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How much time do you spend on 1st grade


MistyMountain
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Right now I am doing kindergarten and we don't spend too much time on school. I'm going to still do kindergarten in the summer since we started late and will keep things light. Around fall I will start spending more time on school and add some things to the mix. I'm hoping she will be reading better then. I was just wondering how much time others spent on 1st grade.

Edited by MistyMountain
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I have two little guys doing first grade. Because I have to go back and forth between the two (both have strengths and weaknesses that are opposite of each other) I would guess that it takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes per day (give or take 15 minutes). If I were doing the same program with only one of them, we could work through it in an hour and a half.

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Forever! It varies so much by child. It takes us a long time because ds's processing speed is very slow, and he tends to meltdown for random sensory reasons.

 

The bulk of our work is done from 9am-11:30am with Lego breaks interspersed. Prior to 9am ds practices piano for half an hour, and after lunch we have an hour of read-alouds and then ds reads to me. In the afternoons we have our more active subjects, Tae Kwon Do, or sometimes science experiments, or playdates with friends.

 

If you count practicing an instrument and reading time, we are at something close to 4 hours, but if you are looking at strictly sit down formal work, it is probably more like 1.5-2 hours.

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I don't have a first grader yet, but I am planning on about 1 hr - 2 hrs a day 5 days a week. I would love to start school at 9AM and get the formal portion over with before lunch, but it's been working out a lot better to just do it when my 3 and one year old are "napping" from 11-1. I suspect that will be the same in the fall.

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My first grader does about an hour and a half of seat work in the morning.

 

Additionally, he practices the violin from 15 minutes to half an hour daily.

 

After lunch, I read aloud to him and he reads to me. That takes less than an hour.

 

We do gymnastics once a week for an hour, baseball a couple of times a week and his outside half-hour violin lesson. I consider all of that school too.

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actual schoolwork, we spend 60-90 minutes, sometimes less. If she is really wanting to get done, we've finished in 30 before. Science projects take longer of course.

 

But then she does all her educational PC games, watches PBS Kids and learns from that, and reads just about anything I'll let her. If you count all that - she does 8+ hours!

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My 6yo spends about 1.5-2 hours on school each day. This includes Math, LA's, piano, memory work (daily) and History/Science/Spanish (alternating days). We do Bible as a family in the evenings and read alouds throughout the day so I don't typically count those in "school" hours.

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About two hours, give or take, for the basics (mostly just the 3 Rs.) However, he spends lots of time outside of that drawing, taking a pottery class, playing chess, puzzles, reading, a nature class, building with Lego bricks, homeschool gym day, watching documentaries, etc. and I consider that school as well.

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I just wanted to say for me personally it has been a long time since I taught first grade. With that said, I do not remembering it was so long. A lot has to do with the child. I am very big on pay attention to who your child is. A typical first grader does not have a long attention span. I took a training class year ago for teaching children in Sunday School. It was helpful because they talked about attention span of a typical child. The trainer told us, for example, that most 2-5 year old have a 2-3 minute attention span. 6-8 year olds their attention span jumps to about 4-5 minutes. 8 and up is around 10-15 minutes. Based upon those numbers that was how I planned my lessons for children's church. I also planned that way for my homeschool. So, if you are talking about a first grader, which is about 6-8 years old, I would say in one hour you are doing about 12 changes. For example, 5 minutes of drills on state capitals, 5 minutes of drills on math facts, 5 minutes to teach a subject, 10 minutes to have the child individually do a lesson. It takes about two hours because that it the most that a small child can tolerate. The rest of your day can be reading aloud to them. It is the most fun time because we would do it in our pajamas in the bed or plop on the sofa and just read and read or I would have them build Legos while I read to them.

 

During the two hours, that was my only rigid time with them. The rest of the time is playground, lots and lots of field trips. Children get a lot of stimulation from museum trips, nature walks, trips to the library, and the park. Do not ever forget those parts to a first grader's life. Even if you forget to do math, try to remember the park or a field trip. You will find them to be extremely valuable.

 

Field trip ideas:

1. Park or playground

2. Museum- especially great because children hear the proper pronunciation of scientific terms.

3. Botanically gardens

4. Local Audabon center

5. Library

6. Local children's theatre

7. Local symphony orchestra- in the summer many of my surrounding towns had free concerts

8. Amusement park or state fair

9. Hiking

10. Walking in your backyard and identifying trees, leaves, bushes

 

Sorry, this was so long!

 

Blessings in your homeschooling journey!

 

Sincerely,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

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The trainer told us, for example, that most 2-5 year old have a 2-3 minute attention span. 6-8 year olds their attention span jumps to about 4-5 minutes. 8 and up is around 10-15 minutes.

 

Hmmm... that's not been my experience. I taught 2 year olds and 3-4 year olds at church. The 2 year olds probably had a 5-7 minute attention span, and the 3-4 year olds were more like 10-15 minutes. My first grader had no problem doing one-on-one work in a subject for 15-20 minutes. Going beyond 20 minutes was often going to be a no-go though. So I agree with keeping subjects short (a la CM ;) ), but I don't think it has to be THAT short. I can't even imagine doing much in 5 minutes for school. The only thing we did that quick was FLL1 (we could do 5 lessons in about 10 minutes :lol:).

 

Also, while spending short amounts of time per subject, I alternated writing and non-writing subjects. That was very helpful for my pencil-phobic son.

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1-2 hours a day of school work.

 

But the rest of the days were filled with meaningful play and work. We went to the park and to every museum possible. We gardened. We all did chores together. We read books, books, and more books. We visited the library. We worked on crafts most days. We cooked together. We sang. ----So all of that was educational; I considered all of it part of our homeschool day.

Edited by missmoe
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We are only doing K, but we spend about three hours a day on it. 1 hr 20 minutes math is absolutely mandatory. The rest takes the time it takes: 2 pages HWOT (about 20 minutes), phonics flashcards (the longest half hour in the history of the world), primer lesson (15-20 minutes), Sha'arei Alef Bais (20 minutes). Spelling/drill we do for 15 minutes on Sundays and Wednesdays right now, and sometimes review them.

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