One of the key benefits of online school is that there is no set schedule outside of Live Lessons. However, that doesn’t mean students should have no schedule. It just means that families have the flexibility to create their own schedule to fit into their lives.
Students that follow a daily schedule are less likely to fall behind. A schedule also helps students overcome procrastination as they can’t push off assignments if they know when they are scheduled to work on it each day.
Students in middle and high school should work with their Learning Coaches to create a schedule for school days that works with other family obligations and priorities. While many students at this age prefer to do schoolwork at night and in the afternoons, teachers highly recommend setting aside time during the day to devote to school so that the schedule aligns with teacher office hours, giving students the ability to get more real-time help when needed.
A good schedule could include:
- Breakfast
- Morning block to work on lessons
- Morning break(s)
- Lunch
- Afternoon block to work on lessons
- Afternoon break(s)
- End of school day
When scheduling time for lessons, think of each subject as a class; for example, schedule an hour to work on language arts, then another hour to work on biology.
Be sure to add time for self-study and free time to the schedule. Students in this age group need time to themselves during these years.