How many of you with upper elementary/ middle school students. . .

[cbollin]

Marie,

 

The program you are using (MFW 1850MOD) suggests that in middle school it will take 5-6 hours a day for school. If you look at the intro part of the manual and their schedule, notice that it takes the 7th and 8th graders longer in the day.

 

With their kids, they were more independent in those jr. high years for afternoon work. The parents were done with parent based teaching by noon (in order to get to work and office). The kids weren't always done by then.

 

I think you're just fine. :)

 

-crystal

[Rosy]

My 4th grader starts at 9:00 and usually finishes around 2:00, she might be able to be done by 1:00 if she works diligently and doesn't get distracted (which is basically impossible in our house). My 3rd grader (by age, functionally he is more like a 2nd grader) could easily be done in 2 hours if he wasn't working one on one with me as much...but his personality is such that he does nothing on his own so it takes him more like 3-4 hours (with breaks while I work with his sisters).

[DarlaS]

You can see my kids' ages in my signature line. What say the hive?

 

If you start at 8:30, I see two (maybe three) kids in your sig who could be done by lunch. Anyone age 9 & up--not likely.

 

However, if they are doing fine with it and have the attention span (It's not like you expect the five and six year olds to just sit all day right?) don't worry about it. It seems like it's working for you.

[SailorMom]

I've always had a bit of an internal battle over the time thing. What's enough? What's too much? We're starting our seventh year of homeschooling - and I still don't really know!

 

Last year - my ds were in 6th and 7th - on average we spent 5 hours on acutal school (not counting breaks). We had shorter or longer days, but usually around 5 hours. Our longer days could be as long as 7 hours if we had a complicated science experiment or a movie to watch.

 

So - I'm still torn. This year older DS will be going to 8th grade at PS from 7:30 - 2:00 (he'll be gone from 6:45 to about 2:30). I've prewarned my younger DS (7th grade) that his days are going to be as long as his brother's. We'll see how this works!