How long a school day for 2nd grade?

[lisamarie]

I am wondering how long it takes your 2nd grader to do school each day (average). DS did his schoolwork today and it just seems to not take much time at all. I'm wondering if I'm missing something, if we need to do more, or something. This morning he did the following in an hour:

 

-1 lesson of SM 2a with doing the TM work, the textbook problems, and the workbook

-1 lesson of R&S reading (reading and workbook)

-1 lesson of R&S spelling (workbook part A)

-read 20 pages of his children's Bible per HOD-BLHFHG (reading with a few questions)

 

This afternoon he will do BLHFHG left side and my guess is it'll take an hour:

-history

-Bible

-Poetry

-Art

 

 

Next week we will be adding in science, handwriting and geography. But even with that I can't imagine it will add more than an hour max.

 

So that covers math, reading, spelling, history, bible, science, handwriting, geography, poetry, and art. That seems like everything and it seems like a lot to me, but he gets through his work really fast. The only thing I can think of adding is a foreign language.

 

I guess I read that a lot of states require 5 hours of school a day and we come nowhere near that in my house and I'm not sure if that's because we're not doing enough, not covering enough subjects, or if DS is just really fast with his work (and he is fast but he gets almost everything right).

[Heather in VA]

Well you can see the work my 2nd grader is doing in my signature. We started school today and did everything in the list except science because it isn't here yet. We went from 9:30 - 1:00 with a couple of breaks (probably at least 30 minutes total). She worked hard and did very well but I doubt we'd be able to do much more and have it be successful. If I had to count up to 5 hours, I'd start including things like - she did a puzzle for 20 minutes or she read a book on her own or watched an educational dvd etc.

 

Heather

[Mandy in TN]

This thread covered time taken for math and LA with 2nd graders.

 

In addition to LA and math, we cover science, history, and Latin on a regular basis. We do crafty things that I don't include as school and sporadically art that I do count as school.

 

M&W we may do a little history or science, but we primarily do history and science on T&TH. Fridays are really brief, but we plan to start a Friday art/drama tutorial in a couple of weeks.

 

M&W- We do 2.5 to 3 hours worth of LA and math. After Latin I can come up with a few minutes of other stuff (PE or whatever) to equal our 4 hour requirement.

 

T&Th- We do 2.5 to 3 hours worth of LA and math. Then, we do Latin, history, and science. On these days we have no problem doing school for well over 4 hours.

 

F- Right now we are having a lot of PE and life skills hours logged to get in our 4 hours.

 

Today for history we read a chapter out of Gombrich's A Little History, a chapter out of a library book, and watched a 25 minute library video. We also discussed/narrated after everything. The video had a little preview discussion as well as questions to look for while we watched. So, today we easily spent over an hour on history.

 

We haven't done science yet.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[alpidarkomama]

Our secular studies only take about 2 hours + readalouds by me. That doesn't include art projects, a music class I'm doing with oldest DD and friends, physical activities, etc. Just math, language arts, science, and history. Our Jewish studies end up taking about another 2 hours.

[NanceXToo]

So you seem to be saying that you expect to spend between 2-3 hours a day doing schoolwork with your second grader. That sounds great to me! (even if it's closer to 2 hours, in fact).

 

My fourth grader last year only spent about 3 hours a day on average doing schoolwork (we did other "educational" things but the curriculum stuff... 3 hours, sometimes less, a little more IF we were doing some sort of hands on project that took a bit longer).

[Classically Minded]

Here are the "average" times recommended in "The Well Trained Mind":

 

Kindergarten 1 hour 20 minutes

First grade 3 hours 49 minutes

Second grade 4 hours

Third grade 4 hours 52 minutes

Fourth grade 5 hours 34 minutes

Fifth grade 6 hours 41 minutes

Sixth grade 6 hours 51 minutes

Seventh grade 6 hours 51 minutes

Eighth grade 6 hours 58 minutes

Ninth grade 7 hours 33 minutes

Tenth grade 7 hours 33 minutes

Eleventh grade 6 hours 21 minutes

Twelfth grade 6 hours 21 minutes

 

Remember, these times also reflect the child's reading time in the afternoons, etc. We are first grade and do school 3 days a week - for 3 hours each of those days. Then Friday is projects, crafts and experiments, etc. In the evenings, my daughter does her 30 minutes of reading and that is counted to our "time" for first grade.

