How long does 9th grade take your dd?

[Lizzie in Ma]

My 14 year old starts school at 9 and often isn't done until after 5 or 6 and there are very few breaks, she eats lunch while she works.

Omnibus I both readings, right now Herodotus and The Dawn Treader

I don't assign every question in the Sessions.

BJU online biology

Jacobs Geometry with Teaching Co. DVDS and Khan Academy as needed.

Material Logic

Latin

God and the History of Art

Human Odyssey (I don't think there is enough history for a full credit in Omnibus)

She does a bit of dithering here and there but nothing that would eat a lot of time.

I am loathe to get rid of the secondary readings in Omnibus, Logic is a 1 semester subject so she is almost done with it so that should help.

Any advice or suggestions from btdt?

[Quiver0f10]

I haven't used Omnibus or BJU, but I think the time looks about right for the subjects and courses she is doing.

[Julie in MN]

We don't spend that long on 9th grade. I guess because 9th was still junior hi when I went to school back in the early 70s, I am giving my son time to get used to high school work.

 

I'm very casual on electives this year and he doesn't need to complete a semester's elective in one semester, so his computer sci is only when he has time and we're tallying up his phy ed credit. (Although French and Bible could be his electives, I suppose, and we take those seriously.)

 

Where is your dd spending the most time?

Julie

[Quiver0f10]

I was thinking and could she spread the logic out and alternate days with another subject? Maybe do the HO reading T and TH and logic MWF? Would that help some? Could she do the same with God and the History of Art and Latin? Do latin M-Th and the Art on Friday?

 

Again, I haven't used these materials so I don't know if it would work or not.

[EKS]

It takes my son from about 8:30-5 not including reading with a short lunch break on most days. He works much slower than the average bear though.

[4wildberrys]

Good to hear that this is not unusual! That's about the same time allotment it's taking my son this year too. Although he does stop to chat and listen in to dd and I discuss her work a LOT---which slows him down considerably. If he really just sat down and worked steadily from the time he gets about 9-9:30 he would be done by no later than 3pm with a shower and couple of meal breaks :glare:

[regentrude]

5 hours a day spent on core subjects math, physics, history, English, and French. (That does not mean precisely one hour in each subject each day - it averages out over the weeks.)

We start at 8am, with lunch break she is done at 2pm- if she does not take breaks and drag it out.

 

Electives (web design, choir, horsemanship and creative writing) are not counted in that time.

[yinne]

Depends -- During harvest when he was needed out in the field he was at his work by 6am and usually done early afternoon, if he and my dh are planning on going hunting he is done in time to go hunting, however if there is no motivation to get done early it is more like 5 or 6 (if I'm lucky) ;)

 

Yvonne in NE

[Storm Bay]

If your dd were in a good ps high school honours program she would need this many hours a day easily.

[BakersDozen]

My 9th graders (3 of them) start at 7:30 and are done by 3:30. During that time they have 20-30 minutes of exercise and 45 minutes for lunch (no school done at that time as I'm reading to all of them). They also get a few short breaks (5-10 minutes). If I count right they have about 6.5 hours of school (Typing, History, English, Math, Science, Spanish, Vocabulary/Grammar).

[MamaAkins]

My plan for 9th grade allots for 7 hours of instruction/work time. There may be some work that she needs to complete outside of that time ("homework"). My plan will be to start at 7:30am (having already eaten breakfast, showered, etc. and take a 15 min. morning break, a 45 minute lunch break with time to walk the dog) and a 15 min. afternoon break. That will put us getting done at 3:45 each day. This is the "maximum" amount of time that I intend to spend each day. Obviously, some assignments will not take the full amount of time.

[Julie in MN]

If your dd were in a good ps high school honours program she would need this many hours a day easily.

 

I'm not sure I agree that a ps program requires 8-9 hours of solid work daily. There is SO MUCH time wasted. Some examples that ds's friends have talked about in my car just this week:

 

1. THREE days this week they spent on finals and got out at 12:20 p.m. That's in a school that only schedules 170 days per year and has already had many other short days this year. This is an advanced ps.

 

2. One kid told a long story of how he stapled someone's paper to the desk last week, which led to another kid stapling 10 papers to a desk, which led to the teacher trying to get someone to fess up (apparently the 1-staple kid did, but not the 10-staple kid), which led to the class being sent to the gym to run laps, and threatened with one day a week spent that way, which results of course in no academics... Granted, this is not an advanced ps...

 

Julie

[jibaker103]

Ds has 7 classes this year with online ps. They say high school lessons should take 5-6 hours per day and my son is taking 6-7 hours with an 8 hour day thrown in about every 2 weeks or so. This does not include breaks, lunch, or any outside classes.

