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s/o Are you done by lunch?


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4 days a week, ds starts around 8:30, finishes around 3. He is a high school junior. One day a week, he goes to a tutorial all day. A little bit of core work is done there, some extras. Math when he gets home. Another day, he is done at 1:30 so he can go to a 2 hour p.e. class. Saturdays require 3-4 hours of studying/reading and piano practice.

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Some days, I call it done if Diva's been super good about getting her core subjects done, as a treat.

 

Other days, before I instituted time limits (an hour for math, then it has to be done in her free time) she could drag math out til 7 pm :glare:

 

To get everything done? No way are we done by lunch, but if she's worked well in the morning, the afternoon isn't as rigorous, we can take more time, more breaks, etc.

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Yes, but she said that the large families that she knows are done by lunch - even those classically schooling... I'd like to hear from those who do and how they do it, though!:D

 

We do. :blush: Here's my schedule. I don't THINK it's that different from anyone else, just a few minutes here and there.

 

Memory work: completed over breakfast ~ 30 min

Saxon Math (yes, we do the drill sheet, practice problems, and the entire problem set): 30-45 min.

Latin and/or Greek: 15-30 min. My goal is to make slow, but steady progress.

 

Language Arts: ~ 45 min.

Rod & Staff English (Yes, the children are required to complete ALL written work; we do very little orally.) Pentime Penmanship, and Calvert spelling & vocabulary cd-roms

 

History Odyssey Level 2: ~ 45 min 3 days a week

Apologia Science (7th grader) ~30 min every day

McGraw-Hill Science: ~ 30 min. 2 days a week

 

Free reading/assigned reading assignments are completed on their own.

Totals: 7th grader 3 hours, 5th & 6th grader 2 1/2 hours

My 1st grader spends around 45 min. doing schoolwork. He completes 1 BJU math 2 lesson, 1 page penmanship, 1 Queen's LA lesson, and either SOTW or Science.

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Wow, we are never done by lunch. My 4th and 5th graders are done about 1:30, my 7th grader about 2:30 except on Wednesdays when she's done about 4:00, and my 10th grader works until 4:00 or 5:00 every day.

 

I would love to pack it all in a shorter time, but I can't see how it could possibly be done.

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We do. :blush: Here's my schedule. I don't THINK it's that different from anyone else, just a few minutes here and there.

 

Memory work: completed over breakfast ~ 30 min

Saxon Math (yes, we do the drill sheet, practice problems, and the entire problem set): 30-45 min.

Latin and/or Greek: 15-30 min. My goal is to make slow, but steady progress.

 

Language Arts: ~ 45 min.

Rod & Staff English (Yes, the children are required to complete ALL written work; we do very little orally.) Pentime Penmanship, and Calvert spelling & vocabulary cd-roms

 

History Odyssey Level 2: ~ 45 min 3 days a week

Apologia Science (7th grader) ~30 min every day

McGraw-Hill Science: ~ 30 min. 2 days a week

 

Free reading/assigned reading assignments are completed on their own.

Totals: 7th grader 3 hours, 5th & 6th grader 2 1/2 hours

My 1st grader spends around 45 min. doing schoolwork. He completes 1 BJU math 2 lesson, 1 page penmanship, 1 Queen's LA lesson, and either SOTW or Science.

 

Do you happen to school year round? :001_smile:

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Do you happen to school year round? :001_smile:

 

Somewhat, my goal is to finish up in late May/ June, and restart in July / August. We should be able to take a few weeks off in the summer, but I don't like to stop for long. Something always comes up during the school year that makes it difficult to school for a time. ;)

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We are done by lunch with things that *HAVE* to be done (math, spelling...the basics). However, I have 3 dc who are young...only one "school-ager" although my 4yo needs school-time too simply b/c she's ready and willing (or demanding LOL).

 

We often do read alouds, science, typing, mind benders, math games etc in the afternoons.

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Somewhat, my goal is to finish up in late May/ June, and restart in July / August. We should be able to take a few weeks off in the summer, but I don't like to stop for long. Something always comes up during the school year that makes it difficult to school for a time. ;)

 

So, I don't know you ... and I want to make sure I don't sound judgemental. Your curricula that you list, sounds extremely impressive. Do you divide everything up into the time you have to work on it... and get through during a "year's time"?

