jenniferlee Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 I posted this in the 8th grade schedule thread and didn't get a response to my actual concern, so I'm asking it as a separate question. Ok, I am just working out my 8th grader's schedule and adding up the estimated time for everything I have about 7 hours/day! That seems like so much... She's my oldest and I'm not sure what to expect. What do you all think? Grammar 30 min Writing 30 min Reading 1 hr History/science 1 hr piano 30 min Latin 30 min spanish 30 min bible/memory 30 min logic 15 min math 1hr art 30 min 2x/wk vocab 15 min thanks! Jen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 That looks great. Many people don't count piano and art as part of their total hours, so it might look higher than others' totals. Also, choosing to do two languages means that you will spend a bit more time than average. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 There is no right or wrong. :-) It seems like a long day to me. Although it isn't many *subjects,* it's more time than she would spend if she were in school. At most, a class period would be no more than 45 minutes of actual instruction/study time; you have a whole hour of English (grammar and writing), plus a whole hour of reading, plus 15 minutes of grammar. If she were in school (which isn't always the way we should measure things, but it's still not a bad comparison), grammar, writing, vocabulary, and reading (from 8th up, it's usually literature, not reading) would alternate for an hour a day (although vocabulary would probably not be a separate subject). Does she spend extra time on "homework"? If not, then I guess it isn't bad. It just seems like a looooong time to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllSmiles Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 My 8th grader is doing school work from about 8 - 4 everyday with an hour lunch break. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 I don't know if 7 hours is the right amount, but I do know that last year (7th) we had way more work to do than hours in the day, and a lot of that was because we were out every afternoon, after lunch or not long after, and were trying to cram school into the morning - things had to spill over into evenings and weekends, and no one felt like they had enough downtime, and it was stressful. I've tried to limit extracurriculars more this year, but I can't carve out 8-4 every day like some people manage - but our mornings are sacrosanct. Right now in the morning I've got penciled in (nothing ever goes like I pencil it in, but I try anyway...): 15 min history reading (aloud to all 3 kids) - this will probably not be every day 30 min music practice 30 min-1 hr science 30-45 min. literature or writing instruction (alternate) 15-30 min. vocab or grammar (alternate) 1 hr math This covers mostly what I do with them (but does include time for math problem sets and independent science reading/assessments). They have to figure out when to fit in: Reading assignments for literature and history Actual writing of papers (as opposed to writing instruction) Spanish homework German homework Any math or science homework they didn't get done during the day. Weekly they have a 2-hr Spanish class (afternoon) and a 3-hr German class (Sat) that they're getting the homework from, and biweekly science labs (afternoon). Tu/Thurs/alternate Friday afternoons they have available to do work till 5pm, which is a big improvement from last year and hopefully will allow them to get all that independent work done with less stress than last year. I'm also going to attempt to fit most of the direct instruction on their core programs to M-Th and have Fridays to do catch-up and Patty Paper Geometry. I'm not sure how all those hours add up! :tongue_smilie: While all the extracurriculars do start later this year and give us a block of time earlier more days, it also means that most days at least one kid will be out till 8:30 or later and I'm not sure how we'll handle dinner! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SailorMom Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 I always assign reading as homework, wouldn't count piano.... so yeah - that's about the same as what we're doing. We're averaging 6 or so hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAR120C Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Grammar 30 minWriting 30 min Reading 1 hr History/science 1 hr piano 30 min Latin 30 min spanish 30 min bible/memory 30 min logic 15 min math 1hr art 30 min 2x/wk vocab 15 min I don't count reading, or music practice in our totals, so without those you'd be down to 5-5.5 hours, which doesn't seem so long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Initially I was going to say 7 hours of school work per day for an 8th grader is a bit excessive. Taking into consideration what you've listed, though, it does seem fairly typical. I've never felt the need to break subjects down into time spent, but if I did, I wouldn't include my 8th grader's half hour of piano lesson/practice each day or weekly one-hour art class. Reading the Bible and/or related books isn't something I'd list, either; for that matter, neither is reading in general. All the things I just mentioned aren't heavy-duty school work, so in that sense, it's not as if your student's schedule is too burdensome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 We do 5-6 hours of school per day. Ds does his own reading in the evening and that's not included. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Looks good to me. I would probably call that 5.5 hours, since I'd consider piano an extra-curricular and reading as "homework". It may also be that once she settles into the routine, certain subjects (grammar, for instance) may not take her quite so long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenniferlee Posted August 30, 2011 Author Share Posted August 30, 2011 Thank you all so much for the great feedback. 7 hrs seems long to me as well. I included piano because she does practice during the "school day". And everyone does 1 hr of reading from 1-2. It's my sanity hour :) So it takes up time during the day and, I guess, it's called literature :). Also, I don't know how to get around 2 languages. They both seem "necessary" to me. I am hoping that some of these things won't take as long as I have listed, but I want to err on the generous side to start. Some things will be different this year (like she's taking an online writing tutorial), that I just am not sure how long the work will take, so it could be less, I guess. And no, we don't do any evening homework. What I remember from school was 45 min periods and then homework for multiple subjects every night. So I've been hoping that we are doing better timewise than that. I like our evenings to be free for family time and just relaxing or whatever. So I'm trying hard to keep things limited to daytime. Anyway, thanks again. It helps so much to have other people going through this. I feel bad for my oldest being the guinea pig on everything:tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Also, I don't know how to get around 2 languages. They both seem "necessary" to me. Having her study two languages is great ~ and one of the reasons she doesn't need to focus on grammar as a separate subject unto itself. At her age, between the languages and her reading and writing, grammar is fairly integrated into the rest of her