I'd love your opinions on the lack of "free time" for my high schoolers (m)

[74Heaven]

I am wondering about something.

 

My high school students seem to work constantly. They work hard at chores and school. They have an average of an hour of homework every night (which becomes 3 hours on Thurs-Fri because they are out M-Tu-W at AWANA/Bible study.)

 

Here's our schedule:

6:30a Wake up,shower,Bible Time/Devotions & Breakfast & Meal Clean Up

8a Apologia Biology

9a-10:30a Videotext Algebra (doing 3 mods a year)

1030-1130a A Beka Spanish

1130-12:30p Henle Latin I

12:30-1:30p Lunch Break

130-230p Lang Arts/ IEW / Literature

230-330p History / Worldview

330-430p Piano practice & Snack Break Time

430-530p Help get ready for dinner/chores

530-630p Dinner

630-730p Clean up after dinner if there are no night activities

730-830p Homework (sometimes til 10p)

830-9p Nighttime chores & get ready for bed (laundry, [pets, clutter pick up, helping sibs, bathroom cleaning, personal grooming)

 

Is high school this busy at everyone's house? It really seems like no one at this house (incl dh and I) are relaxing in the evenings. My children are good students with prob. average (meaning *not* self-motivated) work habits.

 

It feels like we are working from dawn to dusk :).

 

Can't wait to hear your comments,

Lisaj, hsing 5: K4, 2,5,9,10

[mcconnellboys]

Unfortunately, I think this sounds pretty typical for most high schoolers these days. They seem to be doing a typical high school day of school work, with pretty typical homework, as well.

 

My older son went back to private school this year and has just gotten his summer assignments. I was hoping he was going to have more free time over the summer, but he has 5 books to read, one of which is a big textbook. He has to compile a notebook summarizing all 29 chapters of that text in 100-150 words per chapter. He also has to choose another history book from a list and do a 1000-1200 word paper on it. Hopefully, that's all the written work he has to do, but he'll have to summarize the other books, too, in order to be able to recall details once school starts and he needs those.....

 

When do they ever get to slow down?

[Jumping In Puddles]

I don't have high schoolers yet but just remembering from when I was in High School - I did not have foreign language every day - especially 2 hours every day.

 

What you could do is maybe do foreign languages 4 days a week and that time block could be free on fridays.

 

Also would it be detrimental if he only did piano practice 2 or 3 days a week?

[Kimm in WA]

If you are homeschooling your high schoolers, which I gather from your signature line, what "homework" are they doing?

 

Kimm

[periwinkle]

We would burnout very quickly on that schedule here; however, I am more relaxed than most on this board. I don't think the day schedule with the core subjects is unusual...but what is the "homework"? We rarely have that, unless the student has deliberately wasted their time or dawdled. Sometimes my boys choose to complete assigned reading right before bed, which is fine with me.

 

Having more free time in our schedule is one of the reasons we homeschool.:001_smile: (along with being able to take vacations in the cheaper off-season!)

[carol]

If you haven't started video text math maybe you'll find it doesn't take as long as you expect. It takes us 5 minutes on dvd 10 minutes reading text info. 5 minutes for me to make sure the first problem is done right step by step. Usually 30 minutes or less to finish up. Now we are only on the middle of module 2. We started the videotext at the beginning of March. It goes relatively quick.

 

Carol

[74Heaven]

Their "homework" per se is basically anything they didn't complete during the allotted subject time of one hour each day. It might be their AWANA Bible lesson or correcting a test or redoing something that was poorly done. It isn't extra or busywork.

 

We do curriculum pretty thoroughly. Anything (daily work and tests) with less then 85% the kids need to correct their errors.

 

I find when I chat with my IRL hsing friends, they also join me in lamenting how "long" everything takes.

 

For instance, we are doing biology on the donnayoung.org sked that has 2 weeks per (most) Apologia module - well, some days the schedule expects you to read 4-5 pages, do 2-3 questions, study your vocab flash cards *and* do an experiment. There are many variations, some days it might be draw a figure - other days the study guide or the summary. I mean there is no way most days that the high schoolers are done in an hour. I don't think we have done but a *few* labs all year that took less then an hour and a half and usually. (I mean there is reading thru, setting up the supplies, looking at specimens on 3 powers of the microscope, drawing what you see, etc.)

 

Same with history. The reading, discussion, maybe some outlining and report writing - and comprehension questions and work on a special project and maybe get to timeline. Well, there went another 80 minutes :).

