[How many hours a day do you do school work?]

4 hours a day of 'seat work'  I do not include music lessons or practice in school time.   

[When do your children exercise?]

For those of you whose children are not participating in organized sports, do you intentionally put exercise on your schedule?

 

Nope.  Mine just run around outside.  The 12 year walks the dog a mile everyday.

[JAWM pity party - Another kitty gone :(]

Can she not live outside?  That is what I did with my pee-er.  Moved her out at age 4.  She is now 15.

[Tired of discussing every.little.thing with DCs....]

When my kids start this, my answer is "Yes Ma'am"   They know that I mean for them to do what I said immediately without response/discussion.  Now, I will say I give a bit more info upfront-- in your Latin example I would have said  "We are going to do Latin before math and lunch today." 

[How long is your school day?]

OP here:

 

Ok.  Here goes:

 

This is what we do daily:

 

Watch CNN Student news while we eat breakfast (10 minutes)

Bible (20 minutes)

Health (15 minutes)  Required by law between 7th and 12th.  Getting it done this year.

Math (60 minutes)

Reading (40 minutes)  They refuse to read on their own, so I include it in our school day. Every other day I read aloud to them instead of them reading on their own.

Spelling (20 minutes)  (yes, they need this class)

Vocabulary (10 minutes) of SAT prep type words

Typing (10 minutes)

 

Over 3 hours right there.

 

Then, we cycle through the following on a 6 day rotation:

 

Art (twice a cycle--so twice every 6 school days)  (60 min per class)

Civics (once a cycle) Required by law between 7th and 12th  (60 min)

Etiquette (this is really fun for the boys. Once a cycle) (60 min)

Grammar (twice a cycle) (20 min)

History (four times a cycle.  They adore history) (60 min)

Logic (twice a cycle.  They adore logic.) (60 min)

Piano (ha.  Haven't managed to fit it in yet)

Science (4 times a cycle) (60 min)

 

ETA:  Egads that's a lot.  I don't know what to cut, what with some things being required by common sense (math, grammar, writing, etc) and the stuff that isn't required is the fun stuff (logic etiquette, art).  

 

At my house, I'd cut Art, Civics (I know you can't, but I am not under any restrictions).  I would reduce the time for the rest you cycle.  Logic, Etiquette would total 45 minutes a week at most,  Science would be 60 minutes a week (two 30 minute slots) and History would be 60 minutes each week.  I don't count reading or music in my school time. 

 

If you and your kids do not mind putting in that much time each day, then don't feel the need to change things. *I* could not do that.  I would crumble. 

[How long is your school day?]

I have 4 kids , so school takes *me* roughly 5-6 hours.  The older kids work from about 9-12, then 1-2 ish.  I homeschool largely for academic reasons as well, however, I feel that free time and play grow a child's mind as much or more than academic work, so I make sure my kids have plenty of free play or free time to pursue their interests each day.

[UPDATE #56: Math Mammoth is making her cry :(]

This of course is not true.

 

What is not true? My opinion that TT is very light? 

[UPDATE #56: Math Mammoth is making her cry :(]

IMO, Teaching Textbooks is very light and it is easy to manipulate so that the kids don't actually learn the concepts, they just guess and move on.  Math Mammoth is a pretty rigorous program and you have to know your stuff.  Is it possible she is not used to having to work at math or that she had not really learned the information via TT?

[Learning not to let judgments effect you]

I would stop sharing so much information with everyone. 

[Teens that are resistant to bedtime.]

Because *I* need sleep, my kids go to bed by 9:00/9:30.  I cannot sleep with someone moving around and doing stuff throughout the house.   As it is, I get woken up every time someone gets up to go to the bathroom at night, I don't need to be kept up until midnight or later by other people.  I've found that mine really need 10-11 hours of sleep each night to function well, so that puts them waking between 7 and 8, which works for our schedule. 

[those of you who run co-ops (financial ?)]

Paypal.  Our co-op is large, roughly 100 families.  We charge $40 per family per year to join.