Hours of school

[DragonFaerie]

Geez! I seem to be starting a lot of threads lately. :001_huh:

 

This time I'm wondering about the number of hours spent "doing school." I've noticed a lot of people do things like "15 minutes on spelling" and "30 minutes on math." How does this work with getting all the work done for the year and keeping kids progressing in a timely manner? If I tried this with my kids, we'd never finish the year's work! But, I feel really bad when they are still working on schoolwork after 4 or 5 or even 6 hours. So, I guess what I want to know is if you limit the amount of time your kids have to work, how to do make sure they are getting the necessary amount of work completed and not just stalling until time's up? And if you don't set a time limit, how long do your kids work each day?

[NittanyJen]

That is exactly why I discarded time as my basis for most subjects and went to task completion instead. I have gotten pretty good at estimating how much they can do in a day in each subject. We have some lonnnnng days and some short days. Once in a while somebody is having an off day and I'll push a few things off for another day; other times they goof off and have a really ling day or lose some weekend time.

 

We do probably more time than a lot of folks on these boards though -- no way are we done in 2-3 hours if we do a good job of it, so don't feel bad. Do what is right for your family!

 

Jen

http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/

[happyhomemaker]

I don't set a time limit per subject. I think it would drive me crazy to micromanage that much. So far we have done about 3-4 hrs of school per day. Sometimes more, sometimes less. My ds6 pretty much always does less time than dd9. Ds probably did around 1 1/2hrs a day this past school year.

 

It's funny to me how we hs moms talk about doing school for 6 hrs a day like it's some kind of torture. Ps kids go 7 hrs every day. I figure if we really need to, it won't kill my dc to do that on occasion. :tongue_smilie:

 

I do set the timer sometimes for seatwork. If the assignment is not finished on time, I make a judgement call. It is important enough to push the whole day back(do I need to reteach a concept or is the work vital for some other reason)? Could it be assigned after school as "homework" so that the flow of the day is not interrupted (that is what I do when I think something is not finished due to wasting time- the child has to finish the work after school before any fun activities)? Have I overloaded the assignment (kid understands the work but is bogged down by the number of problems, etc)? Then I adjust our day accordingly. I also try to remember that it's not the end of the world if we don't get things done on a tight schedule. One thing this past year has taught me is to take a deep breath and just make sure our goals and skills are covered. If my ds meets all the math goals and skills I have planned for him to do, but we don't quite get to the end of the book, it's OK.

[Ellie]

I never did a schedule like that. We just worked on things until dc were finished or began to ooze out of their seats, lol.

 

Happily, we didn't have to keep track of time in California (just as you don't have to keep track of time in Texas), so it all worked out. :D

[Koerarmoca]

We opt for longer days so we can take Fridays off (dh is off for Fridays and that is my preparation day) between the 3 kids I think we do about 4-5 hours a day but that isn't each child working 4 or 5 solid hours. It just usually takes 4-5 hours for 3 kids to accomplish 2-3 hours of work with breaks, lunch and toddler interruptions mixed in. The only thing I put an actual time limit on is Spelling because we do that on a shared computer so we have to rotate. (we use spellingcity.com)

[veggiegal]

My boys don't get their beloved "screen time" until the homeschooling is done, their rooms are tidied, and their daily household chore is complete. There's no dawdling. :D

[chepyl]

I kept it to an hour a day last year (kindergarten). We could usually finish everything we needed to do. I did math and reading everyday, history/geography 1-2 days a week (more if the book we were reading was history), science 1-2 days, spelling everyday (sight words - usually out loud or on the fridge with magnets) Bible once a week, some basic grammar (nouns, verbs, adj.) daily in the last month or two. We did various activities (mazes, crosswords, word finds, etc) a few times a week.

 

 

This year, I am anticipating 2 hours a day. I plan to complete the curriculum for math and grammar, science is 2 10-15 week sets (depending on how many days a week we do it. I will alternate that with SOTW, we are doing the memory work for CC Foundations (I don't anticipate much work on that each day, plus we will listen to it in the car anywhere we go without Daddy :D )

 

Oklahoma does have a hours requirement, but no reporting. I will complete at least 180 days (on record), and I count his dance, theatre, piano, and gymnastics toward his school hours - that is at least an hour a day.

 

 

***I am exhausted...sorry if this post jumps around, I don't have the energy to proof read :tongue_smilie:***

[Little Blue House]

I've attempted to have a schedule that is based on a certain amt. of time per subject and we can never stick to it. Instead, we try to stick to a block schedule. 1st Block: 9-11 (Math, LA, History or Science) 2nd Block: 2-4 (Reading/Lit, and all the extras). We are usually able to get everything this way. Plus we do like to have a lighter load on Fridays.

