How to Create a Homeschool Schedule

How to Create a Homeschool Schedule After deciding to homeschool and selecting  curriculum, figuring out how to create a homeschool schedule is sometimes one of the most challenging aspects of educating at home. The majority of today’s homeschooling parents graduated from a traditional school setting. The schedule was easy. You showed up to school before the first bell rang and stayed until the last bell rang. The county announced the first and last days of school and all the holiday breaks in between. You knew when each class was going to take place and how long you’d spend in each based on your class schedule. Or, if you were in elementary school, you just did what your teacher told you to do next. So, how do you make a homeschool schedule? The complete freedom and flexibility of homeschooling can make it difficult to let go of  the traditional school calendar mode. Let’s break homeschool schedules down into some manageable chunks. Yearly Schedules The first plan you’ll want to determine is your annual schedule. Your state’s homeschooling laws may play a  role in setting your yearly schedule. Some states require a certain number of hours of home instruction each year. Some require a specific number of homeschool days. Others consider home schools self-governing private schools and put no stipulations on attendance. A 180-day school year is fairly standard and works out to four 9-week quarters, two 18-week semesters, or 36 weeks. Most homeschool curriculum publishers  base their products on this 36-week model, making it a good starting point for planning your familys schedule. Some families keep their schedules very simple by choosing a start date and counting days until they’ve met their states requirements. They take breaks and days off as needed. Others prefer to have a framework calendar in place. There is still lots of flexibility even with an established yearly calendar. Some possibilities include: A typical school schedule from Labor Day until the end of May/first of JuneYear ‘round schooling with six weeks on/one week off or nine weeks on/two weeks offFour-day school weeks until youve satisfied attendance requirementsFollowing your city or countys  public/private school calendar (This option works well for families who homeschool some of their children while others attend a traditional school or families in which one parent works at a traditional school.) Weekly Schedules Once you’ve decided on the framework for your yearly homeschool schedule, you can work out the details of your weekly schedule. Take outside factors such as co-op or work schedules into consideration when planning your  weekly schedule. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that your weekly schedule doesn’t have to be Monday through Friday. If one or both parents have  an unconventional work week, you can adjust your school days to maximize family time. For example, if a parent works Wednesday through Sunday, you can make that your school week, as well, with Monday and Tuesday being your family’s weekend. A weekly homeschool schedule can also be adjusted to accommodate an  irregular work schedule. If a parent works six days one week and four the next, school can follow  the same schedule. Some families do their regular  school work  four days each week reserving the fifth day for co-op, field trips, or other outside-the-home classes and activities. Block Schedule Two other scheduling options are block schedules and loop schedules. A block schedule is one in which one or more subjects are allotted  a large span of time a couple of days a week instead of an hour or so every day. For example, you might schedule two hours for history on Mondays and Wednesdays and two hours for science on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Block scheduling allows students to fully focus on a particular subject without over-scheduling the school day. It allows time for activities such as hands-on history projects and  science labs. Loop Schedule A loop schedule is one in which there is a list of activities to cover but no  specific day  to cover them. Instead, you and your students spend time on each as its turn comes up on the loop. For example, if you’d like to allow space in your homeschool schedule for art, geography, cooking, and music, but you don’t have time to devote to them each day, add them to a loop schedule. Then, determine how many days you want to include loop schedule subjects. Perhaps, you choose Wednesdays and Fridays. On Wednesday, you study art and geography and on Friday, cooking, and music. On a given Friday, you may run out of time for music, so