⏰ Mastery Hours: Core Subjects for Your Power Hours
How to help kids learn fast and well in less than two hours a day by focusing on 1-1 mastery-based learning in Math and Language Arts
When many families think about homeschooling, they’re worried that it’s going to be time-consuming.
As I began to speak to families in the secular, urban homeschooling world, I discovered most families were spending 1-2 hours a day or less in formal study (primary Math and Language Arts) and the rest of the time doing extracurriculars, field trips, meetups, self-directed learning or independent study. Families were finding that with this practice, their children were scoring way above grade level, for example, in many cases. going through the entire K-8th math curriculum in six months.
At Modulo, we call this practice, “Mastery Hours.”
Mastery Hours is the practice of spending 1-2 hours a day in intense study per day, typically with a focus on math and Language Arts and leaving the rest of the week for independent study, extracurriculars and social activities.
Why do “Mastery Hours” work so well? We attribute it to five main reasons
1. One-on-one, mastery-based tutoring
is much more effective than group-based instruction, especially with high-quality, mastery-based instructional materials differentiated to individual learners.
“Bloom found that the average student tutored one-to-one using mastery learning techniques performed two standard deviations better than students educated in a classroom environment with one teacher to 30 students, with or without mastery learning. As quoted by Bloom: "the average tutored student was above 98% of the students in the control class.” -Bloom’s 2 Sigma Problem
2. Students learn at their own pace.
When students can learn at their own pace, fully mastering one concept before moving on to the next, naturally accelerating or slowing down, taking breaks as needed (rather than waiting for others to catchup or falling behind with their class), they learn better, and develop more confidence (rather than comparing themselves to others.
“After forty years of intensive research on school learning in the United States as well as abroad, my major conclusion is: What any person in the world can learn, almost all persons can learn if provided with appropriate prior and current conditions of learning.”
- Benjamin Bloom
In our country, we have a huge stereotype that learning faster means learning better. However, in reality, isn’t learning well and developing the skills to make a meaningful contribution the ultimate outcome? Even the most accelerated learners need to slow down and take breaks, step away and think things through. Sometimes they also need to speed up. Those moments happen asynchronously in a classroom, so growth is stymied. In a 1-1 environment, everyone learns continuously at the rate that works for them, and isn’t shamed when they need to slow down (“you’re slow”, “you’re stupid”) or teased and isolated when they speed up (“you’re a snob,” “you’re a nerd”).
3. Shorter periods of focused time
When learning a new skill, highly engaged, consistent, shorter periods of focused time are more effective than long periods of less focused time with long breaks (like summer vacation). The Stanford Student Support Accelerator which studies high-impact tutoring, found that the most impactful tutoring sessions were an hour or less, and even shorter for elementary students.
“Research indicates that a dosage of 30-60 minutes 3-5 times a week has the most impact, but if the target grade level is elementary school or below, these younger students may benefit from shorter but more frequent sessions (i.e. 20 minutes, 5 times a week” - Stanford Student Support Accelerator
This also hold true for adults. There’s an increasing discourse around how focused, engaged time working produces better outcomes in the workplace.
Research from the US Census Bureau suggests the average worker is productive for two hours and 53 minutes of an eight hour day.
Focus takes an enormous amount of energy and can only be sustained for a certain length of time. That’s why it’s important to make the most of these periods, and start them prepared to make the most of them (well-rested and well-fed)
In keeping with recent research, both focus and unfocus are vital. The brain operates optimally when it toggles between focus and unfocus, allowing you to develop resilience, enhance creativity, and make better decisions too.
When you unfocus, you engage a brain circuit called the “default mode network.” Abbreviated as the DMN, we used to think of this circuit as the Do Mostly Nothing circuit because it only came on when you stopped focusing effortfully. Yet, when “at rest”, this circuit uses 20% of the body’s energy (compared to the comparatively small 5% that any effort will require).
4. Math and Language Arts are foundational building blocks
Students can draw on these core skills to learn any subject in the world. Given enough time, the right environment and support, to children are capable of teaching themselves many subjects, or learning them naturally through their environment. However, math, handwriting, and especially reading, are often skills that need to be taught. Once children learn these, it opens a gateway to explore many other topics and learn them on their own, which can often result in much deeper, more profound understanding.
5. Childhood is a time to treasure
In my opinion, too many conversations around education focus on efficient learning.
