Benefits of Homeschooling at Night and Other Odd Times

As parents embark on the homeschooling journey with their children, often creating a schedule becomes the most complicated part of the entire homeschooling process. Usually, when the idea of schoolwork comes up, people think about the schedules that kids in school systems are put on. Days usually start by 8 a.m. and conclude by 3:30 p.m. or so.

However, one of the benefits of homeschooling is that you don’t have to abide by someone else’s schedule. Not all kids are their most productive at 8 a.m. Maybe your child is a night owl who performs better after 6 p.m. There are quite a few benefits to starting homeschooling at night or other “odd” times throughout the day.

1. Allows You to Do Schooling Around Work Schedules

When parents in a homeschooling household work odd hours, it might be challenging to complete coursework during the normal school day hours. If someone works overnights, starting schoolwork at 8 a.m. isn’t going to be conducive for their lifestyle. Instead, you might decide that 3 p.m. is a better time to do schoolwork. For those who work 12-hour shifts, your homeschooling schedules might look completely different than those who work a normal 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. job or stay at home with their children.

2. Makes It Easier to Schedule Appointments

We’ve all had to try to schedule doctor’s appointments around the many other commitments we have. By leaving more time open during the day, you can schedule all of your doctor’s appointments as well as other things like tax appointments during regular business hours without much hassle. Plus, doctors often have patients competing for the evening appointment times, so it might take a while to get in to see your doctors.

3. Gives You Time for Field Trips and Other Activities

It is not fun to sit around doing regular schoolwork all of the time. From time to time, it is important to schedule additional activities and field trips. You might be using these outings as learning experiences as well. Maybe once a month you have an afternoon outing to a place with some educational value like the zoo, botanical garden, or museum.
Taking time out of the morning or afternoon allows you to go to those places when they aren’t going to be crowded and busy like they would be in the evenings and on weekends.

4. Allows Others to Help with Teaching

In some households, a spouse might be a better teacher in one subject than the main teacher. If one parent is a whiz at math but works all day, it might be best to hold off on math lessons until that parent is back from work.

Additionally, some parents like to wait until they have some helping hands to do science experiments and art projects because they can get messy really fast. There is no shame in pushing some lessons to later in the day if that is what works best for your family.

5. Allows Students to Work When They Are Most Productive

Like we mentioned before, not everyone is a morning person. In some cases, children do their best work in the evening. It is important for many parents to allow their children to work on schooling when they are at their most focused and productive. This means that some children will need to have night homeschooling as an option.

Doing class work at night allows these kids to sleep in until they are well-rested without compromising on the amount of time they have to get their work done.

6. Allows a Tutor to Teach Students

Not every homeschooler is taught by a parent. Some children are homeschooled by a tutor who has other students or works full-time, which means that lessons need to work around a different schedule. If you’re interested in homeschooling, but don’t want to teach your children yourself, you will need to have a little flexibility when it comes down to the timing of your children’s education. You might be able to find tutors that can even teach your child when it best suits the student.

There are so many reasons that a parent may need or choose to homeschool at a time that isn’t considered normal schooling hours. However you need to work homeschooling into your routine is fine, as long as it works for you and your family. Find a homeschooling curriculum that works wells for your family and work it in however you need to support your child’s education.