 

I have a 6th grade, and I can't imagine that she'll get to be finished by even 2 next year.... but.... hmmm... Do you anticipate being able to continue this through high school? I'm wondering if you do school at other times without realizing it. Like... my daughter doesn't read good books for pleasure... so that "counts as school time". But, my friend's daughter steals off with her books that she's bought for .... next year. (so that's just "free time reading")

 

:-)

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When I first read the OP's question, I thought,

Yes, we finish by lunch.

We eat at 2pm.:D

 

Nah, not really. We do grammar, math, bible, devotions, latin, and spelling all by lunch time. We may squeeze in history then, too. We do some African geography a couple of times a week for 20 minutes or so, and we will add in science. She reads on her own and I don't count it as school. I only have one I'm schooling, and she's just 4th grade. She usually saves some math for later. We start around 9am.

 

Devotions 10 mins

Bible 15-20 mins (Positive Action for Christ)

Grammar 10-20 mins (Rod and Staff, mostly orally)

Spelling 20-30 mins (SWO, 3 days a week)

Math 20-40 mins (Saxon 6/5)

History 30-60 mins (SOTW 3--not including reading historical fiction. Mapping, doing an activity and reading the lesson, sometimes writing a narration)

Latin 20-30 mins (Prima, 5 days a week, 2 "chapters" and review)

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We could call ourselves "done" if we didn't want to count reading time in as part of the "school" day, which is something I've found in past a lot of folks are doing who say they are "done".

 

Or, if we didn't want to read for hours each day, then we could also be "done", but we read a ton (and that's just with one child - I have no idea how those with multiples could get everyone done that fast unless they're just covering a lot less material for the year than I want us to get covered.....)

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We have some good hard exercise before school and start around 11 and finish around 3:30. So, I guess we could be done by noon if we started at 7:30 am. My kids are from 10 up in age right now and I am thinking we need to add another half hour or so to our day. The older they get the more time it takes.

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So, I don't know you ... and I want to make sure I don't sound judgemental. Your curricula that you list, sounds extremely impressive. Thank you. :blush:

Do you divide everything up into the time you have to work on it... and get through during a "year's time"?Generally I don't have to, although I will if it's a long assignment or we're fried.

 

I have a 6th grade, and I can't imagine that she'll get to be finished by even 2 next year.... but.... hmmm... Do you anticipate being able to continue this through high school? It would be lovely if it did, but I'm expecting to finish around 2 or 3 in highschool.

I'm wondering if you do school at other times without realizing it. Like... my daughter doesn't read good books for pleasure... so that "counts as school time". But, my friend's daughter steals off with her books that she's bought for .... next year. (so that's just "free time reading") That might be it. Discussions occur at the dining table, or while traveling in the car. The children read at other times than school. I leave logic puzzle books and art books lying around. If we don't have any schoolwork, the children sit around bored. If the day is too long, my children sit around like zombies. With our current schedule, the children focus on getting their schoolwork finished so they can get on with their personal pursuits. One is writing a book, a second is working with electronics, and another loves art.

 

:-)

 

The work I assign doesn't seem too far off from what others on the board are doing. I've studied the lists to see what we're missing because we do spend so much less time on assigned schoolwork. :confused: I don't think we're that far off.

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The work I assign doesn't seem too far off from what others on the board are doing. I've studied the lists to see what we're missing because we do spend so much less time on assigned schoolwork. :confused: I don't think we're that far off.

 

This is interesting - thanks for sharing! Your dc work independently - can you share how you were able to get them to do this?

 

I decided to go through each of my dc and determine what they did, how long it took, and how much of my time it took. What an eye opening exercise!:001_huh:

 

Let me say up front that my 11yo, 8yo, and 7yo all have varying learning issues that require more than the normal time to instruct. But when I added up everything I hope to do, it was 8.5-9.0 hours of work for ME! My 11yo had the longest day with 5.75 hours of work, not including his reading time (another 45 minutes to an hour.)

 

Makes me realize that, while I will never be done by noon, I have to consolidate some things to make this work. I also need to work on the schedule so that my dc are working more efficiently and I spend less time directing them what to do next.

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I haven't read all the replies, but I'll add mine.

 

When my dc were all in the grammar stage, then- yes- we were usually finished before 1:00. (Starting at 8:00, and including one morning recess and 45 min. for lunch.) That began to change once my oldest son entered the rhetoric stage.

 

Fast-forward to today: My kindergartner is done in less than 60 minutes.

 

My third grader begins at 8:00 a.m., and is usually done by 1:00.

