Another "What's normal?" post: 4th grade

[Cake and Pi]

How much time do your 9-10yo kids spend on math per day?  How many days per week do they do math?

 

How much time per day do they work on writing?  How many days per week?  Can they write a coherent paragraph?

 

What about science?  How many days per week and how much time?

 

Just trying to get a typical range and make sure I have reasonable expectations.

[ondreeuh]

My nearly-10 son spends 1-2 hours on math. He likes to get in the groove and work hard. His math is mostly problem solving, not just arithmetic practice, so I think it holds his attention well. He does have ADHD, but is on good meds ;).

 

Writing is much less. We do history & science orally. On days where he has a composition assignment, it can take a while for him to get in the groove. But on most days he does little writing - just cursive copywork, grammar practice, and writing answers for math. He can write a great paragraph with scaffolding. If I just asked him to write a paragraph summarizing something he read, he would probably freeze.

 

Science he spends about 30-45 min on. It's reading, watching a video, and/or doing an activity.

Edited December 3, 2017 by ondreeuh

[HomeAgain]

In 4th, with the materials we used, it was like this:

 

Math- MUS, 30-45min Mondays he watched the video and did worksheet A.  Tuesday & Wednesday were B and C, Thursday was D (review) and Friday was usually test. 

 

LA - he could write a paragraph, but this was a very difficult process for him and we moved to a progym-style program that year, I think, (Writing Tales) to shore up this skill.  Or that could have been while he was still using Writing Strands, in which case we were ready to throttle each other. Writing was always 4-5 days a week.

 

Science - NOEO: 30-60min, 4x a week.  The schedule was laid out to do readings, note taking, and either an experiment or using the computer to go deeper in with the Usborne links.

 

[Sherry in OH]

How much time do your 9-10yo kids spend on math per day?  How many days per week do they do math?

30-60 minutes a day, 4 days a week

 

How much time per day do they work on writing?  How many days per week?  Can they write a coherent paragraph?

45 minutes a day, 4 days a week on language arts loop - cursive copywork, spelling, and Wordsmith Apprentice or other writing.  He can write a 3-5 sentence paragraph.

 

What about science?  How many days per week and how much time?

Twice a week, time varies - up to 30 minutes for readings, longer if watching video or doing hands-on

 

Just trying to get a typical range and make sure I have reasonable expectations.

[goldenecho]

My child is that age, but really in 3rd grade (he repeated KG at home, and we just continued from there).  He's a struggling learner.

We do about 30 minutes of math a day.

He doesn't do a lot of writing...I'm actually trying to figure out how to integrate more.   Usually doesn't write much more than a sentence.   Definitely not writing paragraphs.  Sometimes dictates longer stories and such.  It's sporatic.   Real struggle to get him to write any.

 

Science we were doing through a co-op once a week.   Since we moved I haven't started science again but will probably do it in unit studies a few days a week until the study is done and then have a break in between. 

 

[Soror]

My daughter was in 4th last year so I'm answering for her, the answers for my son would have been considerably longer except writing. We school 4 days a week so Math and Writing are 4 days.

 

How much time do your 9-10yo kids spend on math per day?  How many days per week do they do math?

30-ish min- Saxon 54

 

How much time per day do they work on writing?  How many days per week?  Can they write a coherent paragraph?

15-30 min- Treasured Conversations- She wrote decent paragraphs at some point- mostly copying them at the beginning.

 

What about science?  How many days per week and how much time?

2-days a week on Science- Mystery Science and Nature Studies- 30-45 min each time

Edited December 3, 2017 by soror

[Alice]

How much time do your 9-10yo kids spend on math per day?  How many days per week do they do math? 

 

How much time per day do they work on writing?  How many days per week?  Can they write a coherent paragraph?

 

What about science?  How many days per week and how much time?

 

Just trying to get a typical range and make sure I have reasonable expectations.