[Lily_Grace]

We have a to-do list of lessons each day and however long it takes us, it takes us. At 12yo the workload has increased and he's at an average of 5 hours a day - most of that on science and writing. Since his science is so hands on it can take him anywhere from half an hour to 2 hours to do reading and lab work. I try to stagger the longer lessons with shorter ones in the other subjects so he's not overwhelmed each day.

[boscopup]

Those are times it takes us IF there is no dawdling. My son is perfectly capable of finishing one section of MM in 30 minutes. Does that mean I stop him if it takes longer? No, some days do take longer. I usually have all of his school done in 2-2.5 hours even with the occasional dawdle. There are no screens until all school is done, and I stay close and stay involved to keep him on task. Some days are better than others, of course, and I'm also only schooling one kid (the second kid doesn't have to school, so if we skip something for him, it doesn't matter).

 

When people set time limits for spelling, they are often talking about a program like AAS where there is no set amount to be done in one year. You can do a step per day or a step per week. The point is to work on spelling for 15 minutes, then pick up where you left off the next day. That's the only subject that I do something like that with. Others I break into lessons to be done each day. We have a checklist and know what we need to do each day.

[Mimm]

We start at 8:30 in the morning and go till 3:30 in the afternoon with an hour break. Six hours a day should be plenty of time to get everything done. Still, some days there was lots of goofing off and we had to let some things slide. Missouri requires tracking hours (though we don't have to report it). I wish we could just track days, that would have been so much easier. Still, 1000 hours divided by 180 days is 5.5 hours a day so we were way ahead and by the last two weeks of school we were only doing a couple subjects a day.

 

As far as setting time per subject, I had a general idea of how much time I wanted them to spend on each subject but if they went over or under, it wasn't a big deal. Of the 1000 hours I'm required to do, 600 need to be in "core" subjects. (Math, science, history, language arts. I counted all our reading time as language arts, plus grammar, spelling and writing so I didn't struggle at all to reach that requirement.) If my kid was staring at the same page for an hour and she's only supposed to take half an hour, then clearly she's got some kind of mental block about that subject on that day and we would move on. That means that some assignments didn't get done and had to be completed the next day or some assignments got done orally later or whatever.

[cuckoomamma]

We're very different from almost all of the pps, except one. My older just finished 4th grade and my younger K. We don't school past the morning. We usually finish up around 1:00, eat lunch, they play and then we go on to afternoon outside activities.

 

My younger doesn't school for more than an hour, unless you're counting unstructured learning like reading books together, cooking, etc.

 

Both are significantly ahead of their age group. My older has been doing Algebra on and off this year. If we had done math everyday and not included things like logic in the mix, she'd be done.

 

While we embrace most aspects of classical ed, we don't believe in covering spelling or handwriting. Both have come along very well without any time spent exclusively on it. I just purchased my 10 yo a pack of Spencerian cursive because she wanted to learn it on her own. I don't look at that as anything more than a hobby, and it will be something she chooses to do in her own free or play time. I'm just including this because I think we'd have very unhappy children in our home if we didn't include significant play time.

 

I think all children are very different, and each family is very different. While we aren't unstructured, our family definitely needs more play time than some of the families here who school all day. The girls education hasn't suffered for it, and we think it gives them time to process what they've learned in the morning.

[JessMcG]

About 5 hours a day for my 2nd grader.

 

About 1 hr for my K-er.

[silliness7]

Geez! I seem to be starting a lot of threads lately. :001_huh:

 

This time I'm wondering about the number of hours spent "doing school." I've noticed a lot of people do things like "15 minutes on spelling" and "30 minutes on math." How does this work with getting all the work done for the year and keeping kids progressing in a timely manner? If I tried this with my kids, we'd never finish the year's work! But, I feel really bad when they are still working on schoolwork after 4 or 5 or even 6 hours. So, I guess what I want to know is if you limit the amount of time your kids have to work, how to do make sure they are getting the necessary amount of work completed and not just stalling until time's up? And if you don't set a time limit, how long do your kids work each day?

 

I budget these kinds of times into our day but I also give an assignment. If they don't get the assignment done in the allotted time then they have "homework." However, they do their homework muck like I did in school. When another assignment takes less than the allotted time then they pick up the spelling book and finish it up. However if they are in a dawdling mood they will be doing school til bedtime. But that is a natural consequence for dawdling. If they bring their A game to school time they will have no after school homework.

[DragonFaerie]

Have I overloaded the assignment (kid understands the work but is bogged down by the number of problems, etc)?