 

My eldest son (15) begins at 8:00 am, takes about 45 min for lunch, and finishes up about 3:30-4:00 each day. He's a hard worker, and works straight through, very independently.

 

I *loved* being done early when my dc were smaller. But as they age, that changes. The work gets lengthier and deeper. Their output also becomes more challenging. The days of getting grammar done orally in 15 minutes are LONG GONE!

 

Even SWB has said in an interview that parents of older children shouldn't expect to be done by noon every day. Providing your children with a quality education takes time.

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Yeah, sure we are, uh huh, all the time. Not even close! But that's because I have two children, 6 years apart in age! The younger one, ideally gets started by 8 or 8:30 and the older by 9. I had to write out a daily (master) schedule as a guideline this semester so I could stagger each student's independent work with the others help-required work. PLUS, I give them a mid-morning recess and a an afternoon quiet time. My dd usually still has work that needs to be done after her quiet time. She's my oldest. I give them these early afternoon times because 1) my son, although he is 5 1/2 still REALLY needs a short nap in the afternoon and 2) my dd, needs that short break in her room to enjoy it by herself for a bit.

 

I'd like to be done by lunchtime but I don't think that will ever happen in our household, not while the kids are home. (And that's OKAY!) :^)

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We don't even start until after lunch. We usually begin around 1pm. It only takes us a couple of hours, at most. I don't expect it to take 6 hours or so until high school. Honestly, if it starts taking that long, I would think we were schooling way too long during the day!

 

Right now I have only a second grader and a pre-schooler, though...so I know that figures into it. Two hours is really stretching for my oldest, who has ADHD...he really just can't do school any longer than that.

 

Here is what we do:

First Language Lessons

Writing With Ease

Spelling

Handwriting

History

Science

Math

Language Arts and Math on Time4Learning

Art, Gym, or Health

 

We do read-alouds at night...a fun book and usually a history or science read-aloud, as well. If I add those in, it's about three hours total...two hours of sit-down work, 1 hour of read-alouds.

Edited by chaik76
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Guest Virginia Dawn

We do 9-4 with an hour break for lunch.

 

The kindergartener is done by lunch, the 5th grader is done by 2, the 11th grader finishes up around 4.

We don't educate classically.

 

However, I did more of a classical education with my now 19yo and he was done by 2 every day, but he is a highly motivated child.

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And I only homeschool one child this year. She is a dyslexic 6th grader, and we spend from 8:30 until 2 or 3 doing school, with about 30 minutes for lunch.

 

The only time I got done before noon was when my oldest was 7, my middle child 4, and my daughter (the one I homeschool now) wasn't doing any school at all.

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I think a lot depends on what you "count." My 7th and 8th grader read for many hours per day (most of it assigned.) If you don't count that, they don't seem to have as much school work. :D Otherise, they're putting in 8 hour days. :001_smile:

 

A lot also depends on your goals and materials. If you use workbooks or simpler textbooks for each subject, or even some of the lighter-schedule literature-based programs I have seen, you can check things off and be done pretty quickly. We do a lot of "read a million pages and then come together and discuss the concept" :D so it takes a long time to get through any topic. But my goal is not to be done quickly or to advance dc through grade levels quickly. It's to go as deep as we possibly can in the time available.

 

It also depends on age. We did so many field trips when dds were littler, because we didn't need as much uninterrupted time for learning at home. Getting them out and having those experiences was more important to me that doing projects or complicated curriculum at home. Now ds is entering that stage, and the girls are left ot read while I run him all over to have those same experiences. My goal with him is to be done somewhat efficiently, because I want him doing other things right now (field trips, playing, lots and lots of free reading.) We school 6 days, year-round, and he has just a few hours of school work each day.

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Yes, but she said that the large families that she knows are done by lunch - even those classically schooling. I just thought I would ask because I thought I was doing something wrong.

 

 

I'd ask what they mean by classicall schooling. I know many homeschoolers IRL who say they are classical because they are reading SOTW, even though they know little about classical education and aren't doing anything else remotely classical. It's a buzzword these day. ;)

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This is interesting - thanks for sharing! Your dc work independently - can you share how you were able to get them to do this?