 

Math: Depends a little on the kid. At that age I aim to spend about 30 min. I have one kid who loves math and probably did more at that age. And one who has ADD and has the most complaints with math. He’s actually fairly good at math but it frustrates and bores him. So for him, it would depend more on the day. We do a lot more working together to keep him on focus. If we do that it could easily  be 45 min. If he’s working alone I do it more by a certain amount, and I know that the amount I assign can be done in 15-20 min. I prefer to keep him less frustrated than to have him do more. 

 

Writing: That has depended on the stage our homeschool is in. With my oldest we used WWE at that age and did it four times a week. He could have written a coherent paragraph but it was painful for him. With my next two I’m a lot more loosey-goosey about writing. They do a lot more projects. We use more of the Bravewriter approach. I aim to have them do some kind of writing at least once a week but sometimes it’s more if they are working on a specific project. 

 

Science: In 4th grade we do more of an interest led approach than a curriculum. We just read a lot of books, watch a lot of videos, talk about stuff. I don’t really worry about it being a certain amount of time or days a week. 

[....]

How much time do your 9-10yo kids spend on math per day?  How many days per week do they do math?

 

How much time per day do they work on writing?  How many days per week?  Can they write a coherent paragraph?

 

What about science?  How many days per week and how much time?

 

Just trying to get a typical range and make sure I have reasonable expectations.

 

I'm probably considered a relaxed homeschooler at the 4th grade level, so my answers will look different than others on here.  My 10 yro uses My Father's World.

 

Math: 30 minutes, 4 days per week

 

Writing: 10-15 minutes, 4 days per week, but she uses MFW and there is writing across the curriculum (note booking-type stuff)

 

Can she write a paragraph: Probably, but she is still in the dictation/narration/copywork + writing across the curriculum phase.  She has written some stories, though.

 

Science: she uses MFW....so everyday they cover science, but it's not grueling or anything, maybe 20-30 minutes a day or longer if there is a project.

 

If she starts around 8/9-ish, she's usually done with school by lunch (which is what I want anyway). 

[OneStepAtATime]

How much time do your 9-10yo kids spend on math per day?  How many days per week do they do math?

 

How much time per day do they work on writing?  How many days per week?  Can they write a coherent paragraph?

 

What about science?  How many days per week and how much time?

 

Just trying to get a typical range and make sure I have reasonable expectations.

My rule of thumb, try to end on a high note when you can, don't work to the point of tears, take breaks when you or your child are getting really stressed, keep in mind that many children need discussion and collaboration to learn, some also need a lot of movement for their brains to engage, skills/knowledge develops at different rates, and remember that Rome wasn't built in a day.  :)

 

When my kids were that age, DD was still in school but DS was homeschooling by 4th.  I worked closely with the school, though, so I do have some idea of even what they did in school.  I will share both (as I recollect it since it has been a few years).

 

DS (homeschooled for 4th)

1.  Math - daily 5 days a week.  Total time 40-60 min. usually but NOT as all independent seat work.  We usually broke it down like so...

• Math fact practice 5 minutes a day (targeted and systematic, not random). 
• Math concepts introduced on a white board and with hands on material, usually 10 minutes. 
• Then math problems for the new material plus a bit of review of previous concepts were done collaboratively on the white board with both of us doing math problems and discussing (he learns MUCH better with discussion and interaction).  Usually 10 minutes. 
• Then he would do problems on his own as follow up for another 20-30 minutes or so, depending on how long it took him to finish the remaining problems.  I sat nearby doing other things and encouraged him to ask questions where necessary.  I tried to use a discovery approach for finding the answer but it helped him stay focused for me to be nearby and it prevented him from ingraining some poorly understood concept by doing it wrong over and over and THEN me discovering it later and him having to go back and correct.  I also checked his written work immediately so I could tackle any confusion BEFORE he had slept on it, thus helping to prevent misinformation from becoming more ingrained.  (We were initially using Math in Focus but at some point switched to CLE coupled with supplementary resources and I don't remember when we switched.)

 

2.  Writing -  Depended on the day.  Usually 20-45 minutes.  He was not yet at paragraph level for independent writing in any way, shape or form in 4th grade.  This was a VERY hard skill for DS to learn.  There are soooo many different processes that go into writing and several of his were glitchy.  (Full disclosure: He has dysgraphia but can write legibly when that is all he has to concentrate on.) 

