How Many School Hours Per Day?

[mommyto3boys2girls]

Just curious if I am spending enough time with their school work. My oldest is in 5th grade and he gets about 5 hours a day where as my K gets about 2.

 

Is this enough? How many hours are done at your house and what grade are your kids in?

[fairfarmhand]

Wow! You do alot compared to my house.

 

7th grade dd, 3-4 hours, depending on how much time she wastes piddling around.

 

3rd grade dd 2-3 hours, depending on how many pages she had to redo for sloppiness.

 

K dd, 1 hour or less, not counting read aloud time.

[Mejane]

I have two teens and they don't do five hours per day, more like four.

[JudoMom]

6th & 5th: 5-6 hours

3rd: 3-4 hours

1: 2-3 hours

K4: 1-2 hours

[teachermom2834]

That sounds right for me for the 5th grader. I think 2 could be long for the K but it would really depend on what you are counting as school. It is definitely enough.

 

In the younger years I have found that an hour per day per grade was a decent rule of thumb. It would vary, of course, but it always seemed reasonable. My

7th grader probably averages 7 hours. Somedays it is more. Only occasionally is it less. On the days it is more than 7 it is because he is working on some special project for co-op.

 

I'm sure my hour/per day/per grade estimate will fall apart in the hs years but I think it is reasonable for elementary. I wouldn't count quiet reading/ watching educational videos/ etc. in that total. I'm thinking of "book work".

 

Marie

[Melanie]

My 9th grader spends about 7 hours each day on academics, plus an hour of piano practice. My 6th grader spends 5 hours per day on academics, plus one hour of piano practice. They both spend about 9 hours per week doing outside activities.

[mcconnellboys]

I have a seventh grader and we typically do about 6 1/2 hours of school work per day (and always have)....

[Halcyon]

My 3rd grader spends about 4 hours a day doing work (not counting free reading, crafts, etc), my K-er spends an hour or so, not counting crafts, drawing, free reading, etc.

[at the beach]

I have two teens and they don't do five hours per day, more like four.

 

Mejane, Can you share how you manage to keep their schedules at 4 hours? I am looking for ways to trim some time off my 8th grader's time on school work. :bigear:

 

To the original poster: I think you are doing plenty with your children. In fact, I think five hours is a lot for a fifth grader. But that's just me.

 

ETA: At our house, my 5th grader spends about 30 minutes on math, plus additional time on math games. She does her language arts in about 30 minutes. Then, we spend time on history reading, science experiments, art, read aloud books. That would probably add another hour at least. She does free reading, too, for probably 30 minutes. I do piano with her and she takes dance twice a week and horseback rides on Saturdays. A fairly relaxed schedule. My 8th grader, spends quite a bit more time on academics. She spends about an hour on math and Latin daily. Humanities takes probably an hour and a half most days but more when she's doing a writing project. She spends about 45 minutes daily on science and German, sometimes science can be more. Then, she has four hours weekly (about) for her online classes added to that. She plays piano and has a heavy dance schedule. I would say she is easily at 5.5 hours daily without piano and dance.

Edited October 28, 2010 by Violet

[radiobrain]

I have a 5th & 6th...

 

I appear to be averaging 4 hours per day, and that is spread out from 9am -3 and my husband does 30min-1 hour of it.

[Greta Lea]

He does a lot of reading and discussing with me, but not a lot of writing in each and every subject.

 

He reads for about 2 hours a day from the Bible, literature selection, history and science (all living books, no texts right now even in science). He discusses what he reads with me perioidically through the week.

 

Another 30 min. (give or take a bit) is spent working on writing assignments.

 

He works on his math for about an hour (sometimes a little more than an hour).

 

He's also been taking about 20-30 minutes to study for the driver's written test (will take it next week). German will replace driver's ed once he passes the written test.

 

What I listed above is what he does on M/W/F. For the past 8 weeks on Tuesday and Thursday he been doing less than this because he has a 2 hour PE class in the afternoon, then a volunteer position at our church after the PE class. The PE class will be over next week, so his academic work load will increase again on Tuesday and Thursday.

[elegantlion]

At 7th grade we are doing 4-5 hours/ day.

[Teachin'Mine]

Five hours sounds like a lot to me. We were doing about 2 to 3 hours a day for 5th.

[FO4UR]

My 2nd grader spends about 2 hours on schoolwork, but that does not include read alouds.

 

My Ker spends 30-45min, not including read alouds.

 

My preKer just sits in on the read alouds...and has a folder full of activity pages to do for his "school."

[Pamela H in Texas]

Except for the 15mo ds did the virtual academy, my kids have rarely had a day that reached 5 hours.

(Note: virtual academy required 6 hours so days shorter than that had other days longer than that around them)

 

That doesn't make what you're doing wrong, it's just how it was for us.

 

Of course, it also depends on what all you count.

 

And of course, what your kids need may be different. I had my friend's ds for 1st grade last year and we "worked" from 8am to 3pm. Of course, there were breaks, P.E., recess, lunches, etc in there. Additionally, some school was less formal than other parts. We were very WTM and had multiple programs for certain subjects. And this was a child who needed a lot more structure.

 

ETA: And then there is aptitude. People are just different. My daughter did extra and still did much less time than most kids. I've had terms I took 22 credits. So a quick learner may just not take much time.

Edited October 28, 2010 by 2J5M9K

[JenC3]

My 2nd grader spends 3 solid hours M/W & free reading piano practice, & lap booking are all extra stuff. On T/R she spends 2 hours on core subjects and then extra stuff. We also do an hour co-op lesson on Friday and then PE time. Plus read aloud or listen aloud time.