Isn’t it a bit sad that kids spend one of the most beautiful times in their life, when they’re most free, happy and receptive to learning sitting at desks studying six hours a day, racing to extracurriculars, coming home exhausted, doing homework, eating a snack and going to sleep? That the time together is time when everyone is stressed and tired? And that parents miss so much of this wonderful time they could be spending with their kids?
Let’s treasure this time and make the most of it. The silver lining is that when families are calm and happy and kids are well-rested, calm and enjoy learning, the quality of learning is often considerably better.
Let’s dig in a little deeper…
“I struggle with finding the time to build things and homeschool my kids.”
A lot of families who speak to me feel overwhelmed by the idea of homeschooling. They have an idea that homeschooling is going to involve them standing at the kitchen table six hours a day drawing on a free-standing chalkboard they’ve wheeled in front of the fridge.
Much of this bias is based around the 9-3pm school schedule or which we assume must be put in place for a good reason, but is actually a leftover of the late 19th century.
Just as we’re beginning to question the efficacy of an 8.8 hour work day, we can also test the assumption that six hour school day is the optimal approach to learning and healthy child development.
Year-round schooling
Doing Mastery Hours year-round is particularly conducive to mastery learning. It helps establish consistency and avoid the learning loss that happens over summer.
Fun fact: Summer break was established in urban areas because there was no air conditioning at the time, and it was too hot. So kids in urban areas took a break in the summer, and kids in rural areas went school all-year long. In the late 19th century, reformers began pushing for standardizing the school calendar across urban and rural areas - and hasn’t been changed since. While countless studies have shown that these big gaps in learning during the summer are widening the achievement gap, the policy continues.
But don’t my kid need a break?
Parents rightly argue that kids need a break from school. It's natural to want to give kids time to refresh and reset from the intensity of a six-hour school day, as they need time to play and explore.
Modular learners have ample time to rest, reset, play and explore every single day.
Modular learners don’t see learning as a chore, or a source of pressure and stress. It’s something they enjoy, and that’s woven into the fabric of every-day life.
Modular learners have a completely different view of learning than most kids who attend traditional school. If given the right curriculum and environment, learning is something kids love, that they want to do naturally and so they don’t need or crave a break from it. They get plenty of “breaks” (time to play and engage in what interests them all day long) so they don’t need months to rest and reset.
Productivity or the “4-hour school week”
Anyone who has read and loved the 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris understands fundamentally that it’s possible to be more productive in four hour a week of work than working 9-5pm.
“By working only when you are most effective, life is both more productive and more enjoyable. It's the perfect example of having your cake and eating it, too.”
-Tim Ferris
I believe these same principles can be applied to K-12 education.
Why are Mastery Hours effective?
Mastery Hours draw on Mastery Learning.
Mastery Learning refers to the concept of when students are learning at the ideal pace for them and moving on to the next subject in a sequence (no later or sooner) than they’ve mastered the one before it.
Effective Mastery Learning happens with 1-1 instruction using a mastery-based (sequential) approach that allows students to move forward at their own pace. So, homeschooling with mastery-based curriculum lends itself to these results.
Benjamin Bloom demonstrated that when kids learn through 1-1 instruction using a mastery-based approach they learn 2 standard deviations above their peers. (That means they are performing 98% better than a class learning in group of 30)
Since most homeschooling is 1-1 instruction or independent student, kids are learning 1-1.
Mastery-based learning materials (of which there are plenty) available amplify the outcomes).
We’re only “productive” 3 hours a day
While the meaning of “productive,” varies there’s certainly a benefit to alternating types of work activities, and choosing a critical period of doing work that requires intense, focused work. This is especially true for children, and that length of productivity will be shorter or longer according to their age. Younger kids can focus productively for shorter periods of time than older kids.
You're probably only productive for around three hours a day.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American works 8.8 hours every day. Yet a study of nearly 2,000 full-time office workers revealed that most people aren't working for most of the time they're at work.
While the meaning of “productive,” varies there’s certainly a benefit to alternating types of work activities, and choosing a critical period of doing work that requires intense, focused work. This is especially true for children, and that length of productivity will be shorter or longer according to their age. Younger kids can focus productively for shorter periods of time than older kids.
"When people think of mental activity, they tend to think of it as an ethereal zapping of electricity that has no cost to the body. That's not true, the brain is a massive blood and oxygen sink. You need stimulus and recovery in mental work in the same way that you need stimulus and recovery for sports." -Tim Ferris
Most kids are only capable of intense, focused learning for 1-2 hours a day or less and that amount of time varies according to their developmental stage
In many companies it’s become increasingly common for designers to only work on projects 3-4 hours a day to optimize their productivity.
