If your state requires a log of hours spent...

[Hwin]

... do you just round up to the nearest hour? :tongue_smilie:

 

My state requires 900 hours a year. It seems like a lot.

 

I feel like I'm either going to a) just make stuff up because I know my son is doing fine academically and if he gets tested, it will show or b) be frantically writing down every possibly-educational thing he does so it will "count" toward those requirements. (i.e. OK OK! YOU WALKED THE DOG! MUST LOG FOR PHYS ED!) :lol:

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Or, if your state requires a log, do you find it useful for your own accountability purposes?

[mom2bee]

To log 900 hours, I'm guessing their requiring 5hours a day for 180 days and thats not so tough.

You don't really have to make anything up. Just write a simple schedule, assign a face value of time to the various subjects and then check them off each day.

 

You could make it as simple as

Lang art. 90 minutes

Math 60 minutes

Science 45 minutes

History 45 minutes

Phys. Ed 60 minutes

 

 

or as detailed as this:

 

English 90 minutes

---Handwriting/Penmanship/CopyWork

---Spelling/Phonics

---Literature

---Free Reading

 

Science 50 minutes

--Reading

--Experiment/Lab

--Lab Report

 

Math 90 minutes

--1 Lesson

--Applied Math

--2 Practice pages

--2 speed drills

 

Phys Ed 45 minutes

--Walking

--Jumping Rope

--Reading + Discussion

 

History XY minutes

--Reading

--Research

--Oral Report

 

 

Etc, etc, etc...

[mom2bee]

Also, I think that walking the dog should count toward Phys. Ed. Many children don't walk anywhere at all, thats why the US is having such an epidemic of childhood obesity/diabetes/etc...

 

If it takes 20 minutes to walk the dog, it should infact count.

But then again, I might count Wii as PE so, maybe I'm not the best judge...

[alpidarkomama]

5 hours a day isn't so hard. They get up at 8:00, go to bed at 10:00. Kids learn from the moment they get up until they go to sleep. So... that's 10 hours times 365, which equals 3,650 hours per year. :lol:

[GoVanGogh]

I'm not required to log hours or days in this state, but do 1.) because I am OCD and 2.) so I'm used to it if we ever move to another state.

So take this with a grain of salt and all that.

I round up and down, depending on the time. Ex: 35 minutes would be 30 minutes. 45 minutes would be one hour. 75 minutes would be one hour.

I don't count time watching educational television, even documentaries, but would if I needed to log hours. We watch at least one documentary a week related to our studies, which I don't think is out of line to record.

PE. I do log our time running wild at the park, nature walks, etc.

I also record life skills stuff, like building a fence with dad or fixing a bike tire. I would record cooking/baking if child is learning the skill and did most of the work, but wouldn't record grocery shopping.

[brasilmom]

In my state we are not required to keep records, but I will keep in case we move or anything. Have moved from state to state 5 times in the last 14 years, I am used to think ahead as to where I may end up next. Now, with that said, I am also trying to figure out what is realistic to count. Since we are entering first grade this coming school year, I will plan to have maybe 2.5 hours of sit down work. The rest of the time logged will be counted for according to each activity: violin lesson and daily practice, art class, gym class, field trips, cooking, physical ed, swimming, etc. In reality I think it is very easy to accomplish the 900 hours in a given school year. The thing that I am not sure about it is this: I plan to continue schooling throughout the summer months. So, how do I go about that? Does that count towards the year that "ended" or the year to begin? The reason for that is just so the skills keep on building. Wee do violin year around, even during vacation. So, math and reading will be the case too. Does anyone here do that too?

Thanks. Be well

Miriam

[Sherry in OH]

In my state we are not required to keep records, but I will keep in case we move or anything. Have moved from state to state 5 times in the last 14 years, I am used to think ahead as to where I may end up next. Now, with that said, I am also trying to figure out what is realistic to count. Since we are entering first grade this coming school year, I will plan to have maybe 2.5 hours of sit down work. The rest of the time logged will be counted for according to each activity: violin lesson and daily practice, art class, gym class, field trips, cooking, physical ed, swimming, etc. In reality I think it is very easy to accomplish the 900 hours in a given school year. The thing that I am not sure about it is this: I plan to continue schooling throughout the summer months. So, how do I go about that? Does that count towards the year that "ended" or the year to begin? The reason for that is just so the skills keep on building. Wee do violin year around, even during vacation. So, math and reading will be the case too. Does anyone here do that too?

Thanks. Be well

Miriam

 

Our official school year is July 1-June 30.

