School Start Times

[jpklehm]

My dh, who works from home, wants us to start school at 8 am this year instead of 8:30, like we've done for a long time. He thinks an earlier start time will be more productive for our boys, especially our oldest.

 

I don't disagree that starting early is good, but I want a time that we can stick with consistently. This would mean eating no later than 7:30 so we're finished and the kitchen clean by 7:55.

 

 

What are your start times? Are they the same each day?

 

 

Thanks!

[Kelly1730]

My plan is to start at 9am this year. I hope that helps us fit everything into to our day. We'll see, we start on Monday.:)

[Mommy_of_4]

We start about 9am every day.

[Ibbygirl]

We get up at 6:30am and go to the beach to do P.E. :p It's also physical therapy for my son. Then if there are any stores we have to hit that day we go before coming back home. Then we have breakfast and devotions and start school after that. Start time varies based upon whether or not we've had to go to the store and if there is a big discussion during devotions which happens pretty often. Then we start hitting the books. :)

[Mommie_Jen]

We aim to start at about 9 (but we're just doing K), but I want to work to 8:30 or so once I get in the swing of it.

[nukeswife]

Your husband would hate living in our house. We don't have a start time and most of the time we don't start until about 10:30-11. I refuse to get up before 8am if I can avoid it.

 

If an early start time works for you and your kids, go for it. It would never work here, we all hate getting up early and it would make for horrible days of cranky kids and a sleep deprived mama. Now my kids are more than happy to do schoolwork after dinner if it means they can wake up later in the morning.

[Kathryn]

Last year, we usually started around 9. We'll get back to that later in the year probably. Right now, we go out in the mornings before it's too hot and school after lunch.

[Dinsfamily]

We don't have consistent times here. We've started as early as 8 and as late as 10. Lately, we've been able to start between 8 & 8:30 and I love that so I'm hoping to make it more of a habit.

[Tawlas]

We're early risers here but during September I'll still have ranch duties to tend to first thing, so depending on the day, we'll start between 7 and 9. Once summer is over and we can quit irrigating, we'll start around 7 each morning. This is theorectical still as I've been irrigating all summer and we haven't really done a lot of school. Start September 4.

[Mom28kds]

We usually start about 9:00. I ususally wake up about 8:15 or so. If I'm too tired then I don't have the patience I need. i would really like to start about 8:30 but not sure I can consistantly get everyone up and going, including myself.

[Tess in the Burbs]

we don't have set start times. I ideally want to start by 9am but no heads roll if it doesn't happen. We know Thursdays are going to be light/late days here due to late Wed activities. I found when I had a set time I was disappointed too often by our day. Now we roll with life and somehow it gets done and often in less time than when I worried about it. But right now it's about 8-9am. But come winter when we slept later it will be later. My general rule is 1 hour after mom wakes up we start school :tongue_smilie::lol:

[dm379]

We start whenever I can be dragged away from the computer.

[julie4]

We are early risers, so we are up anyway. We start at 7:45 with some light exercise/stretching, then we do our family morning devotion & bible reading. then start school.

[edelweiss]

We start at 9:00. I would like to start at 8:00, but 9:00 seems to work the best for everybody else. :tongue_smilie:

[jenangelcat]

We don't have set start times. The kids wake up before I do and we use workboxes, so I just make sure the first few are filled with stuff they can do independently. If they want to start before I get up they do, if not, it's no big deal.

 

After that we continue when I'm awake and finished the morning chores (breakfast, cleaning, animals).

[Carrie12345]

I let my dds pick this year, and they've chosen 10am. That should let me get an hour in with the 5yo before they start, so there's a positive. I did tell them this will only work if they're able to finish by 3, or we'll have to bump their start time up. I refuse to do "real" school work after 3! (Reading and big, messy projects may be exceptions.)

[ladydusk]

We start about 8:30 after chores, breakfast, and a little play time.

[MiniBlondes]

I was just thinking about that this morning as I was still laying in my bed at 8:30. ;)

 

I'm probably going to aim on starting between 9-10. We shall see!

[Forgiven]

I probably don't count as I work from home and do the school time with the kids (husband works outside the house). I have set times and start work at 3 am and work until 11. I have a two-hour lull from 7-9 am, so I'm adamant about starting right at 7 am. We eat breakfast at 6:30 and then start at 7 and get as much of the mommy-led stuff done before 9 am. Then I send them out for recess (where they are right now) and I catch-up on any work-related issues I may have missed while working with the kids. I always have my computer open and I sometimes have to stop whatever we're doing to reply to an email or work on something urgent. Ugh. Work.

 

Anyway, After recess we try and do independent study subjects, but nothing is independent for my K'er...He has to sit right next to me and I help him as time allows while my other two work independently. At 11, I'm off work and I can then take the reigns over learning again. :)

 

So, it's 7 am sharp in our house...

 

Angie

[Mom-ninja.]

We start at 9. 8:30 is breakfast and clean up. Before that is my work time. I will NOT give up my work out time. I can't get up earlier than 7 to start working out due to my 3 yr old. He likes (demands) that mommy cuddle and nurse him each morning.