• He did copywork of one very short sentence daily, focusing strictly on letter formation, sizing and spacing.  Afterwards HE would circle all the letters that seemed to be pretty close to what they should be based on the sentence he was copying then share it with me and we would discuss.  I never said something was wrong, only that some letters looked really close and specifically WHY it was close.  He was focusing on what he did RIGHT not what he did WRONG.  It vastly improved his attitude towards writing and kept him from shutting down.  It also improved his letter formation/sizing/spacing.  He liked knowing that he really was forming a lot of things correctly and wanted to improve even more.
• Spelling was also done separately.  We used a spelling program and ONLY during that program did we deal with spelling in a very targeted way. 
• Grammar was also done separately.
• Then for getting thoughts on paper I scribed for him so he could focus on just organizing his thoughts.  We used some graphic organizers and a lot of discussion.  Once I had scribed it all out, then he would read back with me what he had written and we would discuss, he would edit verbally, I would write for him.  We would discuss grammar here and apply what he was learning in his grammar lessons.  If a spelling word was part of the paragraph we would discuss that, too, but NOT while he was simply trying to get his thoughts out.
• Over time we have worked to integrate these skills but he could not just right off the bat integrate any of these.  It has taken a lot of time and patience and systematic instruction to get all of these processes moving into an integrated flow forward.

3.  Science - usually 3 days a week, sometimes 4.  Time depended on what we were doing that day but usually 30-40 minutes, sometimes longer.  We did Trail Guides to Learning for science and History that year.  

 

DD (in school)

1.  Math - Class was 50 min long but a bit of that was either kids coming in, getting in their seats, pulling out writing utensils or packing up again or the teacher dealing with some sort of administrative thing.  Lessons were M-Th and tests were every Friday.  There was usually about 10-15 min of instruction followed by maybe 25-30 min. of working independently, depending on the day.  "Independent" wasn't totally alone, though.  Kids could ask questions and sometimes worked in small groups.  There was also usually a bit of math homework at least 2-3 days a week.  I would work with DD on that since math was a horrifically difficult subject for her.  

 

2.  Writing paragraphs was still heavily being worked on with lots of scaffolding.  Writing was done in the Language Arts class but also some in Science, Reading and History (they had 9 different teachers with Language Arts and Reading being separate classes).  I'd say in a given day they were writing maybe 2 hours but it was broken up into small segments in each class, with lots of reinforcement.  Some kids were great at it and could have written a novel.  Most were not at that level of writing yet.  And many could come up with the thoughts OR they could write legibly and spell correctly and get punctuation, etc. done well but they couldn't do all of these things at the same time very effectively.  In other words, if the child was having to compose AND spell correctly AND write neatly AND capitalize and punctuate, etc. a lot would fall through the cracks.  If someone scribed for them they could come up with some really interesting stuff.  

 

3.  Science was daily for :50 a day but involved lots of hands on, not just seat work.  They did experiments, grew a garden, raised birds/reptiles/mammals right in their classroom, created their own demonstrations, built a rain forest, etc.  It was a VERY hands on Science class.  They did vocabulary review verbally for a few minutes at the start of each class.

 

Sorry this is so long.  Not sure any of it helps but there you go.  Good luck!

[mamaraby]

What OneStep outlined is about how it works here.

 

*Math 5 days a week with math fact practice every day. It’s tough for me to say how long it takes because I really don’t pay attention that closely. I’d say 45 minutes for both.

 

*Writing - Spelling and grammar separate. We’re doing a combo of WWE and some Bravewriter things. Plus writing in other parts of the curriculum. She could write a paragraph with help. Not on her own, and honestly, I don’t expect that of a fourth grader. My seventh grader yes, but not my fourth grader.

 

*Science - We shoot for twice a week, but it’s more like we do it all in one day. Plus they have an outside class at the nature center most weeks that covers just about every science topic and some state history over the course of the year. Plus they get them writing. And thinking. I count it as science, but it really is well rounded.