[BakersDozen]

lol, I'm printing this thread for my high schoolers to see that they are not alone when it comes to time spent on school! :D

[4wildberrys]

I'm not sure I agree that a ps program requires 8-9 hours of solid work daily. There is SO MUCH time wasted. Some examples that ds's friends have talked about in my car just this week:

 

1. THREE days this week they spent on finals and got out at 12:20 p.m. That's in a school that only schedules 170 days per year and has already had many other short days this year. This is an advanced ps.

 

2. One kid told a long story of how he stapled someone's paper to the desk last week, which led to another kid stapling 10 papers to a desk, which led to the teacher trying to get someone to fess up (apparently the 1-staple kid did, but not the 10-staple kid), which led to the class being sent to the gym to run laps, and threatened with one day a week spent that way, which results of course in no academics... Granted, this is not an advanced ps...

 

Julie

 

Our local Ps can beat this! They go 4 days a week, STILL take holidays that fall within those 4 days, STILL have teacher in-services that fall on those 4 days and I figured they average MAYBE 140 days total. Apparently, the fact that the school day is over at 4pm has made up for this shorter year. I don't buy it....at all! :glare: There is NO WAY my 180-day, 5-day a week schedule could be shortened to 4 days a week with breaks galore by adding an extra hour a day. No way. But the good news is that the majority of kids get Honor Roll and High Honor Roll :001_huh:

[Julie in MN]

But the good news is that the majority of kids get Honor Roll and High Honor Roll :001_huh:

 

Yes, I asked one of the more advanced kids how their teacher possibly got through, say, an algebra II text. They said that when days were shortened or canceled, each teacher dealt with it differently. Some gave more homework, some shortened things, some skipped things...

[AngieW in Texas]

My middle dd is a diligent worker. Last year in 9th grade and this year in 10th grade, school takes her from 9am-4pm or 5pm M-Th and 9am-1pm on Fridays. Sometimes she still has an hour left on Fridays that she does after parkday, but she makes sure that hour is in something that doesn't stress her out, like piano or reading.

 

In 9th grade she did:

Oak Meadow 9th grade US history

Windows to the World with Jill Pike's lesson plans to stretch it over the full year

The Least You Should Know about English

Jacobs Geometry

Oak Meadow 10th grade Biology

Oak Meadow Health (1 semester)

Teaching Company Philosophy of Mind with additional readings (1 semester)

p.e.

 

This year for 10th grade she's doing:

Oak Meadow 10th grade world history

Oak Meadow 10th grade English

Giancoli's Physics (in preparation for the AP test)

Kinetic Books Algebra II

Visual Link Spanish I and II

Alfred's All-in-One Adult piano course

p.e.

 

She's actually having an easier time with it this year, even though it's taking her same amount of time. I think last year was kind of a shock to her because it was such a jump from 8th grade.

[angela in ohio]

That's about the same as my girls' schedules. Making the choice to use rigorous materials necessitates these type of hours, imho.

 

When people ask my dc how long they have to work each day as homeschoolers, they always answer, "anytime we're not sleeping or eating." :D They fit in volunteer work, household chores, time to play games as a family, free reading and projects, and their outside commitments. As long as thsoe are still happening, I see no need to lighten the load. I went through all honors courses in high school while holding down a volunteer position and many extracurriculuars, and their schedule isn't any worse than mine was. :001_smile:

[Melanie]

My 9th grader is using:

 

Saxon Advanced Math

Henle Second Year Latin

Athenaze Greek 1

Material Logic

Rod & Staff English 9 (and other English books)

Great Books study as described in TWTM (ancients)

Geology (using my college texts and lectures from The Teaching Company)

 

It takes him about six hours a day, plus one hour of piano practice.

[Guest]

I'm not sure I agree that a ps program requires 8-9 hours of solid work daily. There is SO MUCH time wasted.

 

This is true even in private school honors programs. Dd spent three months in one last year during which 45 minutes of every 1 and 1/2 hour algebra block were spent going over every problem of the homework. Now if you were a kid who needed that extra time and repetition to get it, well and good. If you were a kid who got it already, you were sitting for 2 hours a week listening to other people's questions about stuff you already understood. There was no differentiation or plan so that such students could move on to the next assignment or do any other activity whatever. This may be bad teaching, but it's widespread even in honors programs.

[Storm Bay]

I'm not sure I agree that a ps program requires 8-9 hours of solid work daily. There is SO MUCH time wasted. Some examples that ds's friends have talked about in my car just this week:

 

Julie

 

It depends on the honours program, which is why I said a good honours program :). The regular college track at our school has plenty of wasted time, but the honours classes don't. My dd spends as much time per day on math as she did when she was homeschooling and we were doing rigourous math and they don't waste any time in her math class. The teacher gives her lecture and/or quickly reviews homework if it's not going to be turned in (and reviewing work would be part of our day at home) and then dc work on math until the bell (it's an 84 minute class, so can't lecture the entire time) or they take a quiz or test. Then there's the homework. The other kids on her swim team who are honours and later AP students get little sleep since they do their homework after practice and it takes so long to do well (high acheivers here.) OTOH, there is slack time in her Academic A classes and even more in the class she has to take that isn't streamed (the Wellness part of Health and Wellness which are two half semester classes.) Next semester she'll be taking two honours classes (no more than that because she doesn't want to do the work involved with 4 honours classes.)

