Typical amount of work in one day-4th Grade

[Kfamily]

Would anyone be willing to share with me the typical amount of work their 4th grader accomplishes in one day? I'm trying to see whether I'm expecting too much or too little (or have it about right) for my younger dd.

 

So, for example....

 

Math-how many pages/lessons

English-how much writing/lessons

 

etc. for all subjects for one day

 

I'm wanting to include independent work with this amount too.

[mom31257]

Math: 1 lesson which is a page, front and back

 

Spelling: 1 page (just started R&S)

 

Grammar: 1 lesson (just started R&S)

 

Writing: 1 IEW assignment every other week; This really varies with the assignment because they are getting longer. I'm not sure how long this will take, but I'm thinking 30 minutes for four days.

 

Literature: 1 chapter in novel for book club and BJU lessons (3-4 lessons per week)

 

Cursive: 5-10 minutes copywork

 

History: Dh read and discuss 1-2 sections of a chapter at a time, and do the map when the chapter is completed

 

Health, Geography, and Science are being done each on a weekly basis, and it can vary quite a bit.

[Tress]

We alternate days:

 

A:

English: 45min (=foreign language curriculum)

History: 30min reading, making a timeline

Dutch: 45min CW Homer A or CW Poetry A, spelling as needed.

 

B:

Science: 45min reading + 30min DVD

Latin: 45min

 

Daily:

Math: 1lesson=3pages=60min

English reading: 15min (Ambleside Online)

Memorywork: 15min (catechism, history timeline, Latin vocab)

Typing: 10min

Handwriting: 5min cursive copywork, all schoolwork is in cursive

Dutch geography: 10min

 

Daily part (1h55min) + A or B(2h)=~4h

 

I'm not counting daily read alouds, Bible, classical music appreciation course we do as a family, free reading or writing (she loves to write).

 

ETA: after reading the OP again, I realise that what I wrote above isn't really helpful, because it doesn't include amount of pages/chapters etc. For us it works better to just spend time on a subject, some lessons are hard, some are easy. My dd works for the planned amount of time and picks it up where she left the last time.

[jujsky]

Our typical day varies from day to day depending on what we have going on for outside activities. Some days are heavier, some days are much lighter. Today is about a typical Monday:

 

Spelling

Math

Grammar

Handwriting

Russian (Rosetta Stone)

Typing

Break

Literature

History

Biology

Logic

 

Many of these things (handwriting, logic, spelling) are pretty short -- 10 minutes or so each. On some days we do earth science instead of biology, or writing instead of or in addition to history. We also do art 1-2 times/week. School on a typical day takes about 6 hours, including lunch.

[mschickie]

This is how our day goes:

 

normally at

 

8:00-9:00 Math 1 lesson in Saxon

 

9:00-10:30 ish we do our together time which includes 5 minutes of spelling (we use Spelling Power), History reading (usually 10-15 minutes, usually 2-4 pages in whatever book we are doing), Science (10-15 minutes 2-4 pages in our book), read aloud normally 1 chapter, and then some time spent going over some maps, timelines and reading comprehension questions.

 

11:00- done: grammar 1-2 pages Easy Grammar

Latin 1 page

Science notebook (we do two science programs. Two days a week we do Apologia and fill in the notebook) 2-3 pages(filling info in, puzzles, mini books...)

Maps & Charts 1 lesson per week

Vocabulary 3 lessons per week

Spelling corrections (5-10 min max)

Writing (We use IEW and do some type of writing each day either watching the lesson, which can be long (some are 15 mins others 1 hr),

writing the outline, or working on the paragraphs. The writing assignments are usually about a paragraph a day.

Art 1x a week a 2-4 pg in Drawing Basics (mainly reading and then 1 or 2 sketches)

Reading approx 20 pages of assigned reading and then 1/2 hr a day of free reading

 

Normally our day is done between 2-3 pm and we take an hour or so out for lunch. Dd has been known to finish by 1:30 but that depends on how much time she spends playing with the cat as it walks by.

[mschickie]

duplicate

[Tess in the Burbs]

My 4th grader spends different time amounts depending on the day.

 

I want about an hour for math. Grammar/writing is 15 min to 45 min depending on the assignment. Spelling is about 20 min. Geography and Mindbenders about 15 min each. Science is 30 min, history is 30 min. Spanish varies(5 min to 30 min). She reads about 30 pages of assigned reading daily plus free reading at night.

 

We have days she's done in 3 hours. We have days it's more like 5 hours. It truly depends on the day and assignments.

[Chloe]

My fourth grader does one lesson in Rod & Staff math, one WWE assignment, 2-3 sentences of cursive copy work, a lesson in Apples and Pears spelling and silent reading for one hour. The silent reading includes literature, history and science reading. He also spends about 10 minutes daily reviewing French vocabulary for the French class he has once a week.