Edited December 3, 2017 by mamaraby

[Sneezyone]

How much time do your 9-10yo kids spend on math per day? How many days per week do they do math?

 

How much time per day do they work on writing? How many days per week? Can they write a coherent paragraph?

 

What about science? How many days per week and how much time?

 

Just trying to get a typical range and make sure I have reasonable expectations.

DS spends about 45 min a day on math, five days a week.

 

DS spends about 20 min a day on writing, daily. This doesn’t include our grammar/handwriting work. Writing, by hand, is divided between journaling (3 days) and keyboarding (2 days). He *can* write lovely, coherent paragraphs but generally chooses to respond to prompts with one or two sentences. DD was much further along at this age.

 

We spend three days a week on science, 30-45 minutes each day. DS loves science. I read the text aloud and then he works in his mom-made notebook. The Apologia one had too much fluff for me.

Edited December 3, 2017 by Sneezyone

[silver]

When my son was in 4th grade:

 

Math: 3/4 of our school days were spent on the main curriculum (MM), 1/4 on the supplement (BA). He would spend 35 (focused) minutes a day. The focus was from me sitting next to him, redirecting him to his math as needed. I would also check his answers right when he was done to make sure he wasn't off track. He's mathy, and this was enough time for him to finish a little more than a year of MM.

 

Writing: In 4th grade he did ELTL 3, which has either an oral or written narration each week (alternating). ELTL also has daily copywork. Along with this, he (orally) did a portion of Killgallon's Paragraphs for Elementary school and Evan Moore Non-Fiction Writing (4th grade workbook). The EM book didn't have him writing original paragraphs, it was more about introducing the various forms of non-fiction writing, and breaking down the components of this. Fourth grade was the year where he grew in writing (less choppy and more coherent) and his attitude toward writing improved (no more tears, usually doesn't mind writing now). By the end of the year he could write a coherent paragraph. He could have done this at the beginning if he had lots of hand holding, but it would have been rough on both of us. Other than the copywork, he was typing most of his writing.

 

Science: We do a block schedule, spending 90 of our 180 school days on science. Science in 4th grade was a combination of Mystery Science (about one mystery each week) and library books. I didn't try to line up the books with Mystery Science. We'd read science books for about 20-30 minutes a day on days that we did science.

[Lori D.]

How much time do your 9-10yo kids spend on math per day?  How many days per week do they do math?

 

Math:

usually about 30-35 min/day, 4-5x/week = spine math +  5-10 min. later in the day = math facts

frequently, the 5th day = a math supplement, educational game, or other math-related resource

 

How much time per day do they work on writing?  How many days per week? 

 

Writing:

usually about 30-35 minutes, 4x/week, broken into smaller bites throughout the day:

- 5 minutes first thing = 3-5 sentences on a journal prompt or some other short writing "brain warm up"

- 15-20 later in the morning = any instruction + work on an assignment

- 10 minutes in the afternoon = continue on the assignment, or some other short writing

 

All of the Language Arts areas were separate, so:

- Grammar = 20 min/day, 3x/week

- Spelling = 10-15 min/day, 4x/week (DS#1) --and-- 30 min/day, 5x/week (DS#2 with LDs in spelling)

- Handwriting = 10 min/day, 4x/week

- Vocabulary = 10 min/day, 2-3x/week

 

 

Can they write a coherent paragraph?

 

No. (not without my mentoring)

DS#1 = not until about 6th-7th grade

DS#2 with mild LDs in math, spelling, and writing = not until about 9th grade

 

 

What about science?  How many days per week and how much time?

 

This is a content area, not a core area, so comparison will be very difficult -- some people don't even do science until middle school, for example.

 

We loved science, and used our own resources, books, videos, kits, etc. for "DIY" explorations so:

30 min/day, 4x/week.

 

 

 

Just trying to get a typical range and make sure I have reasonable expectations.

