Homeschool Efficiency

Homeschool efficiency is often overlooked by people.

Homeschool efficiency compared to campus-based schools. In most campus-based schools, time is used at the beginning of the day for announcements, attendance, lunch count, communication envelope management, and other tasks. This often takes 15 minutes. Another 5 minute transition break is often used between subjects, sometimes to go to another classroom. For all subjects, that totals about 30 minutes per day. There is usually one longer recess/break per day, which adds another 10 minutes to the class transition break time. Lunch is as long as 50 minutes for many schools.

In a campus-based structure, time is lost at the beginning (settling in) and end (getting ready to dismiss) of each class. Sometimes time is lost when a student might just sit at the end of a class, because he is done with the day’s lesson early. Sometimes the student must do review because other students have not mastered the concept. These classroom issues can add up to over 55 minutes each day. If we count a 15 minute each-way travel time (usually more) for the student, there’s another 30 minutes minimum. Not counting older students with study periods of 50 minutes, the non-academic time can be as much as 185 minutes per day.

For homeschoolers, they do not have homeroom procedures unless it is a devotion or prayer. Homework such as communication envelopes and lunch structure is not needed to be done by the parent and student. As soon as homeschoolers are done with a subject, they begin the next one immediately. They do not have any travel time. A longer morning break is only taken if needed by the particular student. If schoolwork should go past lunch, the lunch break is only as long as needed.

A California school example has school from 8:45am-3:15pm on full days, which comes to 420 minutes including the projected minimum 15 minute travel times.

So 420 minutes minus the 185 minutes comes to 235 minutes or 3.9 hours of actual education time. With a quick bathroom break, snack, and occasional stretch, a homeschooler can do the same work from 8am-noon.

Campus-based students might have additional homework time to consider, but adding that to homeschooling time would not change the difference outcome. Some younger students may need more break time, but it is still obvious that homeschool efficiency allows shorter hours or time for more advancement or both.

Now that you understand homeschool efficiency, you may want to read about cost efficiency when using a homeschool program. You may also want to read Ten Points to Consider When Choosing a Homeschool Program.