5 Important Reasons to Switch to a 4-day Homeschool Week
* This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. *
Are you struggling to find time for field trips, to clean the house, or simply to have a day off? The easiest and best solution is to switch to a 4-day homeschool school week!
Why make the switch?
1. Make-Up Day
I don’t know about you, but something comes up every single week to throw my family off track. My kid at college called home to chat for an hour or two. My little girl’s sick and wants me to hold her, or everyone woke up in a bad mood.
Switching to a 4-day week allows you to flow with your family’s needs. You don’t need to feel guilty spending a morning chatting with your son instead of homeschooling. You can spend a day holding your daughter while the other kids play. Grumpy kids can play quietly in their bedrooms while you curl up with a good book.
All of these things are possible when you have a make-up day built into your week!
2. Field Trip Day
For a long time, my family was part of a Friday field trip group. It was awesome! And it meant we needed to finish our schoolwork in four days.
Having a day set aside for field trips meant the kids learned to climb a rock wall, went to a bakery to see how bagels are made, and toured a grocery store. Afterwards, the kids would play while moms chatted. Socialization accomplished!
Switching to a 4-day week gives you the freedom to set a day aside each week for field trips without worry about staying on schedule.
3. Housekeeping Day
Houses get messy when everyone is home all day, every day. Life is simpler when you have a day assigned to clean the house and get everything back into place.
You have the time built in to scrub the floors, clean the bathrooms, and wipe the fridge. Kids can sort their toys, change their sheets, and fold towels. A few hours of everyone working together and you’ll have a clean house again!
Sure you can use Saturday, but who wants to spend their weekends cleaning? Not me!
A 4-day week allows you the time to spend a morning cleaning house and getting the clutter under control.
4. Errand Day
Homeschooling doesn’t change the fact we still have errands to run and appointments to keep. And those appointments need to be made Monday-Friday between 8 and 4 pm. Have you heard of a doctor making an appointment for 8 pm on a Saturday night? I haven’t!
A 4-day homeschool week allows you to schedule appointments for your day off. No longer do you have to adjust your homeschool for a doctor visit. Instead, plan it for your off day.
You also have a day each week to run all your errands. You can grocery shop, stop by that knitting store, and hang out at the bookstore with the kids.
Time is set aside for errands and appointments.
5. Arts and Crafts Day
Have you been avoiding those arts and crafts activities because you never seem to have enough time? Seriously you need time to read the instructions, pull out the supplies, get the kids set up, let them create, and finally clean up.
Arts and crafts take time!
Switching to a 4-day homeschool week will give you the time you need to enjoy arts and crafts again in your homeschool without feeling rushed.
A 4-day week allows you to enjoy your homeschool without feeling rushed or pressured. You can use the 5th day as a make up day, a field trip day, a day for cleaning and errands, or a day to enjoy arts and crafts with your kids.
A 4-day homeschool week gives you freedom.
Do you use a 4-day week in your homeschool?
I have had a 3-4 day schedule since forever. We’ve been homeschooling 7 kids for 26 years now. The youngest is 9, the oldest 4 are going graduated. I rarely even think about it like that anymore. I frequently tell beginners and those with young children that 3 days of something is a great success! Really, they need more time to play, make messes and get dirty than they need seat work. Taking Friday off (and when I can I protect Monday too) allows for 4 day weekends and prevents those minor holidays from Messing up your plans too. If dad is off who wants to do school work?? Life is rich and full with opportunity.
I’ve been thinking about doing this when my kids are ready for more “official” homeschool–they’re 3 and 1 now, so our “homeschool” is really just learning-infused life. But we live in DC, which means that amazing field trips are just outside our door, so I think it would be great to do “official” school four days and a week and then use Fridays (or maybe Mondays) to go on an adventure. For all of the cost of living issues, and the terrible traffic, and the transience, this city really is an amazing place to homeschool–we can get to the National Museum of Natural History in 20 minutes. Can’t beat resources like that for hands-on learning.
We have our co-op day on Wednesday mornings. We have lunch with other homeschoolers. We use it as our errand/appointment afternoon. It can also work as a catch-up afternoon or a relaxing afternoon as needed! Love it.
Another great homeschool pÅ‚an is Sabbath Schooling! You school for 6 weeks and take the 7th week off. It can be used for field trips, vacations, make-up, or just chillin’. My family loves it. This is our second year and my kids live for the Sabbath week. They can’t wait for the extra time to get caught up or visit with friends we don’t get to see often.
This year we also have a 4 day schedule again. It is so nice. These schedules really help my high schoolers!!!
We love our 4- day homeschool! We do “love your home Monday” ! Gives us an extra day after weekend to slowly get back in gear!
Now I want to do all that you mentioned on the 5th day 😂