Homeschool schedule: sample daily schedules by age, plus a weekly template
Homeschool schedule samples for ages 4–6, 7–9 and 10–13, two kids at once, a weekly template to copy, loop scheduling, morning basket ideas and hours a day.
A workable homeschool schedule is a short morning of focused work and a long afternoon of reading, play and projects. Many families find about 1 to 2 hours of sit-down work enough for ages 4 to 6, 2 to 3 hours for ages 7 to 9, and 3 to 4 hours for ages 10 to 13. Those are common ranges, not rules: some states set the days and hours you must log (Colorado asks for 172 days averaging four instructional contact hours a day), so check your state's rules. Peabody (peabody.kids), a free reading and math site for kids, wrote this guide. It is free through the end of 2026, with no sign-up.
Below are sample daily schedules for each age band, one for teaching two children at once, a weekly homeschool schedule template you can copy, loop and block scheduling explained, morning basket ideas, and where a few minutes of Peabody can fit.
| Age | Sit-down work most days | What fills it | Peabody, if you use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4–6 (Pre-K, K) | 45 min to 1.5 hours, in 10–15 minute pieces | Read-aloud, letters and sounds, counting, drawing | 10–20 minutes |
| 7–9 (1st–3rd) | 2 to 3 hours | Reading, writing, math, one topic (science or history) | 20–30 minutes |
| 10–13 (4th–7th) | 3 to 4 hours | Math, writing, reading, science, history, some work alone | 25–40 minutes |
How many hours a day should you homeschool?
Fewer than school, for most families, and that is not cutting corners. A US public school day averages about 6.7 hours and the year about 179 days, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (2011–12 figures). That day includes lunch, recess, lining up, moving between rooms and waiting while a teacher helps twenty other children. One child with one grown-up needs far less time for the same lesson.
A few honest points about the numbers:
- The ranges above are what many families report as workable, not a research finding. We could not find a study that sets an ideal number of homeschool hours by age.
- Short and often is well supported for practice. For math facts, a January 2026 Education Week summary of the research recommends practice that is short, 2 to 10 minutes at a time, and frequent. Spreading practice over days beats cramming it; there is more in a little every evening beats a Saturday cram.
- The "two to three minutes of attention per year of age" rule is everywhere online, and we could not find a source for it. Watch your own child instead: stop a piece of work while it is still going well. See how long should kids read each day.
- Legal hours are a different number from sit-down hours. Where a state sets hours, its own definition decides what counts. Colorado's law, for example, says a home-based program "shall include no less than one hundred seventy-two days of instruction, averaging four instructional contact hours per day" (C.R.S. 22-33-104.5, on the Colorado Department of Education's site). Other states set different numbers or none. Read your own state's page on HSLDA's state law map and your state education department's site, and ask your district what counts if you are unsure. If you live in Colorado, our plain summary is in Colorado homeschool requirements.
Homeschool kindergarten schedule (ages 4 to 6)
At this age the schedule is mostly the day itself: meals, outside time, chores, play and books. The "school" part is a handful of 10- to 15-minute pieces, most of them on your lap.
| Time | What | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30 | Breakfast, get dressed, one chore | Feeding a pet or setting the table counts as practice in following steps |
| 9:00 | Morning basket, 15 min | A song, a poem, the calendar, one picture book |
| 9:15 | Letters and sounds, 10–15 min | You lead. Then, if you like, 5–10 minutes of a phonics game or a level 1 story in the free library |
| 9:30 | Outside or a movement break | Running, climbing, puddles |
| 10:00 | Counting and number play, 10 min | Real objects first. Then 5–10 minutes of kindergarten math on Peabody, read aloud so a non-reader can do it |
| 10:15 | Snack | |
| 10:30 | Free play, building, drawing | The Art Studio colouring pages if it is a rainy day |
| 11:30 | Read-aloud, 15–20 min | A longer book, a chapter at a time |
| Afternoon | Outside, errands, quiet time with picture books | Nature walks, library trips, cooking together |
Sit-down total: about 45 to 75 minutes. If your child is younger than your state's starting age, none of this is required; plenty of families do even less at four.
Homeschool daily schedule for ages 7 to 9
Children in 1st to 3rd grade can do more, but still in pieces. Put the work that needs you most (reading aloud to you, writing) early, while everyone is fresh.
| Time | What | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30 | Morning basket, 20 min | Shared with siblings |
| 8:50 | Reading, 20–30 min | Your child reads aloud to you. A leveled story at their level, then talk about it |
| 9:20 | Writing and spelling, 15–20 min | On paper: copywork, a sentence about the story, a letter to a grandparent |
| 9:40 | Break | Outside if you can |
| 10:00 | Math, 25–30 min | A short lesson with you or one Peabody math part (about 10 min), then a few minutes of fact practice, then a written page |
| 10:30 | Snack and play | |
| 11:00 | Science or history, 30 min | Rotated with a loop (below). A Peabody World trail makes a short starter |
| Afternoon | Free reading, typing, projects | 10 minutes of typing from about age 7; a build from the Workbench; a game day at the park |
Sit-down total: about 2 to 2.5 hours, plus free reading.