Research suggests the average worker is only productive for less than three hours a day.
It’s better to learn 1-2 hours a day all year round, than learn six hours a day and take huge breaks.
Research by Stanford’s National Student Support accelerator showed that elementary students learn best with 30-45 minutes or less of tutoring. Research indicates that a dosage of 30-60 minutes 3-5 times a week has the most impact, but if the target grade level is elementary school or below, these younger students may benefit from shorter but more frequent sessions (i.e. 20 minutes, 5 times a week)
How to make the most of intense periods of productivity or “focused time.”
Generally what I’ve observed is that families spend the two hours of “Mastery Hours” on Math and Language Arts. Sometimes, they will also work from a full curriculum, but we highly recommend a Math (and literacy supplement if a child doesn’t know how to read), since these subjects are not generally designed well as part of a bundle. Math and literacy are highly specialized fields and there are only a few programs that really do a good job of designing truly mastery-based curriculum that fit unique kinds of learners. Additionally there’s a lot of debate around how these subjects should be taught. Many literacy programs, for a variety of reasons including corporate interests and political lobbying, are not taught in accordance with decades of research on the science of reading. With math, many programs focus on rote memorization (to help them perform well on standardized tests), rather than helping kids develop problem skills and conceptual understanding.
Why the focus on Math and Language Arts?
Math and Language Arts are fundamental building blocks to learning other subjects. Learning a complex math concept, sounding out a word (early literacy), holding a pencil and form a letter, compose an essay or break down a complex piece of literature takes more concentration and exertion than other learning activities.
Math
If you know basic math, it opens the doorway to math, physics and biology. It helps you see the world in a new way if you’re balancing a budget or growing plants in the garden.
Language Arts
It’s obvious that knowing how to read opens an entire world to students. As soon as your child can read, they can access thousands of incredible books in a trip to the library, they can learn about history or teach themselves a new language. As soon as they can write, they can begin to communicate ideas and receive feedback. They can discover great writers and imitate their style.
In particular, with regards to literacy while learning how to speak is a natural, biological process, learning how to read is not. Only 1% of children teach themselves to read (the rest need to be taught). There’s some evidence that even those who “teach themselves” are actually just learning fast, figuring out how to decode words as parents sound them out and offer subtle cues about phonics.
Full curriculum
In addition to Math and Language Arts, some families also choose to use a full curriculum that incorporates all subjects traditionally taught in school (science, social studies, etc). This can be a good way to check off the boxes and make sure kids are covering a shared body of knowledge with peers at school. Families can also choose to mix and match these subjects, drawing from different curricula and literature.
How to incorporate Mastery Hours into your week.
If you’re thinking about adopting Mastery Hours, I recommend you look closely at your child’s biorhythms (and your own). When in the day are they most productive? Have your Mastery Hours when they have high energy and focus and you have a high level of patience and focus as well (this is often in the mornings). Make sure they are well-rested and well-fed before they start, in a clean, well-organized environment that has been established for learning. It’s perfectly fine to work at the dining room table, if the dining room table has been cleared off and prepared for learning during “Mastery Hours.” Just as you work better at a clean desk, your child will thrive in an environment that helps them focus. Try to structure more physically active, social activities in the afternoons. We also recommend doing Mastery Hours only 4 days a week and having a free day for field trips or play
Examples of a family’s schedule with Mastery Hours
Here are two examples of what modular learnign with Mastery Hours can look like in practice for younger and older kids.
Remember that Mastery Hours looks different for every family!
You can adjust your Mastery Hours schedule to fit your family’s unique needs. The beauty of Mastery Hours you have to do is make sure they get 1-2 hours of Mastery Hours a day at any time.
You can travel the world and to Mastery Hours in Beijing
You can go to public school AND integrate Mastery Hours at the beginning or end of your day.
You can decide that your child enjoys longer periods of intensely focused study and is able to focus well for longer periods (more than two hours), or that they do better with shorter periods (less than an hour).
You can do Mastery Hours at 7am or 1pm or 5pm. You can even do it at 9 or 10pm if your child is a night how. We do recommend, however, that is is at the same hour every day for at least 4 hours a week.
You can choose how involved you want to be in the Mastery Hours, and what works best for your child. Some kids, especially older ones learn very well independently.