 

The term honours doesn't always mean the same thing from ps to ps, so it's difficult to compare. Our school has 4 tracks in most academic subjects, and then 5 when the AP classes come into play, which is probably why they have some excellent honours courses (eg they're known for excellent honours math).

 

It also depends on the dc as to how much time they need to do it welol.

Edited January 22, 2011 by Karin

[Julie in MN]

It depends on the honours program, which is why I said a good honours program :). The regular college track at our school has plenty of wasted time, but the honours classes don't. My dd spends as much time per day on math as she did when she was homeschooling and we were doing rigourous math and they don't waste any time in her math class. The teacher gives her lecture and/or quickly reviews homework if it's not going to be turned in (and reviewing work would be part of our day at home) and then dc work on math until the bell (it's an 84 minute class, so can't lecture the entire time) or they take a quiz or test. Then there's the homework. The other kids on her swim team who are honours and later AP students get little sleep since they do their homework after practice and it takes so long to do well (high acheivers here.) OTOH, there is slack time in her Academic A classes and even more in the class she has to take that isn't streamed (the Wellness part of Health and Wellness which are two half semester classes.) Next semester she'll be taking two honours classes (no more than that because she doesn't want to do the work involved with 4 honours classes.)

 

The term honours doesn't always mean the same thing from ps to ps, so it's difficult to compare. Our school has 4 tracks in most academic subjects, and then 5 when the AP classes come into play, which is probably why they have some excellent honours courses (eg they're known for excellent honours math).

 

It also depends on the dc as to how much time they need to do it welol.

 

Karin,

I'm wondering what kind of math takes 84 minutes plus extensive homework?

 

My oldest was in a special math program where they did both Algebra I and II in 8th grade at the University, and granted that took him close to that long each day, but his other high school math courses did not on a regular basis take that long.

 

And my youngest does his Geometry plus those corrections take time plus his math team prep plus last year he had his 20 minutes of Kumon (because I work there). But for just one math credit, 84 intensive minutes every day plus extensive homework seems like the course might be too hard for the student if it takes that long? I don't know, maybe I'm missing something.

 

Julie

[LauraQ]

Dd last year did Omni I, Apol. Phys Sci, Fallacy Detective, Algebra (LOF & Jacobs), Japanese (RS only back then) and it took her all day from 10 am to 5 or 6 pm minus an hour for lunch, so I'd say their time spend is comparable.

 

She thinks the Omni II reading is easier this year (and Omni I gets easier as the year progresses) and though her math takes longer, she is learning more and struggling less. We've added in another text for Japanese (a college text she's working through VERY slowly) and she's doing Biology which requires less math (not her strong suit) and is more interesting to her. Still takes her the same amount of time. I remind her that if she were to get up early enough to start at 7:30 or 8:00 like the local PS does, she could be done by the time they are done with their homework, even while taking 1-2 hours for lunch while they only have 25 min to eat. But she hates mornings, so it *seems* like she's working more since she works later.

 

Your dd is working 9-5 which is 8 hours. Granted that's 2 hours more than she would be in PS but honors students often have that many hours of homework at night. Also, you might want to encourage her (or force her) to take more breaks and to take at least 30 minutes for lunch. When we have breaks, we work more efficiently when we return to it. Taking more frequent short breaks might actually reduce the time she spends on school work. That helped my dd recently--she would take no breaks, but would be mentally exhausted for the last couple of hours, just spinning her wheels.

[Tammyla]

My dd's (10th grade) average day is 8-3 ish.... Some days run longer, and occasionally shorter if she pushes.

 

She does take a good break for lunch. Last year her days started out taking so long, and she had to work on organization, scheduling and getting the most out of her time. Ninth grade was a big demand and output difference for her, and I was pretty worried it was too much.

Edited January 23, 2011 by Tammyla

[Storm Bay]

Karin,

I'm wondering what kind of math takes 84 minutes plus extensive homework?

 

Julie

 

Algebra II with a rigourous text, extra time spent on learning theory, all that homework plus practice problems for the state test in the spring, on a block schedule. Dd is getting a full year's worth of math in one semester; she did math that way at home during her freshman year, too. However, if she did all year courses, the work load would add up to the same because she'd have more classes. This is why she won't do all honours classes here, at leas not during the winter. She swims on the ps team in the wenter and by the evening she's spent (gets up at 6, starts school at 7:38 am, gets home around 5 or 6 and still has her homework to do). The oter kids who do it, especially the ones who are doing AP classes, get little sleep, but seem to cope a lot better than dd would on that amount of sleep.