Homeschool daily schedule for ages 10 to 13
Older children can start alone from a checklist while you work with a younger sibling, then meet you for the harder parts. Longer blocks work now, so science or history can get a full hour on its days.
| Time | What | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 8:30 | Math, 45 min | 15 minutes of a Peabody math part on their own, then 30 minutes of a book or written problems, then check together |
| 9:15 | Writing, 30–45 min | A paragraph, a summary, a short report; you read it together after |
| 10:00 | Break | |
| 10:15 | Literature and reading, 30–45 min | A novel, a classic, or a story from the library's Classics wing; talk or write about it |
| 11:00 | Science or history block, 45–60 min | Block-scheduled: science two days, history two days |
| Afternoon | Typing, music, sport, a long project | Typing 10 minutes; a project of their choosing |
Sit-down total: about 3 to 4 hours.
A homeschool schedule for two kids at once
The trick with two children is to do the shared subjects together and stagger the one-on-one work, so one child is working alone while you sit with the other. Here is a sample for a 5-year-old and a 9-year-old.
| Time | You | Younger child (5) | Older child (9) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:30 | Both | Morning basket together | Morning basket together |
| 9:00 | With the 5-year-old | Letters and sounds with you | Alone: a Peabody math part and fact practice, 15 min |
| 9:15 | With the 9-year-old | Alone: a phonics game or Art Studio, 10–15 min | Reading aloud to you |
| 9:45 | Both | Outside break | Outside break |
| 10:15 | With the 9-year-old | Free play or building | Writing with you |
| 10:45 | With the 5-year-old | Counting with real objects | Alone: written math page |
| 11:00 | Both | Science or history together, pitched at the older child, with a drawing job for the younger | Science or history together |
| 11:30 | Both | Read-aloud | Read-aloud |
On Peabody, each child in a family can have their own place, so a sibling's work does not mix into the other's.
A weekly homeschool schedule template you can copy
Copy this into a document or spreadsheet and change the blocks to fit your family. Friday is lighter on purpose: a review day, a field trip or a catch-up day.
| Block | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morning basket (15–20 min) | Poem, calendar | Picture study | Poem, map | Music | Show and tell |
| Reading (15–30 min) | Read aloud to you | Read aloud to you | Read aloud to you | Read aloud to you | Free choice |
| Writing (15–30 min) | Copywork | Sentence or paragraph | Copywork | Sentence or paragraph | Letter to someone |
| Math (15–45 min) | New lesson | New lesson | New lesson | New lesson | Review and a math game |
| Science or history (30–60 min) | Science | History | Science | History | Project or field trip |
| Peabody (10–40 min) | Story + math part | Story + math part | World trail + typing | Story + math part | Games day |
| Afternoon | Outside, free reading | Outside, library | Co-op or club | Outside, free reading | Field trip |
Loop scheduling and block scheduling, explained
These are the two most common ways to fit in subjects that do not need to happen every day.
Loop scheduling means you list the subjects in an order and do the next one on the loop whenever you have the time, instead of tying each to a weekday. If the loop is "science, history, art, music" and Monday was science, Tuesday is history, even if Monday ran long and you skipped a day. Nothing falls "behind", because there is no Tuesday slot to miss. It suits families with toddlers, appointments or a parent who works part of the day.
Block scheduling means fewer subjects for longer: science on Monday and Wednesday for an hour, history on Tuesday and Thursday. It suits older children who need time to settle into an experiment or a long read, and it fits the 10–13 schedule above.
Many families mix the two: core subjects (reading, writing, math) every day, and a loop or blocks for the rest.
Homeschool morning basket ideas
A morning basket is a short shared time at the start of the day, usually with everyone together, for the things that are easy to skip: poems, music, art, memory work. Keep it short, 15 to 20 minutes, and pick three or four things a day rather than all of them.
- A poem, read twice. Learn one by heart over a month.
- The word and fact of the day. Peabody's word and fact of the day has one word and one fact at each level, so a 5-year-old and a 10-year-old each get their own.
- A picture book or a short story read aloud. The free library has stories sorted into 13 levels.
- Picture study: one painting, a minute of looking, then say what you noticed.
- A piece of music while everyone draws.
- The calendar and the weather for the youngest.
- A map: find one place from today's read-aloud.
