Does anyone strictly do school in the afternoon?

[hanki]

If so, what does your schedule look like? What time do you start/finish? I have tried numerous times to get our act together in the morning...

[Mrs Mungo]

No but we have 2 days a week where we only do school in the morning. We school from 9-4 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday but end at noon on Tuesday and Friday. Also, one of those afternoons is 3 hours of history and one is 3 hours of science. Maybe you could adjust your schedule sort of the opposite of mine? Just a thought.

[Diane]

Last year, my daughter was still taking two hour naps. As soon as she'd go down for a nap, we'd do all subjects. DS was in 1st grade and worked fairly fast. It worked out really well for us.

 

This year, we do some in the morning, some in teh afternoon, and often read at night.

[KidsHappen]

Are family has serious circadium rythym issues. No one is asleep before 1:00 am and we all sleep until at least 9:00 or 10:00. Then we get up eat, dress, and other morning things. The yougers usually start at around 1:00 and the olders seems to do school work off and on the rest of the day. Works for us. The only problem is when we have afternoon appointments. Then we have to juggle some but we manage.

[Cheryl in NM]

If so, what does your schedule look like? What time do you start/finish? I have tried numerous times to get our act together in the morning...

 

We also have a hard time getting started in the mornings. I like to wake up gradually, read my devotions and drink my coffee watching the chickens and the horses.

 

Here's what our schedule looks like:

 

I get up anywhere from 7-8:30, personal hygiene, devotions, quick bfast, then coffee & animals - this all takes me about 1/2-1 hours

 

Ds, 11 (only child) gets up between 8 & 9, personal hygiene, eats, chores, jumps on tramp

 

We usually end up starting our school day around 10 or 10:30. We just wing it after that. I chose what subjects we will study and how much work we will do and we start working on it. We take breaks as ds needs them. We take lunch around noon for 1/2 hour and then get back to work. Some days we school until 4 or 5 because we've taken so much liesure time during the day. Other days we have afternoon activities and need to leave our house 2 pm. On those days, I make sure that I don't schedule too much book work so that we can complete it in time to leave.

 

This systems works very well for our family. It has taken me 5 years to learn to be this flexible though. Occassionally, ds still gives me trouble and doesn't want to complete his lessons. Those days are long and usually end with him back at the table doing schoolwork after evening sports and dinner. For the most part, though, this schedule has allowed ds to take the time he needs to burn energy and I don't feel that I have to keep a rigid schedule. When one of us isn't feeling well and can't focus, we either take the day off or drastically reduce the amount of work to be done (like have a history day, where we just read SOTW or A History of US or we just play math games). I also realize that a more flexible schedule means that we might have to school some in the summer (in NM we have to school 180 days/year). Ds finally understands that this year. I highly advocate flexibility, but I don't know how my sytem would work in a family with more than 1 child.

[Janna]

Right now, schooling in the afternoon is my life. I am pregnant and have had severe, unexplained exhaustion - above the usual pregnancy tired. So we have had to adjust our schedules to doing things in the afternoon because I just can't get up in the morning at a decent time.

 

Right now, we school as soon as lunch is over. Usually starting around 1:30ish and lasting until about 4:30. But a lot has to do with the fact that my dd is in 4th grade and responsible enough to do some things on her own in the am when I'm still sleeping. So she'll write her spelling words or do her Wordly Wise (which is very self-explanatory), she'll do some Latin review worksheets or write her Latin vocabulary and she'll do some of her typing lessons. With those things out of the way, we are easily able to accomplish the things I'm needed for to teach her. And my ds is in Kindergarten and therefore, it's plenty of time for him to get his things done as well.

 

When the baby comes, it's possible that we will end up continuing in the afternoon during nap time. Or, if I'm up super early with the baby, we may be able to do it early in the am (during a morning nap) and then have rest time for all of us in the afternoon. That's probably ideal, but I don't know if it will happen that way or not. I will say that I have attempted to do some school work after dinner in the past and that did not work out at all. It's just too late for any concentration whatsoever.

 

If you have a hard time in the am, one of the joys of homeschooling is having the flexibility to make your schedule work best for you. Don't feel like you have to be doing school work in the am if it's a daily struggle. Try the afternoon and see how it works and continue to make adjustments until you find something that works. And it may be that not everyday is the same. Maybe one day works best in the am while all the others work best in the afternoon. You never know until you experiment.

 

Hope that helps!

[Jenny in Atl]

Our schedule seems to flow with the seasons. Most of the year we do the bulk of school from about 12-4 (with reading and extras in the AM). But this is not a hard and fast schedule. In Summer we tend to be up earlier and finish in time to hit the pool by 1pm. Other times, especially in late winter, we will do some school at night, like history and science.

[Needleroozer]

In addition to my son and I having circadian issues as well, my ds attends classes at the high school from 10 to 2, and my dd spends 2 to 3 hours a morning at the piano, so we do most of our school in the afternoon/evening, from about 3 to 6 or 7, and maybe even an hour after dinner. It isn't optimal, but it does work.

[hanki]

I am very pleased to hear that I am not the odd ball here! Most of the time I feel so pressured to be like most of the other hs mothers I know and get everything done before lunch. I have been homeschooling now for about 2yrs and I am slowly but surely learning that what works for one family may not work for us. Thanks y'all!