 

Other subjects for us:

 

Bible = 20 min/day, 5x/week

Read Alouds (family books) in the evenings = 45 min/day 5-6x/week

History = 30 min/day, 4x/week

Geography = 15 min/day, 2-3x/week

Logic/Critical Thinking = 15 min/day, 3x/week

Art = 30-60 minutes, 1-2x/month

Music (in 4th grade, each learned the recorder) = 15 min/day, 4x/week

 

All together, for 4th grade, we spent about 4 hours/day, 4x/week (but it often took closer to 5 hours to complete that 4 hours of work, what with constant redirecting highly distractible DS#2 back on task, and having to do some additional remedial work with him for his LDs). The 5th day, we would spend maybe an hour on educational games and supplements, and then spend time with our homeschool support group for field trips, park day, presentation day, and other fun events.

Edited December 3, 2017 by Lori D.

[coastalfam]

My 4th grader, age 9, is taking about an hour (up to 90 minutes at the most) to do a MUS worksheet, and/or a page of Beast Academy.

 

We started using Daily-6 Writing this year, so it is little one page assignments through the week, leading up to a written paragraph or more on Fridays. He is able to write a coherent paragraph, and this skill popped up this year after I had decided to back off and wait for him to mature before pressing the issue last year. We are subject to state testing, so I did teach him the components of a paragraph last year so he could wing-it on his state test. In addition to the Daily-6 Writing program, he does ELTL for grammar, and the prepared dictation passages on opposite days from the grammar lesson. Grammar takes a him a while, as it is very challenging, but we look at it as a really good brain puzzle we do three times a week. All together, Language Arts time, with writing, grammar, typing, vocabulary, and spelling, takes no less than 90 minutes. Some of this time is spent procrastinating or day dreaming, and I find the best approach is just to allow for that space, and also to plan my time so I can work side-by-side not he more boring stuff. He doesn't need my help, but he likes the company.

 

Geography, History, Science, Literature, Health, etc. are accomplished with all my kids combined. We work on geography mapping, and we read living books, daily. History is twice a week for about half and hour. Science is twice a week for about an hour. Fridays are very light in the afternoon, or taken completely off. Twice a week the kids go to enrichment courses in the afternoon. I am not too focused or worried about History and Science just yet. At this level, they could honestly pick up plenty of info from Netflix. We have little programs we find through the suggestions in Wayfarers that we have really liked, and get a lot out of.

 

Anyway, for a 4th grader, I don't know if this is "normal", but it seems like plenty!

[boscopup]

Kid #1:

Math - 30-45 minutes, 5 days/week

Writing - 15 minutes, 3-5 days/week

Paragraph - was capable, but resisted doing it :)

Science - didn't do formal science, but we got science books from the library regularly

 

Kid #2 (with LD's):

Math - 15 minutes, 5 days/week

Writing - 5 minutes, 5 days/week

Paragraph - no way

Science - reading, no output

 

Kid #3 (currently 3rd grade but working at a 4th grade level)

Math - 15-30 min, 5 days/week

Writing - 15 min, 3-5 days/week

Paragraph - Yes, and can write more than one paragraph

Science - currently spends about 15 minutes, 5 days/week... He reads a section of a science website, writes or sketches something in his notebook (I tell him what to write/sketch), and there is a short video at the end of the webpage.

[AmandaVT]

Math - 30-45 min 4 days a week. He also has math at coop the 5th day, but it's review stuff for him. 

 

Writing - He's doing Writing and Rhetoric, Fable this year. We do that 3 days a week, usually from 20-30 minutes if I had to guess. He loves writing on his own (typing in a Pages doc) and has written a bunch of books. I also started teaching him how to write a basic outline from the history encyclopedia. Once a week, we read a two-page section and he creates an outline. He would be overwhelmed if I said "Research zebras and write a paragraph on them" but with scaffolding, he would be able to. 

 

Science - he does a new Uzinggo lesson every week and loves to revisit lessons he's done already. We have science at coop once a week and he's working his way through Science- A Closer Look as well. 

 

 

[Rachel]

How much time do your 9-10yo kids spend on math per day? How many days per week do they do math?

 

How much time per day do they work on writing? How many days per week? Can they write a coherent paragraph?

 

What about science? How many days per week and how much time?