 

HTH!

[Mrs Twain]

We do our school in four segments as below. We take a break between each segment.

 

Math--1 hour (1 lesson of Horizons including drill work, plus 2 problems in CWP)

English--15-20 minutes max (1 lesson in R&S English, doing some of the written exercises)

 

Writing--30-40 minutes (IEW, WWW, or WWE)

Spelling--5-10 minutes (Spelling Power)

Typing practice or Audio Foreign Language-10-15 minutes

 

Reading aloud to me-15 minutes

Independent workbooks --30 minutes (Vocabulary, Cursive, Reading Comprehension, Logic, Grammar review/Test taking practice)

 

Memory work 15-20 minutes (Bible, history, etc)

History reading 20 minutes

Lapbook activity--20 minutes

Special 30 minutes (though science and art usually take more time)--Monday Music, Tuesday Science, Wed Geography, Thurs Civics/state history, Friday Art

 

After school--

Free reading

Reading for book club

Listen to audio books in the car

Dh or I read stories before bedtime

Sports/Play outside

[Element]

We've been kind of unschooly with my 4th grade ds this year, but since I have a 4th grader I felt I should reply.

 

He spends an hour to an hour & a half on math every day. Most days, half of this time is spent listening to a lesson (or two, or three, depending on how well he understands it) taught by me from the guide and working through textbook problems with me and the other half of the time is spent working through any problems from the Intensive Practice & Challenging Word Problems workbooks that apply to what he learned about. This usually amounts to about 2-4 pages each day. Once a week, we do something different for math. For example, today we played a game where we kept checkbooks and had to record different debts or earnings depending on what space we landed on. It took a little over an hour and at the end, he had a page filled with balances which I just filed with his other math stuff. He also does xtramath 4 times a week, which takes 5-10 minutes. On days when he needs to make a math notebook page, I don't have him do anything else. I want the notebook pages to be nice, not hurried through.

 

Here's where the unschooly part begins... ;) He doesn't do a lot of writing. I use an Evan-Moor Nonfiction Writing book and teach from that, after which he completes the page which goes along with the lesson. This takes about 30 minutes total. We are reading through Grammar Town and Building Poems, but we don't do it every day. Maybe 30 minutes a week on those. He reads anything I send to his Kindle, so that is nice. He's currently reading Nesbit's Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare and Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. He reads a couple of hours every night. In addition to this, the three of us also read and discuss a story from Junior Great Books every week.

 

We read through 2 chapters a week of SOTW, and he adds the dates to our timeline. Some days he builds something from the history chapter out of Legos, some days he makes a little video about it. I don't require him to do these things, he just really likes history and it seems to inspire him.

 

Science... Every week he has a science unit to complete, which is three pages of writing and answering questions after reading a short unit and maybe watching a video. This takes about 45 minutes and is usually spaced out between a couple of days. Surprisingly (I can't believe I'm going to admit this) the kids discovered Beakman's World on Netflix and they have been watching a video or two every day from that old series. Sometimes we even do the experiments or watch online videos to learn more about the topics.

 

For art, he practices drawing from a "learn to draw 3-D" book once a week, which takes around 30 minutes. He does an artist study and unit from Discovering Great Artists once a week, which takes about 90 minutes to 2 hours. He also draws in his free time, which probably amounts to another hour a week of drawing practice.

 

He gets a "free hour" on the ipad (in addition to his hour of screen time) if he uses educational apps. He plays geography games and silly trivia games like "Presidents vs. Aliens." We try to hike one afternoon a week, and that often turns into a nature study lesson. Again, though, usually no writing with that.

 

He used to do spelling and vocabulary, but I've found that nothing "sticks" from any of the programs I've tried. He learns spelling and vocabulary as we go. Sometimes we diagram sentences for fun. :-P

 

I'm planning on ramping up the program next year as he enters logic stage. This was dd's first year out of public school so I have been focused mostly on getting her acclimated to homeschooling this year. I'm fortunate that ds is fairly self-motivated, because it really has been a light year for him.

[Kfamily]

Thank you all so much. This has been very helpful! :)

[CatholicMom]

For my 4th grader it's:

 

1 math lesson (20-30 minutes, consists of listening to one TT lecture & doing the 20-ish problems)

1 spelling lesson (20-30 minutes? 2 pages front and back)

1 handwriting section (10 mins, 1/2 of a page; I only require a few words on each line and focus more on neatness than a lot of writing)

Independent reading (about 30 minutes or so. We aim for 2 chapters a day.)

1 Grammar lesson (20 minutes, 2 pages front and back)

Science, history, geography, and art are on top of that and are about 30-60 minutes a day of mostly working with me/reading aloud.

