S/O how closely do you count days and hours?

[Jenny in GA]

Just curious, how closely do you count days and hours, what counts as a "day," and do you have half days?

 

I guess I am strange, because I have never been able to figure out how to count days. Whenever I try, I immediately get confused. For example, we had company this weekend, and on Friday my nine year and I spent over three hours together in the kitchen, cooking and baking, and then another half hour putting away laundry.

 

Is that a school day? Do I count it, or not?

 

How about the day they spent at Epcot? Animal Kingdom? How about the day we spent three hours doing schoolwork, but not four and a half? What about the Saturday then spent two hours playing educational computer games? Is that half a school day? Nothing? I don't get it.

 

I remember a couple years ago I was asking a woman with similar-aged kids as mine what her daily schedule was.

 

She said that her six year son spent two hours in the morning doing written work alone, then two hours after lunch doing lessons with the mother, then a half hour before bedtime doing Bible lessons.

 

I was amazed and said, "WOW, that's a lot of work for a six year old."

 

She blinked, looking surprised, and said, "That's the law. Four and a half hours a day."

 

Well, no way do I do over four hours of schoolwork with my seven year old. What about you?

 

Jenny

[May]

When my daughter finished her day's work, she was done. We always finished the year's work but I never kept track of how many days it was. With that being said, we always lived in friendly homeschooling states.

[Dandelion]

Well, no way do I do over four hours of schoolwork with my seven year old. What about you?

 

Jenny

 

I don't do 4 hours of "seatwork type" schoolwork with my 6.5 year old either (and CO law calls for an average of 4 hours per day, 172 days a year).

 

As part of my tracking, I count many of the activities you listed above (e.g. 3 hours of cooking would be "home economics", etc.). If I only counted traditional schoolwork, there's no way we would meet the 4 hour average per day requirement.

 

In terms of how accurately I account for it, I don't write everything down - but I do ensure that I write enough down to meet that 4-hour requirement every day.

 

ETA: I've had this conversation with other homeschooling moms in my area, and many of them have said they don't track the hours per day. Some only track the days by simply circling them on a calendar and noting "school day" (and that's the documentation they say they would submit if required). Based on my reading of CO law, I don't feel comfortable with that so I do track the hours. But again, I count any educational activity as "school"...

Edited May 12, 2010 by Dandelion

[Lara in Colo]

In terms of how accurately I account for it, I don't write everything down - but I do ensure that I write enough down to meet that 4-hour requirement every day.

 

...

 

 

So do you count days or hours? For instance would a 3 hour day be a waste? Or do you count a 20 hour week?

 

Lara

[ChristusG]

I think that having homeschoolers keep attendance records (as required by some states) is silly for all the reasons that you mentioned.

[Jennifer in MI]

I guess I'm blessed to be living in MI where we don't have to keep track!

 

I've never counted days. We go until we finish our Sonlight Core. That's usually enough time to get through our R&S Grammar and math program.

 

If I were in a state where I had to keep track, and if I needed more days, you bet I'd count a day at Epcot and Animal Kingdom! Heck, PS kids get to go to the zoo and Cedar Point and count it. They even get to count their Field Day as a day of school. So, I think I'd also count a day at Magic Kingdom as a Field Day! I wouldn't worry too much about hours. If you put in a good effort and did a decent amount of work, I'd count it.

[lionfamily1999]

I think that having homeschoolers keep attendance records (as required by some states) is silly for all the reasons that you mentioned.

:iagree:

 

We're required, by law, to be "in session" as long as the local school is in session. If I had to account for all that time..................

8:15 - First bell, nutrition class "what to eat for breakfast"

8:30 - etiquette "no you cannot blow bubbles in your milk"

9:00 - physical education "how dirty can you get in one hour outside"

10:00 - study hall?

10:30 - Grammar, Writing and Spelling (Wednesday - Art)

11:00 - Math

11:30 - French

12:00 - History/Science

12:30 - Latin/Greek

1:00 - Reading

1:30 - Lunch

2:00 - Out of the box time, "discovering yourself by leaving your mom alone"

3:00 - Dismissed

:lol::lol::lol:

 

Think they'd accept that???

 

Thank goodness we just have to show test scores and give grades.

[LauraGB]

I have never, ever, counted days or hours. I'm not even sure I'd know how to. I assume you have to do this per state law?