[Tree House Academy]

We finish in about 2.5 hours doing what is in my siggy line. :)

 

We are required to do 4 hours a day in TN and we meet that by having play dates at the park (p.e), the kids helping to do chores (home ec?) and/or helping cook (math?), reading on their own at night, writing a letter to grandma, etc. I guarantee we get more learning in during that first 2.5 hours of the day than the ps kids do in a week...so I am so not worried!

Edited September 7, 2010 by Tree House Academy

[lisamarie]

We finish in about 2.5 hours doing what is in my siggy line. :) I guarantee we get more learning in during that first 2.5 hours of the day than the ps kids do in a week...so I am so not worried!

 

This is what I was thinking. I can understand why it would take 5 hours to get everything in when you're talking a classroom of kids, but just 1 kid? That would take a heck of a lot of subjects or doing more than one lesson per subject per day or else counting "extras" like cooking, playing outside, watching a video, etc.

 

So yes, the average day is about 2-3 hours for my DS and that is when he does EVERYTHING.

[twoxcell]

We start school at about 9 and do the core subjects(ie.bible, math, grammar, spelling, handwriting.) until 10. My dh has a lunch break from 10:00-10:45, so the kids break and do exercise. We then do the rest of our school from 11-about 2. That is 4 hours total but I'm teaching two, so my 2nd grader isn't working that entire time. My dh also does some stuff in the evening with ds, such as science, and guitar.

[Medieval Mom]

We must be in the minority, but we easily school for 4-5+ hours a day in second grade. I use the WTM and AO as our guidelines for what we like to accomplish in a day. In addition to our school work, ds reads books in bed for an hour or two at night (this is by his choice).

Edited September 8, 2010 by Medieval Mom

[siloam]

My 2nd grader does 1-1.5 hours of school a day, same as my older kids did. They all score well in standardized testing.

 

Heather

[MamaHappy]

I'm also doing BLHFHG this year with my 2nd grader... I'd say he has about 90 mins. of actual work everyday. But it usually gets dragged out to 2 hrs. with his goofing off, need for snack breaks, potty breaks, etc. :)

[Mommee & Baba]

We started our school day around 8:30 and finished at 2pm. This included a 45min-1hr lunch break as well as 1 35min break. TOO much school so I cut somethings.

 

 

This was what we did before pulling any curriculum and shelving.

 

• Calendar Time
  
• History
  
• Science
  
• Language Lessons
  
• Writing
  
• Math
  
• Reading
  
• Penmanship
  
• Geography
  
• Spelling
  

It was TOO much schooling....so we are now doing the following..starting at 8:45am and completing school at noon! :D This includes a 35min break.

 

• Calendar Time
  
• Language Lessons
  
• Writing
  
• Reading
  
• Math
  
• Penmanship
  
• Geography
  
• Spelling
  

We enjoy some art time on Friday's as well as an educational movie on Friday's.......documentaries mostly. I read aloud chapter books to them & we do fun science experiments occasionally as well as enjoy a good hstory coloring page along with a read aloud.

Edited September 7, 2010 by mamaofblessings

[Beth in SW WA]

Dd 7/2nd has a full day (8:30 - 3) for lessons & free reading with 2 breaks & lunch. She loves school and would read all day if I let her. She read half of Little House On The Prairie today. Her subjects are in my link below.

 

ETA: SWR takes a full hour on some days when dictating/finger spelling a new spelling list. Math is one hour in the morning -- 30 - 40 minutes at night.

Edited September 7, 2010 by Beth in SW WA
more info

[ZeldaRules]

My son is in 1st grade, but our day is a lot longer than it was in K.

 

I like the idea of 15 minutes per subject, but it just doesn't happen!