 

This, I think, is what I'm concerned about. If they take too long doing schoolwork because they are daydreaming or goofing off, that's on them. I think I'm concerned that I might be overloading the work. However, DD (the one I'm most concerned about) is moving into 4th grade and the workload DOES get heavier. I just want to know that I'm not giving her too much to do.

 

Right now, this is the plan:

 

Daily

Grammar- one lesson in VIE plus accompanying workbook page

Writing- one assignment in WWW

Math- one TT lesson and probably one MEP worksheet

Vocabulary- one section (WW divides each lesson into 5 sections)

Memory Work- 15 minutes (at most) on Homeschool Advantage

Literature- 30 minutes of reading plus accompanying assignment daily

 

Other

Science- two days per week (computer/written work; no labs)

History/Geography- two days per week

Reading Comprehension- 3 days per week (workbook- read a page, answer about 5 questions)

Latin- 3 days per week

Logic- 2 days per week

Art- 1 day per week

 

I don't really want to eliminate anything we're doing as I think it's all important (and/or its stuff she's asked to do). How much time does this look like it should take? I'm thinking the science will be 30 minutes at the most (some of the computer lessons are about that long; book work will be less) and our history/geography will probably be 30-60 minutes. The latin lessons are about 10 minutes plus a one-page worksheet to do. Sorry, I know I'm halfway answering my own question here. I'm just trying to figure it all out.

[5LittleMonkeys]

When I first started homeschooling I had no clue how much time each subject would take but now I have a pretty good idea of how long a lesson will take depending on the dc. I have a rough schedule in place during the day so that I can guarantee one on one time with each dc but it isn't set in stone. There are many times that a grammar lesson will run past the 30 minutes I have scheduled, or a math lesson only takes 20 minutes instead of 30. We just roll with it and adjust as we go. Occasionally, we will have a subject that gets bumped off of the schedule. I don't sweat it we just pick it back up the next day.

 

My first year homeschooling I would freak out if we got off schedule because I had spent soooo much time writing every lesson down into a lesson planner. You know...Mon., Lesson 1, Tue., Lesson 2, Wed., Lesson 3....well, if Tuesday ended up being a bust it threw everything off for the rest of the year and I would feel like we had to do double work on Wed. to get back on track!!! Now, I don't write anything down...most of our programs are just do the next lesson...but some of our curricula, like our interest projects, have to be planned so I just write those out as Day 1, Day 2, Day 3....that way it doesn't matter whether Day 2 happens the next day or 3 days later.

 

Anyway, that was slightly off topic. As a general rule my dc work from a specific time until a specific time, which varies depending on the dc. If they have worked diligently on their subjects during that time and still aren't finished then we just stop for the day. If they have been dawdling or goofing off then they continue to work until about 5:00. After that I'M done so the work has to be completed the next day. This rarely happens though because they HATE having to do schoolwork past 3...they think the universe will fold in on itself or something. :lol: It works out to be like this: K - 1 hour (this is actual one on one time, he does much more work than this on his own), 3rd - 4 to 5 hours, 6th - 5 to 6 hours, 8th - 6 to 7 hours.

[DragonFaerie]

I love getting started on school first thing in the morning, working until early afternoon and being done for the day. Unfortunately, my DD is a competitive gymnast training 24 hours per week. So, she has to do school around practices, which means she is schooling mostly in the afternoons. This is further complicated by the fact that her younger brother finishes his school work while she's at the gym and by the time she's really getting going, her older brother comes home from PS. So then she has two brothers done with school and she's barely started. If I can keep her workload to 3 or 4 hours, she'll at least be done by dinner time and will have free time before bed. This is going to be a challenge, I can see. :-(

[5LittleMonkeys]

 

Right now, this is the plan:

 

Daily

Grammar- one lesson in VIE plus accompanying workbook page.50

Writing- one assignment in WWW.50

Math- one TT lesson and probably one MEP worksheet.75

Vocabulary- one section (WW divides each lesson into 5 sections).25

Memory Work- 15 minutes (at most) on Homeschool Advantage.25

Literature- 30 minutes of reading plus accompanying assignment daily1

 

Okay, I've indicated how long I would expect each subject to take but I'm basing that on the programs I use, your lit program may not take 30 minutes to complete the accompanying assignment. So according to my times your up to 3.25 hours...I would just round off to 3.5.

