What time does school start at your house?

[Aubrey]

Ds and I do Bible and literature together. DD reads next to us, and then she and I do literature together. Yes, we drink tea or coffee.

 

Then I do a variety of things to start the day (shower, email, etc.) and we meet again downstairs for school. We start studying again at 9 or 9:30. Starting the fun stuff in bed erased all the guilt for being so slow to get going in the mornings. It's a special, cuddly kind of time.

 

I've talked to dh about this, & we're going to try it! I really like the *idea* & w/ new baby coming, well, it might make sense!

[Old Dominion Heather]

I'm not a morning person either... (she says while sitting in her robe and rubbing her eyes at 9:10 a.m.)

 

Our schedule does not include times, but we try to get going before 9:30 or so, normally. I usually get them going and then take a shower. The boys are asleep by 10 and usually up around 8. I go to bed around midnight and get up when ever dh shakes me until I am somewhat awake and tells me he is leaving for work... usually around 8:45.

[Parrothead]

No morning people in this house. We try to have school started by 10a though.

[WTMindy]

I wake the kids up at 7:30 and we start our day with reading aloud at the breakfast table (which almost always spills over to the couch!) I try and start our Bible time by 8:30. If I don't start that early, we would NEVER finish everything. We have co-op two days a week, which leaves me with lots to do on our home days!! I think I'm going to bump our schedule to waking them at 7:00 next year because I don't know where we'll fit in logic next year if I don't. :001_smile:

 

I am NOT a morning person by nature, but I have become one as an adult.

[kristavws]

8:30 am. The boys get up around 7:30; I like to get up an hour earlier, so I have some time to myself before our day begins.

 

Krista

[dirty ethel rackham]

In our house, when we are organized and I am constantly supervising the morning routine (usually when we are under more of a time crunch), we start at 8:30. When I am preoccupied with other things and not supervising this routine, we start around 9. My goal is for dd7 to be done by noon (not all consecutive school time, but some unsupervised activity of her own choice thrown in.) My goal for ds12 - by 1 (mostly continuous dedicated study with some breaks for snacks, lunch). My goal for ds14 - be done by 2. However, that rarely happens :)!

[Mx5]

Our "schedule" has always said 8AM, but I'm pretty sure we rarely start before 9, so I spend every day feeling "behind."

 

It's occurred to me that I should just write 9 on the schedule, lol, but...that's so...late.

 

I remember in a previous thread on the old boards, some of you start school in bed. Dh brings you coffee, dc bring their books. I kind-of like *that* idea, lol.

 

 

When I started homeschooling my then 5yo son, I also had a 3yo, a 1yo, and was pregnant with baby #4. "Teaching" had to happen during the younger ones' nap time or no one would learn how to read ;-)

 

My husband at the time was a youth pastor who put in a lot of night / evening hours. So if the kids were to ever have face time with daddy, we needed to have a flexible and unusual routine of life. This has worked beautifully for us, and this year my 18yo is graduating from our homeschool. He is bright and witty, and hasn't been harmed at all from getting up late and staying up late. All of my kids are delightful to be around (to me, anyway) and the peace in our home is tangible. Is this due to having a type B schedule? I don't know.

 

I get grief from people about getting up late (8:30am) but they usually zip it when I ask them what time they go to bed. I got to bed at 1am. The ones giving me guff about my wakeup time generally are asleep by 10pm. :chillpill: hehee

 

So I say do what works for your family, and don't let your internal expectations of what is right in terms of a start time cause you to be rigid and therefore angry right at the start of your day. Start times are morally and spiritually neutral.

[Mx5]

nt

 

A kindred spirit!

[Mx5]

Yay for Tammy!

 

School time? You're supposed to set a time?! Just kidding . . .

 

We've always been good on this in the past. I even used to get up before my kids. When they were babies, we had a pastor who would drop in on members of his congregation, so we had to be up and dressed with a pastor-ready house by eight, maintain that until eight at night, or be prepared to face the gossip monster. That trained me to jump out of bed.

 

Lately, like just this past month, that has all gone out the window. My nearest religious authority is two cities over, and all of my friends are hippies and anarchists who don't get up before noon.

 

I relaxed when I realized that Latin and math has become a habit. At a certain point in any day, enough caffeine has been ingested to make my mind perk up and go, "Oh, hey, let's do school, guys!" It's now natural.

 

We do yoga and devotionals sometime before noon, but lately we've been starting with Latin and other tablework at around 1-2pm. Reading in the content areas and maintenance on the kids' projects gets done before Latin but that's not because those are more of a priority. It's easy to say, "Hey, go check your tomatoes and chart it," or read aloud to the kids, after one cup of tea, but I have to wait until after brunch for math. Even 5th grade math.

 

My dh (who is a pastor, fwiw) would never dream of doing that. Then again, he never did go to seminary... hehehee. I would be tempted to hand an early calling pastor a mop or broom and say, "Come on in!"

[gardenschooler]

For all of our homeschooling life, we started at 8 or 8:30. If I wasn't up and getting ready for school by 7:30 or so, dd#1 would arrive at my bedside, eagerly chirping, "Wake up, Mooom! I've already done all of my work I can do by myself! It's 7:33! I'm ready for you to do math with me!" She'd then go around and wake her sisters up. As she got older, she often had breakfast waiting for us.

 

Dd#1 left us this year, to go to a school that starts at 7:20 am! I kind of knew she wouldn't have a problem with the early start time. But without our human alarm clock, we got way off schedule this year (and paid dearly - some days went soooo late!). I guess I have to be the mom now. :tongue_smilie:

 

I'm really determined to get back on track for next year, and back to our routine of starting early, because we are going to have very full days next year. We need to start somewhere in the 8 o'clock hour, if we're going to be finished before nightfall. :ack2:

[ereks mom]

I used to be really strict about this, but I haven't been as much of a stickler about the schedule the past couple of years since the dc are older.

[Harriet Vane]

I've talked to dh about this, & we're going to try it! I really like the *idea* & w/ new baby coming, well, it might make sense!

 

It is really key to make sure all the kids have something quiet to work on in the bed. While I am reading to ds, dd reads quietly to herself. Sometimes she might write something of her own choosing. (She enjoys writing stories and plays.) Ds is much younger, but has also always been expected to keep himself occupied while I read to dd. He sketches or looks at books or even crochets. When he was younger (3? 4?) I let him bring a toy or two and play on the foot of the bed. Sometimes he enjoyed doing legos on the floor right next to my bed. He liked to feel he was with us, but really needed to be able to play too.

 

Kids who cannot be quiet and keep themselves occupied are redirected to play in their rooms.

 

Drinking tea in bed works for us--but I have trained my children carefully to sit still and be careful. If you have really little ones you might decree that MOM gets tea or coffee, and kids do not. Spills on the bed ruin the experience for everyone.

 

I keep a small table handy next to my bed for my tea. The current books are in a bookcase immediately next to my bed. Each of us has our own shelf, and new materials are rotated in as we finish and are able to get to them.

 

No one eats in my bed. I cannot deal with crumbs.

 

It lasts anywhere from 30-60 minutes depending on how sleepy I am, how interesting our reading is, and how squirrelly the kids get.

 

Starting our day this way is absolutely the best idea I have ever had. We really cherish this warm, special time together. Good luck to you!

[oceandaughter]

9 am for my older son and ten for my younger. The first hour or so my older son would do his math, latin, and independent reading while I got the baby occupied and prepared to do whatever with my younger son. After that first hour, my oldest son often takes a short break or something while I do something with my younger.

 

We are pretty flexible, too flexible I think. When we start again, I think I'll be a little more coordinated and do literature earlier in the day (perhaps at ten?) so that it doesn't get pushed back and left out as it has been.

 

I enjoy reading this type of thread.

[Chris in VA]

Well, my hubby IS a pastor, and he doesn't even get up until at least 8:30! So no one in our congregation need fear. Except on Sats and Suns.

 

We start around 9ish, but dd reads in bed for about 30 minutes before I get up--

Ds16 has to get up at 6:15 to make a 6:50 bus (school actually starts at 7:20 and runs til 2:05pm), so I get up with him, spend a few minutes checking email (and playing here), then either do my own thing until dd gets up or go back to bed.

 

These last few weeks, my ds18 hasn't dragged himself out of bed before 10. He just told me he wondered what it would be like to be nocturnal! Hmmm--I told him he has two weeks to try it before summer (and his job starts--if he can find one).

[Peela]

Our schedule is,the kids need to be up by 7am.

By 8am, they need to be doing their music practice.

They start their schoolwork- maths- at 8.30.

I did shift it all back half an hour for a while but it was a push. This routine seems to work for us.

My teenage daughter would love to go to bed later and sleep in, but she has afternoon and evening classes- art, sewing, sometimes guitar, Scouts, piano.....drama and sport one day....all in all, it works better if we spend mornings on our schoolwork, because there is not much time to catch up if we start later.

[dragons in the flower bed]

My dh (who is a pastor, fwiw) would never dream of doing that. Then again, he never did go to seminary... hehehee. I would be tempted to hand an early calling pastor a mop or broom and say, "Come on in!"

 

 

It was a lay pastor who did this. He was a rancher all of his life, used to getting up at 4. He must have been certain that by 8, everyone is up. Also, part of it is the culture of a ranching town. If a fellow only comes into town once a week, he's gonna want to see all his friends that day, kwim?

[covenant.christian]

8:30am. Most days. But, don't be too hard on yourself-some days are just harder than others. I think trying to stay self disciplined as a home schooler is a hard thing to do.