 

Videotext takes at least an hour a day for the younger dtr. We are doing one lesson a day and taking the quizzes about every other day as well. My struggling dtr takes about 90 minutes most days with mistakes, questions, etc.

 

My kids do rush and make lots of careless errors. They also do talk and visit and waste time. I doubt it is more then most kids but it is a problem.

 

They are good students but it doesn't come naturally. Two of my five are especially lackadasial in their efforts and personal motivation. It slowly gets better as they get older.

 

So, I don't have a good answer except that with an hour per subject, it just takes more time.

 

Lisaj, trying to make it take less time, wishing it could, wondering if there was a way???

[FloridaLisa]

For instance, we are doing biology on the donnayoung.org sked that has 2 weeks per (most) Apologia module - well, some days the schedule expects you to read 4-5 pages, do 2-3 questions, study your vocab flash cards *and* do an experiment. There are many variations, some days it might be draw a figure - other days the study guide or the summary. I mean there is no way most days that the high schoolers are done in an hour. I don't think we have done but a *few* labs all year that took less then an hour and a half and usually. (I mean there is reading thru, setting up the supplies, looking at specimens on 3 powers of the microscope, drawing what you see, etc.)

 

My Apologia biology schedule (based on a Donna Young schedule) has the kids working 3 - 4 days per week. Reading is concentrated on 3ish days, the On Your Own questions are another day, the lab is a day, the study guide is a day, study for the test for a day and take the test. That's 4 days per week I guess. Anyway, I don't remember my ds spending much more than an hour a day, except for lab day, but that was out with a group and lots of fun. :)

 

Could you consolidate all of the Module labs into one day so that microscope set up, observation and drawing are done altogether? I'd be happy to send you a copy of my biology schedule. I'll be using it again this year!

 

HTH!

Lisa

 

And fwiw, yes, our high schoolers do spend most of the day on schoolwork, volunteer or work, youth activities and outside sports or extracurricular. I find homeschooling at least allows us to juggle a bit when the schedule gets very tight. ~ Lisa

[lllll]

But here are a few ideas that may help to reduce the stress.

 

Our dc do all their regular subjects on Mon - Thurs (and sporadically during the weekends), but Fridays are open for longer projects. We decided to do this because they said it was impossible to write those longer papers in the hour or so time slots for each subject. Dh and I decided they could take Friday to spend all day writing, doing hobbies, catching up on library work, etc.

 

I also told them to try to arrange their schedules so that they were finished with most of their basic stuff by 1pm, which is when we begin our group Bible stuff (tape, hermeneutics or bio or Puritan readings, etc.). On Monday and Thursday, we also do group spelling and grammar from 2 to 2:30. Some were able to rearrange to finish and others weren't, but it seemed to help some of them feel less rushed.

 

Also, I try to notice when they're getting that 'I need a break' look and get them to schedule in their own breaks; or I declare an overall break for all of us. I recently declared a 2 week Spring Break when they began talking about all the things they had to do like build a chicken coop for the new chicks, till and plant the garden, clean up the winter collection of junk around the yard, etc. And when dh is off, we're all automatically off. We can't concentrate when he's home and he usually has things they have to help him with - like next week he's off and they're all cutting wood for next year's heat.

 

Finally, after hs'ing since about 1988, I finally realized a few years ago that there is no perfect schedule. They change constantly. They change when the seasons change. They change as dc finish one subject and start another. They change when I find a better resource and they have to go through the 'start up' period. They change because it's hunting season, or vacation, or we need to increase our math time, or because they're getting older and they can spend longer on each subject, etc. And they're learning how to anticipate these kinds of things and make the changes for themselves without my always initiating it (as part of maturing, I guess you could say).

 

Anyway, maybe I'll have time to post some current schedules here.

 

HTH,

KathyP

[Peela]

I guess it all depends on your priorities. That sort of schedule would burn me and my kids out.

I understand most people here are highly academically driven, and have ambitions for their children to go to college, often to get scholarships etc So that is going to reflect in your highschool childrens' schedules.

My goals are different, so my schedules look different. I realised I was going to burn my kids out, they had no love of learning, and I was burned out, so I have changed over to more charlotte mason ideas. I prioritise free time daily, even for my 9th grader. I prioritise physical activity, and I am trying to educate for life, rather than for university, so I make time for the fun stuff. Obviously "short lessons" as in 20 minutes is not going to work for highschoolers, but I have started stopping my daughter after an hour of maths, and it has taken a huge weight from her shoulders and we move through the day much easier.