[MissKNG]

We have to count hours too. But I'm learning to find "unschooling" time that my big girl does on her own and count that. Like, when she uses a globe for 20 minutes, uses her CDROMS for 30 minutes, works on a project for 15 minutes, and I read aloud for 30 minutes - I will count that all as school time because she is learning even if it's not sit down seat work.

[Greta]

Just curious, how closely do you count days and hours, what counts as a "day," and do you have half days?

 

I count days, but not hours. 180 days per year is required by law here, but I do it for my own reasons as well.

 

I used to count half days and be pretty lenient with myself about what counted as a day of school. Then, when I looked back over a year and realized how little we had accomplished, I saw that I needed to start holding myself to some different standards. I'm not saying that a more lenient approach can't work. I'm saying that it was not accomplishing for us what I wanted to accomplish.

 

So, now, I have a plan of what I want to get done in a day of school. If it doesn't get done, we have to make it up on the weekends. I actually held myself to that a couple of times, and schooling on the weekends was so not fun for everyone that we got into the proper routine pretty quickly after that!

 

 

How about the day they spent at Epcot? Animal Kingdom?

 

:lol: I *might* count a trip to the museum as school IF my daughter actually takes the time to read and think about the displays, but that? No, that's vacation in my book. YMMV. :D

 

 

How about the day we spent three hours doing schoolwork, but not four and a half?

 

Did you accomplish in that three hours what you had hoped to accomplish? I go more by tasks done than time spent.

 

What about the Saturday then spent two hours playing educational computer games? Is that half a school day? Nothing? I don't get it.

 

I guess everyone will have different opinions on this, but computer games do not count as school in my house, educational or not.

 

I count time I spend reading aloud to my dd as "school" because I think it is important and valuable. I don't count computer games because they're not important or valuable to me.

 

If I lived in a state where I was required to track hours, I'm sure I would have different standards than what I do. Public schools get a lot of leeway in how they spend their time, and I would want the same flexibility if someone was looking over my shoulder. But since no one is, *I* get to make up the rules about what counts as school and what doesn't. And I guess I'm fairly strict! ;)

[Greta]

2:00 - Out of the box time, "discovering yourself by leaving your mom alone"

 

 

Ooh, something that needs to be added to our schedule! :lol:

[lionfamily1999]

Ooh, something that needs to be added to our schedule! :lol:

We watched the youtube video SWB did on nap time and DS decided we needed to add that to our day. He said, "wow, she sounds just like you, Mom. We should have nap time."

[tonya in sc]

Each year, I download an attendance sheet from somewhere online. Then I mark 180 little xes on it. Then I make copies, and put 1 copy in each child's box where we store their "portfolios" (read as whatever is in their desk/on their shelf at the end of the year). That's it. Homeschool attendance? Really? Sheesh.

[Geo]

We don't imitate a strict classroom approach to school sessions, however, we do have lots of learning going on in unstructured ways. In addition to "table-time" we listen to (or break-out into song) topics from "Sing Around the World" CD. Solar System, US States & capitals, Countries of Africa, Asia, etc. Another habit is enjoying books on tape/CD in the car, watching documentaries and so forth. Learning can easily be inculcated in ordinary, daily life. We most likely exceed any guidelines set by the state. So, to answer your question: No, we don't count hours, not even close. Our proof is in the puddin' not a time log.

 

Geo

Edited May 12, 2010 by Geo

[TCoppock]

Just curious, how closely do you count days and hours, what counts as a "day," and do you have half days?

We are not required in our state to keep track of hours or days.

I guess I am strange, because I have never been able to figure out how to count days. Whenever I try, I immediately get confused. For example, we had company this weekend, and on Friday my nine year and I spent over three hours together in the kitchen, cooking and baking, and then another half hour putting away laundry.

 

Is that a school day? Do I count it, or not?

This would count in my book as school (Home Ec./Life Skills)

How about the day they spent at Epcot? Animal Kingdom? How about the day we spent three hours doing schoolwork, but not four and a half? What about the Saturday then spent two hours playing educational computer games? Is that half a school day? Nothing? I don't get it.

Epcot/Animal Kingdom would be considered a field trip. Public schools are allowed to count them so I can't see why you wouldn't be. I know some people count EVERYTHING as educational, but I wouldn't go over board. In my book Epcot/Animal Kingdom are educational if you make them, however Disney/MGM are not.

 

I would count <4 hours as a half day. I would not include weekend computer games as school. I think there is a lot of gray area when it comes to "school" time and only you know what is considered that in your own home.