 

Just trying to get a typical range and make sure I have reasonable expectations.

Math 5 days/week approx 45 minutes.

 

Writing 3-4 days. Yes, he can write a coherent paragraph. Language is one of his strengths and he enjoys it a lot.

 

Science is difficult to quantify. We have a science read aloud 2-3 days/week. We do demonstrations 1-2 days per week that all my kids makes predictions about and record in a notebook. However, my 4th grader is also a huge reader and reads a lot of science things on his own. I have no way to know exactly how much he reads science related in a week. It’s a lot.

[hollyhock]

How much time do your 9-10yo kids spend on math per day?  How many days per week do they do math?

 

How much time per day do they work on writing?  How many days per week?  Can they write a coherent paragraph?

 

What about science?  How many days per week and how much time?

 

Just trying to get a typical range and make sure I have reasonable expectations.

 

No more than 30 minutes of math per day, probably a bit less most days. He does math 4x a week, with Friday off.

 

Writing is also 4x per week: two narrations and two dictations. It takes about 10 minutes. He JUST started writing his own narrations (3-4 sentences) and is not completely independent yet. We usually talk about it before he writes and during the writing most times, too. I would say he can almost write a coherent paragraph.

 

He does science twice a week. The first day is an experiment from Adventures with Atoms & Molecules and the second day he draws a picture of it and writes a sentence or two about it. Probably takes him 20 minutes each time.

[tjlcc]

Math - 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week. This includes drills.

 

Writing - One written narration per week. Cursive copywork daily. Writing for grammar, dictation and a science notebook as well.

 

Science - 4 days per week, 20 - 30 minutes.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

When my son was in 4th grade, he would spend:

 

About 45 minutes on math including lesson, occasionally longer if he was dawdling.

 

Writing depended on the day and the lesson. We used CAP fable then, so often, it was 15-20 minutes with a longer writing assignment once a week or so that could take around 45 minutes. He could definitely write a paragraph, and he could write a story. His charter would want him to write a five paragraph essay, but he needed help with this simply because that wasn't the type of writing he normally did. The paragraphs and flow was fine, but he needed help with transitions and conclusion.

 

My current third grader will likely need another year to be at the same level of his brother in fourth grade in writing.

 

Science was approximately twice a week with experiments. We did reading and hands on experiments. Some lab notebooking, but nothing strenuous in output. Still in the "science is so cool!" stage.

[ScoutTN]

My dd did:

Piano 20-25 minutes x7 days

Math 45 min x 4 days

Writing/grammar/spelling 45-60 min x 4 days

Latin 30 min x 4

Memory work 15 min x 4

Science and history, each 45 min x 2 days

Art and Drama tutorial one morning a week.

Reading lots and lots of good books

[beka87]

Math facts are less than five minutes at a time, several days a week.  Singapore math six days a week 20 to 25 minutes (rarely longer) each time, plus any extra time to correct mistakes.  She does that later on when siblings are napping.

 

Language Arts - five or six days a week, anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes at a time, occasionally longer (doesn'y include spelling), plus a daily written narration.  Sometimes she can write beautiful paragraphs, sometimes not.  :)  It's a work-in-progress.

 

Science....nature study weekly for 30 to 90 minutes.  Readings from a geology book about twice a week (I read out loud, maybe 10 miutes or so?), with a written narration and sketches, etc, after.  This doesn't include any activities or experiments that go with it.  We also work on astronomy (constellation study) several times a month.

[Megbo]

My 4th grader, who will be 10 next month:

 

Math - 

We started the year doing 30 minutes, 5 days per week. The last few weeks, he's wanted to finish the section he's working on, and has spent quite a bit longer some days. We do math first, so I've just adjusted our plans for the rest of our day to account for the extra time spent on math. I'm sure it'll balance out eventually. 

 

Writing - 

We work on writing together 2-3 times/week, for 30-45 minutes. He's also working independently through some Moving Beyond the Page units that require writing, and we do a few creative writing projects here and there. He can write a coherent paragraph, we're just working on smoothing out that process a little before we move on to writing multiple paragraphs.