I kind of work backwards, and work out hwo much time I want to do school and fit it all in. Sometimes the kids have homework, but thats only if their schedule is acutally disturbed for some reason, or if they are being unusually slack.

I want my kids to have good memories of their childhood and homeschooling, and I endeavour to keep our academic work within reasonable hours, because its only a part of our lives, not the driving focus.

[RoughCollie]

High school and college students routinely do schoolwork on the weekends. I decided that I want my kids to become accustomed to doing some schoolwork on weekends so they don't get to college and freak out because their weekends are no longer free. So I have scheduled 4 hours of schoolwork on weekends.

 

Other than that, here are the main differences between our schedules, aside from times:

 

We spend one hour instead of 1.5 hours between wake up and classes. Note that my kids do not take showers in the morning. They find a time when the washer and dishwasher are not running and the shower is not in use, and take their showers during their free time.

 

My kids' lunch break is 1/2 hour, not 1 hour. I prepare lunch and they clear their places afterwards.

 

The dinner hour includes eating and cleaning the kitchen afterwards. My kids do not do chores for an hour before dinner and for an hour after dinner.

 

During the school week, my kids' chores consist of cleaning up after themselves and clearing their places after meals, and helping clean up after dinner. On weekends, the kids have regular chores.

 

The reason they don't do more chores during the week is that I want them to have some free time each day. P.E. is on our schedule, too, which I view as a quasi free time activity since the kids like it and it is not academic.

 

Our family is not in the same situation as yours is, in that our kids are all in the same age group and we have no little ones, so that may make all the difference.

 

There are not enough hours in a day or week to do everything I'd like my kids to do, and most of that is not academic or chore-related. I wish high school lasted 5 years instead of 4.

 

RC

[Mad Jenny Flint]

I struggle with the same things for my rising 8th grader- fitting it all in and making for a manageable day. Some spots where I think you might streamline:

 

You have an hour scheduled for each day, each language. Might you try 45 minutes each, cutting the time down to 1.5 hours total? This equals 135 hours per year. Plus, if there is a bit left over, they can do this during homework time.

 

You have history and science for an hour each day, every day. Might you do them on alternate days, for an hour and a half? Any catch-up work could be scheduled for Fridays. Again, this equals 135 hours per year.

 

Your dinner schedule comprises three hours. Maybe you could release them from their dinner responsibilities and use part of that time before and after dinner as homework time. Around here, dinner is as simple as possible, and if I don't get time to do the salad, for example, we go without. 90% of the time the meals are nutritious and tasty, and no one has to suffer over the prep. or cleanup. Occasionally, when time is really tight, we have sandwiches and fruit. Most of the time dinner is made and ready, on time, by me alone, within a 30-45 minute window. It takes me about half an hour to do the cleanup alone, after everyone clears their spot, and this is a nice time for me because my dh is usually standing there reviewing his day and mine with me, and helping.

 

My son is only in 7th, but we carry a fairly demanding schedule for school. He is always done with his work by dinner. I do not require him to work after dinner, because by then we are all tired and in need of a break. In high school, I am assuming I will need to have him carry over a bit of work to the weekends. He is aware of this and fully on board. He understands that students from other kinds of schools and other homeschools do this, so he will not be alone. We also build in some break time, read-aloud time, walking and tea time during the day (you can see our schedule under 8th grade schedules thread) to keep things somewhat relaxed and to keep us connected. That's why we homeschool and I won't sacrifice those things.

[Kelli in TN]

I do not have a regimented schedule like yours, but my high school daughter has very little free time. She pretty much sets her own schedule, but between schoolwork, her part time job, flute, and her various extra-curriculars and civic projects she is pretty busy.

 

Next week she will take on two days of babysitting for the summer and in July she add in her first dual enrollment class. In fall she will take two dual enrollment classes and hopes to add in being on regular rotation at our local food bank/soup kitchen.

 

So it will only get worse.

 

But then, my college daughter is really busy too, so maybe this is all good practice?

[Cindy in WA]

Establishing our schedule began with choosing priorities. I believe that formal education is very important, but I do not believe it is the end all to life. From observation and personal experience I have come to believe that many, if not most, things that are learned well are learned because of life experience, not because of book learning. Book learning is necessary, but so is living life which includes free time and extra-curricular activities.