 

Other

Science- two days per week (computer/written work; no labs)

History/Geography- two days per week

Reading Comprehension- 3 days per week (workbook- read a page, answer about 5 questions)

Latin- 3 days per week

Logic- 2 days per week

Art- 1 day per week

I would handle these subjects by plugging them into time blocks. You already have 3.5(if my times are accurate) hours dedicated each day so I would say to allocate 1.5 hours daily to these subjects. Monday- Science, Reading Comp and Latin, Tuesday-History\Geography and Logic, Wednesday-Science, Reading Comp and Latin, Thursday-Hist\Geo and Logic, Friday- Art, Reading Comp and Latin.

 

This will give you 5 hours daily, which I think is fine for a 4th grader.

 

 

 

Hope that helps!

[5LittleMonkeys]

I love getting started on school first thing in the morning, working until early afternoon and being done for the day. Unfortunately, my DD is a competitive gymnast training 24 hours per week. So, she has to do school around practices, which means she is schooling mostly in the afternoons. This is further complicated by the fact that her younger brother finishes his school work while she's at the gym and by the time she's really getting going, her older brother comes home from PS. So then she has two brothers done with school and she's barely started. If I can keep her workload to 3 or 4 hours, she'll at least be done by dinner time and will have free time before bed. This is going to be a challenge, I can see. :-(

 

Okay, I posted while you were typing. This information changes things.:D

 

I would say that I don't think you are going to fit all of those subjects into 4 hours a day (based on my estimates). Could she do a couple subjects on the weekend, maybe the science, logic and art? Could she do the vocab or the reading for the reading comp on the way to or from the gym? Maybe she could get up 30 minutes earlier and knock out the math? I know you said you didn't want to drop any subjects but does she really need the reading comp and the lit? I just know that a lot of time lit programs will also cover comprehension too.

Edited July 8, 2011 by 5LittleMonkeys

[DragonFaerie]

Hope that helps!

 

That helps a great deal. Thank you. Also, I know she'll be faster on some subjects. For example, I think she'll get the grammar and writing together done in about 30 minutes most days (when she doesn't stop to complain about having to do writing, that is :tongue_smilie:) and math probably won't take her more than 30 minutes. Depending on the other stuff, I think she might be able to finish in 3.5 to 4 hours.

[DragonFaerie]

Okay, I posted while you were typing. This information changes things.:D

 

I would say that I don't think you are going to fit all of those subjects into 4 hours a day (based on my estimates). Could she do a couple subjects on the weekend, maybe the science, logic and art? Could she do the vocab on the way to or from the gym? Maybe she could get up 30 minutes earlier and knock out the math?

 

Good suggestions. The drive to the gym is only about 7 minutes, though, so she's not likely to accomplish much there but maybe she could start something. Getting up earlier will depend on what time practice starts. We don't have the fall schedule yet but that might be a possibility, too. She won't like it (she's a roll out of bed at the last minute kind of kid) but the tradeoff is having less work to do after practice so she might go for it.

[DragonFaerie]

I know you said you didn't want to drop any subjects but does she really need the reading comp and the lit? I just know that a lot of time lit programs will also cover comprehension too.

 

Actually, I'm using the reading comprehension to make sure I don't miss anything with geography, social studies and science. LOL.. They are topic-specific workbooks. She is a really good reader already, but doesn't really think through what she's read. By using subject-based workbooks, I can encourage her to think about what she's reading but also make sure that we're covering the topics thoroughly. These could be good "car work," though, as I'm sure she can finish them quickly. Maybe comprehension and logic can be car work and the rest at home.

[5LittleMonkeys]

Depending on the other stuff, I think she might be able to finish in 3.5 to 4 hours.

I think 4 hours is good. I think the rule of thumb is 1 hour per grade. Once your dd gets up to middle school and high school she will have to work on schoolwork in the evenings and weekends...best to let her have as much freedom now as she can get! How on earth to dc who go to ps do competitive gymnastics? My dd8 was on the competitive team last year and we finally pulled her because it was just too much between practices, competitions and school work. I commend anyone who's passion drives them on.

 

By using subject-based workbooks, I can encourage her to think about what she's reading but also make sure that we're covering the topics thoroughly.

 

I see! That's a really good idea...what are you using for that?

[regentrude]

This past school year, 12 y/o DS was working 4.25 hours each day, 14 y/o DD was working 5 hours each day. This way, she acquired five credits in the core subjects. She spent additional time on electives.

We start at 8am and are finishing up after lunch. Both kids are way ahead of their ps peers. They work on whatever subjects they want until they have filled their time - some days 2.5 hours for math, some days lots of history, it averages out over time. I do not break down work into "assignments".

 

ETA: I find "one hour per grade" wayyyy too much, after elementary school. I don't think a 10th grader needs to, or can possibly work with concentration, for 10 hours a day.