[Tammy]

nt

[Just Me]

Gosh, I am glad you hear your guys say this! I was talking with a homeschooling friend the other day. She was telling me that she expects her kids to be at the table at 7:30, having gotten dressed and made beds. They then start their day. I was feeling a little "guilty" about my more relaxed approach to my day. I am now reminding myself that everyone and every family is different. We usually start by 10am, however today we still aren't really finished because we had to break for dentist appointments.

 

I am not a morning girl, and have kids that aren't morning folks. So this schedule works for us. Thanks goodness for the opportunity to homeschool!! :D

[Isa]

For two years I did school in the afternoon while the little ones napped. This worked out very well. We now start in the morning because there is more to cover.

[Nestof3]

I confess, most of our schooling takes place after lunch and until I start making dinner. I plan for a cup of coffee/internet break before I have to start in on dinner.

 

Why do I feel I need to confess that? LOL

 

It works out best for me because I am a night owl, and we are slow risers. I ride my recumbent bike for 1 hour in the morning after my coffee/breakfast, then I shower. While I'm on my bike, the boys play inside, play on the computer or watch educational videos. While I shower and make lunch, they're allowed to play in the backyard (I can see them from the shower and kitchen windows).

 

Often, I will begin reading while the boys finish lunch. We then do all of our "together" table work (math, logic, handwriting). Then, while the boys are sitting at the table, I read SOTW to them while they color their coloring page. Then they do their mapping exercise. If we have science worksheets to do, we do them then too.

 

I have some time while they're doing table work to clean up after lunch, fold a load of clothes, or another small task.

 

I give a 10 minute break after that.

 

Then, we move to the couch. I read our poetry, our read aloud chapter, and our supplemental history books (if any that day) and science books.

 

Another 10 minute break.

 

Then, Ben reads his reading lesson aloud to me. Then Nathan, his. We also do Nathan's R&S English lesson.

 

There are days when I have to run errands after lunch, so we will sometimes do our couch-time reading in the evening after dinner. The boys don't mind -- they love this time.

[Mekanamom]

If so, what does your schedule look like? What time do you start/finish? I have tried numerous times to get our act together in the morning...

 

We tried to do school in the afternoons. I figured if we did all our horse riding/training/chores in the mornings, then we could shower and do school after lunch.

 

It didn't work for us, and we fell behind schedule.

 

Now we feed hay in the mornings, have breakfast, brush hair & teeth, make beds, and start school by 10:00. Break for lunch. Continue with school until 2:00-4:00 (sometimes later) depending on how fast they work. Then we have the late afternoons to give the horses their supplements & do grooming/riding/training/paddock cleaning. Also a few household chores as per Motivated Moms.

 

Sometimes the kids have playdates with their friends in the afternoons. We also often have 4-H project meetings in the afternoons during the week.

 

It just worked out better for us to get school done earlier in the day.

[Plaid Dad]

I'm out of the house at work two mornings a week, so for consistency's sake, we do our lessons in the afternoon. My dd is also not a morning person, and I've learned that it's an exercise in futility to try to get her to do lessons first thing in the morning. Our lessons this year (1st grade) took 1-1.5 hours a day; I'm expecting that to increase to maybe 2 hours in 2nd grade.

[nukeswife]

We're afternoon schoolers here. We tried and tried last year to start at 9 and be done by lunch it was a disaster. My oldest is not a morning person and I've noticed my other 2 heading that direction. We now have a schedule that has us not starting school until 1pm. By this time my kids are all alert have had a bit of play time so they're not all wound up and are ready to work.

 

Right now I have a 3rd grader, a 1st grader and a toddler (will be 3 in July) and with this afternoon schedule we're done completely by 4pm at the latest usually closer to 3pm. I think it's because I'm not fighting to get my oldest to focus while his body is still trying to wake up.

 

I do my best to make any appointments we have between 10:30 and 12 so that they are out of the way and don't interfere with school. They'll start swim lessons in a week which will throw things off on Monday's and Wednesdays for the month of April, but it's only a month and we don't have much left until the end of the year (some subjects they've actually started next years work) so we'll most likely just switch to a 3 day schedule for April and then wrap things up in May.

 

Kel

[Cindyg]

Well, not on purpose, but, yeah. There are lots of days that we don't start school until after noon.

 

My son has more than an hour's worth of work that he can do independently without me. A lot of this is listening to recorded memory work while he's playing quietly. So he does this while I make breakfast, take my shower, feed the horses, return phone calls, whatever.

 

Then, it's often after noon before we get started on what we call our "together" work. We usually work on that until anywhere between 3:00 and 6:00.

 

After our "together" work, DS has worksheets to do by himself. It probably amounts to what a PS child would call homework. If DS works conscientiously, it's probably 45 minutes worth of work. Sometimes he rushes through it, and sometimes he dawdles. Ironically, his very BEST worktime for these worksheets is in the car. If we have errands to run, we take the worksheets and a clipboard, and DS works beautifully while he's strapped in to the car with nothing to distract him. LOL! I wish we could have our entire school day in the car!

[Melissa B]

We started schooling in the afternoon this year as well. We get up/have breakfast/do morning chores until 8:30 or 9:00. Then we walk for an hour. The children play outside from 10:00 until lunch (1:00.) When we had school in the mornings the little ones were bouncing off the walls. After lunch and chores the two little ones have rest time and both will usually nap. We school from 2:00 until about 6:30. Two days a week the girls have karate and we bring our math and literature. The girls are not in the same class so we sit through three classes. We school six days a week and get about 25 hours in that way. My dd 10 will have an hour or so of work to complete in the evening after dinner and we also do evening read alouds.