 

I have also decided not to make decisions based on fear. For instance, fears of whether the kids will know all they need to know or whether they will be well enough prepared for college, etc. Honestly, if they don't know everything, they can learn it. If they aren't as prepared for college as they could be, they can learn what they need. If it takes a little extra time, it is not the end of the world.

 

Our children do schoolwork each morning and early afternoon. Because I do not want them doing hours of book work each day, I choose not to have them do as many tests or projects or assignments or labs, etc. We don't do everything all the time. We pick and choose seeing that each student gets experience with many different things.

 

Each of our children are encouraged to explore things in life that interest them, to have a part time job, to try sports, music, etc. Many opportunities are more readily available during the high school years than during the rest of life. We want them not to miss these unique opportunities. They provide avenues for growth and development not found in traditional schoolwork.

 

I would encourage you to analyze everything in your schedule thinking how truly important it is or is a free time activity or personal interest more important. Pray about what God has for each child for their life.

 

If it was me, the first thing I would do is choose one foreign language and drop the other. For the child who struggles with math, I would either change curriculum or adjust expectations. Math is pretty intense for most young people. For a child who struggles, doing an hour and a half is pure torture. If this child isn't a math person, that is ok. I would question if an hour every day for every subject is necessary. Can you lighten up sometimes? As someone else mentioned, Charlotte Mason's ideas of short lessons is very helpful. If a person knows they only have to do a task for a set amount of time, the ability to perform well goes way up. When a task seems endless, there is a hopelessness, like it just will never end. I would set a policy of no homework. Let the end of the school day be the end. If they have to correct the next day, what would that hurt?

 

Chores are important, but I know at our house I've had to adjust my expectations. The house is not as clean or uncluttered as I'd like. This is only a season. We can clean more thoroughly later. Meals are often not as elaborate as they were pre-homeschool. But we are well nourished.

 

Both our children who are still at home do track and one does football. One does piano. One has three lawn mowing jobs and volunteers at summer camp. The other was a summer missionary last summer and will be again this summer. Both have free time most days to do what they want, even if that is just sitting and doing nothing. We all need time to think. Sometimes I wonder if teenagers need even more time to ponder than most.

 

I hope this has been helpful.

In Christ,

Cindy

[74Heaven]

I am very thankful for all of your perspectives.

 

Here are some of the things I really want to look at (from the suggestions):

 

--Lots of praying and pondering on our priorities - we tend to get pretty tunnel-vision(ed) on academics

--45 min for each foreign language. These are my two dtrs' strongest and most-loved subjects. I *fear* losing g.p.a. or traction here. (I know fear is not of the Lord!)

 

ANd here are some things I don't think we can (will :) change:

--science is the weakest subj for one dtr - she needs every minute and every ounce of help we can spare for science to keep a C+ average (and she thinks (tho I doubt that is really her goal) that she wants to be a nurse. The other *loves* science and enjoys it immensely.

--chores need to stay as is. The chore time would diminish in a *huge* way if the children were more diligent. Btw, "chores" at our house means everything from washing your face, reading your BIble and brushing your hair to cleaning the kitchen. (It all comes during "chore time". Since we are a larger family, there is tons of activity, toys, and general mess-making. I submit humbly that our family size and lifestyle demands lots of maintenance and chores. (Also, I don't function well in chaos. I need some semblance of order.)

--Also, the food prep time is not "stay-in-the-kitchen-and-make-meals time" - I am also supervising my youngers, bandaging owies and disciplining arguments and catching up on laundry - so it isn't a case of my just going to the kitchen to make meals :-). (Meal prep time is also chore & free time for the three littles. Never a dull moment.)

---my dh is out of the house 12-13 hours M-F and one weekend a month.

 

Lastly, I appreciate all the feedback and there is much to consider. Also, our house is not as structured as the sked I put down (that is our "goal" sked, it *usually* doesn't happen that way).

 

Also, I could shorten the high schoolers' sked by working *with* them more. But teaching my other 3 children takes away most of that time.

 

Lisaj, mom to 5 and usually lovin' it :)

[gardenschooler]

I've only done one year of high school at home (dd#1, 9th grade), but she had a good 6-8 hours a day of work, including homework for co-op classes. We didn't do a music study, but sports added a good two hours on top of that, and that's not even counting Girl Scouts, church, babysitting, and other things.

 

I do tend to want to streamline things, though. I found with my oldest that she worked so much faster early in the morning, it made a huge difference. I think if you allow some flexibility in the schedule, they can sometimes work a little more efficiently.