 

 

Homeschooling can really take a long time, especially if all the children need lots of hand-on attention. When my children were little (6, 7, 8 or 7, 8, 9), I would put them around the kitchen table and have them start their schoolwork. I would walk around behind them explaining, correcting mistakes, reading directions, refocusing them on their schoolwork, etc. Eventually, they began reading the directions for themselves. Things slowly evolved from there. I keep an eye on their schoolwork, and sit down with the children everyday to check, discuss, ensure they understand their schoolwork, and do basic quality control. ;) My 7yo still needs me to sit down with him to accomplish his schoolwork. He's too young to be independent yet. lol, I've had to bring his attention back to his schoolwork many times this morning.

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When they're younger, sure, a child could be done by lunch. By the time they get to middle school, I think that's much more difficult.

 

My 6th grader will sometimes will be done by lunch, but my 7th grader rarely is. By the time we are in high school, I expect school to last approximately 9:00-3:00.

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Homeschooling can really take a long time, especially if all the children need lots of hand-on attention. When my children were little (6, 7, 8 or 7, 8, 9), I would put them around the kitchen table and have them start their schoolwork. I would walk around behind them explaining, correcting mistakes, reading directions, refocusing them on their schoolwork, etc. Eventually, they began reading the directions for themselves. Things slowly evolved from there. I keep an eye on their schoolwork, and sit down with the children everyday to check, discuss, ensure they understand their schoolwork, and do basic quality control. ;) My 7yo still needs me to sit down with him to accomplish his schoolwork. He's too young to be independent yet. lol, I've had to bring his attention back to his schoolwork many times this morning.

 

This is what I do for the things they can do alone. There isn't much, though, because of the LDs. Even my 6th grader needs help with many of the things he does.

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LOL.....:lol:

 

Once upon a time, when ds was in 2nd grade and he was the lone h/s child in this house, yes, there were times we would be done by lunch.

 

But times have changed....

 

Thanks for the memories though. Those were good times!

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My 9 yr old twins are done with all the core subjects (math, grammar, spelling, writing, reading comp. and practice) before noon. They usually have time to read or play before lunch. The time after lunch is devoted to history, science, art and music or whatever else they might be interested in.

 

I should clarify that this is the kind of schedule the HS families I was talking about practice. Formal bookwork in the morning leaving afternoons open for electives (typically outsourced). Also, very few families in my area HS for high school. Almost all of them either enroll in a traditional high school or community college. So when I mentioned "older" kids, I was primarily talking about middle school aged ones.

 

It's also likely given our proximity to Silicon Valley that the area has a disproportionate number of kids who are quicker to pick stuff up than the average student.

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LOL.....:lol:

 

Once upon a time, when ds was in 2nd grade and he was the lone h/s child in this house, yes, there were times we would be done by lunch.

 

But times have changed....

 

Thanks for the memories though. Those were good times!

:D

 

I almost spit all over the screen. THAT is hilarious. We are lucky to be done by 3:00. Most often 4-4:30.
:lol:
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I have two Logic-Stage kids doing two languages plus all the normal subjects including drawing for one and piano for the other, and it's usually 2-ish for the younger one and 4 or 5 for the older one.

 

Both have assignment books so they can keep going if I'm not immediately available to tell them what to do.

 

We try to limit appointments/errands during the week other than piano and co-op. I usually do most of the errands on the weekend.

 

We finished by noon when they were younger, but the only time they finish that early now is if I schedule a light day because of other responsibilities.

 

I don't see how I could finish earlier, frankly. They're reading a school-related novel every other week or so, doing research reports, drilling on foreign languages, math is at least an hour, and we do some devotions/read-alouds after breakfast for about 45 minutes.

Edited by GVA
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I think if I had only 1 dc, I could get done by lunch if we didn't take any breaks, but with 4dc (only 3 are hsed now) we work 9:30-3ish. Last year, when I was still schooling my oldest, we worked until 4 or 4:30 to get everything done. Like in your family, the kids are not working this whole time, but that's how long it took for me to get through everyone's work because they were all on such different levels. So, no, you're not unusual.

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  • 2 months later...

I see you have alot of children, I know i would not be done by lunch when i was schooling that many.

 

How I am homeschooling only one, if we start at 830 or 900 we are done by lunch, unless we get into something really interesting and we will go over, or if my dd daydreams a little to much then we will go over. but with just the two of us. it is generally done by lunch.

 

I know it would never be done by lunch if i had several children.

 

God bless, nancyt.

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Guest cheesehead42
Classical homeschoolers done by lunch? Maybe if you start at 5am.

 

Hi

I am just curious what this is?

 

Thanks!

 

Melanie

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