In most cases, parents are more than qualified to be their child’s educational guide. In some cases, a tutor can make a big difference with a child. If your family is in a position to afford a tutor, that’s great, or there are many free tutoring options available, like our non-profit masteryhour.org
Sample schedule for K-5th grade Mastery Hours
Younger children tend to wake up earlier and need a more structured schedule, but should have lots of time for independent play. To give yourself a break and also create the right environment for healthy independent play, you might want to take a look at our blog “sparking independent learning with strewing.”
Monday
8-9pm Breakfast
9-10:15am Mastery Hours
9-9:30am Language Arts or Early Literacy (reading and/or handwriting)
9:30-9:40 Brain Break
9:40-10:15 Math
10:15-12pm
Art Project / Self-directed Play
12-12:30pm Lunch
1-4pm Free Forest school (meetup in the park)
4-6pm Wind down, self-directed learning help make dinner
6-7pm Dinner
7-9pm Get ready for bed, relax, read a book or chill out
Tuesday
8-9pm Breakfast
9-10:15am Mastery Hours
9-9:30am Language Arts or Literacy
9:30-9:40 Brain Break
9:40-10:15 Math
10:15-12pm
Science Project / Self-directed Play
12-12:30pm Lunch
1-4pm Homeschool Co-op (parents trade off teaching skills/leading the group focused on a curriculum ark)
4-6pm Wind down, self-directed learning help make dinner
6-7pm Dinner
7-9pm Get ready for bed, relax, watch documentary or read
Wednesday
8-9pm Breakfast
9-10:15am Mastery Hours
9-9:30am Language Arts or Literacy
9:30-9:40 Brain Break
9:40-10:15 Math
10:15-12pm
Science Project / Self-directed Play
12-12:30pm Lunch
1-2pm Piano Lesson
2-4pm Play outdoors
4-5pm Robotics Class
5-6pm Wind down, self-directed learning help make dinner
6-7pm Dinner
7-9pm Get ready for bed, read a story with family
Thursday
8-9pm Breakfast
9-10:15am Mastery Hours
9-9:30am Literacy or Language Arts
9:30-9:40 Brain Break
9:40-10:15 Math
10:15-12pm
Science Project / Self-directed Play
12-12:30pm Lunch
1-2pm Chess Club
2-4pm Play outdoors / Playdate with a friend
4-6pm Wind down, self-directed learning help make dinner
6-7pm Dinner
7-9pm Get ready for bed, read a story with family
Friday
8-9pm Breakfast
9-12pm: Field trip to a museum or cultural organization with other homeschoolers
1-2pm Lunch
2-5pm: Homeschool meetup in the park with other families
5-6pm Wind down, self-directed learning help make dinner
6-7pm Dinner
7-9pm Get ready for bed, read a story with family
Saturday and Sunday (keep doing Mastery Hours or relax and play)
Sample Schedule for 6th-12th grade Mastery Hours
Older students know how to read generally and are able to initiate a lot of independent projects, so it’s good to focus on math and writing for Mastery Hours and leave lots of time for them to socialize, attend classes and read & study what interests them independently. They also may like to sleep in later, which is healthy for teenagers (and not laziness as commonly assumed). They should not be enabled and invited and expected to participate in household tasks like preparing meals, helping younger siblings with Mastery Hours and cleaning up.
Monday
8-9pm Breakfast: read and discuss New York Times articles together as a family, choose a new vocabulary word to add to vocab list.
9-11am Mastery Hours: Independent or parent-led
9-9:50am Math (Independent or with a parent or tutor)
9:50-10am Brain Break
10-11am Writing (Independent or with a parent or tutor)
11-12pm
Independent project of student’s choice
12-12:30pm Lunch
1-4pm Internship at Marine Biology Institute
4-6pm Wind down, self-directed learning help make dinner
6-7pm Dinner
7-9pm Get ready for bed, talk, read, reflect on progress made that day.
Tuesday
8-9pm Breakfast, read and discuss New York Times articles together as a family, choose a new vocabulary word to add to vocab list.
9-11am Mastery Hours: Independent or parent-led
9-9:50am Math (Independent or with a parent or tutor)
9:50-10am Brain Break
10-11am Writing (Independent or with a parent or tutor)
11-12pm
Independent project of student’s choice
12-12:30pm Lunch
1-2pm Political Science class at community college
2-5pm Homeschool debate club
6-7pm Dinner
7-9pm Get ready for bed, talk, read, reflect on progress made that day.
