Who Actually Has Time to Homeschool for 6 Hrs/Day?

Most adults today have grown up with the public education model as their foundation of what schooling is supposed to look like. So it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone when people scoff at the idea of homeschooling with the reasoning that they would never  have time to homeschool for 6-7 hrs/day.

Well, guess what? Neither do I.

In fact, most homeschooling parents are far too busy with life than to spend that large chunk of time teaching their kids everyday.

So how much time does homeschooling take? 

That depends on who you ask. Some people take just a couple of hours, while some may take 4 or 5 hours on formal learning. Others may tell you that it takes no time at all because it simply blends in with the rest of their lives.

The point is that it’s up to the parents and sometimes the children to decide how long it takes. Comparing the amount of time kids spend in brick and mortar schools with the time spent on at-home learning is really like comparing apples and oranges.

It’s important to remember that children who attend traditional schools may spend 6 hrs/day there, but they certainly aren’t learning for all that time. The task of managing such a large number of students in each class is an arduous one, and it takes time. Time for things such as:

• Waiting for all students to arrive and be seated
• Taking role call
• Finding out who is buying lunch and who has packed
• Morning announcements
• Passing out books
• Passing out papers and corrected homework assignments
• Disciplinary issues
• Classroom distractions
• Bathroom breaks
• Changing classes
• Waiting for other students to finish classroom assignments
• Lunch time
• Going over homework assignments
• Collecting homework and other activities
• Collecting books at the end of the day
• Packing backpacks and retrieving jackets

I know this is far from everything that goes on, but just by reading over these, it should be very clear that there isn’t much time left for actual teaching, is there?

I came across an interesting post by a former educator who calculated how much time is spent actively learning in school by deducting time for the sorts of things listed above, and guess how much time she’s concluded is actually spent on actual learning out of 6 hrs and 15 minutes/day?

51 minutes. 51 minutes/day out of 6 hrs and 15 minutes!

So while the average student is in school for hours and hours everyday, they could do the same amount of school work at home in 51 minutes.

Is it any wonder that homeschooling goes faster?

Not only does homeschooling afford us the freedom from majority of the distractions of school, but one of the best parts about it is that when your child has completed an activity, they can move on. There is no busy work while waiting for other students to complete their assignments.

Spelling done in 10 minutes? Check.

Math done in 20? Check.

Finished that science experiment in 15 minutes? Check.

Do you get the picture? And, in all honesty, if this educator’s calculations are correct about the 51 minutes, most homeschoolers are doing far more than their peers in school.

So, those people are right. Who has time to homeschool for 6 hrs/day?

That’s just plain silly.