Literature he is listening to daddy read The Hobbit later in the day.

He also listens to classical kids CDs and watches documentary which kinda of blend in with school but we don't usually consider it part of the "school day." :)

 

We can get done in 3 hours on an efficient day, 4 hours on a putting-around day, 5 hours on a downright bad day, 2 hours on a "just do the essentials" day.

[Jayne J]

Ds does 2 pages of math--about 45 minutes, 30 minutes of Latin, each day's writing assignment from WWE (about 10 minutes daily depending on the assignment), 5 minutes of spelling, 20 minutes of Bible, 20 minutes of literature/read alouds, 10 minutes of memory and 1 hour of assigned reading daily, Monday through Thursday. (We do also do other read alouds--not just 20 minutes a day!--but I don't count it as school, just family time.) On Fridays we do tests and quizzes, 20 minutes of geography, plus about 90 minutes each of science and history.

[Jilly]

My son's schedule looks different than most, but I thought I would share because he is in fourth grade. He starts his day on Scratch and usually does an hour of whatever project he is working on. After that he reads for a half hour. This is a book of his choice. Following reading we will do a math block for 45 minutes or so. This consist of a LoF lesson and watching videos on YouTube. Then we do his Arrow lesson which takes about thirty minutes.

 

At this point we break for lunch for an hour. Following lunch he free writes for about two hours. This is his favorite part of the day. He ends his day with twenty minutes on piano and an hour of either a science activity or a history lesson.

[twoxcell]

Our days vary a bit but this is what my ds did today:

Bible(Practice scripture verse answerd questions, also read a chapter in the Young Christians intro to the Bible)

Math(1 pages textbook,2 pages workbook) this varies from 1-2 pg textbook and 1-3 pg of workbook

Spelling(Practice words and do one section of workbook)

Read 1-2 stories from the Book of Greek Myths

Grammar 1 lesson

Dictation

Poetry(Read new poem and answered questions) Once a week he has a writing assignment based on his weekly poem.

Literature(Read 9 pages of Sign of the Beaver and did a worksheet for it)

Science(Started a constellation book and drew 4 constellations) For science he has daily readings and each week 1 experiment and 1 notebook entry.

Practiced Catechism

I read to him about Beethoven and we listened to some songs

Spanish(1 lesson in GSWS and review)

Researched Greek Pottery and started a drawing of one. Each day he has a different thing for this time slot i.e. Research, timeline, vocabulary, Geography. Also he has a new project weekly.

History(I read 1 chapter from A Child's History of the World to him, and 1 chapter from A triumph For Flavius)

I forgot to add he does school from about 9-2:30 or so. That includes a break for lunch. :)

[RootAnn]

My 4th grader is not working at grade level. *cough* However, here is what she generally does daily:

- one lesson of math (on a good day, that's 30 min of work, 15 min of complaining)

- 30 minutes of spelling (Spell to Write & Read, 20 words per week on average, includes one quiz on words, one quiz on phonograms, and one test on words)

- 20 minutes of writing assigned out of Writing Magic (creative writing)

- Memory work (recite a couple of poems she already knows by heart, add 1-2 lines of a new poem)

- 30 minutes of religion work (all outloud, catechism/bible reading)

 

Then, weekly, she does:

- 45 minutes of Science (one lesson)

- two days, one and a half hours of History (one chapter each sitting of SOTW 1 - mapwork, coloring, oral narration or questions)

- Map Skills two pages per week

[amyrjoy]

Math (one hour, maybe a little more): One lesson from Saxon four days a week (usually it's 2-3 pages) plus math facts sheet. The other day, usually catch up or a variety of iPad apps for facts and other skills

 

Reading (she's a fast reader, maybe 45 minutes): We read two books for history, etc as part of the program we use (Paths of Settlement) and then she reads the literature selection (which is in conjuction with a guide or other activities)

 

Grammar (30 minutes): a page, or app, or computer game, several days a week (we're light on this subject this year)

 

Writing (30 minutes, each day): IEW assignment as well as one or two a week from Paths of Settlement

 

Science (30-45 minutes several days a week): hands on activity, discussion, workbook page

 

History/State Study/Social Studies (every day, 30-45 minutes a day): can include reading, discussion, workbook page or pages, and also vocabulary

 

Spelling (15 minutes, 3 times a week): reviewing words, writing them down, perhaps some sentences

 

Copywork/handwriting (10 minutes, daily): a paragraph to several paragraphs, just depends on assignment

 

Bible (15 minutes, several days a week): we read through an Apologia book, kinda making up our own lesson plans, usually there's a worksheet, words, and verses to go over

 

Art (30 minutes, a couple days a week): right now, it's mainly use of watercolors, as assigned in Paths of Settlement. We have done a pottery painting activity somewhere and I'm signing her up for an hour weekly class for the remainder of the year. She draws on her own, too, during free time.