 

My almost K probably doing art/writing read alouds for 1-2 hours a day.

 

I try to look at weekly averages since some days are better than others.

I'd say we spend 15-20 hours per week on school related stuff.

[NanceXToo]

My daughter is in 5th and we can finish in 3 hours or less a day for the most part.

 

We tried K with my son and it was taking an hour or less a day, but then we decided he wasn't really ready so we're holding off on K for the time being.

[smrtmama]

It depends on how quickly he gets it done. Our days are rarely less than four hours, but sometimes he knocks it out in 3-3.5 and sometimes it's 12.

[lisabelle]

My 6th grader spends anywhere from 5-6 hours a day on school. We do math and language arts every day and then do big chunks of time on history or science.

[MissKNG]

We are Kindergarten and I would say around 2 - 2.5 hours. That includes the Read Aloud books I set out for "school" and craft projects. It doesn't include the "unschooling" time my big girl does on her own - using her talking globe, math puzzles, extra craft projects, etc or the extra read alouds I do.

[Mejane]

Mejane, Can you share how you manage to keep their schedules at 4 hours? I am looking for ways to trim some time off my 8th grader's time on school work. :bigear:

 

 

 

Well, I should probably start out by saying that I don't consider myself a rigorous hs'er and we're not exactly conventional. We do what works with relation to the rest of our lives, iykwim. :)

 

My daughter is a hs senior taking four classes at cc. She spends eight hours per week in class and does about twelve hours of homework including an online class. She's extremely disciplined and can get a lot done in a relatively short amount of time.

 

Son is a 9th-grader doing Keystone online. He has four classes and does one subject daily, spending about four hours per day on it. Fridays are for catch-up as he is NOT as disciplined as his sister.

 

I know many people do more than four subjects at a time, but my kids spend seven hours per day at a pre-professional ballet school, so their academics have to fit with that. Even when I was their primary teacher, though, and they weren't dancing as much, I tried to keep school to about four hours per day - an hour of math, one of english, one of either history or science, one of other (latin, logic, etc.) For us, it was enough; there are other things in life besides schoolwork, imo. Probably not much help to you, but there it is. :)

[Dawn in OH]

My children are a bit younger, but, I work our day around assignments rather than hours. If they get the set amount of work done in 3 hours, so be it. If they drag it out to 6 hours, that's their choice. I never lay out 6 hours worth of school work.

 

We have subjects that are covered daily; Grammar & Writing, Spelling, Reading, Math, Science, History, and PE. Art, Music, Literature, and Health, and Geography are done once a week. We also have plenty of occassions where real life spills into a lesson...we made a cake last Saturday that involved both a Math and Spanish lesson.

[6packofun]

For K, about 1 to 1.5 hours

Grades 1-2, maybe 2 to 2.5 hours

Grades 3-6, about 3 to 3.5 hours

Grades 7-9, about 4-5 hours

Grades 10-12, about 5-6 hours, depending on our schedule.

 

We are not strict classical homeschoolers, combine as much of our science and history for multiple grades as possible, and generally don't set up our homeschool as "school at home." I loathe busy work. lol

[at the beach]

Well, I should probably start out by saying that I don't consider myself a rigorous hs'er and we're not exactly conventional. We do what works with relation to the rest of our lives, iykwim. :)

 

My daughter is a hs senior taking four classes at cc. She spends eight hours per week in class and does about twelve hours of homework including an online class. She's extremely disciplined and can get a lot done in a relatively short amount of time.

 

Son is a 9th-grader doing Keystone online. He has four classes and does one subject daily, spending about four hours per day on it. Fridays are for catch-up as he is NOT as disciplined as his sister.

 

I know many people do more than four subjects at a time, but my kids spend seven hours per day at a pre-professional ballet school, so their academics have to fit with that. Even when I was their primary teacher, though, and they weren't dancing as much, I tried to keep school to about four hours per day - an hour of math, one of english, one of either history or science, one of other (latin, logic, etc.) For us, it was enough; there are other things in life besides schoolwork, imo. Probably not much help to you, but there it is. :)

 

Actually, Mejane, your comments are very helpful. Thank you. I think sometimes I am not (yet) fully at the point of admitting/accepting that my daughter's academics will have to fit in with the rest of her schedule. ;) I'm trying, though, really trying.

[EppieJ]

I don't know if anyone's addressed this or not, since I haven't read the responses, but as a user of an "alternative learning program" we are required to report a certain number of hours per week depending on grade. Maybe that'll give you an idea of how you're doing on hours.

 

K - considered half-time; 10 hours per week

1-3 - 20 hours per week

4-6 - 25 hours per week

 

Above that I don't remember off the top of my head. It may remain 25 hrs through the upper grades as well. Not sure.

 

Hope that helps!

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Just curious if I am spending enough time with their school work. My oldest is in 5th grade and he gets about 5 hours a day where as my K gets about 2.

 

Is this enough? How many hours are done at your house and what grade are your kids in?

 

 

You sound right on the mark for your 5th grader. 2 hrs seems high for a K-er, unless that includes read-aloud time.

 

Throughout our 9+ years homeschooling, I generally followed the rule of thumb that says "an hour a day for every grade". So, an hour (to an hour and a half) for first grade, 2 hours for second grade, 3 for 3rd, etc. This works up till about 6th grade. After that, it remains constant at about 6 hours a day.

 

This is the amount of time the KIDS spend each day. As they get older and become more independent, I spend less time sitting with them, as they spend more time doing their own work.