 

Besides starting earlier would mean an earlier bed time. Right now my 3 yr old goes to bed at 7 and the older two at 8 but I read to them until 8:30. They are usually asleep around 9. They get up between 7:30 and 8. That's about 11 hours and I am strict that my kids get at least that much sleep. They are little and need it.

 

Sleep is underrated in the US, and a lot of people don't realize how much sleep kids should be getting.

Edited August 23, 2012 by Kleine Hexe

[alisoncooks]

Our goal start time is 9ish... but it's 9:45ish now and we're still eating breakfast and watching Animal Mechanicals... so obviously we're not too strict on it. :p

[Ellie]

We never usually were ready for Official School Stuff until about 9.

 

Is your dh doing the teaching? If so, he can start any time he wants. If not, well, the person doing the teaching should get to make those decisions, KWIM? It's all well and good to hypothesize that starting half an hour earlier will somehow cause children to be more productive, but really, I don't see why half an hour earlier would make any difference, and you already have a routine. JMHO. :)

[foxbridgeacademy]

we try to start by 10am.

[regentrude]

8am if we school at home.

DD has dual enrollment classes that start at 8am; on those days we leave the house at 7:30am.

For us, an earlier start is definitely more productive, because the majority of work can get done before lunch.

[redsquirrel]

I would start late if I had a choice. Most mornings I have to take my ds2 around the corner to our ps for speech therapy, and OT. We have to be there around 8 or 8:30. That means we all get up, eat etc. I walk ds2 over to the school while ds1 stays home and does some school work. That gives us an early start.

 

But, it is for the best. My boys like to get done early.

[Sahamamama]

All I could think of when reading your post was, "Back off, Dear." Sorry, that's just what I was thinking. My husband travels/works from home, too, but I can't imagine him having a say about our start time. :tongue_smilie: I mean, if we were loafing around every day until 11:30, or we had sons (perhaps, but I doubt that would make a difference), or one student was a teenager (perhaps, but I doubt that would make a difference), he might have an opinion. He might actually express it, LOL, but I doubt it. :)

 

Since I teach, I am the Teacher.

 

When my husband is home, he does bring me excellent coffee and beautiful omelettes. ;) Comments such as, "I think you should start earlier, I think it would make you more productive" would not happen here. HTH.

Edited August 23, 2012 by Sahamamama

[Dory]

We usually start about 8:30. My oldest ds likes to get going as early as he can though so he usually is doing some work by 8:00. I always make sure I've set out something that I'm ok with him doing without supervision.

[Mom-ninja.]

All I could think of when reading your post was, "Back off, Dear." Sorry, that's just what I was thinking. My husband travels/works from home, too, but I can't imagine him having a say about our start time. :tongue_smilie: I mean, if we were loafing around every day until 11:30, or we had sons (perhaps, but I doubt that would make a difference), or one student was a teenager (perhaps, but I doubt that would make a difference), he might have an opinion. He might actually express it, LOL, but I doubt it. :)

 

Since I teach, I am the Teacher.

 

When my husband is home, he does bring me excellent coffee and beautiful omelettes. ;) Comments such as, "I think you should start earlier, I think it would make you more productive" would not happen here. HTH.

 

Same here. My dh would never even consider making suggestions on how and when I teach unless I asked him.

[Dmmetler]

We have a start time of 9:00, and if DD isn't up yet, I wake her up at 8:00. Usually it drifts earlier as the school year progresses-there were some days last year whe we were done with almost everything by 9:00 because we were both up and going by 6:30 or so.

[Guest]

We start about 8:30 after chores, breakfast, and a little play time.

:iagree:

 

We start at 9. 8:30 is breakfast and clean up. Before that is my work time. I will NOT give up my work out time. I can't get up earlier than 7 to start working out due to my 3 yr old. He likes (demands) that mommy cuddle and nurse him each morning.

 

Besides starting earlier would mean an earlier bed time. Right now my 3 yr old goes to bed at 7 and the older two at 8 but I read to them until 8:30. They are usually asleep around 9. They get up between 7:30 and 8. That's about 11 hours and I am strict that my kids get at least that much sleep. They are little and need it.

 

Sleep is underrated in the US, and a lot of people don't realize how much sleep kids should be getting.

Hmmm...I really like the sound of your day. My kids go to bed at 7:30, but it may be time to push that back a bit, especially for my 7yo. I also want to make working out in the morning a priority, which might happen if we pushed our start time back a bit...

[Hoot]

I only have one child and he is pretty independent, so we start whenever he gets up, showered, breakfast and dressed. We've usually started by 7am so that we get our morning stuff done by 8am but I'm not rigid about it. If he's still sleeping at 7:30 I'm not going to wake him up and make him start. He's an early bird like me though, so I don't have any issues with being a little more lenient with him.

[MrsBanjoClown]

I like to start by 8:30am. Sometimes we start earlier, but that is my goal start time.

[lea_lpz]

I am doing K and pre-k3,so 2 hours is more than enough time to do school time. I have been starting at 10 am and finished before lunch. Last year, we had 2 mornings a week we had activities at 10:30 am so we'd start our day by 8:00 am in order to be finished with school before we went to the activities. Over the summer I've debated whether or not to continue with these activities because I wondered if they rushed us through our school time, but really all that's happened is we get up at 8 am, lounge until 9:30, and then do chores, get dressed and start school at 10 am.

