I desperately don’t want to destroy all of that just to feel like we’re “doing something”, and I’m so grateful for this corner of the internet that appreciates “doing nothing” as a higher good for children.
Anitra says
It sounds like you’re doing the right thing! I remember getting pulled into all the “shoulds” when my kids were that little – swim lessons, drama, karate, Bible club… it was unsustainable. It felt like we were never home!
There’s plenty of opportunity for them to take formal classes when they’re a bit older. We started piano lessons when my youngest kids were 7 & 10. My oldest was a little annoyed she didn’t get the same opportunity, but she had taught herself piano at that point and moved on to learning other instruments with instruction at school.
Anitra says
As someone who homeschooled one kid while the others were in public school – you absolutely do not need to take a full day, 5 days a week, as long as your kid is motivated to learn.
We had to stick with the public school schedule and had to say no to a lot of fun field trips with our co-op (because I had to be back in time to pick up my other kids). But even though it was “the worst of both worlds” in some ways, it was still absolutely do-able. My son at home usually finished his academic work in about two hours. It left plenty of time for learning hands-on skills (like baking – he learned to make a fantastic sandwich bread. Mine doesn’t even compare!) and just daydreaming and creating, like kids should!