Does your homeschooler need a set bedtime?

Possibly!

You see the issue with this question is that no 2 homeschools are the same and I can’t guess at what the needs of your children are or what they are achieving in their day to day lives. Only you know your child best and what is or is not working for them!

This question came up on a homeschool group and I thought I would share our own experience here on the blog about it.

 The Mom said that kids need sleep for health and so she makes sure they have a set bed time and get a lot of sleep. 

This was my reply:

We have followed our children’s sleep patterns since they where born, not tried to get them to fit a scheduled we create. They sleep when they are tired and none of them are the very same. (4 kids ages 15, 8, 6, 4) It makes things a bit complicated sometimes but as I am a night owl as well it works for the most part. They are healthy and thriving. We are not unschoolers, but rather a military family. We just strongly believe in teaching the kids to listen to their own bodies. Yes, they will have to adjust when they sleep and get up in the future for classes, events, work, but they will have some say in many of those things and will adapt. My teen knows she has an early class next week and so is working on adjusting her sleep accordingly now for it. It is rare that we need to force the issue (say for an important appointment in the morning) Normally we just explain the situation and the kids choose to go to bed sooner than normal on those occasions. (all except the 4 year old who is still ruler of her universe in her mind! LOL) Anyway while I very much agree with you that sleep is important to health, I think there is more than one way to go about achieving enough sleep!

  The more important question: Is your child thriving?

If your child is thriving and all is well, what your doing, stick to it! If things are a struggle though, I suggest picking your battles as they say. If your child thrives in the evening like most of mine do, why get in their way? On the other hand, if your child is a morning person but not meeting their goals, by all means step in and set boundaries for them. There is no one size fits all.

Beware…

If your setting sleep schedules and rituals simply because that is what your parents did, or that is what you have always done, it might be wise to consider how limiting that could possibly be. If your doing it just because it makes things easier for you, maybe consider if that is really what works for the whole family. If you do it just because so many other people do it a certain way, maybe consider if that is the best way or the sheeple way! You can break free if you need to, after all, you are homeschooling!

 Sleep Sweet!