 

I'm coming up on 9th grade with dd#2. I really do want to keep it workable and under 8 hours a day. We'll see if I accomplish that! We are leaning more towards a year-round schedule to keep things sane.

 

Mine is also going to be doing Latin and Spanish next year, and I hope we can work it out to do both without it overtaking our lives. Spanish will be at co-op on Tuesdays, and she'll have about 4-5 hours of homework each week. I think I'm going to let her schedule that for outside of our regular school day, however it works best for her. Early in the morning before school, or in the evenings, and broken up over however many days works for her. We might even spend some days focusing a bit more on one language, I don't know. It's been easy so far, just to do Latin, I'm a little scared of doing two languages! But that is one thing dd wants to do - if she had it her way, she'd drop everything else and just do languages and math!

 

We used the MODG syllabus for Henle I this year, and found it only took about 20-30 minutes a day, but we did do a great deal of it out loud. Maybe you could try having your two do some variation of this with each other. You could have them switch off doing one of the translation exercises out loud (with the other one following along in the answer key, correcting them as they go), and then the next day, they switch places. If the student holding the answer key also had his/her book open to the actual exercise, he/she would still be getting some practice in. Just an idea. :) I think it does take a full hour if they're writing everything down. Some of the exercises that are very long, or are marked 'can be done orally', can be killers to write.

 

I haven't followed the Donna Young schedule exactly for the Apologia Biology, either. We're stretching that out over a full year, so we'll do Modules 15 & 16 over the summer (we just finished Module 14). We always take two days to do the study guide, but most days (even experiment days - but not all, especially dissections) only take around 40 minutes. We've spent 3 weeks on some modules, 2 weeks on most, and less than that on a few. I'm wondering if the fact that they're working together could be part of what is slowing them down. If they're waiting for the other one to finish looking through the microscope, and doing the whole thing separately, then it makes sense that it would take twice as long. Also, are they sharing a book, and reading it separately? That would add to the time.

 

I had mine combined for Apologia Physical, and I only had one book, so I would have them read it out loud to each other, switching off (and reading over the other one's shoulder). For experiments, each one was in charge of a certain aspect, but they both did them all thoroughly - just as a team effort, not on their own.

 

For biology, if I had two doing it together, I'd have one in charge of adjusting the microscope, then have them switch off for finding each thing, pointing it out to each other. So for example, experiment 14.3, on would point out a, they'd draw it, then the other one would find and point out b, etc. I'd have one in charge of setting up, one in charge of cleaning up, and have them work on the lab report together. I don't know if that would help much, but surely there has to be a way to condense that time! And keep in mind that in schools, kids have lab partners, so they switch off - one in charge of some things, the other in charge of others. As long as they're right there, participating and paying attention, having their partner point some things out isn't necessarily taking away from the study (IMO).

 

For longish experiments, I only scheduled that and the lab report for that day. I'd rather have more days with shorter subject times than vice versa, but that doesn't work for everyone. I did think most of the experiments were pretty quickly accomplished, though. We just didn't spend more than 30-40 minutes on anything besides the dissections.

 

I've also started stopping dd after one hour of math. She has a little bit of the last chapter from Lial's Algebra to do over the summer, but that's okay. We'd rather do that than spend so much time on just math (which can easily creep into two hours!). I often gave her just a little bit of homework, if I felt she needed to make more progress in the problem set. Sometimes we spent several days on the same lesson, if she needed that time to cement everything, and other days we zoomed through an entire lesson in just one day. I am going to try to keep her time spent on Jacobs' Geometry next year down to an hour a day, with minimal homework. If we end up finishing in the summer, so be it. I have to have some balance! :D I am also considering starting a few things (staggering start weeks) in July to help get a head start and not feel so rushed.

 

One other thing that I've sensed lately is that if the subject material is just a little too challenging, it can make the difference between being able to spend 30 minutes on a subject, or having it run into the 90 minute range. I'm going to try to strike a balance in terms of rigor, but I personally tend towards a tad more relaxed, for this reason. I think I can still have high expectations and accomplish my goals without pushing too much. I just have to gauge the difference between a nudge and a shove! One thing I try to do is have a balance between subject material that I know is going to be super-challenging, and some things that will be accomplished more easily.

 

Great thread - thanks for getting this conversation started. I don't have my schedule for next year completely gelled, so I'm in the same boat with you! I'll post my *projected* schedule as soon as it all comes together. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans!