I remember a couple years ago I was asking a woman with similar-aged kids as mine what her daily schedule was.

 

She said that her six year son spent two hours in the morning doing written work alone, then two hours after lunch doing lessons with the mother, then a half hour before bedtime doing Bible lessons.

 

I was amazed and said, "WOW, that's a lot of work for a six year old."

 

She blinked, looking surprised, and said, "That's the law. Four and a half hours a day."

 

Well, no way do I do over four hours of schoolwork with my seven year old. What about you?

DS was still in private school when he was 7 and did a lot more than 4 hours a day and had homework on top of that. Again each child is different and only you know what yours can handle.

Jenny

:001_smile:

[Geo]

Each year, I download an attendance sheet from somewhere online. Then I mark 180 little xes on it. Then I make copies, and put 1 copy in each child's box where we store their "portfolios" (read as whatever is in their desk/on their shelf at the end of the year). That's it. Homeschool attendance? Really? Sheesh.

 

 

We have that gratuitous attendance sheet too. :glare:

 

Geo

[joannqn]

We use a virtual academy which means, by law, we are public schoolers. The rules we have to follow are 36 weeks of school. Kindergarten is 10 hours a week, 1-3rd grade is 20 hours per week, and 4-12th grade is 25 hours per week. We can do school days, evenings, or weekends. Hours are averaged over the month so we can do 15 hours this week and 30 for the next two weeks. What we can count as school is VERY liberally construed. When I first enrolled my kids, I was planning on starting school two weeks after the school's start date; they suggested Animal Planet, games, and reading as things the kids could do until I was ready to start school. We used to have to tell them whether we met the hourly requirement or not. Proof wasn't required unless you were on probation. The new rules this year is that they assume we are meeting the expectations if we are making satisfactory progress.

 

We count seat work, chores, cooking, playing outside, going to the park, field trips, extra curricular classes, certain games and toys, computer/wii games, independent reading, and more as school with the blessing of our public virtual school. But on the other side, my kids test scores verify that they are doing fine with the academic part. They become concerned when kids test below the 30th percentile.

 

I've had moments of stress where I felt we weren't meeting the requirements, and in every case, my contact at the school has shown how we were exceeding expectations. For example, my daughter doesn't do sports or much in the way of PE. When I called the teacher about it, she reminded me that public school kids do PE twice a week for half an hour. Most of that half hour is dedicated to attendance and crowd control, so if we got in 20-30 minutes of PE a week, we were fine. Hmmm...I was stressing that I couldn't get her on the Wii (yes they count the Wii as PE) 30 minutes a day. In fact, we count Wii, riding bikes, going to the park, and playing with the neighborhood kids outside as PE.

 

Personally, if I had to count days, I would use similar methods. When in doubt, it counts.

[Ellie]

For me, it would depend on exactly how the homeschool law is written.

 

Unless I had to keep an actual time clock-sort of thing, I'd count every day, Monday through Friday, as a school day, as long as any required standardized test scores showed progress...that's *if* I had to actually turn in those test scores.

 

In GA, I'd check off every weekday as a full school day. Yes, even though we did educational things on weekends.

[elegantlion]

We have a 180 day law. We do more than 180 calendar days and about 35 weeks of seat time instruction.

 

I will count as a day of school:

 

1. 1/2 days if we do more than 2-3 subjects

2. in-service days if it's during our regular school year. AKA teacher catch-up day.

3. educational field trips. Last year on our vacation ds golfed one day (PE) and learned to boogie board at the beach (PE).

4. Days ds will go to work with dh. Dh is purposely training ds in the craft of carpentry, he's working, it's a school day.

5. Extra curricular activities on the weekends. 4H, sports, etc.

6. if we really need time to chill I'll call a movie day and count it as school. I watched numerous WWII films in high school without ever discussing them.

[littlebug42]

We are required to do 900 hours of school each year. When I submit my letter of intent, I tell them that we will complete the 900 hours and that we school year round. I do not count hours though. My kids read so much and watch a ton of documentaries etc. They even enjoy playing educational games with each other and spending educational time on the computer. We go to the zoo and the science museum quite often. I think it all counts. (Right now, we are finishing up a year with the public virtual academy and there of course, I have to log hours daily and I hate it. Back to traditional hsing for us next year).

[NanceXToo]

Where I live, in PA, we have the 180 days/900 hours rule (or 990 hours at the secondary grade levels).

