Starting the homeschool day is always tricky because it involves, well, waking up and getting out of that warm, fuzzy bed! Should you let your kids sleep in, or start bright and early with an alarm clock? Our family has been waking up for homeschool for over 15 years, so I’ve tried both ways. Join the conversation and leave a comment below!
I know a few people who love getting up with the sun, which does allow for lots of productive time, but truth be told, most people love the comfort of their snuggly bed and would rather sleep in and wake up naturally.
I am firmly on the side of getting good, quality sleep, and making that a priority. This is important for health physically and mentally.
Before I make my case for when a homeschool day should start, let’s quickly look at the science of sleep.
The American Sleep Association correlates proper sleep with cognitive function, memory, immune system, judgment, attention, hunger, mood, and for children, growth, development, and learning, to name a few.
Can you see how important all these functions are for our children and how they impact the homeschool day?
We are talking about a complete breakdown in the homeschool day when we experience children who exhibit even a few negative behaviors from the list above!
In today’s culture, it is a badge of honor to work more, do more, achieve more, and sleep less to get it all done. This is not good. Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t make it right. Swim upstream on this one little fishy.
Many factors can impact our physical and mental state, so I don’t want to reduce this to a simplistic answer. Sleep is one important part of the puzzle, and it’s one we can work!
So...where do I stand on starting the homeschool day?
SCENARIO A
For many years I set my alarm for 6:30 AM. I woke up, worked out, started coffee, and began the day. We started school at 9 AM. Sometimes the kids were up and other days I prodded to get them going.
This assured me that we would have plenty of time to get all our studies done without being rushed, and still make it to appointments and commitments for the day.
As the kids got into the teen years, I allowed them to sleep in more since those years can be taxing.
We made sure not to stay up super late (I liked everyone in bed by 10 PM).
I was pretty flexible as well. We didn’t always get to bed by 10 PM or start school by 9 AM and that’s OK!
All sleep charts are a little different, but here’s one to reference:
SCENARIO B
Fast forward to 2020 when lockdowns began and I adjusted. (See my post Nugget #1~ Dealing with loss during Covid (God fills holes.)
I realized we had no schedule to keep since everything was canceled. I adapted and changed my alarm to 8 AM! I never wake anyone up. We start school when we are ready; could be 10 AM or 11 AM. I’m fine with that!
I still get up, make coffee and start the day, but now I work out in the afternoon. It was time for a change anyway!
Sometimes my kids will do independent subjects before our group time together (Bible and history). Sometimes they don’t. I’m fine with that too!
So what's the final breakdown?
Scenario A worked for that season. Because we didn’t stay up late and started school early we still had adequate sleep and could keep appointments in the late afternoon.
The downside was an earlier alarm and getting kids up and alert for effective schooling by 9 AM. This can be challenging!
Scenario B is working great now. We have more flexibility to stay up late for a movie if we want and start school whenever everyone is ready. It feels very relaxed.
The downside is the worry that the kids aren’t being trained for “real life” which has schedules, alarm clocks, and deadlines.
Frankly, I just don’t buy into that. There’s plenty of time to learn that too! My oldest son has had no issues transitioning to work and leaves at 3:45 AM!
If we have an early morning field trip, for example, we set an alarm and wake up.
My 17-year-old son just got his first job, all on his initiative, and understands the job has requirements he must fulfill.
I don’t see a strong correlation between our relaxed homeschool and success “adulting”. I believe if you have an overall routine and approach life responsibly, you are modeling behaviors that will cultivate reliable, dependable adults. Step by step the children are trained.
If a relaxed homeschool is part of a home with no rules, training, guidance, supervision, or structure in any way, then I would suggest that the relaxed homeschool isn’t the problem.
Consider an approach to starting your day that prioritizes plenty of sleep for everyone.
Factors to consider:
- How old are your children?
- How much sleep do they each need?
- Who in the family is a night owl?
- Who is an early bird?
- How much school does each child have?
- Do you have a work/volunteer/church schedule to accommodate?
- Does your spouse’s schedule impact homeschooling?
- What would your perfect homeschool routine look like?
Now do some reverse engineering to find your perfect start time for homeschool!
Example:
- How old are your children? 10 and 16
- How much sleep do they each need? 11 hours and 10 hours
- Who in the family is a night owl? both are night owls
- Who is an early bird? what’s that?
- How much school does each child have? 3 hours and 4 hours
- Do you have a work/volunteer/church schedule to accommodate? Work Mon. Wed. Fri. from home 3-7 PM
- Does your spouse’s schedule impact homeschooling? He’s a firefighter who works 10, 24-hour shifts per month
- What would your perfect homeschool routine look like? Hmm…
In this scenario, prioritizing sleep came first.
The 10-year-old who is a night owl could get to sleep at 10 PM and still be awake by 9 AM. Starting school at 10:30 AM would be reasonable and with breaks end by 3 PM when mom starts work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Likewise, the teenager could go to bed an hour later and be up at 9 AM too. Even if he/she started school at Noon they would likely be done by 5 or 6 PM and could get any help from mom after work (on those days.).
(I know this all sounds late, but remember, this family has night owls.)
Tuesday and Thursday would be perfect for more in-depth things like science experiments or projects.
Because dad is a firefighter, the family may like to take day trips or spend time with dad when he’s home, so school could be moved to a Saturday if needed, essentials like math and language arts could be made up on Tuesday or Thursday, or just skipped occasionally.
Some of these suggestions may seem crazy to you, but I am suggesting you think outside the box and work from a place of prioritizing sleep, (with other factors), to arrive at a homeschool start time.
Why make up an arbitrary start time just because it sounds correct when it doesn’t fit within the confines of your home culture?
Many people are trying to meet expectations that aren't theirs and it just isn't working. It's time to start doing things that work and make essentials, like sleep, a priority.
And if you were already doing it this way and felt like a big loser, I’m here to tell you that’s just not true! You are being responsive to your family’s needs.
Right now I am loving the relaxed schedule and it works terrific! Will I change again? If I’m being responsive to my needs and the needs of the family, yes. If that’s needed, then the answer is yes.
You got this! Sit down with paper and figure out all the things…but please, put sleep at the top of the list!
What is your biggest struggle with sleep? Did you know it was so vital? Leave a comment below!
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