[janainaz]

We all get up by 7:00 (I'm up at 6:00). My kids have to start school by 9:30. My dh also works from home, and he takes a long walk with my ds12 every morning.

 

Our morning time is relaxed, and I love it. We don't finish school until about 3:30 or 4:00 - but we have a lot of little breaks during the day. If we have afternoon plans, we start early and just get it all done.

[pitterpatter]

Ick! That's way too early for us. We keep late hours here. We don't start at a set time, just after breakfast. So, that's usually anywhere from 9 to 10 a.m. I would feel rushed all of the time, if I had to start at a set time.

[MissKNG]

Our school day begins at 8am with breakfast and a Bible story. We do this every day too, not just school days.

 

But we do not work on school all at once. We do core subjects, like math, at 8pm when my small girl goes to bed.

[arcara]

We are starting at 8:30 this year.

[AnnaM]

We start around 9am and while I like consistency we are also very flexible. I like to give the kids the nicest part of the day to play outside and right now that is first thing in the morning.

 

On the topic of DH, mine is welcome to suggest anything he wants as far as our schooling goes. He does give me the ultimate say, but there is nothing wrong with him suggesting something :)

[bluemongoose]

We start at 9am. That is when the baby goes down for morning nap.

[heritagelearningacademy]

We start whenever we are ready in the morning. It is usually between 8;30 and 9:30. I have 3 kids. Oldest two play soccer and we have practices in the evening. Because of that, we sleep in as long as we can. I also have fibromyalgia and sleeping in makes a difference.

[Farrar]

Another family without a consistent start time - 7:00 or 7:30 if we have somewhere to be, 9 or 10 if we don't. If I were in the OP's situation, I might think about other ways to rearrange the day - can they have juice and toast then do some independent work or reading or something while you make breakfast, then take a break to eat and clean together and resume working?

[MinivanMom]

We have always started homeschooling when the baby goes down for his morning nap (and we always have a baby). This morning that was at 8, but it can range from 8-9:30. I would love to just start at 8 every morning for consistency, but we are in a stage where we need to wrap ourselves around the baby.

[iquilt]

I tend to have school all put out the night before so that my early riser can go ahead and get started on her work but it's not a big deal if my late riser doesn't start until later. It depends on our activities the evening before; some nights we are out later with music lessons, etc. We have regular assignments and regular school days but not regular start times. HTH

[lea_lpz]

My dh, who works from home, wants us to start school at 8 am this year instead of 8:30, like we've done for a long time. He thinks an earlier start time will be more productive for our boys, especially our oldest.

 

I don't disagree that starting early is good, but I want a time that we can stick with consistently. This would mean eating no later than 7:30 so we're finished and the kitchen clean by 7:55.

 

 

What are your start times? Are they the same each day?

 

 

Thanks!

 

It can be done, but it would mean likely having them at 7 am sharp. Why does dh think 8:00 am is better than 8:30 as a starting time? Your children are adolsecents, the 14 year old especially, might have trouble getting up early. Their are studies that if high school started later, say 9 am or 9:30 even, students would perform better academically. Something about their hormones makes it difficult for them to go to sleep early and to wake up early. And they actually need extra sleep at this age, at least 9 hours of sleep a night, because they are going through another growth spurt.

 

Maybe if you are struggling to get the school work done in a reasonable time frame, they can start saving some of their independent work for the evenings after dinner, like "homework" time traditionally would be? Just a suggestion. Ifyour kids can get up early, then you probably don't have a problem. :D

[crl]

Your husband would hate living in our house. We don't have a start time and most of the time we don't start until about 10:30-11. I refuse to get up before 8am if I can avoid it.

 

You are not the only one that starts late.

My son does better if he can get some energy out before starting school. We also have a new baby in our house, so we have to work during her longest nap which usually starts around 10:30 or 11.

[itsheresomewhere]

Between 8:30 and 9.

[russiantwins]

We begin around 9.

[netwelladm]

Hi everyone, I'm mostly a reader of this forum. However, I find that we're able to keep a start schedule of 9:00. Rarely do we start before 9:00.

[Mommy22alyns]

We have never had a set starting time until this year. Rebecca is on a competitive gymnastics team in Nashville, which is a 40 minute drive from our house. She goes 3x/week, so there is a certain time by which we need to be done. The girls have been waking up at 8, waking me up by 8:30, and starting school by 9. That gives us plenty of time for everything we need to accomplish.

[SunnyDays]

We don't really have a set starting time, but it tends to be later. I give DS some flexibility in the morning, and set out independent work for him. He gets up earlier than I do, but likes to have some "lounging" time, so he may or may not get started before I am ready to work with him. With one child and a fairly flexible schedule, we have some wiggle room in how we arrange our day.

 

OP, why does your husband think 8:00 is better and/or a big difference from 8:30? It sounds like you have a schedule that works well for you, I'd hate to mess it up if I were you.