- Memory work: a skip-counting song, the months, a short passage.
- A joke or a riddle to start the day laughing.
- A question to talk about: "Would you rather live in the sea or in space? Why?"
Using Peabody in your homeschool schedule
Peabody fits as the practice part of a schedule, not the whole of it. A child starts from the front page with one tap and no account; a free family account adds a grown-up view and keeps progress across devices.
| Age | Peabody place | Minutes | Which days | What you do |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4–6 | A story in the library at level 1 or 2, with 🔊 read-aloud | 5–10 | Most days | Sit with them; point to words; ask one question after |
| 4–6 | Numbers: Pre-K or kindergarten parts | 5–10 | 3–4 days | Watch whether they count on or start again from one |
| 7–9 | A library story at their level, then its questions | 10 | Most days | Have them read it aloud to you |
| 7–9 | Numbers: one part (ten right answers finish it), then Math Dojo from about 2nd grade | 10–15 | 4 days | Give a written page after on the same topic |
| 7–9 | A World trail (a few pages, a try-it and a short check) | 10 | 1–2 days | Use it to start a science or history topic, then go deeper offline |
| 10–13 | Numbers: one or two parts of their grade, from 1st grade up to 8th grade | 15–20 | 4 days | Check the written work that follows |
| 7 and up | Typing: one lesson, then the game it earns | 5–10 | 2–3 days | Nothing; it runs itself, with a real keyboard |
| Any age | A learning game, where the questions are math or words | 10 | Friday | Let it be the fun part of review day |
From the front page a child also reaches the Art Studio, Cartoons and the Workbench, which make good afternoon or rainy-day choices. The weekly math shape for each grade is in the free homeschool math plan by grade, and everything is linked from the homeschool hub.
The honest limits:
- Peabody is not a boxed curriculum. It has no standards report, no written work and no test.
- It cannot hear your child read. Reading aloud to you, and talking about the story, stays with you.
- It does not teach writing, and it has no open chatbot. Math is made and marked by code, not AI.
- The World trails are short. They are a starter for science and history, not a course; most families pair Peabody with their own writing, science and history.
Learn more elsewhere
- HSLDA's state homeschool law map: find your state, then read its page.
- Colorado's homeschool law (C.R.S. 22-33-104.5), on the Colorado Department of Education's site, as an example of a state that sets days and hours.
- NCES: length of the school day and year in public schools.
- Education Week: research-backed tips for math facts (January 2026).
Questions parents ask
How many hours a day should you homeschool?
There is no single right number. Many families find about 1 to 2 hours of sit-down work enough for ages 4 to 6, 2 to 3 hours for ages 7 to 9 and 3 to 4 hours for ages 10 to 13, with reading, play and projects filling the rest of the day. Some states set days and hours you must log, such as Colorado's 172 days averaging four instructional contact hours a day, so check your state's rules.
What is a good homeschool kindergarten schedule?
A good homeschool kindergarten schedule is a handful of 10- to 15-minute pieces spread through a morning: a morning basket, letters and sounds, counting with real objects and a read-aloud, with lots of outside time and play between them. About 45 to 75 minutes of sit-down work is plenty for most 5-year-olds.
Do I have to homeschool 180 days a year?
It depends on your state. Some states set a number of days or hours, some set a different number, and some set none. Colorado, for example, asks for at least 172 days averaging four instructional contact hours a day. Look up your own state on HSLDA's state law map and your state education department's site.
What is loop scheduling in homeschooling?
Loop scheduling means listing subjects in an order and doing the next one on the list whenever there is time, instead of giving each subject a fixed weekday. A missed day never puts a subject behind, because the loop just continues where it stopped. Many families use it for science, history, art and music, and do reading, writing and math every day.
What goes in a homeschool morning basket?
A homeschool morning basket holds the shared things that are easy to skip: a poem, a picture book, a painting to look at, a piece of music, memory work, the calendar, a map, a joke or a question to talk about. Keep it to 15 or 20 minutes and pick three or four things a day.
How much screen time should be in a homeschool schedule?
Keep screen practice short and purposeful. In the samples here, Peabody takes about 10 to 20 minutes a day for ages 4 to 6, 20 to 30 for ages 7 to 9 and 25 to 40 for ages 10 to 13, alongside books, paper, play and time outside. Our screen time by age guide has more.
Is Peabody free for homeschoolers?
Yes. Peabody is free through the end of 2026, with no sign-up needed to start. A free family account adds a grown-up view and keeps each child's progress across devices. It covers reading practice and math from Pre-K to 8th grade, and it is not a complete curriculum.
Checked against how Peabody works on 18 October 2026. Written with help from AI. Peabody is a reading app, not a reading assessment: if you're worried about your child's reading, talk to their teacher.