the following Wednesday, you would cover that and art, picking  up with geography and cooking on Friday. Block scheduling and loop scheduling can work well together. You may block schedule Monday through Thursday and leave Friday as a loop schedule day. Daily Schedules Most of the time when people ask about homeschool schedules, they’re referring to the nitty-gritty daily schedules. Like yearly schedules, your states homeschool laws may dictate some aspects of your daily schedule. For example, some states homeschooling laws require a specific number of hours of daily instruction. New homeschooling parents often wonder how long a homeschool day should be. They worry that they aren’t doing enough because it may only take two or three hours to get through the day’s work, particularly if the students are young. It is important for  parents to realize that a homeschool day may not take as long a typical public or private school day. Homeschooling parents don’t have to take time for administrative tasks, such as roll call or preparing 30 students for lunch or allow time for students to move from one classroom to the next between subjects. Additionally, homeschooling allows for focused, one-on-one attention. A homeschooling parent can answer his or her student’s questions and move on rather than answering questions from an entire class. Many parents of young children through first or second grade find that they can easily cover all subjects in just an hour or two. As students get older, it may take them longer to complete their work. A high school student may spend the full four to five hours – or more – dictated by state law. However, you shouldn’t stress even if a teen’s school work doesn’t take that much time  as long they are completing and comprehending it. Provide a learning-rich environment for your children and you will discover that learning happens even when the school books are put away. Students can use those extra hours to read, pursue their hobbies, explore electives, or invest in extracurricular activities. Sample Daily Schedule Allow your daily homeschool schedule to be shaped by your family’s personality and needs, not by what you think it â€Å"should† be. Some homeschool families prefer scheduling specific times for each subject. Their schedule may look something like this: 8:30 – Math9:15 – Language Arts9:45 – Snack/break10:15 - Reading11:00 – Science11:45 – Lunch12:45  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ History/social studies1:30 – Electives (art, music, etc.) Other families prefer a daily routine to a time-specific schedule. These families know that they’re going to start with math, using the example above, and end with electives, but they may not have the same start and end times each day. Instead,  they work through each subject, completing each and taking breaks as needed. Factors to Consider It’s important to note that many homeschooling families start much later in the day. They don’t start until 10 or 11 a.m. – or even until the afternoon! Some factors that may influence a homeschooling family’s start time include: Biology – Night owls or those who are more alert in the afternoon may  prefer a later start time. Early risers and those who are more focused in the mornings, usually prefer an earlier start time.Work schedules – Families  in which one or both parents work an atypical shift may choose to start school after that parent goes to work. When my husband worked second, we had our big family meal at lunch and started school after he left for work.Family needs – Factors such as a new baby, a sick parent/child/relative, a home-based business, or maintaining a family farm can all affect start times.Outside classes  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  Homeschool co-op,  dual-enrollment, and other classes or activities outside the home may dictate your start time requiring that you  complete school work before or after these commitments.   Once you have teens who are working independently, your schedule may undergo a radical shift. Many teens find that they’re most alert late at night and that they also require more sleep. Homeschooling allows the freedom for teens to work when they’re most productive. The Bottom Line There is no one perfect homeschooling schedule and finding the right one for your family may take some trial and error. And it will likely need to be adjusted from year to year as your children get older and the factors affecting your schedule change. The most important tip to remember is to allow your familys needs to shape your schedule, not an unrealistic idea of how the schedule should or shouldnt be set up.