 

Science -

Not a strength of ours at the moment. He's doing the RSO Earth and Space activities with his younger brother, twice a week for 20-30 minutes. He also reads something science-related twice a week for 30 minutes. I'm hoping to start something a little more substantial in January.

[Seeking Squirrels]

How much time do your 9-10yo kids spend on math per day? How many days per week do they do math?

~45 min 4 days a week. (5 days if we don't have Co op)

 

How much time per day do they work on writing? How many days per week? Can they write a coherent paragraph?

Grammar & writing program ~15-20 min/day, 4 days a week

Cursive ~10 min, 2x week

Spelling - lesson 30 min/1x week, dictation from the lesson the other 3 days ~ 10 min. (So ~an hour a week)

 

Fine motor is difficult for her so she *can* copy a paragraph but it takes her a bit and she hates it. If she dictates to me she can structure an okay paragraph with guidance. Left all on her own it's pretty choppy with simple sentences.

 

What about science? How many days per week and how much time?

 

Actual curriculum we're using: 20-45 min, 2-3 days a week.

Plus a fair bit in extra reading, videos, and whatever she comes up with working on.

 

History we do about 30 min, 3 times a week.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

10 (about to be 11), 5th grade boy:

 

Math- 45-60 minutes per day, AOPS PA.  We set a timer for this, as the pacing in the book is a bit uneven.  If the timer goes off at 45 minute and there are just a couple problems left, I have him finish the section, so it occasionally stretches to 60 min.  

 

Writing:  Define writing.  :-)  He writes about 2 paragraphs a week, and we are working on structure.  These generally are summary paragraphs from history and science reading.  

 

Additional Language Arts:  3 prepared dictations a week, plus a grammar lesson a day.  We also do verb conjugations because I teach LA in French due to legal requirements where we live.  I'd say approx 1hr LA per day.  

 

We started, then stopped WWS, not because there was any problem with it but because I'm disorganized.  Planning to add that back in, so an additional 30+ minutes 4x a week.  

[Raifta]

How much time do your 9-10yo kids spend on math per day?  How many days per week do they do math?

 

How much time per day do they work on writing?  How many days per week?  Can they write a coherent paragraph?

 

What about science?  How many days per week and how much time?

 

Just trying to get a typical range and make sure I have reasonable expectations.

 

DS just turned 10 and in public school would technically be in grade 5 but would be one of the youngest grade 5s.

 

Last year in grade 4 and this year, he probably spends about 30-45 minutes/day on math, 5 days a week.  A bit extra on Fridays when we do fun math (20-30 min extra).  We are doing Math Mammoth and sometimes BA.  For fun, we did Life of Fred last year, The Number Devil and Penrose the Mathematical Cat this year.

 

He has historically been very writing phobic so our goal there is slow and steady.  He has progressed from a goal of just writing a few words per day (grades 1-2) to a sentence per day (grades 3-4) to this year being able to tolerate writing enough to write a paragraph.  They tend to be pretty coherent paragraphs in terms of the sentence structure, organization of ideas, and spelling but need some work with regards to punctuation, capitalization and use of apostrophes in contractions.  I try to have him write something every day - alternating between a Bravewriter project, Treasured Conversations (we are just finishing the this so we are in the phase of him learning to take notes, create a summary for a paragraph and then turn it into a paragraph), writing letters and freewrites.

 

Science is dependent on me and I have to say that I am sucking at Science right now.  I was trying to get to it a couple of times a week for 30-45 minutes each day and we did pretty good for a couple of months but the last month we've just been doing the basics and that has not, sadly, included Science.  Hoping to get back into the swing of things in January.  

 

I work part time every morning, so it can be tough trying to fit in things in the afternoon particularly with outside afternoon activities that seem to keep cropping up (coupled with the fact that realistically by the time I get home, eat lunch and recover from my morning, it is often 2 pm and then by 4 pm I need to start worrying about dinner so that people can get going to evening activities by 5:30 pm).  So that impacts our schedule as well.  We'd likely be doing better at Science if I wasn't working.