Making a schedule? how many hours a day?

[faiths13]

I am trying to tweak our hs'ing day to make it a little more relaxed and not so stressful. How many hours a day to you think a 5th and 7th grader should be doing school work? How do you schedule your days and subjects? We have handwriting and just started Voyages in English and Math Mammoth and are waiting on Story of Science, History Odyssey, Spelling Workout & Vocabulary from Classical Roots.

 

I was thinking about how much time they would actually be doing work in ps and figured it was prob about 3.5 -4 hours plus homework. So I was thinking of trying to schedule 45 minutes for spelling/handwriting, 45 minutes for grammar/writing, 45 minutes for math, 45 minutes for history/science, and 30 minutes for reading and doing this everyday. Does this sound like a good schedule?

 

I also have a 2 and 4 yr old and I have been struggling with spending time with them and helping the older kids and still doing things like eating, lol. I have been wanting to go to a year round schedule as well. But I was thinking about how would I do that so the kids still take time off regularly. Any ideas? It would be kind of tricky because we are with a charter - but the charter doesnt dictate a daily schedule for us or anything. they just come by once a month to check progress.

[AmericanMom]

Are ps kids really doing only 4 hours of work a day in middle school? Mine have never been in school, so I don't have any idea, but that seems low to me. The middle school ps kids here are in school for 7 hours, so it seems strange that they'd only get 4 hours of work done in that time.

 

I would shoot for closer to 5-7 hours, as far as planning. But you don't have to sit with them that whole time, they ought to be doing some of that work independently. Mine this year are 7th, 4th, 2nd, & K and I try to plan 6-7, 4-5, 2-3, and 1-1 1/2 hours of work a day, respectively. Sometimes they finish earlier, sometimes later, but that is what I try to shoot for. Of course, when life is going crazy, we do what we can. The ideal and reality are not always the same! :)

[faiths13]

Are ps kids really doing only 4 hours of work a day in middle school? Mine have never been in school, so I don't have any idea, but that seems low to me. The middle school ps kids here are in school for 7 hours, so it seems strange that they'd only get 4 hours of work done in that time.

 

I would shoot for closer to 5-7 hours, as far as planning. But you don't have to sit with them that whole time, they ought to be doing some of that work independently. Mine this year are 7th, 4th, 2nd, & K and I try to plan 6-7, 4-5, 2-3, and 1-1 1/2 hours of work a day, respectively. Sometimes they finish earlier, sometimes later, but that is what I try to shoot for. Of course, when life is going crazy, we do what we can. The ideal and reality are not always the same! :)

 

kids here are in school for 6 hours. that includes 45 minutes for lunch, 50 minutes for pe (i dont count that as learning time), 30 minutes passing periods. then i figure in class time they are not spending a full 50 minutes doing work and listening to the teacher. often times kids will finish early, get free time etc. anyway, thats why i came up with 3.5-4 hours of actual work.

[Oakblossoms]

AmericanMom, do you mind sharing your scheduling plans?

[stm4him]

At our house we do a block type schedule so we are all working on the same general subjects at the same time. Granted, I don't have a 7th grader and I expect 7th grade to look very different than the elementary grades and be much more independent, but we work on school four days a week in our house from 8:30-12:30 and from 1:30 to 4:30. Then they have music practice after that. For the most part they do really well with that. One day a week we have a co-op and on that day we are free all afternoon to play with friends when they get home. We also have a day of chores and free time in the morning and lessons in the afternoon with a little playtime in between. We have a busy schedule, but then sometimes we have a week or two off with just some chores and lots of free time and they seem to be doing really well most days. I want studying hard to be a regular part of their almost daily life and for them to learn that studying can be enjoyable too. I try not to compare too much with what ps is doing in this country but to focus on how hard people have studied in times past and throughout the better educated countries of today....

 

stm4him

[Homeschooling6]

kids here are in school for 6 hours. that includes 45 minutes for lunch, 50 minutes for pe (i dont count that as learning time), 30 minutes passing periods. then i figure in class time they are not spending a full 50 minutes doing work and listening to the teacher. often times kids will finish early, get free time etc. anyway, thats why i came up with 3.5-4 hours of actual work.

:iagree:with this. When I had my ds to kinder, which was a full day of 7hrs. With recess, lunch, switching class to go to art, music or whatever was scheduled, PE, snack time and library time. He was really only doing 'school' for about 3.5-4hrs.

 

That was kindergaten though which I think should have more play time ;).

[lewelma]

We have been discussing this on the logic board.

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=331383

 

Ruth in NZ

[Homeschooling6]

My 5th grader spends at least 4-5hrs. She is using Soaring with Spelling, MUS, America the Beautiful, Taking a Nature Walk with Aunt Bessie, Analytical Grammar, copywork, Writing with Ease and WP grammar.

 

My 8th grader takes about 6-7hrs. He is using BJ dvds.

[Samiam]

I wouldn't schedule it by time. That would be a huge stressor to me, and I think to my children. Okay, clock's ticking, gotta get moving before the bell rings for the next subject...no thanks. I mean, what happens to your day if a subject doesn't take as long as you planned, or worse yet, takes way longer?

 

Now, I'm a planner, a scheduler, and a bit OCD in my organization by nature, but I just plan each subject that we will do, and how much we will do based on what the subject is. It takes how ever long it takes.

 

My DS13 typically can has 4-6 hour school day, depending on his own motivation or lack thereof. That's no lunch breaks, cuz we don't lunch, but it does include whatever time he uses to goof off, ie tend minutes to go get a drink of water, 10 minutes to use up the sudden urge to play fetch with the dog, etc.

[chepyl]

I have been told by many experienced hsers that you should plan on 1 hour a day per year of school.

 

K -30-1 hr

1st - 1hr

2nd - 2 hrs

 

And so on, making out around 6-7 hours. High school may take longer, bit can be done in that length of time with a focused student.

 

It really depends on what you are doing, but it would be possible for aome older student to finish quickly if they pick things up fast.

[faiths13]

I wouldn't schedule it by time. That would be a huge stressor to me, and I think to my children. Okay, clock's ticking, gotta get moving before the bell rings for the next subject...no thanks. I mean, what happens to your day if a subject doesn't take as long as you planned, or worse yet, takes way longer?

 

Now, I'm a planner, a scheduler, and a bit OCD in my organization by nature, but I just plan each subject that we will do, and how much we will do based on what the subject is. It takes how ever long it takes.

 

My DS13 typically can has 4-6 hour school day, depending on his own motivation or lack thereof. That's no lunch breaks, cuz we don't lunch, but it does include whatever time he uses to goof off, ie tend minutes to go get a drink of water, 10 minutes to use up the sudden urge to play fetch with the dog, etc.

 

I havent ever done it by time frame before, but I wanted to maybe try it to see if it would work better. we are spending prob 4-5 hours a day on school work and i am finding i have no time for anything like spending time with my littles. i have been totally stressed out and burnt out.

[faiths13]

At our house we do a block type schedule so we are all working on the same general subjects at the same time. Granted, I don't have a 7th grader and I expect 7th grade to look very different than the elementary grades and be much more independent, but we work on school four days a week in our house from 8:30-12:30 and from 1:30 to 4:30. Then they have music practice after that. For the most part they do really well with that. One day a week we have a co-op and on that day we are free all afternoon to play with friends when they get home. We also have a day of chores and free time in the morning and lessons in the afternoon with a little playtime in between. We have a busy schedule, but then sometimes we have a week or two off with just some chores and lots of free time and they seem to be doing really well most days. I want studying hard to be a regular part of their almost daily life and for them to learn that studying can be enjoyable too. I try not to compare too much with what ps is doing in this country but to focus on how hard people have studied in times past and throughout the better educated countries of today....

stm4him

 

I like what you said in the bolded - i have never thought of it that way before. but i also dont know how long people have studied in past times either.

 

I do know that I could not make my kids do 6+ hours a day of school work. we would all loose it, lol. And my time frame doesnt include me correcting the work and then having them fix it. that would be like homework time i guess.

Edited December 16, 2011 by faiths13

[AmericanMom]

AmericanMom, do you mind sharing your scheduling plans?

 

I'm not sure what kind of detail you are looking for...

 

This is an ideal day -- not that there are a lot of those! But this is what we shoot for:

 

7th: 60 minutes of math, 60 minutes of Latin, 30 minutes of Greek, 90 minutes of history & science(this is mostly reading & writing), 60 minutes of English, and about 60 minutes of lessons with me (this is some new stuff & just going over his daily work). We also have "together time" at two different times of the day (first thing before we start in the morning and right after lunch), that's all four kids together with me, which is usually about 20-30 minutes each time. This is for read alouds, prayer, Bible, memory work, etc. This time is less about academics than about reconnecting with each other. 6.5-7 hours.

 

4th: 45 minutes of math, 20 minutes of Latin, 60 minutes of history and science (mostly reading), 30-45 minutes of various English assignments, 60 minutes of lessons with me, and the together time. 4-5 hours.

 

2nd: 30-45 minutes of math, 30-45 minutes of English, 30 minutes of history or science, 30-45 minutes of lessons together, and together time. 2.5-3.5 hours.

 

K: 30 minutes of phonics, at 3 different times for about 10 minutes each, 10-15 minutes of simple math work, 15-20 minutes of her reading to me and me reading to her, and together time. 1-2 hours.

 

All of these things are going on simultaneously, I just pretty much get the olders started and then start with the youngest first, then 2nd gr, then 4th gr, so my 7th grader frequently will be working on his own til after lunch.

 

Like I said, I don't get this every day, but this is my goal. Life is tough and there are a lot of balls up in the air. They frequently come crashing down! But for me (not a type A go-go-go type) I have to have a pretty high (for me) bar, or I will lay around and read all day.:)

 

HTH

[NASDAQ]

I only have a kindergartener, and she isn't a natural learner at this stage, so we're spending a lot of time doing direct instruction.

 

I use Google Calendar for scheduling though. Very easy. I start by making a schedule of what we actually do, attempting to forecast what we're going to do, and tweaking it so it becomes more realistic as time passes. It also helps me keep track of what we've been doing. We don't have to keep records here, but it comforts me to have some kind of achievement written down.

[8filltheheart]

I havent ever done it by time frame before, but I wanted to maybe try it to see if it would work better. we are spending prob 4-5 hours a day on school work and i am finding i have no time for anything like spending time with my littles. i have been totally stressed out and burnt out.

 

Time management is a skill that homeschooling moms must master. But, regardless of how great you become at time management, homeschooling is a trade off and spending lots of time with your little ones will be sacrificed to some extent.

 

FWIW, my 7th grader works a solid 7-8 hrs/day and my 4th grader works about 4- 4 1/2. Once my kids hit middle school, 6-8 hrs/day is the norm.

 

However, I do not work w/my 7th grader for 7-8 hrs, nor do I work w/my 4th grader for 4 hrs. I work w/them each individually for a couple of hrs and the rest of the time they are working alone.

 

For example, my 7th grader is using Where the Brook and River Meet. It is a unit study based on Anne of Green Gables. We read poetry, Shakespeare, discuss history together for that. I instruct her in math, grammar, writing, and spelling. However, the rest of the day she is working on her own......writing, doing math, reading history, science, religion.

 

HTH

[daybreaking]

I havent ever done it by time frame before, but I wanted to maybe try it to see if it would work better. we are spending prob 4-5 hours a day on school work and i am finding i have no time for anything like spending time with my littles. i have been totally stressed out and burnt out.

 

I only have two, a 9yo ds in 3rd grade and a 4yo dd, but your comment above is exactly why we use a schedule. Without it, I know I would be devoting most of my time to my 3rd grader and keeping up our house. With a schedule, I have specific times that I work with my dd. She loves it and it ensures she gets my time. I basically rotate the children. For example, when my ds is working with me on his math lesson, my dd is doing activities such as puzzles or Lauri toys. After that, my ds will do his math assignment while I work with my dd on preschool activities. The next time I work with my ds 1:1, my dd has playtime in her room. After that my ds reads independently while I read to my dd. We do have joint times, where I read to or work with both children together, as well. Most of our schedule is by 30 minute blocks (except history, science and quiet time), as that is what works for us at this time.

 

Each day, we do about 4.5 hours of academic work, 45 minutes of music practice and 1.5-2 hours of read alouds.

[regentrude]

My 7th grader is doing 4.5 hours of schoolwork per day. This includes reading.

We start school at 8am. He is required to work at least 3 hours before noon and can do the rest after lunch.

Other than this, he is completely free to schedule his work and work on whatever subject he wants for how long.

[SailorMom]

In 5th - probably 3-4 hours uninterrupted (add breaks and lunch to that)

7th - it went up to about 5.

[Slipper]

I wouldn't compare a homeschool schedule to a public school schedule. For my younger two daughters, there is a lot of wasted time. They both took tests at the beginning of the school year to see how much of the grade material they already knew. (These were administered by the school). They both scored in the 80's.

 

A concept will be taught, they understand it, but they have to listen while the rest of the class is taught until the class understands it. This continues for a few days. Then they test. If my child is finished with the test in fifteen minutes, they must wait another thirty until the rest of the class finishes. If the class does poorly, they re-teach.

 

If they can read advanced materials, but the class cannot, they are still stuck at the level of learning and testing.

 

And (as mentioned previously), time taken for PE, lunch, changing between subjects, homeroom, etc.

 

What makes home school so desirable to me is that I can tailor instruction to my child's ability to learn. If they understand the math, I can test and move on. There's no wasted time.

[stm4him]

The reason we do a block schedule like that is b/c it is easier for me to monitor who is doing what. If we don't get everything done in one hour then we either overlap it into the next hour or we drop it for the next day. Right now I am only teaching a 2nd, 1st, and preschooler (plus I have a 3 year old, 2 year old, and 6 month old). Usually the only one who might overlap into another hour is my preschooler b/c I usually work with him last since it is no big deal for him to skip a day. I got this idea from Leigh Bortins who said in an earlier edition of the Foundations guide that she did an hour block for four subjects: Math, Writing, Reading, and Memory Work. The afternoons they listened to SOTW audios or other audio books or just read what they were interested in, etc. and did hands on things while they listened like building models.

 

So we do one hour for Math, one for Writing (including Grammar), one for Memory Work, and one for Reading. But I couldn't seem to fit in Latin and Spelling so we put that as its own hour. We also have snack time at the end of the second hour. The reading hour we do after lunch and a break.

 

My kids are either taking turns working with me or doing their independent work or we are all working together on something (memorizing, reciting, playing games, etc.). There are lots of parts that are active and we often have to stop to help a little kid with something or clean up something or whatever. So there are plenty of tiny breaks built in. Everyone stays on track and anything they don't finish in an hour (b/c of not focusing or whatever) they have to finish later on their own. But at least I can get all my teaching in for that subject.

 

We used to do more of a meeting with each kid to go over all their stuff for that day. But the problem with that was the other kid was always waiting for me or getting off track and the kid working with me would get tired after awhile or direct teaching. This way they go back and forth all morning either working alone or working with me or working together and that keeps it fun and actually helps with focus most of the time. I have a good idea of what everyone has accomplished at the end of that hour and so I have a good grasp of who did what. Everything gets checked right away and this keeps things orderly.

 

Our afternoon time is together for the older two and myself. It is usually reading something together, doing notebooking or lapbooking, or doing an experiment or hands-on project. Sometimes it is me just reading out loud while they color or play.

 

At 4:30 I spend an hour focusing on my little guys. We do AAR PL1, I read to them for twenty minutes, they do their craft sheets with me and we practice violin (my three and four year old are taking lessons too). They get face time with me and we love it.

 

My house is a mess often, my laundry is behind, but my kids are happy and getting an excellent education. Its what works for us!

 

stm4him

[DragonFaerie]

Our state requires "the equivalent of" 4.5 hours per day. We school for about 5 hours per day (M-Th), give or take. We start with read alouds during breakfast at 8:30. Then, we work until noon, break for an hour for lunch, and finish up from 1 - 3 pm. Often, the kids, DD10 in particular, will get up and start on schoolwork earlier than 8:30. They also sometimes work beyond 3 pm, if they aren't finished with the day's work. That is their choice, however "officially," school is done at 3. We have a lighter day on Fridays and usually finish school by noon. We don't do school on the weekends unless they didn't finish their work during the week. Then they must do up to 2 hrs of "homework" on Saturday morning. Anything that still isn't finished at that point gets pushed to the next week.

[faiths13]

well today i tried the schedule and it wasnt too bad. it was more of a guideline, which was nice. the good thing is the kids must be getting used to the new curric because they are starting to work more independently again. its a relief! and i was able to get some projects and what not out for my 2 & year olds out while i sat at the table correcting/helping the olders and that helped alot. and my toddler loved it. i hate feeling like i am ignoring him all day and i know he does too.