[gardenschooler]

Just wanted to add - I hope I didn't come across as anything negative in regards to the times. I don't know how she does some things so quickly - she works fast in all subjects because of her ultimate goal, which is NOT a thorough education, but to just get done. I do often have to make her go back over something.

 

Maybe there's a balance between 100% thorough all the time and doing it as quickly as possible? If so, we need to find it, don't we?

[74Heaven]

Thanks, Gardenschooler. Your post actually made me feel like you've "been there" or are there now with me. Thank you!

 

It has been a rough (busy!) couple of weeks and I find my frustration level is high. That and the year-end things that take so much time and energy.

 

I am excited to try to glean wisdom from all of you - and maybe find a way to streamline somethings. One thing that I already see (LOL) is that science just takes *longer* at our house. Might be because two of the three of us just don't get it :>). (The 8th grader does.)

 

Thanks again - I'll let you know if I find the balance between thoroughness and getting it done as quickly as possible.

 

Lisaj

[Greta Lea]

I think there's a difference in a highschool kid sitting at at desk (doing formal school work) all day and one who does school work, has time for helping the family out with chores and/or a part time job and/or doing volunteer work and working on a special interest like music, poetry writing, martial arts, a sport or whatever.

 

I think your girl is very well-rounded.

 

Greta:)

[Kelli in TN]

I think there's a difference in a highschool kid sitting at at desk (doing formal school work) all day and one who does school work, has time for helping the family out with chores and/or a part time job and/or doing volunteer work and working on a special interest like music, poetry writing, martial arts, a sport or whatever.

 

I think your girl is very well-rounded.

 

Greta:)

 

 

Thank you! I may tell her you said that!

[Samuel]

From the perspective of someone who was a student not _that_ long ago,

I would say that the schedule posted by the op seems excessive.

I think Jr. year looked something like this.

Ap English- class 1hr 3x week + homework

AP History- 1 hour 5x week

Chemistryco-op 2hr 1X week + homework

Math (pre calc) 1hour 5xweek

Spanish. I think conversation group 1x week 2hrs and 2-3 hrs homework.

Music ensemble 2xweek

SAT prep

 

With this load, I sometimes had to do evening and weekend homework (i.e., paper due), but this was by no means routine. I had time to play varsity sports at PS, volunteer 1xweek, read for pleasure, and spend time with my friends. I know I was busy, but certainly not in a regimented, no free time way. One thing to consider, though, is that I taught myself to speed read, and could probably do 50pages/hour in high school, certainly of a novel. This might have given me a few extra hours. My schedule, however, seems typical for my peers at the time.

 

A larger point may be what that aim of high school is. In my view, the most important skill is 'learning how to learn.' Beyond mastering basic skills (esp. Math and foreign languages), successful college students can articulate their thoughts will verbally and on paper, and understand how to assimilate information- this is the main argument of this book, this evidence is important, this evidence is not. Learning how to study is far more important than which subjects are studied. Home schooling provides some unique opportunities to achieve this, and I would encourage parents not to fall into a trap which requires boxes to be checked. I know many home schoolers who had time to pursue interests and have some free time with friends who have been very successful at both school and life.

[Jane in NC]

From the perspective of someone who was a student not _that_ long ago,

I would say that the schedule posted by the op seems excessive.

 

Math (pre calc) 1hour 5xweek

 

 

 

This math teacher feels that most high school students require more time for mathemathics than you have allotted. In a traditional school setting, students meet for 50 minutes a day, plus have math homework most days. My son is a pretty good math student. Granted, I have him on a rigorous track, but math takes at least 90 minutes a day for him--sometimes longer if I have assigned several proofs or "interesting" problems.

 

I cannot speak to APUSH or AP English since my son has not done these courses, but languages can also take more time than 4-5 hours per week. My son studies both Latin and French. Latin requires at least 7 or 8 hours a week. His French is suffering at the moment with only about 5 hours a week being dedicated to it. The original poster has a student like my son who is doing two languages.

 

Perhaps we spend more time on certain subjects because we feel more passionately about them. Or perhaps they are just more difficult for us.

 

Your point on checking off boxes is well taken, but as one who has a child desiring to attend a highly competitive college, I have a fear as a parent of having an insufficient number of boxes checked! Thanks for your reminder about staying balanced.

 

Jane

[Langhaven]

We are in the same boat with our two highschoolers. They work all day, starting with Biology at 6:30 a.m. I did see that they became more efficient with their time at the semester break. I expect the pattern to be the same if not more involved next year.