studies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunshine State Sue Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 It seems like a long day to me. :iagree: I admire you for doing 2 languages, but it wouldn't fly here. I would also alternate grammar and writing. I think 6hrs is plenty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Looks a tad much to me, even not counting the half hour piano. My DD did 5 hours last year and we are aiming for 6 this year, but to be honest: we hardly ever manage to, despite starting at 8am... any time past 3pm is simply not effective for us. Do you really need 30 minutes of grammar every day? Especially since you do two languages - wouldn't that give enough grammar that a simple quick run through English grammar at some point would suffice? Also, what is vocab? English vocabulary? Does your student need a separate vocab program - or can't you learn vocabulary through reading and foreign languages? (We don't find it necessary to do a specific vocab program) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenniferlee Posted August 30, 2011 Author Share Posted August 30, 2011 We're doing mct. it has a separate vocab portion. She really needs the extra grammar practice as well. Maybe 30 min is too much, but because we never covered it when she was younger, we're playing catch up now. Hopefully, this year will really cement it for her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenn&charles Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 It looks right to me. I think 7 hours for an 8th grader is fine, especially since you are counting piano & art and including a 2nd language. My 7th grader does 6-8 hours of school a day counting piano, art, reading and all the extras. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 We find that's generally how long we need to spend in order to get done the things I want to accomplish. That doesn't mean this amount will be right for everyone, be it's what we do.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lakotajm Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Last year, when my oldest dd was in 8th grade, we started MCT. Because it has the 4 separate topics, I felt doing all four would be too much. So we began doing a rotating schedule. This works well since we do a 4-day week. She tends to take longer to do her work than I would like or expect. So even splitting up MCT did not cure her from finishing up at 5 or 6 pm! And this is without foreign language! Trying to figure out how to crack down on this now that she is in 9th grade and I have to create transcripts and think about college prep. She likes to take reading and drawing breaks if I don't come in her room and crack the whip.;) But she hates for me to teach. It does mean we are working our way through MCT at a much slower pace than most people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mazakaal Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 Grammar 30 min Writing 30 min Reading 1 hr History/science 1 hr piano 30 min Latin 30 min spanish 30 min bible/memory 30 min logic 15 min math 1hr art 30 min 2x/wk vocab 15 min Since my 15yo who is in school only has 5 hours of lessons per day, I need to keep the 13yo's work down to around 5 hours as well. 7 hours of school work just wouldn't fly with him. That being said, I wouldn't count piano as schoolwork, and I only require 30 minutes of reading per day, so that shaves an hour off the work. We haven't started our school year yet, but it looks pretty close to what you have planned except that I'm only expecting about 45 minutes from math and 15 minutes from grammar, and Latin and Spanish will be required for only 20 minutes per day. So, no I don't think the work you're requiring is unreasonable, but if it seems to be a strain for your dc, maybe you could just scale back a little bit on some of the subjects to make the day a bit shorter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 I went to a college prep high school and only did 6 hours and 45 minutes a day. That included 55 minute lunch, and 1.5 hours for choir and drama. So that was only a little over 4 hours. I had no more than 2 hours of homework a night (I was pretty efficient) and I was more than adequately prepared for college. I had a solid education. I would not count piano in the hours, and I would spend less time on math each day. If a lesson is too hard to complete in 30-45 minutes, I would do it over two days. It will help cement the ideas in the child's head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 That's roughly what Calvin did during his last year at home (roughly 8th grade). He did 9-5 with a one-hour lunch break and a half-hour break in the morning. That included music practice and an hour of PE. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenniferlee Posted August 31, 2011 Author Share Posted August 31, 2011 Ok, just in case this is helpful for anyone, here are the times given in WTM for 8th grade. Now I guess we can tell swb that her day looks too long :D Seriously, though, I just thought to look these up last night and thought I'd put it out there. It's right around 6 -6.5hrs This doesn't include bible or art/music studies. vocab 15 min grammar 40-60 reading 1 hr (plus 1 extra hr for creative reading) writing 30-60 3x wk science 1.5hr x 2 days history 1.5hr x 2 days foreign language and latin 1 hr math 1 hr logic 1 hr x 3 days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingersmom Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 My 6th grader goes from 9-12 and 1-3. I don't count gym (he ice skates several hours a week) or art (he takes classes on Saturdays). He also has 1-2 hours of "homework" each night (usually 1 hour of reading and math, study for a test, etc). So I would think that your schedule is about right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 When I say "eight hours of school," I'm including most "homework" and all reading time in that number. I do not include piano practice, soccer practice, etc. in that number. Those are extra-curriculars that most kids do in addition to school work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanie Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 We're aiming for 6 hours of school work for my 7th grader this year. That does not include 1 hour of piano practice and 3 hours of ballet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chez J Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 My 7th grader has school from 7:45 to 2:45 with one hour for lunch. This is our local school's schedule as well. She also has about 6 hours of homework a week. This does not include sax practice, sports or other extra-curricular activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 My 8th grader spends @ 5 hours a day on school. I don't count free reading or bible as school though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butterflymommy Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 I think ~7 hours a day is ok for a 7th+ grader. My son has been doing about 5-7 hours since 8th grade. My just-now 7th grader is still working on anything more than 2-3 hours a day :glare: but I'm trying to work with her, picking the most important subjects and making sure she does her best work. She does spend hours a day reading, not sure whether to count that? So I guess it comes down to "it depends on the kid." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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