Do Homeschool Kids Need to Learn to Get Up Early?

Before I started homeschooling, I heard a lot of arguments against it.

Some were about academics. Some were about socialization. And some were about preparing children for “real life.”

One argument that came up more than once was essentially this:

“Kids need to learn to get up early and go to school because someday they will have to get up early and go to work.”

At the time, I remember thinking, Well… that sounds reasonable.

It sounds like one of those common-sense arguments that doesn't really need to be questioned.

Of course children need to learn responsibility.

Of course they need to learn to get up when they're supposed to.

Of course they need to show up for things even when they don't feel like it.

And someday, many of them will have jobs with schedules they have to follow.

But somewhere along the way, I realized there was a pretty big assumption hiding inside that argument.

It assumes that school is what teaches children those things.

And it assumes that if you homeschool, somehow your children aren't learning responsibility, punctuality, discipline, or how to function on a schedule.

That simply isn't true.

Homeschooling Doesn't Mean Nobody Has a Schedule

I think sometimes people imagine homeschooling as children sleeping until noon, wandering downstairs in pajamas, doing a worksheet at some point in the afternoon, and calling it a school day.

Maybe that is somebody's homeschool.

But it certainly isn't the only way to homeschool.

Homeschooling doesn't mean there are no expectations.

In our home, there are still things that need to happen.

There are responsibilities.

There are commitments.

There are appointments.

There are activities that begin at a certain time.

There are people who are depending on us.

There are days when we have to get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, gather our things, and be somewhere at a particular time.

There are mornings when my children don't particularly feel like getting up—but they have to anyway.

That's life.

The difference is that homeschooling allows me to be much more intentional about which lessons I'm actually trying to teach.

If I want my children to learn how to be responsible, I don't have to outsource that lesson to a school bus schedule.

Responsibility Is Bigger Than Waking Up Early

Getting up early can certainly be a useful skill.

There are jobs that start early.

There are flights that leave early.

There are appointments that happen early.

There are seasons of life when you simply have to get out of bed even though you'd rather stay there.

I don't have a problem teaching my children that.

What I question is the idea that waking up early is itself the lesson.

To me, the more important lesson is:

You have responsibilities, and you need to learn how to manage them.

Those aren't quite the same thing.

A responsible person knows how to look at tomorrow's schedule and realize they need to go to bed at a reasonable time.

A responsible person gets up when they need to.

A responsible person remembers their commitments.

A responsible person shows up.

A responsible person can manage their time.

And perhaps most importantly, a responsible adult doesn't simply follow a schedule because someone else created it for them.

They learn how to manage their own schedule.

Homeschooling can actually give children opportunities to practice those skills in very real ways.

And Then I Looked at the Research

The more I looked into the “kids need to get up early because that's what adults do” argument, the more interesting it became.

Because the research on early school start times doesn't exactly support the idea that earlier is better.

In fact, the research on adolescents points in the other direction.

During puberty, children's circadian rhythms naturally shift. Teenagers tend to become sleepy later at night and wake later in the morning. This isn't simply a matter of teenagers being lazy or lacking discipline.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has recognized early school start times as an important contributor to insufficient sleep among adolescents and has recommended that middle and high schools generally start no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

A large meta-analysis of studies involving more than 1.7 million young people found that later school start times were associated with longer sleep, better overall developmental outcomes, and less negative mood.

That doesn't mean children should never have an early morning.

It does mean we should be careful about turning “early” into a synonym for “disciplined.”

Sleep isn't a character flaw.

And needing sleep isn't a failure to prepare for adulthood.

What About Preparing Them for the Real World?

This is where I think the homeschooling question gets particularly interesting.

What exactly are we preparing our children for?

If the answer is adulthood, then adulthood is actually much more varied than the traditional school schedule suggests.

Some adults get up at 5 a.m.

Some get up at 9.

Some work nights.

Some work from home.

Some work four days a week.

Some have flexible schedules.

Some have very rigid schedules.

Some are entrepreneurs.

Some are stay-at-home parents.

Some work shifts.

Some have to be somewhere at 7 a.m. every morning, and others have much more flexibility.

The adult world isn't one giant 8-to-5 schedule.

So perhaps the more useful thing to teach our children isn't “You must get up early.”

Perhaps it is:

“Learn how to manage yourself.”

Learn to get enough sleep.

Learn to wake up when you need to.

Learn to keep commitments.

Learn to be punctual.

Learn to work even when you don't feel like it.

Learn to organize your day.

Learn to take responsibility for your choices.

Learn that freedom and responsibility go together.

Those are skills I absolutely want my children to have.

Homeschooling Doesn't Remove Structure—It Makes Structure Intentional

One of the things I appreciate about homeschooling is that I get to ask why.

Why are we doing this?

Why are we doing it at this time?

Is this schedule helping my child learn?

Is it helping our family function well?

Does this routine teach something valuable?

Or are we simply doing something because that's the way it has always been done?

That doesn't mean we abandon structure.

Quite the opposite.

Our days can have routines.

Our children can have chores.

We can have deadlines.

We can have activities and appointments.

We can have places we need to be and times we need to be there.

We can have expectations about getting up, getting dressed, helping around the house, completing schoolwork, and following through on commitments.

The difference is that the schedule can serve our children and our family's needs, rather than assuming every child needs the exact same schedule simply because that's how school has traditionally been organized.

Maybe the Better Question Is: What Are We Trying to Teach?

When someone tells me that children need to get up early and go to school because that's what they'll have to do as adults, I understand the instinct behind the argument.

We want our children to be prepared.

We don't want to raise adults who can't handle responsibility.

We want them to understand that life isn't always about doing whatever you feel like doing.

I agree with all of that.

Where I disagree is with the assumption that traditional school attendance is what teaches those lessons.

My children don't need to practice being employees for twelve years in order to become responsible adults.

They need opportunities to practice responsibility.

They need opportunities to make decisions.

They need opportunities to experience consequences.

They need opportunities to contribute to a family.

They need opportunities to keep commitments.

They need opportunities to work hard.

They need opportunities to learn how to manage their time.

And yes, sometimes they need to get out of bed when they'd rather stay there.

But I don't need a school bell to teach them that.

The Thing I Didn't Expect

Before homeschooling, I thought one of the biggest things I might be giving up was structure.

Now I think one of the biggest things homeschooling has given me is the ability to separate the lesson from the system.

I can teach punctuality without believing every child needs to start school at the same early hour.

I can teach hard work without believing children need to spend seven hours in a classroom.

I can teach responsibility without believing a bus schedule is necessary for developing it.

I can teach my children to get up early when their responsibilities require it without believing that waking up early is inherently virtuous.

And I can teach them that rest matters, too.

Because ultimately, I'm not trying to raise children who are really good at obeying a school schedule.

I'm trying to raise adults who can manage themselves.

And to me, that is a much bigger lesson.