How Many Hours of Homeschool Should a Kindergartener Do?

Figuring out how many hours to homeschool your kindergartner is important for planning your homeschool year out! If this is your first time homeschooling, you might be a little surprised about how little time it can take to homeschool a kindergartner.

On average, homeschool families with kindergartners spend .5 to 1 hour per day doing homeschool with their kindergartener, with a max of 2 hours per day. Some homeschoolers will choose to spread school work out all year long, while others prefer to follow a more traditional school schedule, and take the summer off.

Ok, so that’s the average. But the real question is, what is the best amount of time for YOUR family to spend homeschooling your kindergartner? Is less time really better, or will they do better if you up the hours spent on schoolwork?

How Many Formal Homeschool Hours Should Kindergartners Do Per Day?

Every homeschool is unique in the amount of time they spend doing school work, but what is interesting is how the amount of time homeschoolers spend doing schoolwork contrasts so sharply with the amount of time children in school spend doing school work.

On average, homeschoolers do school work for 2-3 hours per day. But, the amount of time homeschoolers spend studying varies widely depending on the child’s age. For example, kindergartners average only about half an hour of formal school work per school day, comparted to a 7th grader who may do as many as 5 hours of schoolwork a day.

Grade	Average Hours/Day in Public School	Average Hours/Day in Homeschool
Kindergarten	3-7 hrs	.5 hrs
1st-3rd Grade	6-8 hrs	1-2 hrs
4th-6th Grade	6-8 hrs	3-4 hrs
7th-8th Grade	6-8 hrs	4-5 hrs

If you’re needing some inspiration or ideas for kindergarten activites you can do with your little one, check out this easy recipe for making your own colored sand (without using sand!)

Why Homeschooling Take Less Time than School

First time homeschooling parents are often surprised to find that homeschooling takes sooooo much less time than traditional public school. So why is this? Are homeschoolers just lazy and don’t have the discipline to put the hours in that kids in school do? Far from it!

The reality is that homeschooling takes less time simply because it is more efficient. There is less busy work, and less classroom management that needs to be done. Imagine the typical classroom with 20-30 kids, and how much time it takes simply to move from activity to activity. Teachers have to juggle:

• bathroom breaks
• lunchbreaks
• discipline
• keeping everything organized
• helping each individual child
• keeping students on task
• hand raising
• testing
• drills
• clean up time

And so much more!

Doing all of these things takes large chunks out of the school day. Homeschoolers may have some of these same challenges, but the time they entail is drastically lower because the student to teacher ratio is so drastically higher.

Are Shorter Hours Better for Younger Children?

Did you know that children didn’t used to begin school until age 7 or older? Nowadays, the push seems to be to begin our children in school at a younger and younger age. And I am not convinced this is a good thing.

I am personally of the belief that a child’s brain is not developed enough for formal learning or study until age 7…at the EARLIEST. Personal experience has proven to me over and over again that, anything a child might be “behind” in because of delaying their formal education, they will rapidly and usually effortlessly catch up to and even surpass once they do begin learning it.

This surprising quick ability to learn is because when you wait until a child is ready developmentally, they are able to absorb a concept quickly, without spending hours of time or doing hundreds of repetitions.

Raymond Moore is a Christian researcher who is well respected in the homeschool arena. He say, based off of over 8,000 studies, that “no replicable evidence exists for rushing children into formal study at home or school before 8 or 10.”

This evidence begs the question, why start any formal studies until ages 8-10?

How Long is a Homeschool Year?

There are no legal requirements that determine how long a home school year must be. However, many states and regions do have requirements that must be met based on total hours and other criteria. Therefore, it is best to get familiar with your areas homeschool laws when determining what the best year long schedule for your family might look like.

Homeschool Year Examples

• Many homeschooling families do a little bit of school every day all year long.
• Some families might choose to do three or four longer days of school work and have a longer weekend off every week.
• Other families might hold to a more traditional school schedule and take summers off.
• Yet other families will create their own unique schedule based on their families lifestyle and needs. For example, a family that has a child with health challenges may choose to homeschool as ability allows, and take time off when needed for health.
• I know one family that does homeschool for six months out of the year and meets all of their requirements during that time and then takes the other six months of the year off to do things like travel.

That’s the beauty of homeschooling! You can customize it to fit your families own unique needs in ways that work best for you.

What Schedule is Best for a Kindergartener?

At this young age you should spend no more than two hours a day homeschooling your kindergartners. You can choose to homeschool in the morning or the afternoon, which ever works better for you. Some children focus better in the earlier part of the day, well other children may be more open to structured schoolwork later in the afternoon.

Don’t hesitate to experiment with different times of day to determine what works best for your family. This is the beauty of homeschooling, it allows you the flexibility to find ways your child thrives the most!