That’s a great question! It’s also a hard question to answer. Why? Because each homeschool is different. Let’s go through some factors that can affect how long it should take to get through a homeschool day. But, before we do, please remember that homeschool is not “school at home.” Students in a traditional classroom spend a longer time in each class because the teacher has to meet the needs of 20+ students. You are working with only one (and no busy work is needing to fill a scheduled class time). 

The age of your child

If you are homeschooling a second grade student, obviously it’s going to take less time each day than homeschooling a tenth grade student. Younger students have less educational content to learn each day than a high school student does, plus they need time for free play and movement. An older student has a longer attention span and can spend longer periods studying a concept. 

The abilities of your child

Each child is different and they learn at different speeds and in different ways. If you have a slower learner, it is going to take more time each day than it will for a child who picks up on concepts quickly. You may need to add more repetition to your homeschool days to reinforce learning. 

The number of children you are homeschooling

If you are homeschooling multiple children of various ages, your school day will take longer simply because you have multiple children to teach and your focus cannot be on just one of them. One thing to consider with multi-age students is to find a curriculum for some subjects that can be taught to various ages at one time. There are many things available in Science and Social Studies/History that are created just for multi-ages. This means only things like Language Arts and Math need to be taught at level. 

The curriculum you are using

Some curriculums are more labor-intensive than others. You will definitely find some that are heavy on busy work (aka desk work) and others that are more focused on hands-on learning. There is so much available to homeschoolers these days. We definitely recommend looking for something that fits with your child’s unique learning style and special needs. No curriculum is one-size-fits-all. What works for one child in your family may very well not be a good fit for another. 

The laws of your state

Some states require a certain number of days per year to be recorded on your homeschool schedule. Others require a certain number of hours per day. Check HSLDA to find the laws for your state and go from there. 

As a general rule, here’s a simple chart for the length of time you should expect your student to work each day based on grade level:

Grade Level	School Day
K-2	30-90 minutes
3-5	60-120 minutes
6-8	90-180 minutes
9-12	120-270 minutes

How does Miacademy work into our daily school schedule? 

Miacademy offers a full online curriculum for your K-8th grade homeschool student. From your parent account, you set the start and end date for your child’s school year, along with the subjects that you want him/her to study. The site will then schedule out your student’s entire school year. 

Assuming a 180 day school year, your child should be investing about as much time each day as in the chart above. If, however, you find that your child is completing work early each day, or seems to be breezing through the curriculum, we recommend the following: 

• Make sure you are utlitizing the PDFs (this is especially beneficial in Language Arts for writing practice).
• Add in pencil and paper tasks and hands-on activities for your young learners.
• Have your child submit their writing assignments to the site newspaper. 
• Your child can make video presentations about what they learned to submit to the site.
• Your child can review some of their online lessons in Dragon Egg or Dragon Race.
• Your child can create “book club” teams, or similar, to discuss favorite books they’ve read for school. 
• You can assign work from other grade levels.
• You can reassign lessons periodically to help retain information or to review things they may need extra practice with. 

We hope this eases your mind! If you have extra time in your homeschool day, play games, go outside, or plan some field trips! Spend time in the kitchen, cooking and creating. Enjoy spending time together as a family. That’s one of the many things that makes homeschooling unique and special! 

If you still have questions about homeschooling with Miacademy, join our Facebook group or contact our helpful customer service team at parents-help@miacademy.co.