 

With that said- I do not bother officially "counting" the days or hours at all. As far as I am concerned, my daughter learns something and/or does something educational every.single.day. And yes, without a doubt, cooking, field trips, reading, family board games, educational TV shows and so on all count.

 

So I submit my "attendance statement" in good conscience without ever having to waste my time literally counting.

 

(Of course, considering we are completing a 36 week Oak Meadow curriculum that makes things even more "official" but even if I weren't using a curriculum at all, I'd still feel the same way.)

[TravelingChris]

I have lived in states where we count days and in states where we don't. It makes no difference to me. I always end up doing more than 180 days since we school year round and don't take that many days off. I only counted hours with my oldest in high school for a homeschool program he was enrolled in. Otherwise, no. How do we count all the educational things we do? We go on fieldtrips and PE activities on weekends. I like being left alone because I don't need 900 hours or 990 hours or 180 days or whatever measures you want like that to measure school. Oh and in the state I had to measure days, I consider a day to be either around 5-6 hours or most subjects done. A half day was 2.5 to 3 hours or only a few subjects done.

[Dandelion]

In terms of how accurately I account for it, I don't write everything down - but I do ensure that I write enough down to meet that 4-hour requirement every day.

 

 

So do you count days or hours? For instance would a 3 hour day be a waste? Or do you count a 20 hour week?

 

Lara

 

I count days and hours.

 

We generally do a 5-day school week (Mon-Fri) and I track 4 hours per day. Our actual "subject matter" work (Language Arts, Math, History, Science, etc.) generally does not take 4 hours a day (more like 2-3 hours most days) so then I'll track "extracurriculars" to make up the extra time. For example, if I'm lacking 1 hour to get to the 4 hours for a given day, I'll write down 30 min. of an online math game as extra "Math" and 30 min. playing on the trampoline as "P.E." (which are activities I wouldn't normally track if I'd already met the 4 hour requirement on a given day). That's what I meant by "I don't write everything down" - things I'd normally consider "freebies" are only written down if I need them to get to 4 hours...

 

Hope that made sense! :)

[Garga]

If we have done reading, writing, and arithmetic, then I count it as a full day, if I'm really pressed for time and the kids brains aren't cooperating (we all have days like that.)

 

But, for us, I feel that it's lame to only do the 3 r's in a day and say you're done. I'm not happy with our school day unless we've done the 3 r's plus history, science and art or music.

 

I don't count educational computer games, family board games or cooking as school, because all kids do that. That's just learning life. I count official academic subjects as school and we usually spent 4-6 hours a day in schoolwork (between the two kids.) They're 5 and 7.

 

Field trips get counted as a full day, even if they only last half a day. But the field trip needs to be genuinely academic for me to count it. A trip to the zoo or a museum would count. A trip to the lego store to build with the legos does not count as "architecture."

 

I do not think cooking and laundry can be counted as school. There's only so many times you can double a recipe before you can't call it "factions" anymore. And I don't see any academic value in folding laundry. Maybe learning how to divide things into fourths? Again, how many times do you fold a towel into fourths before you're need to stop calling it "school?"

Edited May 13, 2010 by Garga

[Lolly]

I don't bother to count at all. We do our work until it gets done. Except this year, we won't be finishing every book this year.:D

[Tree House Academy]

If we do any school that day, I count it. If we spend 2 hours doing seat work, and an hour at the park playing, then an hour reading before bed, then that is 4 hours. If I take them to co-op and they take two, one-hour classes plus the two hours it takes to drive to and from co-op, it is a school day. Do you know how many days the kids at ps spend on parties, movies, field trips, pep rallies, etc??? I am not afraid! LOL

Edited May 13, 2010 by Tree House Academy

[Beth in TN]

In TN we are required to school 180 - 4 hour days per school year.

 

When I first began homeschooling I would track days/hours religiously. Everything that could be counted as school was: seat work, co-op classes, sports (PE), movies, bedtime reading, field trips (even those on family vacations), etc. It got to be very tedious.

 

By the time my dd was in 8th grade we switch to a new umbrella school and changed the way we tracked attendence. During the summer, I would print a calendar and mark school days, leaving room for vacations and holidays until we had 180. Then I would submit that for our official records.

 

I kind of decided if the public schools (which don't have 180 days by the way) don't have to make up days if a student misses (unless its the whole school) then neither would my dd. We would just make the work fit our schedule and move on.