[Michelle My Bell]

I would NEVER ask my daughters to work that many hours a day on school. Sorry, but that is insane. I see a lot of you do it, but what are you goals for that? My girls are smart and doing excellent but they have time to pursue their own interests as well. That seems like MAJOR overkill.

[Storm Bay]

I would NEVER ask my daughters to work that many hours a day on school. Sorry, but that is insane. I see a lot of you do it, but what are you goals for that? My girls are smart and doing excellent but they have time to pursue their own interests as well. That seems like MAJOR overkill.

 

That's why I'm not insisting that my eldest to do all honours classes:001_smile:. I have a friend who didn't homeschool her dd (she's not against it, but didn't think it was best for her dd) who has had a very stressful 4 years of high school doing all honours and AP classes. She has a GPA of 4.6 and has applied to 9 colleges, including a number of Ivies. She enjoys it, though. On top of that she plays the cello and does soccer.) If a dc is motivated to do it themselves, then I don't have a problem with it, because some teens are like this. For some fields, that kind of drive is necessary.

 

Of course, my eldest can take that long and longer even without swimming if she's lollygagging, but she's not actually working the whole time.

[Grace]

I would NEVER ask my daughters to work that many hours a day on school. Sorry, but that is insane. I see a lot of you do it, but what are you goals for that? My girls are smart and doing excellent but they have time to pursue their own interests as well. That seems like MAJOR overkill.

 

Hi Michelle,

 

I am still trying to strike a balance with my daughters. I would love to hear what your day looks like. How long do you daughters do school and what subjects do you try to cover?

 

Love these boards and love hearing all the different approaches!!

 

Thanks.

Grace

[Storm Bay]

I would NEVER ask my daughters to work that many hours a day on school. Sorry, but that is insane. I see a lot of you do it, but what are you goals for that? My girls are smart and doing excellent but they have time to pursue their own interests as well. That seems like MAJOR overkill.

 

Aack--just erased my reply.

 

This is why I don't insist that my dd do all honours classes. She's doing one now and one or two next semester. However, if a teen is motivated to do this on their own, I'm all for it as long as they get some exercise or do something fun. I'm also all for it if the teen wants to go into a profession that demands a great deal in terms of studying to get there or in the job itself, including, but not limited to, medicine and law. So when my dd gets home, exhausted, this winter, she has only one hard course she's doing. Next semester she won't have any meets and will be able to do her swim practice in the early evening so that she can do her homework earlier in the day, so doing more honours will work out better.

Edited January 23, 2011 by Karin

[keslas]

My dd 14 used to struggle through the week with loads of reading assignments and math. Our day stretched from 9am-5pm some days. I started assigning her the reading in TOG History and Literature on Fridays and over the weekends and this has worked wonders. Now we spend her class time having discussions and writing assignments. She's a lot less stressed and since she likes to read at night anyway, doing her assigned weekends over the weekend isn't a big problem.

[mcconnellboys]

Mine generally started at around 8 and he didn't usually finish until around 5-6, either. But that did include his outside activities, too....

[Lizzie in Ma]

Dd last year did Omni I, Apol. Phys Sci, Fallacy Detective, Algebra (LOF & Jacobs), Japanese (RS only back then) and it took her all day from 10 am to 5 or 6 pm minus an hour for lunch, so I'd say their time spend is comparable.

 

She thinks the Omni II reading is easier this year (and Omni I gets easier as the year progresses) and though her math takes longer, she is learning more and struggling less. We've added in another text for Japanese (a college text she's working through VERY slowly) and she's doing Biology which requires less math (not her strong suit) and is more interesting to her. Still takes her the same amount of time. I remind her that if she were to get up early enough to start at 7:30 or 8:00 like the local PS does, she could be done by the time they are done with their homework, even while taking 1-2 hours for lunch while they only have 25 min to eat. But she hates mornings, so it *seems* like she's working more since she works later.

 

Your dd is working 9-5 which is 8 hours. Granted that's 2 hours more than she would be in PS but honors students often have that many hours of homework at night. Also, you might want to encourage her (or force her) to take more breaks and to take at least 30 minutes for lunch. When we have breaks, we work more efficiently when we return to it. Taking more frequent short breaks might actually reduce the time she spends on school work. That helped my dd recently--she would take no breaks, but would be mentally exhausted for the last couple of hours, just spinning her wheels.

 

Thanks, so far this is the most helpful answer for my dd. She is on an honors track and the breaks sound like they might help, sometimes she is just "spinning her wheels" the last hour or so.

I did ask if she wanted to continue Omnibus II next year and she absolutely wants to so she is enjoying it.