Edited July 8, 2011 by regentrude

[5LittleMonkeys]

 

ETA: I find "one hour per grade" wayyyy too much, after elementary school. I don't think a 10th grader needs to, or can possibly work with concentration, for 10 hours a day.

 

I should have clarified...on average, one hour per grade up to about middle school. Obviously, a 12th grader isn't going to spend 12 hours on school. I think 7 hours should be the max and that includes core subjects, content subjects and electives.

[RahRah]

We have to do 1,000 hours a year in MO - one of the reasons we've already started the year. Of the 1,000 (as noted above), 600 need to be in core subjects, the other 400 can be electives & PE. Meeting the requirements isn't at all difficult, but we do need to stay aware throughout the year of just how much or how little we're doing.

 

That said, I schedule us for class hours and have figured out how much is reasonable for DS to have to do for each subject in a class hour - he is well aware that if he gets the work done before the end of the time, he's done....BUT....his work has to be neat, it has to be complete, and it has to be at least 90% correct (ie. math) - sloopy, incomplete or too many errors and it's back to do it again. If he hasn't finished in the time I have scheduled, we stop and move on, completing the work the next day rather than continue unless he's really into whatever (usually science stuff) and really wants to keep going. When he's loving something we're doing, I don't stop just because the class hour is over - but I do stay aware that we'll still need to do other things and make a judgement call if we go over by a lot of time - either stop us at some point to move on, or decide we can do the other things the next day.

 

For July 1 - August 14, I have just 60 hours of school work scheduled plus 40 hours of science camps, so 100 hours. When I add on DS's twice weekly sports as PE, that's another 15 hours and he has a couple of programs - one art, one history that he's signed up for that's another 15 hours - so by the time we ramp up the schedule to full-time, we'll already have met 130 hours for the year, making the rest of the year that much easier to do since I'll need to schedule about 4 hours a day if we take 8-10 weeks off during the rest of the year through June 30th if we include really light work on some vacations (ie. reading & math) which we usually do anyway.

[DragonFaerie]

How on earth to dc who go to ps do competitive gymnastics? My dd8 was on the competitive team last year and we finally pulled her because it was just too much between practices, competitions and school work. I commend anyone who's passion drives them on.

 

That's part of why we started homeschooling in the first place. She started competing in kindergarten and by 1st grade it was too much. She was spending full days in ps and then three nights a week at gym. But, she loved it so much, we couldn't bring ourselves to make her quit. And she was pretty good, too! LOL

 

Now, in spite of gym, homeschooling is really working out great for her, for all of us, in fact. We love it!

 

I see! That's a really good idea...what are you using for that?

 

I'm using workbooks I found on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Science-Workbook-Content-Reading-Level/dp/0845494767/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_c This is the science one. I'm also using the Social Studies and Geography books and we'll rotate each week.

[DragonFaerie]

We have to do 1,000 hours a year in MO - one of the reasons we've already started the year. Of the 1,000 (as noted above), 600 need to be in core subjects, the other 400 can be electives & PE. Meeting the requirements isn't at all difficult, but we do need to stay aware throughout the year of just how much or how little we're doing.

 

That said, I schedule us for class hours and have figured out how much is reasonable for DS to have to do for each subject in a class hour - he is well aware that if he gets the work done before the end of the time, he's done....BUT....his work has to be neat, it has to be complete, and it has to be at least 90% correct (ie. math) - sloopy, incomplete or too many errors and it's back to do it again. If he hasn't finished in the time I have scheduled, we stop and move on, completing the work the next day rather than continue unless he's really into whatever (usually science stuff) and really wants to keep going. When he's loving something we're doing, I don't stop just because the class hour is over - but I do stay aware that we'll still need to do other things and make a judgement call if we go over by a lot of time - either stop us at some point to move on, or decide we can do the other things the next day.

 

For July 1 - August 14, I have just 60 hours of school work scheduled plus 40 hours of science camps, so 100 hours. When I add on DS's twice weekly sports as PE, that's another 15 hours and he has a couple of programs - one art, one history that he's signed up for that's another 15 hours - so by the time we ramp up the schedule to full-time, we'll already have met 130 hours for the year, making the rest of the year that much easier to do since I'll need to schedule about 4 hours a day if we take 8-10 weeks off during the rest of the year through June 30th if we include really light work on some vacations (ie. reading & math) which we usually do anyway.

 

Wow. I do NOT envy you having to keep track of hours. Yuck! It's good that you can count so much stuff, though. We tried using a virtual school for a few months. DD was training 16 hours a week at the time but they would only let us count 1.5!