Wouldn’t it be great if someone just wrote out a daily homeschooling schedule you could follow for your first week? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could follow a home education routine that was simple and easy – a written out daily plan you could look at each day?

Well, that’s exactly what we’re aiming to do here for a week…just long enough to get you on your feet.

We will give you a detailed schedule for your first week of homeschooling and you can follow it!

But, this homeschooling schedule is only a guide, and you should really be looking into what best suits your family in terms of home education philosophy, methods and so on. 

In a nutshell, you’ll find on this page:

• A Schedule for Your First Week of Home Schooling
• What about Homeschooling Registration?
• Thought about a Theme in Week 1?

Let’s get started!

Week 1 of homeschooling can be a bit intimidating. But, it doesn’t have to be. If you follow a schedule, using either a paid or free curriculum (see Is A Free Curriculum Rubbish?), your first week won’t be so intimidating!

To make sure you get a good headstart, make sure you’ve done a little homework and picked an approach to home education and set down your philosophy and values.

You can then look at buying a curriculum or getting one for free. Of course, there are pros and cons to each of these decisions.

For now, let’s get started!

Week 1: Year 1 Homeschooling Schedule

Things to Know About This Homeschooling Schedule

• ~ (FRIDAY) Think about doing only four days of formal education if you or your children are finding things overwhelming. Just squish your compulsory subjects into four days!

*(SATURDAY) You shouldn’t worry about homeschooling, but there is a place here to list regular events. i.e. if your son plays soccer or cricket on Saturday, you might mark off that he has completed his Personal Development, Health and Physical Education subject for the week.

**It’s good to do maths in the morning as kids are fresh – perhaps not first thing in the morning, but somewhere after 10:30ish if that works.

***Reading and Handwriting and Spelling are often called ‘Language Arts’. So, if you hear the term, you know what they’re talking about!

^I would encourage a lot of Church history here also.

^^Now that all the compulsory subjects are out of the way, you can put optional subjects in. Some optional subjects are:

• Nature Walk (~2 days a week)… See Video below
• Hymn Study (~2 days a week)
• Foreign Languages (~2 days a week)
• Picture Study (~1 day a week)
• Music Study (~1 day a week) – this is different to learning to play an instrument. It’s more focused on learning about the piece or artist.
• Craft or Art (~1 day a week).
• Community service (~1 day a week)

If you’re not sure what you need to teach (what is compulsory to teach), check with the education department in your state.

Often, they will have a lot of information on the specifications.

Depending on your children, you can choose to skip the optional subjects outlined in the afternoon and just do life.

Or you could put an optional subject in as outlined. Don’t forget, the plan is flexible and very open to being changed!

The other option is to only homeschool for four days of the week. You could squish all the compulsory subjects into four days and go from there.

You might find this better, especially if you’re finding things overwhelming.

What about Homeschooling Registration?

Sometimes you don’t need to register your child until they are a bit older, so legally you wouldn’t be required to formally teach them until you are legally required to register.

For example, NSW only requires a parent to register their children if they turn five-years-old on or before July 31^st. So, really you’re looking at not having to register until they are five and a half.

In Pennsylvania, you don’t have to register your child until they are 8-years-old. So, check with your state.

Registering as late as you can is a good move because there’s a plethora of research saying we should be starting our children off with fewer hours of formal education and we should be starting them later in life.

Thought about a Theme in Week 1?

A homeschooling theme is a good idea to set at the beginning of your first week. Some home schools like to use a theme because it adds variety to their routine, and gives them a direction with generic content.

For example, when you go to the library you might look up books about astronauts if your theme for the month is a space theme.

Hurrah for Week 1!

Conclusion: How to Make a Homeschool Schedule

Starting homeschooling can be quite intimidating. For many parents, the thought of setting up a routine or schedule is terrifying. However, if we just get started, and dive into planning, it will seem more manageable. I suspect every home educating parent starts out feeling like this. However, as they get to know what they need to do (perhaps through trial and error), they become more confident and their home school gets better. I don’t know if this schedule will work for your family perfectly, but it’s a starting point and hopefully, it gives you more confidence to change it according to your family’s needs.