Wednesday
8-9pm Breakfast: read and discuss New York Times articles together as a family, choose a new vocabulary word to add to vocab list.
9-11am Mastery Hours: Independent or parent-led
9-9:50am Math (Independent or with a parent or tutor)
9:50-10am Brain Break
10-11am Writing (Independent or with a parent or tutor)
11-12pm
Independent project of student’s choice
12-12:30pm Lunch
1-2pm: Piano Lesson
3-4pm: Physics class taught by a homeschool parent
4:30-6pm: yoga
6-7pm Dinner
7-9pm Get ready for bed, read a story with family
Thursday
8-9pm Breakfast: read and discuss New York Times articles together as a family, choose a new vocabulary word to add to vocab list.
9-11am Mastery Hours: Independent or parent-led
9-9:50am Math (Independent or with a parent or tutor)
9:50-10am Brain Break
10-11am Writing (Independent or with a parent or tutor)
11-12pm
Independent project of student’s choice
12-12:30pm Lunch
1-2pm: Chess Club
2-6pm: Work on project with fellow homeschoolers (making a film, producing a play)
6-7pm Dinner
7-9pm Get ready for bed, read a story with family
Friday
8-9pm Breakfast
9-12pm: Field trip to a museum or cultural organization with other homeschoolers
1-2pm Lunch
2-5pm: Homeschool meetup in the park with other families or kids
5-6pm Wind down, self-directed learning help make dinner
6-7pm Dinner
7-9pm Watch and discuss a documentary as a family
You don’t have be a homeschooler to adopt Mastery Hours!
Since Mastery Hours only takes an hour a day, you can absolutely keep your child enrolled in school (and benefit from the free childcare) and advance their learning afterschool and in summer through an hour a day of instruction. Research shows that farent involvement in education makes a bigger difference than almost any other factor.
Just be mindful to not overload your child with extra work. More does not necessarily mean better, and it could mean worse. Mastery Hours work profoundly better when they’re done at the time children are most alert, energized and focused. Doing Mastery Hours after a long day of school where kids are exhausted and want to play is insensitive to their needs, and might not lead to the results you’re hoping for.
Recommended Mastery-Based Learning resources.
If you’re interested in adopting Mastery Hours as an approach, here are some resources to support you.
1. Best PreK-12th Grade Math Curriculum
2. The Top 4 Tools to Teach Reading
3. Curriculum Planner. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, we’ve developed a free curriculum planner to help you choose the ideal curriculum for your unique family or if you’re
4. Our Definitive Guide to Secular Homeschooling features mastery-based homeschooling materials in 38 subjects.
Mastery Hours may feel a little daunting since we’re so often taught that more is better. However, what if less is better? And your child will learn a lot faster and be more engaged and motivated with 1-2 hours a day of focused study? In my opinion, it’s a risk worth taking to nurture a highly-educated, driven, lifelong learner who loves to learn.
Resources
Definitive Guide to Secular Homeschooling
https://www.modulo.app/homeschool-curriculum-guideGiving kids the time and space they need to teach themselves
Sources
Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Annenberg Reports. Retrieved April 15, 2023. https://annenberg.brown.edu/publications/annenberg-reports
Bloom, B. S. (1984). The 2 sigma problem: The search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring. Educational Researcher, 13(6), 4-16. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X013006004
Curtin, M. (2017, June 6). In an 8-hour day, the average worker is productive for this many hours. Inc. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/in-an-8-hour-day-the-average-worker-is-productive-for-this-many-hours.html
De Melker, Saskia and Weber, Sam. "Agrarian roots? Think again. Debunking the myth of summer vacation’s origins." PBS NewsHour, 7 Sept. 2014, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/debunking-myth-summer-vacation.
Ferriss, T. (2009). The 4-hour work week: Escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich. Harmoney
https://amzn.to/3mJ4vmV
Grossblatt, Lesley. Sparking independent learning with strewing. Retrieved from Modulo. 7 February, 2023. https://www.modulo.app/all-resources/sparking-independent-learning-with-strewing
National Student Support Accelerator at Stanford University. “Model Dimensions”
https://studentsupportaccelerator.com/tutoring/model-dimensions
Pencavel, J. (2014). The Productivity of Working Hours (Discussion Paper No. 8129). Stanford University and IZA. Retrieved from https://docs.iza.org/dp8129.pdf
Wikipedia contributors. (2023, April 3). Bloom's 2 sigma problem. In Wikipedia. Retrieved April 15, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem