Anyone spend 3 hrs or less on school

[Wee Pip]

and still feel the kiddos are getting a decent education? (Not including pleasure reading at bedtime, outside the home activities, or chores, lol).

[FO4UR]

I did 2 years ago.;)

 

 

I spend 5 hours between 3 kids most days. Next year is going to be more.

 

 

I tend to follow the old advice about 1 hour of seatwork per grade in school. So my 1st grader gets 1 hour, 3rd grader 3 hours, and Ker gets 45min on a good day. That doesn't include read alouds or hands-on science. It's pretty much just the 3R's.

[boscopup]

I do, but that's 2nd grade. When my kids are logic stage, I doubt it would be that short.

[Karen in CO]

I do, but only for my youngest. It usualy takes about 4 hours for my older. The times can overlap a little.

 

For my dd11, our day is roughly broken up like this:

1 hour cello

1 hour math

1 hour writing

1 hour content subject (history, philosophy, literature, or science)

 

When this is complete, she's done with school and free to entertain herself the rest of the day. This includes the assumption that she reads plenty on her own and doesn't count outside activities or things like art.

Edited May 21, 2012 by Karen in CO

[Heidi]

I do. I could fill up their time with workbooks of busy work and they might know more "stuff", but if I wanted to do that I might as well just send them to school.

 

We do xtrmath.com (10)

math mammoth (20)

Kids read aloud (10 to 20)

copywork (10)

Phonics/spelling (10)

Narration of books I read to them (lit, science, history) (10)

 

That's only a little over an hour per kid daily.

 

We also read poetry, make crafts, nature study, cook, play outside, garden, take care of animals, do chores, read scriptures, memory work. These are things we wouldn't have time to do if they went to school, but are far more valuable than what they would get at school. So yes, I think their education is different, but better than what they would get at ps.

[FairProspects]

Nope. But if ds didn't have to stop and move every 15-20 min., freak out about something, or take a snack break, then yes, it would probably fit in that time frame. :D

[mama25angels]

Nope. But if ds didn't have to stop and move every 15-20 min., freak out about something, or take a snack break, then yes, it would probably fit in that time frame. :D

 

 

 

:iagree: this is my ds also!

[redsquirrel]

It depends on the age of said kid. My 6th grader? We spend well over 3 hours a day on lessons. My first grader? We spend less than 3 hours a day and I am certain he is getting a good education.

[foxbridgeacademy]

We spend about 2-3 hrs a day on our traditional school. I don't time them, this is just how quickly they get done. Math takes them 30-45 minutes per day at most... we are doing BA for 3rd grader and LOF for 5th grader. So they like it and are done quickly. We use WWW (about 10 minutes) and CTT creative writing (10 minutes) Spelling takes 15 minutes. Then we either do Logic, Grammar, or some sort of Lit analysis for about 15minutes. Our Science had been at Co-op 1X a week. History would take 1/2 hour to an hour a couple times a week.

[angelmama1209]

Nope. But if ds didn't have to stop and move every 15-20 min., freak out about something, or take a snack break, then yes, it would probably fit in that time frame. :D

 

:iagree: Yep! here,too!

[timmys mom]

We probably do it under that on most days, but I only have one kid and he's in 3rd grade. And we do take breaks, and do extracurric things too. But for school school it's probably less then that.

[Classically Minded]

I do, but that's 2nd grade. When my kids are logic stage, I doubt it would be that short.

 

:iagree:Same here, but I'm not counting reading during that 3 hours.

[Lab1]

If my girls are on task, then we can. They have grown so much this yr and I feel are getting a great education!

[justLisa]

We do, but that's because both my kids are extremely task oriented. I have no idea how I got lucky with TWO kids who basically just sit and get er done, but I thank my lucky stars daily. SOmetimes DS will ask me if he can just do everything without a break and he will LITERALLY keep his face in his books buried and only break for water and the washroom:lol:

[Farrar]

I think it depends not only on the age of the kid, but on what you count as school. We do our read alouds in the evening. The kids do their free reading on their own time mostly. We do audiobooks in the car. We take hikes in nature, go to museums, do our co-op group, go to dance class... but that's all outside our official school time, which is generally about 2 hours.

[mama2cntrykids]

Last year, I would have answered yes, but with my oldest going into 6th grade this coming school year, no. I'm anticipating ds11 needing a break for lunch and then finishing up soon after (we start at 8:30, btw).

 

When I add in piano/sax practice, art and AWANA, it will be even longer. He's been warned that the coming year will be tougher. He can handle it though. He just needs to apply himself ;).

 

With my younger ds9 (up coming 4th grader), it will be around 3 hrs. With him, it has the potential to be much longer however. For the fact that he will literally sit and do nothing if he deems something "too hard" (which are many things...he *is* capable however). With my dd (up and coming 1st grader), it will probably be 1.5-2 hrs.

[5LittleMonkeys]

I've scheduled dd9's 4th grade year and, not including an hour in the evening for independent literature reading and audio books, I set it at 4.5 hours Tue-Thur, and on Mon and Fri she only does 2 hours, so that averages out to 17.5 hours per week or 3.5 hours per day. If you add in the literature in the evening then she's back up to 4.3 hours per day. We could forgo the lit in the evening as I do read from lit during the day, but I'm trying to incorporate far more lit into our day.

 

We were up to almost 5 hours a day earlier in the year and it was too much; too heavy with history, science, and separate LA subjects. We then swung to doing only 2.5 hours a day and it wasn't enough. I felt ALL we were doing was math, reading and LA. Right now we are about the same as what I describe for next year and it's working well. Our subjects in order of importance are: literature, Latin, math, composition(includes grammar, spelling, writing), art, science, history, poetry, art appreciation, and music appreciation.

 

My oldest two are up near 6 hours and my K'er is just around 1.5. I honestly don't know how my upper middle school dc could manage with just 3 hours.

Edited May 22, 2012 by 5LittleMonkeys

[SilverMoon]

Three hours or less with my grammar stage kids? Sure.

 

With my upper logic stage kids? Not a chance.

[FairProspects]

We do, but that's because both my kids are extremely task oriented. I have no idea how I got lucky with TWO kids who basically just sit and get er done, but I thank my lucky stars daily. SOmetimes DS will ask me if he can just do everything without a break and he will LITERALLY keep his face in his books buried and only break for water and the washroom:lol:

 

:willy_nilly:It is so unfair how different situations are!! Do you know how much we could get accomplished or how far accelerated my kids would be if they would just sit and do their work?!? You people have no idea what I am dealing with!!

 

But seriously, good for your kids!:hurray:

[Twilight Woods]

Currently:

 

DD#1: I just finished her schedule for 6th grade and I am sitting at 4-5 hours....When I add Latin we may be at 6 hours. She is slow though......and likes to daydream and do anything other than school so that is why it takes her so long.

 

DD #2 for first grade is currently at 1-2 hours depending on how much she procrastinates with reading. I try to break that up through out the day.

 

Read alouds and fun based projects are not included in the time.

Edited May 22, 2012 by my3luvbugs990105

[wapiti]

I tend to follow the old advice about 1 hour of seatwork per grade in school.

:iagree:

 

That's just a rule of thumb, but IMO under 3 hours would be insufficient for an 11 y.o. Three hours wouldn't even get us through math and language arts, let alone history/science/foreign language. For a 9 y.o., that would be on the edge.

[KarenNC]

Depends on the day and the week. A typical week this spring looked like this:

M---8-12 work with me, then homework independently, twice a month 1.5 hour science class at nature center

T--8-9 work with me (usu. math and grammar), go to group classes (Science Olympiad, art, yearbook), homework and independent work in car, go to aikido (1.5 hours)

W--twice a month 8-10 work with me, Girl Scouts, park day with group, homework independently---twice a month 8-12 or 12:30 work with me then park day with group, homework independently

Th--8-12 or 1 (with break for lunch) work with me, homework independently, once a month book club at library (1-1.5 hours)

Fr--8-11 or so work with me, homeschool skating (2.5 hours) once a month, homework independently--we may work longer if there's not skating, but there are often field trips or other activities on Fridays.

Sat--go to aikido (1.5 hours)

 

Together we go over homework and cover math lesson, grammar, vocabulary, history, science, literature, logic, etc depending on the day. Independently, she does her math problem set, Spanish lesson (curriculum is self-teaching), reading/study guide in science, literature reading, etc. This ability to do more independently has cut our formal time down a good bit from 5th grade, but she is spending anywhere from 30 min to 2 hours or so on homework regularly. We also work year-round, so I have a bit more flexibility. For instance, we don't do her regular science lessons on the days she has Science Olympiad class or nature center science class, so we still have several chapters of her science book to finish up over the summer. Things like supplemental dvds may make our time go a bit longer.

 

Now the above was our ideal schedule--didn't take into account the days it took me until 9 to get her actually working, time to pull her back on task, etc. ;) As others have said, we might be able to cut down the time a bit more if she would stay on task more frequently. The days we start on time and she's in the groove, we accomplish so much more in so much less time!

[timmys mom]

I tend to follow the old advice about 1 hour of seatwork per grade in school.

 

Where do you cut that off then? Elementary? You can't expect a 12th grader to do school for 12 hours....

[5LittleMonkeys]

Where do you cut that off then? Elementary? You can't expect a 12th grader to do school for 12 hours....

 

 

I believe highschool will level out at between 6 to 8 hours depending on efficiency and workload.

[Gentlemommy]

I think it depends not only on the age of the kid, but on what you count as school. We do our read alouds in the evening. The kids do their free reading on their own time mostly. We do audiobooks in the car. We take hikes in nature, go to museums, do our co-op group, go to dance class... but that's all outside our official school time, which is generally about 2 hours.

 

This is us exactly. For my 2 grader, we spend about an hour on seat work. This includes- Math (alternating Miquon, MEP, and Rays), Language Arts (WRTR, ETC, AAS, FLL, WWE), SOTW, and bible. She reads aloud to me 3x per day, for ten minutes each time.

We are also doing 30-45 min of vision therapy daily.

We do our read alouds all throughout the day, and we listen to the SOTW CDs or other literature when we are in the car. We volunteer at a farm and take riding lessons, gymnastics, nature study, go play at the lake, go to the science and history center, bird sanctuary, aquarium, zoo, ect.

[Mandylubug]

I think I could if I only had one kid. We do work straight once we get started but there are times where some of the kids are doing independent reading or just playing while I work one on one with their sibling, etc... I typically finish by 2:30, starting at 9:30am.

 

that included

spelling

math

phonics (girls)

SOTW

MCT (boys)

Reading

[kitten18]

I think it depends not only on the age of the kid, but on what you count as school. We do our read alouds in the evening. The kids do their free reading on their own time mostly. We do audiobooks in the car. We take hikes in nature, go to museums, do our co-op group, go to dance class... but that's all outside our official school time, which is generally about 2 hours.

 

:iagree:

[chepyl]

Two hours max this past year. If we hit two hours, I cut the day off. We only went that ling on a bad day, I knew we needed to stop or we would drive each other insane! DS was first grade.

[kadesmom]

We do with my first grader, about 2-3 hours.

[MissKNG]

We do less than three hours of my planned school work but she does her own things as well. I count that time as school hours too.

[Wee Pip]

I'm surprised that so many spend over 3 hours on most days.

 

Do packaged curric kids get done sooner, unless their using a dvd type of program? It seems like the kids that use Alpha Omega lifepacs get done in 1.5-3 hours max. I've heard of Abeka kids getting done in 4-5 hours max in high school (sooner for younger ages). But the video kids tend to last much longer (6+ hours) because they are doing text + video (or dvd, or whatnot) for their subjects.

 

Since I piecemeal things together myself, I tend to wonder if I'm doing it right. I feel like my kids are assigned A LOT of stuff, but they seem to finish it in 2-3 hours most days. However, most of their assignments only seem to last 15mins or so. If our day goes longer than 3 hours, it's because we weren't on task that day, or somebody was fighting their lessons. Seems like we all lose focus and stamina if I assign more than 3 hours worth of stuff, and I'm not sure all of that extra info is being retained. We do -

 

Math (45mins for 11yo, 30 mins for 9yo), Writing (15 mins), Grammar (10 mins), Spelling (10 mins) = 1 hour 20 mins

Familiar Quotations read/copywork, Encyclopedia read/summarize = 15-30mins

Science or History = 15-30 mins (read, answer questions, vocab, sketch)

AWANA practice - 20-60 mins (depending on project)

 

That's under 3 hours, there. We don't do Logic, Latin, or Foreign Language. If we added more projects, it would probably add more time. We do many things outside of the house, but I don't count those. I also don't count what they read at bedtime.

[Kelly1730]

We could easily get our core subjects done in less than three hours through this year. It's easier on me because I'm only teaching two (twins) and they study exactly the same thing. I'm pretty sure that starting fifth grade and the logic stage in the fall will make our day go longer.

 

I'm trying to figure out how to ramp them up without causing major problems for the boys or me next year.

[Crimson Wife]

We do shorter days but more of them. We HS year-round and typically work at least a couple hours on Saturday, and often a bit on Sunday afternoon if there's anything left over from the week that's ending.

 

DD was grumbling about having to go over the summer and why couldn't she do longer days with the summer off. I told her that if I could get 6 hours' worth of quality work out of her I might consider it, but the key word is quality. I just can't get more than about 3 1/2 to 4 hours' worth of quality work out of her per day before she loses focus at this point.

[SailorMom]

We were probably under three hours when DS was 3rd grade or younger.

When he hit 4th, we may have had some 3 hour days, but there were also many days that went over.

After 4th, very few 3 hour days ever.

 

But - DS is dysgraphic, dyscalculic, and dyslexic, so that does slow him down.

[Kathryn]

We are under three hours*, but I don't expect that to be the case in four years when he's going into logic stage work and I'll be splitting time between two learners.

 

* not counting read-alouds

[boscopup]

I wonder if you just need to beef things up a bit for your 11 year old? Your schedule looks fine for the grammar stage kids, but the 11 year old should probably be spending more time writing and reading for science/history, etc. If she's getting assignments done super fast, she may not be challenged enough.

[ByGrace3]

It depends on what you count as school. For us math is about 45 minutes usually LA an hour to hour and 15, 30-45 minutes for science/history and then read alouds, piano, additional reading, and foreign language. 3 to 3.5 is our goal, I don't want to go any longer at this age, but to get in a WTM education, even for first it often takes longer than that, or at least that. With a toddler and preschooler that 3.5 hours of work plus the "extras" can make us seem like we are working 8 hours though. :glare: dd also spends 8 hours a week at gymnastics but I still feel as though she has way more time to "play" than other kids her age, so I am ok with it.

[Wee Pip]

I wonder if you just need to beef things up a bit for your 11 year old? Your schedule looks fine for the grammar stage kids, but the 11 year old should probably be spending more time writing and reading for science/history, etc. If she's getting assignments done super fast, she may not be challenged enough.

 

I'm not sure how to beef things up for her. I'm not sure how to get her to write more/better/longer. She's a girl of very few words and of short lessons. If I add 4 more subjects, then I might get an hour more into our day. But I think you are right, Boscopup, it would probably go further if I beef up the writing assignments thru Science and History. Not sure how to lengthen her focus and get MORE from her.

[Jpoy85]

yes we spend about 2-3hrs on school and i feel they are getting along fine with school.

[Tess in the Burbs]

yes. But my kids are 3rd and 4th grade. We do about 3 hours on average a day. My kids also do most subjects together. Next year won't be that way. I expect us to be more like 5 hours a day.(well, my younger one less)

[~Anna~]

I have been looking at this the last few days for my upcoming schedule. If I am going by TWTM schedule, it puts us at about 6 hours per day (for my rising 7th grader) if I remember correctly. I wasn't planning on doing that much originally, but I think that in my state you are supposed to school a certain number of hours per day instead of just adding them all up and doing that many in a year. So, 6 hours will work for us. That includes reading aloud with DD too though, which will probably be done more in the evenings, so the 6 hours will be broken up some.

[2squared]

I wonder if you just need to beef things up a bit for your 11 year old? Your schedule looks fine for the grammar stage kids, but the 11 year old should probably be spending more time writing and reading for science/history, etc. If she's getting assignments done super fast, she may not be challenged enough.

 

:iagree: And I am a huge proponent of an intense, short schedule with lots of free time for the kids. My formal academic work for my rising 5th grader looks like this for next year:

 

45 Math

20 Religion

40 Dictation, Copywork, Writing Instruction

30 Literature

15 Latin

30 History (includes writing)

30 Science (includes writing)

---

3.5 hours per day

Edited May 22, 2012 by 2squared

[AnnaM]

Maybe it is my children's ages but I honestly do not know how anyone makes their school last longer than about 2.5 hours. I mean I could give my children some busy work and drag it out (not saying that is what they do), but our school day just CANNOT last that long! If we spend longer than 30 minutes on any particular subject it is unusual.

[mythreesonz]

I have a 12 yr old 6th grade and most days we do. He is very goal oriented and wants to get the job done before he takes breaks. We do sort of a block schedule.He does 2-3 hours each subject. Monday is math, Tuesday is Language Arts, Wednesday is Science, Thursday is Social Studies, Friday is catch up or extra days. He then does spend about a half hour each day for what we call electives. He chooses which one that day and for how long.(Foreign Language, Technology, etc...) This does not include his hour or reading a day or his book he is writing, or co op classes, watching movies or field trips. These I consider extras and they are up to him to get done.

I don't think I could make his day any longer unless I gave him busy work. He already finishes most of it before the end of our school year. He is getting great grades so I don't see giving him more work to make his day busier. We don't use a formal curriculum. I piece mine together. Most of it though is bought.(Math is yourteacher.com I make him take the pretest if he gets a 100 he can go to the post test and if he gets an 80 or above I don't make him do the lesson 90% of the time he doesn't do the lesson. And when I give him tests the chapter tests he is getting over an 90. No sense in just keeping him busy.

Edited May 22, 2012 by mythreesonz

[Meriwether]

Math alone can take Ds7 3 hours. Fortunately, those days are fewer all the time. Math still takes about an hour.

 

My rising 5th grader will have at least 5 hours of school each day. Sometimes over six. Maybe even seven. My rising 3rd grader will do 4-5 hours. My rising 1st grader will do around 3 hours. We are very literature heavy. We have books for lit, history, geography, music, Bible, science, and even Latin. We are also starting Spanish in addition to Latin. We have long school days because of the educational choices I've made. I couldn't cover what I want to cover in 3 hours. My kids just have to deal with that.:001_smile: They still have lots of down time.

[wapiti]

Math (45mins for 11yo, 30 mins for 9yo), Writing (15 mins), Grammar (10 mins), Spelling (10 mins) = 1 hour 20 mins

Familiar Quotations read/copywork, Encyclopedia read/summarize = 15-30mins

Science or History = 15-30 mins (read, answer questions, vocab, sketch)

AWANA practice - 20-60 mins (depending on project)

 

That's under 3 hours, there. We don't do Logic, Latin, or Foreign Language. If we added more projects, it would probably add more time. We do many things outside of the house, but I don't count those. I also don't count what they read at bedtime.

 

What is the 11 y.o. using for writing?

 

Are you counting AWANA as academic time?

Edited May 22, 2012 by wapiti

[Embassy]

I've never done less than 3 hours. My rising 5th grader spends about 6 hours. We do spend a bunch of time on things like science projects, foreign language, reading books and discussing (several subjects), and coming at one subject from many different angles. It works well for us. The sit-at-a-desk-and-complete-an-assignment work is usually about 3 hours though. Next year it is looking like he will have homework (reading) for the first time because I can't start our day any earlier or end our day any later and he wants to do everything.

Edited May 22, 2012 by Wehomeschool

[Wee Pip]

What is the 11 y.o. using for writing?

 

Are you counting AWANA as academic time?

 

I do count AWANA, but once that is finished for the year, I try to add in some other things to do.

We are not using a formal writing program, but if we were, it seems like it would only take about 15mins, since writing currics tend to have short assignments (or, it would get drawn over several days in short chunks). They write summaries for their encyclopedia readings, they write 1 page reports on their science or history (we alternate sci/history) - but these are double spaced handwritten, and the 11yo can get these done in 10 mins. If I give her more to write, though, it's painful for everyone. So, I know I need to take her into the next stage (beyond just summary writing), but not sure how to do that for this particular (resistant, beastly-to-teach, short on words) child :lol:

[Nestof3]

Yes, when my boys were younger.

 

No, now that they are rising 6th and 7th.

[2_girls_mommy]

It depends on what you count as school. For us math is about 45 minutes usually LA an hour to hour and 15, 30-45 minutes for science/history and then read alouds, piano, additional reading, and foreign language. 3 to 3.5 is our goal, I don't want to go any longer at this age, but to get in a WTM education, even for first it often takes longer than that, or at least that.... but I still feel as though she has way more time to "play" than other kids her age, so I am ok with it.

 

This is us too. My 2nd grader does more than 3 hrs a day. She works directly with me for 2-3 hrs in the morning on core stuff. It could take less, but that is what it takes her. Then we do an hour of a content subject each afternoon (art, history/geography, or science) plus piano practice, reading practice, and finishing anything she didn't in the morning. She still has time to birdwatch, watch the trash truck go by, swing outside between subjects while I am working in the yard, play with neighborhood kids, and bike and skate daily.

 

And yes, I piece together a WTM education. If we just followed the straight R&S curric I believe it would take us even longer than it does. She doesn't do well with lots of workbook work.