[TCB]

Our state requires logging 1000 hours from July 1st - June 30th. Of those hours 600 have to be core subjects such as English, Math etc. The other 400 can be in other things like music, PE. It sounds like a lot, and last year (our 1st year), I was pretty nervous about it. But actually it is not difficult at all. I record in 15 min increments - ie. Math - SM 4b EX 12 - 30mins, Spelling SWO G less. 5 - 15 mins.

I count lots of things for non - core (which were the most difficult to get for me) things like ballet, bike riding, walks for PE, and Awana and church for Bible.

 

We don't have to start logging hours until school year after dc turns 7. So my dd7 has not had to have her 1st grade hours logged but will do next year. I am a little nervous about her hours because she is the type of child who does fine but can only tolerate short lessons in some subjects. I don't feel worried about her education - just getting the hours in. She does read for pleasure for several hours a day usually, so I will definitely be counting those for reading.

[Haiku]

How detailed does your log have to be? We have to promise to provide 900 hours of instruction here, but we don't have to show that we did. If I did I would just divide the number of hours needed by the number of days we do school and then divide those hours into the subjects we do. I wouldn't actually log every day.

 

Tara

[SilverMoon]

When we lived in a state that expected attendance of 4 hour school days to be kept, I didn't keep track of actual time spent in the books. They didn't need a breakdown of exactly how the time was spent, and had no power to look at our school load and declare it couldn't possibly have filled up the time allotment. For every day we'd done a full day's worth of work, in my opinion, I checked off the day on the attendance form and gave it the standard 4 hours.

[Hwin]

I'm in NY. Where does it state that one must log hours? I know we are required to school for a particular number of hours, but there is nothing that states we must officially log it. Is there?

 

I count whatever it is we are doing during a given day towards school, so we always do the required number of hours. It doesn't just have to be seat work or look exactly like a public school.

 

When I submit my quarterlies I write "225+ hours of instruction were provided". I have never had to submit a breakdown or log of that. I don't believe it says to do that anywhere in the regs. If your district is telling you otherwise they are mistaken.

 

Thanks, that's wonderful. I just went and looked again; of course, you are right :) I was looking at the section that was describing the how many units are in a minute and thinking that you had to line up with that. Despite the specific language, no, it doesn't actually ask for more.

 

Still, I will not be surprised if my school district has some other expectation. I have dealt with them before and it's always an enormous headache. (I am not doing school yet, but my son receives therapy services through the school.)

[Mommy to monkeys]

This is our first time doing that type of thing. . .I'll turn in our first quarterly report in 2 weeks. I'm doing this. . .

 

Hours this quarter: 225+

 

225 times 4 = 900 ;)

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

This site has useful forms for logging hours and may work for NY:001_smile:

http://home.comcast.net/~askpauline/hs/homeschoolforms.html

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I have heard of some using this which may help:

http://www.tghomesoft.com/

[RahRah]

Our state requires logging 1000 hours from July 1st - June 30th. Of those hours 600 have to be core subjects such as English, Math etc. The other 400 can be in other things like music, PE. It sounds like a lot, and last year (our 1st year), I was pretty nervous about it. But actually it is not difficult at all. I record in 15 min increments - ie. Math - SM 4b EX 12 - 30mins, Spelling SWO G less. 5 - 15 mins.

I count lots of things for non - core (which were the most difficult to get for me) things like ballet, bike riding, walks for PE, and Awana and church for Bible.

 

We don't have to start logging hours until school year after dc turns 7. So my dd7 has not had to have her 1st grade hours logged but will do next year. I am a little nervous about her hours because she is the type of child who does fine but can only tolerate short lessons in some subjects. I don't feel worried about her education - just getting the hours in. She does read for pleasure for several hours a day usually, so I will definitely be counting those for reading.

 

I think we may be in the same state!

 

In MO we have a 1,000 hour requirement, July 1 - June 30 school year; of the 1,000 hours, 600 must be core (math, reading, LA, science, history/Social-studies) and the remaining 400 may be other subjects or additional core subject time.

 

With DS age 6, I am not required to log hours this year, but have since I want to see how we do so I will be able to log next year without any issues.

 

It took a few trial-and-errors to figure out the easiest way to log and keep track of both core and non-core hours without driving myself crazy!

 

I digitally maintain our outline of what I'd like to accomplish each week/month as our guideline to finish our curriculum before the end of June...adjust as needed and maintain updates. I maintain this in a word doc and use it to organize each week what I'll need to complete everything for the week.

 

I maintain the hours record in hard-copy - I use a plain old small notebook - each page is for a day, but since they're just plain pages, there is no date (I write that on the page)....I just take note as we go through the day what we're doing and how long we're doing it, rounding up and down as needed (ie. 25-minutes = half-hour). I note the daily time spent and keep a running total for the year per subject as I keep going. I usually tally up hours each week and keep a running total for both core and other subjects so I can make sure we manage the 1000 hours before June 30.