How Much Time Should Your Homeschooler Spend on Math for Success?
When it comes to homeschooling your middle or high school student, how much time should they spend learning math to ensure a successful homeschool math experience? Let’s review.
As a homeschooling parent, you bear the responsibility of ensuring that your child receives a well-rounded education. From curriculum selection to grade management, you are directly involved in all aspects of their learning.
With so many responsibilities to consider, it can be overwhelming to ensure that your child is receiving an adequate amount of time and attention dedicated to each subject, especially with middle and high school math, which tend to be the most challenging for many homeschool families.
In this post, I will give you the best tips for allocating the right amount of time for middle and high school math based on my own experience as a classroom teacher. We’ll answer the question of “how much time does my child need to spend learning math?”.
Although schedules can be unexpectedly change, following these general recommendations can help you establish a structured and positive homeschooling math experience for both you and your child.
1. How much time should your child spend learning math each day?
As a general guideline for middle and high school homeschoolers, dedicating approximately an hour per day to learning math is recommended.
However, for high school students in more advanced math courses, 1.5 hours of daily study time may be necessary. In a traditional school setting, teachers often have to manage various tasks before they can begin instruction and may only have around 30 minutes of instruction time per class.
Therefore, if you can provide your homeschooler with 30 minutes of daily math instruction, it’s a great start.
When it comes to homework, middle school students should spend no more than 30 minutes per day on math homework, while high school students should not exceed one hour.
Now that you have a daily guideline, let’s move on to exploring how to structure your child’s math education over the course of a week.
2. The importance of scheduling regular math days.
I believe the best math results for middle and high school students is with a 5 day a week schedule.
I know that many schools have block schedules where students only get math instruction 3 times a week; however, in my experience a 5 day program of learning math is more effective for most students.
As such, I recommend making math a part of your daily routine from Monday to Friday. There are many reasons why I recommend a 5 day plan for learning math, but it can be summed up in one word “IMMERSION.”
When students are immersed in daily math learning and practice they tend to retain the information better and sharpen their skills. So for optimal results, I suggest sticking to the 5 day plan.
There are many reasons why I recommend a 5 day plan for learning math, but it can be summed up in one word “IMMERSION.” When students are immersed in daily math learning and practice they tend to retain the information better and sharpen their skills. So for optimal results, I suggest sticking to the 5 day plan.
3. Determining the ideal length of a math course for the academic year.
My last guideline on time is how long your child should spend on completing one course. I believe that the standard academic year (8- 10 months) works very in terms of the amount of time needed to cover a grade level.
As a matter of fact, many teachers have to compress a curriculum to finish a course within a year. Moreover, almost no teacher at the middle and high school level can teach everything in a typical textbook – even when given a full year.
So, give yourself an academic year to focus on that one course unless an issue comes you where you need to adjust.
Final Thoughts
The guidelines presented here provide a starting point for determining how much time your child should spend learning math in a homeschool setting. I cover these guidelines and more in the Parent Portal for all of my homeschool math courses.
Although, unexpected events may disrupt your schedule, these guidelines can help you establish a routine and promote a positive learning experience for your child.
By setting aside sufficient time for math each day, scheduling regular math days throughout the week, and ensuring adequate coverage of the curriculum over the academic year, you can help your child build a strong foundation in math that will support their academic and career goals.