 

Today we did 25 minutes of LA before I had to take my son to therapy. At therapy, I read him a chapter of a Narnia book, science (about atoms) and a Spanish picture book. 45 minutes

 

Got home and had him watch a 45 minute video on Atlantis. Had to pick other son up from therapy.

 

Got home, ate, then finished with Math & reading. Maybe another hour. So we spent 3 hours probably on work, but we finished at 3:00. Actually, my son wanted to play with Tangrams after we were done with math. He did that for another 20 minutes.

 

My actual lesson time is about 2.5-3 hours.

[RootAnn]

We have a longer day. I school two. My kids will have to get a lot more independent before I can add in #3.

[Mommy to monkeys]

2 hours give or take of actual scheduled work. . .

 

not including an hour or 2 of free reading,

playing outside,

chores,

devotions in the evening etc. . .

 

That would make it WAY over 5 hours:001_smile:

[coffeegal]

My 2nd grader does 1-1.5 hours of school a day, same as my older kids did. They all score well in standardized testing.

 

Heather

 

:iagree:

[NanceXToo]

Here are the "average" times recommended in "The Well Trained Mind":

 

Kindergarten 1 hour 20 minutes

First grade 3 hours 49 minutes

Second grade 4 hours

Third grade 4 hours 52 minutes

Fourth grade 5 hours 34 minutes

 

Wow. That seems like overkill to me for a home education program. Like someone else said, I didn't homeschool anywhere NEAR that long... for 4th grade last year, my daughter spent about 3 hours on average doing school stuff, and sometimes even less.

 

Yet I am still confident she learned so much more in that time period, due to hands on activities and one on one instruction, than public school kids learn in a much lengthier period of time.

 

And even though I was laid back/relaxed, and even though school took like 2 1/2 to 3 hours a day for fourth grade, even though I used Oak Meadow and didn't supplement with multiple curricula, I could see that she was learning and thriving, I put together a portfolio that my Superintendent accepted and that my Evaluator was impressed with, and when I gave her a standardized test at the end of the year "for fun," she was right where she was supposed to be and not behind by any means.

 

She's bright, sociable, inquisitive, and I do believe that she is learning "all the time." That there's way more to learning than worksheets and textbooks and language arts programs and whatever.

 

And best of all, we had plenty of time for fun, imagination, play, exploring our own interests, creativity, extra curricular activities, get togethers with our homeschool group, casual family time and so on... and nobody was stressed or hating school or anything like that.

 

I know we all have our own styles of doing things, of course. But I can't help but admit that I DO feel sort of bad for the families who are posting about how they are stressed out and exhausted and their kids are miserable and they don't know how to fit enough time into the day and they feel worried and guilty that they aren't "doing enough" or spending enough time on schoolwork even after all of that.

 

Especially with elementary school aged kids!

[Outdoorsy Type]

I do about 3-4 hours for my 1st and 3rd(ish) grader.

 

6yo does 1-2 pages of Horizons 1, 8yo does Teaching Textbooks 3 and then they take turns playing Math Games on the computer for 15 minutes.

 

Math total 30-45 minutes

 

6 and 8yo do A Reason For Handwriting every day, and then Abeka Language Arts. About 30-45 minutes

 

Both have reading lessons/phonics for 15 minutes each

 

I read History to them while they color/do puzzles - another 30 minutes

 

Science = 30 minutes

 

Literature Read Aloud takes 30 minutes

 

Then I have a half hour of quiet reading time to themselves so I don't go completely insane. :D

 

And with all that they aren't doing Latin or any other languages this year.

[black_midori]

As with many here, we plan to have 2-3 hours a day (4-5 days a week for us, depending on the week) for my 2nd grader. For 1st grade, we did 1.5-2; I'm just getting into science and history, though, so I expect that to add on close to an hour each day. Knowing my son, I'll be lucky if I can keep it down to an hour extra - once we get involved in a science project, he's likely to try and make me do it all afternoon long! He does love those projects (way more than me, I'm afraid!).