The 29 Colleges With the Best Financial Aid

The 29 Colleges With the Best Financial Aid SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips College in the US is expensive- too expensive, in fact, for the average student to afford on their own. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 86% of first-year students at 4-year colleges were receiving some financial aid as of a couple of years ago. Financial aid is good in all its forms, right? If it helps college students afford their educations, what could be the problem? Unfortunately, not all financial aid is created equal, and not all schools can afford to give out â€Å"good† student aid. Here, I’ll briefly talk about the types of financial aid available (the â€Å"good† kinds and the â€Å"bad† kinds) before laying out the collegeswith the best financial aid programs in the country. Financial Aid Basics: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Financial aid comes from a variety of sources and in a variety of forms. Ultimately, all of this money is meant to cover your college expenses- these costs include tuition, room, board, fees, transportation, and personal expenses. Your total, or Cost of Attendance, will vary depending on where you’re planning on going to school. You can get more detailed information on all of these costs in our guide to college expenses. So what counts as financial aid? There are three main types of aid that you should be aware of: Grants are sums of money that you don't have to pay back. They're usually awarded based on financial need. Grants can come from the federal government or from your school. Loans are sums of money that you borrow to fund your education. You pay back the sum after graduation, in addition to paying back interest charges. Ultimately, you pay back more than you borrow. Loans can come from the federal government (like Direct loans and Perkins loans) or from a private lender like a bank. Like, grants, scholarships are sums of money that you don't have to pay back. They can come from private sources (like corporations) or from your school. They can be awarded based on merit only or based on a combination of merit and financial need. Athletic scholarships and academic merit scholarships are sometimes awarded by schools to extremely competitive applicants. These awards are given to entice students to accept an offer admission; financial need isn't necessarily considered in these cases. Now that you know about the different forms of financial aid, we can talk about what aid types are more helpful than others. "Bad" Aid These types of aid won't always be wrong for everyone, but they shouldn't be your first resort. I define bad financial aid asaidthat's agood short-term solution, but a burdensome in the long term.Financial aid packages are less appealing when they offer the majority of their financial aid in the form of loans.What this means is that you’re still responsible for those college expenses, only you’ll have to pay them after you graduate instead of right now. You’re also responsible for interest charges, which are especially high when loans have high rates and/or are unsubsidized. Private Loans Private loans are not included on schools’ financial aid packages because the loan lenders are banks, not the schools. If your out-of-pocket cost is too high (i.e. if grants/scholarships don’t cover enough of your college expenses), you may consider turning to student loans to cover the difference. Private loans may be viable financial options for some students. I'm not saying that private loans are eviland that no one should ever take out student loans from banks. They should, however, be the last option you consider after grants, scholarships, and low-interest/subsidized loans. A "Bad" Financial Aid Package Less desirable financial aid packages will comprise mostly of loans, particularly high-interest loans. In these cases, a school can't or won't cover a student's unmet need, so the onus to find funding is put on the student. What this usually means is that the student has to take out loans to cover the cost of his or her education. The average student debt for graduates of 4-year BA programs in the US is about $24,000. For some students, even this average debt amount may seem unmanageable. "Good" Aid These aid options tend to be better options; they're more sustainable in the long run. I define good financial aid as aid that's a helpful and sustainable financial solution for both the short and long term. Basically, good financial aidenables you to afford the education you need without hindering you professionally, financially, or personally after you graduate. Here are examples of aid that fit this definition: Grants Any free money is good money. Because you don't have to pay back any money that you receive from grants, this award type won't hinder you in any way after you graduate. Like I mentioned earlier, they can come from both public and private sources. Check out our Pell Grant guide to learn more about federal grant options. Scholarships Scholarships are similar to grants- because it's essentially free money, you won't have to worry about repayment at any point. The major difference between grants and scholarships is that scholarship applicants are almost always evaluated on merit, even if the scholarship is need-based. To get started with your scholarship search, check out our guides to top awards for high school juniors and high school seniors. Low-Interest Loans The bad news: loans aren't as fun as grants or scholarships. You have to pay back the money + interest. The good news: loans can still be viable and manageable solutions for students who can't afford a school's net price after any grants or scholarships. What makes a loan a good financial option? Low-interest rates, primarily. Many federal loan programs have low-interest rates, including Direct loans and Perkins loans.You may be able to get private loans with low-interest rates if you have good credit - generally, though, federal loans are better financial options. Start learning about federalDirect Subsidized, and Direct Unsubsidized loans. Subsidized Loans Subsidized loans can save you some serious money in the long run because they don't accrue interest while you're in school and for 6-10 months after you graduate. See exactly how much money you'll save with a subsidized versus an unsubsidized loan. The Perkins loan is one special example of a subsidized loan - not only do youforgo interest charges while you're in school, but you could also be eligible for loan cancellation. A "Good" Financial Aid Package Ultimately, good financial aid packages are made up of a healthy percentage of grants and/or scholarships. If loans are included, they’ll be low interest (5% or lower) and may even be subsidized. They'llcover some of your financial need and maybe throw a scholarship or grant your way. The best financial aid packages will cover all of your financial need. What this means is that the school itself funds your education after any federal grants without making you take out loans. In the next section, you'll get a list of schools that claim to meet all of its students’ financial need - the best kind of financial aid. Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. Colleges With Best Financial Aid The following is a list of schools that claim to meet all of its students’ financial need without having them take out any loans. What that means is that your family will only be asked to pay what they can afford, and the school will cover the rest of the costs with their institutional financial aid funding. (Note that there are other schools that are need-blind that offer small loan amounts as part of their aid package.) You don’t necessarily need to be low-income to have all of your financial need met. For example, Harvard doesn’t ask families for any contribution if family income is less than 65k, and families will only need to contribute up to10% of their income if they make between 65k and 150k. Aid amounts operate on a sliding scale for families that make more than 150k. Students with the most financial need tend to get the most aidbecause many of these schools’ financial aid initiatives are based on removing barriers to college access based on finances. If you're interested in any of the schools listed, just click the link to get information on admissions requirements: Amherst College Bowdoin College Brown University Colby College Columbia University Dartmouth College (No loans for family income less than $100,000) Davidson College Duke University (No loans for family income less than $40,000; sliding scale after that) Harvard University Haverford College(No loans for family income under $60,000) Lehigh University (No loans for family income under $75,000; sliding scale after that) MIT (No loans for family income under $90,000) Northwestern University (All first-year aid packages are loan-free) Pomona College Princeton University Rice University (No loans for family income below $80,000; small loans above that) Stanford University Swarthmore College University of Chicago University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (low-income North Carolina students may qualify for aid without loans through the Carolina Covenant) University of Pennsylvania University of Richmond Vanderbilt University Vassar College (No or limited loans for low-income families) Washington and Lee University Washington University in St Louis (no loans for family income below $75,000) Wellesley College(no loans for family income below $60,000; sliding scale after that) Williams College (no loans for family income below $75,000) Yale University Why Do These Schools Offer the Best Financial Aid? You might have noticed that the schools on the list above are all pretty competitive private institutions. These private schools tend to be pretty elite, with strong alumni networks. Successful alumni tend to donate more to their alma maters, leading to more financial aid funding and better financial aid programs. They may have higher sticker prices than many public schools, but they tend to be less expensive than public schools for many students due to their financial aid programs. Many of the above schools only offer need-based aid. They don’t offer merit-based scholarships because, like I mentioned earlier, their financial aid initiatives focus on removing barriers to education access. They don’t have to offer merit-based scholarships to entice applicants because their applicant pool is already so strong. What If You're Not Eligible for Need-Based Aid? Some students may want to seek out financial aid even if they aren'teligible for many need-based programs. If you're one of these students, there's one important thing you need to know: if financial aid isn't need-based, then it's merit-based. There are a couple of ways you can earn money for college regardless of financial need. 1. Apply for merit-based scholarships. Many scholarship programs don't consider applicants' financial need at all when giving out awards. Start your scholarship search with our guide to awards for high school seniors - just read over eligibility requirements carefully to make sure financial need isn't taken into account. 2. Apply to schools where merit-based aid is common. Few public universities or top private schools offer large amounts of merit-based aid- public universities can’t afford to, and top private schools don’t have to. That being said, there are schools where merit aid is much more common. These schools use merit-based aid to stay competitive by attracting strong applicants. The following schools tend to award merit aidto a high percentage of students: Rhode College Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering New England Conservatory of Music John Brown University University of Puget Sound Samford University University of Mary Trinity University The New School Denison University Hillsdale College Furman University Gonzaga University Birmingham - Southern College University of Tulsa UT-Permian Basin Centre College Oberlin College San Francisco Art Institute Savannah College of Art and Design DePauw University What's Next? Now that you know where to send in your college applications, you can start putting together a strategy for your financial aid applications. To get an overview of the financial aid process, check out our simple guide to applying for financial aid. If you already have a financial aid strategy, check out our detailed info on submitting your FAFSA. Looking for other ways to go to college without taking out loans? Check out these 13 amazing full-ride scholarships you could get. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: