How much time (hours/week) does your school time take you with your 1st grader?

[BethG]

Curious to hear from others on this.

 

How many hours per week do you and your child do schoolwork (including instruction and the child's actual working on it .... not just teaching time, but total school time) for first grade?

 

Please leave off extracurricular subject time (piano practice, gym, ballet, or whatever other activities your child participates in. Yo Yo Ma's mom could have listed the 20+ hours/week of cello practice that Yo Yo did at age 3!, so I need to control for this type of study somehow):).

 

I'm curious about the meat and potato subjects: math, language arts, etc.

 

(Did I work in enough pronouns in that thread title?????)

Edited March 22, 2012 by BethG

[redsquirrel]

Well, it hasn't been a constant amount all year. I did less at the beginning and have added more lately. My younger son is an 'old' first grader. He turned 7 in early January.

 

So, when first grade started for him we did math, piano practice, reading, science and history.

 

Now, we are in March and he does all of the above plus WWE1, FLL1, and more math supplements. His piano practices have become longer and history and science have become more involved.

 

At the beginning of the year school lasted maybe 75 mins a day, five days a week. Now we are prob up to 90-120 mins.

[blondeviolin]

Abby's work takes near the amount of time I'll expect from her in beginning first grade. When I add in WWE1 and exchange history and science for geography and the random science experiment, we'll probably be up to 90 minutes a day.

[adventumacademy]

Here we do actual school work - not including the martial arts and independent reading time - from about 9:30am to 12:30pm 4 days a week. We do RS B, ETC, AAS and FLL 4 days a week. History is done 3 days a week and science is done 2 days a week.

 

Our state does not require a specific amount of instructional time, not attendance so I have just done what works for us.

[Ruby Rose]

About 90 minutes a day M, T, W, F. Thursday is co-op, errand, library day.

 

At the beginning of the year we were doing about 3 hours a day but now we are really focusing on math, reading, writing, grammar.

 

I didn't include science because we are just exploring nature like gardening, plants, and animals (raising chicks).

 

Read Alouds are not included in these figures.

[AnnaM]

Start to finish around 2 hours, but she needs extra time on some things. I let her do it at her own pace and this is what works for her.

[Khristine]

We work from 10:30 - 12:00 (M-F) on everything except art.

[sagira]

At that age, I try to finish within 2 hours, with no more than 15 minutes per lesson.

[mommy5]

We just finished up 1st grade with one of my kids and started 2nd (but if they were in PS they would still be in 1st grade based on age) ... we now do 3 hours minimum per day ... or 15 hours a week ... sometimes more.

[Missouri Okie]

For my 7 yo, we spend 2 hours per day 4 days a week, excluding violin practice and time at Classical Conversations.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I'll say around 1 hour. It could be a bit more or less, it's close to an hour.

[mytwomonkeys]

i think it took us about 1 1/2 hours a day for grade 1. we increased the workload as the year progressed, but the time frame was the same all throughout the year.

[SkateLeft]

First grade takes about 1.5 hours a day for our family.

[MorganClassicalPrep]

We do 2-3 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. We do quite a bit of "extras" though. The core subjects probably take an hour, hour and a half a day.

[Sctigermom]

I'll throw my stats in the ring even though my son is 5 and techically a k'er. (All of his subjects are 1st grade.) We work for 2-3 hours a day this includes FIAR+lap booking, math, science (3x wk), spelling, OPGTR+student reading, art (1x a week) and social studies(1x a week). I also read to my kids whenever they ask and always before bed, but I didnt include that in our time.

[jwoodbri]

Wow! I feel like it takes us all day! But then again we get interrupted quite a bit with the baby needing naps etc. It easily takes us several hours though. Maybe we are trying to do too much. We only school 4 days a week sometimes 3 and will possibly go through quite a bit of the summer at least a couple days a week. Thanks for asking... maybe I'll try writing down how long it really takes us.

[Mommy22alyns]

2-3 hours a day, depending on whether we have activities, science experiments, etc. Oh, and 4 days a week as they have co-op on Mondays.

[Ariston]

i have an old first grader...

 

we do about an hour on math, 20 minutes of reading, an hour of read alouds, plus spanish, latin and spellling. So most days we're looking at 3 hours per day or more.

[livingmydream]

We are pretty relaxed here. Do Memoria press phonics and lots of reading and ETC that with handwriting takes about 30-45 minutes depending on how my struggling reader is handling the reading that day. Math we use Right start and take about 15 minutes. once a week we do a lapbook.We don't do any formal history and science is nature projects or she listens in on my 7th grader's science stuff and helps with experiments. We do a CM style co-op on Tuesdays. We school about 4 days a week no longer than 2 hours a day...

[blondeviolin]

Wow! I feel like it takes us all day! But then again we get interrupted quite a bit with the baby needing naps etc. It easily takes us several hours though. Maybe we are trying to do too much. We only school 4 days a week sometimes 3 and will possibly go through quite a bit of the summer at least a couple days a week. Thanks for asking... maybe I'll try writing down how long it really takes us.

 

It takes us all day too! But when I add up how long each lesson takes, it's not more than 90 minutes cumulative. I bet you'll be surprised how that baby requires you to spread the work out!

[momtoamiracle]

I have a K'er too that we do a couple of first grade things. Usually 2- 3 hours I'd say, spread throughout the day.

 

 

 

It will probably stay the same when we start first grade.

[----]

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[tuzor]

4 days a week 4-5 hours a day. I have tried so many times to reduce to 2 hours but I just cant. This is just the basics. Math, Reading, LA, History, Science, Spelling, Grammar, Memory Work.

[Marie131]

I aim for 60-90 min a day, but it can be longer depending on how many interruptions we have (our toddler likes to climb on top of the kitchen table while we are working :p).

[ALB]

Between 3 and 3.5 hours, depending on the day and projects/ activities that we do. That also includes some read aloud time.

 

If I counted crafts and all our read alouds, it would be much more than that.

[Tracy]

Well, I have never actually added it all up, since it is spread out throughout the day, so this should be interesting for me, as well:

 

• Circle Time (song, prayer, memory work, miscellaneous things like phonogram practice and telling time): 10-15 minutes daily, but is shortened or eliminated during days of illness or busyness
  
• Spelling dictation: 10-15 minutes 4x/wk
  
• Spelling quiz: 10 minutes 4x/wk
  
• Spelling test (20 words): 20 min 1x/wk
  
• Math: 30-40 minutes 5x/wk
  
• WWE: 10-15 minutes 4x/wk (but we have worked up to this--at the beginning, it was closer to 20-30 minutes)
  
• History reading: 20-30 minutes 3x/wk on average, but this varies a lot
  
• Geography: 20-30 minutes 1x/wk (most weeks--again, this is one of the first things to go)
  
• History activity: This is hard to quantify. Sometimes we do a formal activity, but it is often something dd comes up with on her own, such as pretending to be someone from history. I schedule it 1x/wk, but it could actually last for hours or days. :lol:
  
• Science: 20-30 min 1x/wk, but this is another area that is neglected around here. Dh is a science teacher, so there is a lot of science learning happening, just not so much in the way of formal lessons.
  
• Independent reading: 30 min daily
  
• Art: I used to schedule this. :tongue_smilie: Now I just wait until we have a free moment, which is maybe monthly. Dd tends to get carried away in these activities, so it is hard to fit in. I probably end up doing them once a month, and dd might spend 1-2 hours on it.
  

So I guess about 8 1/2 hours total per week that is scheduled, but many weeks it may be closer to 7 1/2, and other weeks when we don't have a lot of outside activities, it may be 10-11 hours. That doesn't seem like a lot on paper, but I have difficulty fitting it all in. Dd7 is a very busy girl. She always has a list of things she wants to do. For example, right now, she wants to learn how to type, write a letter to her grandma, act out a book we read yesterday, and write a sequel to book we read last month. In the meantime, she gets distracted with things like dancing and singing and playing board games, not to mention her birthday party on Saturday. :D Everything she wants to do seems so valuable, I have trouble tearing her away from her own activities to do school. (And I have already simplified as much as I possibly can.)

[WeeBeaks]

2-5 hours a day, the variation being him and how long he dawdles and not the content varying, 50 percent of the days being closer to the 2. He is also a slow writer, so the physical act of writing is slow. We do have our very own toddler 3-ring circus happening too in the school area.

Edited March 22, 2012 by WeeBeaks

[krismoose]

9-10 hours a week. I'd say it averages out to 1.5-2 hours 4 days a week, with maybe an hour on day 5, the day we go to vision therapy, but sometimes less that day. And two Fridays a month we go to a homeschool music class, so we do less on those days as well. When we started last summer it was an hour a day, tops, all in the morning. I've added more in the afternoon lately, and he has gotten faster overall (less dawdling + faster writing).

[Joyoflearning]

For my 7 yo, we spend 2 hours per day 4 days a week, excluding violin practice and time at Classical Conversations.

 

:iagree: This for DD (5) who is technically "K" but works on a first grade plus level. We work from 9-11:30 or 12 with breaks 4 days/wk (The other day is CC). I would say there's about 2 hours of focused work or 2.5 hours if not focused. This is not including all the reading she chooses to do on her own, our nightly read-aloud, playing Dreambox on the computer, AWANAS, Violin, or anything else extra. We do Rightstart (or SM supplement) (40 min), PR (40 min), HOD (30 min), and Geography (10 min) daily. If we spend more time on one subject we spend less time on another. I read the HOD read-aloud during lunch.

[Amber in AUS]

Bugsy, 6yo grade 1, probably spends 1 to 1.5 hours working solidly each day.

[SilverMoon]

My first grade by age child spends no more than 90 minutes on seatwork a day.

 

If I have all her books and supplies ready, and if she has me to herself, she will go through a lesson in First Language Lessons , R&S spelling, copywork, Song School Latin, and R&S math in about an hour. If I have to balance another sibling in that it will quickly spread out and her attention will wander more. I break it into 2-3 more manageable chunks when that happens.

 

In the afternoon she does science and/or history with her third grade brother. Between the reading, narrating, drawing and/or projects, that takes 20-30 minutes or so.

[MinivanMom]

During the fall ds6 was spending 1 hr 30 min on schoolwork each day including reading aloud to me. I was splitting this into two 45 min. sessions with a play break in the middle.

 

Since Christmas he has been spending 2 hrs just on schoolwork plus an additional 15-20 min of independent reading each day. He does the 2 hrs in the morning (no breaks) and then he reads in the afternoon.

 

He was a young first grader (not quite 6 at the beginning of the year) who had only been spending 30-40 min on seatwork in kindergarten, so I wanted to ease slowly into a greater amount of work.

[lea1]

I am teaching two 6 year olds together and they started first grade in January. It takes around 3 to 4 hours a day, 4 days a week.

 

Sometimes it takes longer but then I have to step back and remind myself to keep lessons short. It is easy to make them too long at times.

[ScoutTN]

About 2-2.5 hours a day, 4x a week.

Sometimes longer because Sweet Pea is a pokey little princess and often takes forever to do things!

 

Not counting RA's and projects.

[Jayne J]

Dd does 1-1.5 hours a day. We do math, phonics, writing, and grammar which takes about 45-60 min. And then our extra daily subject together with her brother. This is pretty open ended as far as time goes, and includes history, geography, science, art, and music. Our average time for the extra subject is 30 min. I did not count read aloud time though, which is an additional hour or so.

[TheAutumnOak]

My first grader has about 45m to an hour in the morning and another hour after lunch, so about 2 hours a day roughly...

[Butter]

My first grader is 5. He's doing second grade math at a rate of two lessons per day and everything else first grade one lesson a day (we use Calvert). He takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours most days, 5 days a week.

[WIS0320]

2-3 hours 5 days per week depending on what we've got scheduled.

[newhsmom]

We spend about 1 1/2 to 2 hours a day on school. We usually try to work only 4 days a week and save Fridays for art or something fun.

[Ecclecticmum]

definately under 2 hours -5 days a week. This only includes "core" subjects and includes setting up, sitting down fuss time.

 

But our schooling is different, we have lots of elective subjects, and include preschool activities, crafts, dramatic play, open ended art. The program I created was specifically meant to keep the children occupied all day long, from the moment we get up, till their father gets home. Since we're in the middle of "holidays" right now, if I took pictures of my house, you would understand why I use something to keep them occupied, but not limit their imagination. They create mess & havoc if "bored" or being imaginative their own way, like dressing up in my nightwear or pulling all the clothes off the shelves etc.

 

So our school days start with chores, then core subjects, then electives & fun and end with chores :p The health, safety & manners curriculum I am doing up at the moment for instance, as well as include actual learning materials will e.g. for Dentist they will be doing a unit study about teeth & caring for them, but also do fun crafts (like painting teeth) activities (like flossing "teeth" using megablocks, playdoh and yarn) and have a weekly center under our whiteboard for dramatic play (so a dentist office kit). We include silly activities like spray painting (with a spray bottle, sheet and food dye) and sensory tubs.

 

So anyway, for the core subjects (LA, Maths, Science & Reading History), including set up, fidgeting and without any activities (so no SOTW activites or Science Experiments), would probably be 1-2 hrs a day, 5 days a week.

 

Edited to add: I have a 1st grader, a Pre-K'er and a Pre-Pre-K'er :p

Edited March 23, 2012 by Ecclecticmum

[Sevilla]

6-7 hours per week if we work with focus and there's no dawdling :). That's for a 4 day school week (coop is the fifth day).

[jamijoy]

We do first grade with my kinder aged son (turned six in November). He's already reading, but we are still going through phonics with him, just to be sure of all the rules. We use MFW. He does math, phonics, reading (which is also history) and writing four days a week, which takes 30-45 minutes per day. He typically doesn't dawdle and we don't take breaks.

 

I also have 2nd and 5th graders and my kinder (doing first grade work) usually joins them for any hands on science activities, but I don't require him too. He does his own science once a week, which takes 15-20 minutes.

 

So I guess per week, I'd say 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Like I said, I also have two older kids (and two more ages 2 and 3), and my kinder aged son is already doing first grade work, so I think the times he spends on academics is sufficient for him.

 

He does other random arts and crafts activities as well that I don't count towards school. And when I get around to music :blush:, it's for all of the kids together, but admittedly, that's not very often.

[Bluegoat]

We don't do schoolwork every day, but I'd say maybe two hours? We aim for half an hour or less on math, about 5 to 10 on copywork, about 10 to 15 on LA (which we only just started really), and then we read one or two AO selections. Some days we will also do some French, artist or composer study, nature study, or whatever.

 

I don't know if it is helpful, but since dd is reading really well our biggest goal skill wise this year is improving her physical writing stamina and just reading lots of good books. We work most carefully on math and music if we have to pick what to do on any given day.

[violingirl]

Core subjects take us about 2 hours and we school 5 days a week. That time includes LA, math, handwriting, science and history. We school for another hour that includes art and "project time" for whatever it is he's currently obsessed with.

[happypamama]

An hour or two a day, aiming for five days a week. An hour or less to do copywork/few workbook pages for general skills, reading (phonics earlier, now reading aloud to me), and math (Miquon), plus a memory verse, plus an hour or so for the family subjects -- history (which, for the first grader, often includes drawing a picture and dictating a couple of sentences to me as a narration), read-alouds, and occasional science, art, picture study, and music.

[ByGrace3]

We do about 3 hours Mon to Thurs. and around 1.5 to 2 on Friday plus an afternoon field trip.

[jer2911mom]

We school 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week. We do about 3 in the morning (mostly math and LA) and 1-2 in the afternoon (mostly our literature-based programs).

 

Kathy

[CanaryMelody]

A teen, baby, and numerous interruptions make our school days an all day event! :lol:

 

In reality, we probably spend about 3 hours on actual core subjects Monday-Wednesday and 2 hours Thursday-Friday.

 

We currently have:

Bible - 15 min

Phonics - 30 min

Handwriting - 10 min

Math - 30 min

Science - 30 min (3 days/week)

History - 30 min (3 days/week)

US Geography - 20 min (2 days/week)

Spanish - 20 min (2 days/week)