 

Eta: Most days, it takes us 5 hours, probably because I'm teaching my DS, too. Somedays, we whip through things, for some reason, and can be done in a few hours. HTH.

[Holly]

Math--MUS, 2 wb pages or video and 1 page, we can usually finish a lesson a week...I think there are 30 lessons total --this takes 10-45 minutes depending on how cooperative she is being!

Reading--she reads a McGuffey lesson outloud (from the 4th reader), plus a chapter of independent reading, 5 minutes read aloud, independent reading varies

Copywork--currently using Draw and Write Through History, 10-15 minutes including drawing time

Writing--journal entry 3x week, 5-10 minutes

Dictation (spelling) 2x week, 5-10 minutes

Typing 2x week, 15 minutes

Grammar is pretty informal and done once a week, I plan on using a "crash course" type program in a year or two...and once again in high school.

--I have her independent subjects set up so she completes 4 subjects each day.

 

With my other DC:

Literature--varies, we read between 1-4 chapters a day of our lit book depending on the day

Science--20 minutes a day

History--20-30 minutes a day (geography 1x/week)

Bible--short devotion and Bible memory, 10-15 minutes total

Art, picture study, nature study, handicrafts, music, poetry, etc.--as we can fit in; I try to cover one of these "extras" each day, but it doesn't always happen

 

I think we generally spend 2-3 hours in the morning and a couple more in the afternoon. We spend the rest of the day on chores, outside activities, or on various projects. We spend a considerable portion of our school day on read alouds with narration/discussion. We generally cover Bible, history, literature, and fine arts in the morning. Break for lunch (possibly with our chapter book). Then finish with 3Rs and science in the afternoon. Larger projects (from any subject) are saved for afternoon or evening. We may also read another chapter of our book in the afternoon or evening. Art and handicrafts are usually done in the evenings or on weekends, so we can take our time.

[mamatohaleybug]

I can't really answer your question because our schooling isn't laid out like that.

 

Four days a week we school for 6 hours a day. In that time my DD journals, reads and writes a report on a science book, practices hymns/scriptures/Greek&Latin roots, does spelling and grammar, reads aloud to me, reads silently for 30 minutes, does math (30-45 minutes or longer), studies artists and composers, listens to poetry, listens to literature (one hour), listens to history lessons, does geography and more science, etc. We sometimes do art and practice music if we have time.

 

On our fifth day she works relatively independently for about 4-5 hours while I am volunteering and then travels (30 miles each way) to ballet for a private lesson (we consider that part of her education). Her work is slightly different that day and includes reading silently for at least an hour (both my choice and hers), reading a historical biography and writing a report, 1-2 handwriting pages, math, crafts, literature (audio book), etc.

 

My goal with her is to diligently work for 30 hours a week. Some weeks/days we fly through lessons and some days we plod. LOL We also read literature and scripture as a family every night.

 

Hope this is somewhat helpful.

[Kfamily]

This is what my dd did today:

 

2 exercises in math (Singapore)

worked on her Beowulf retelling from Imitations in Writing Medieval Legends

Read one chapter from one of four books she rotates in a week for independent reading (Today she read from Otto and the Silver Hand.)

listened to French audio for review, completed 10 questions in French and then answered those questions in French + a puzzle of number words in French

listened to one chapter in CHOW and orally narrated the chapter to me

completed a menu for a narration tied to The Little White Horse reading

read one chapter in RS4K Astronomy and drew a picture of two different types of telescopes and labeled them

 

 

This doesn't include the free reading she does daily and the piano practice she still has left to do today.

 

 

I don't think we are hitting the right amount of time....I think she did all of this in about 3hrs and 40 min. (approximately)

 

She does seem to get grumpier and has less attention to detail as the day wears on. We school before lunch, take a break and then finish after lunch. She also seems to droop as we get towards the end of these two sections of school time. We usually finish in 3.5 to 4.0 hours every day for her. I'm not sure if this is enough....but I'm also aware that she is a very compliant and hard-working student who only complains when she truly feels done. She really moves quickly through math some days. I had her do two exercises today, as I often do when she flies through one lesson, and even then it only took her about 20 minutes to complete her math. I can see that this may be one area I need to bump up for her. I've been meaning to do this anyway.

 

 

What do you think?

[Mrs Twain]

This is what my dd did today:

 

2 exercises in math (Singapore)

worked on her Beowulf retelling from Imitations in Writing Medieval Legends

Read one chapter from one of four books she rotates in a week for independent reading (Today she read from Otto and the Silver Hand.)

listened to French audio for review, completed 10 questions in French and then answered those questions in French + a puzzle of number words in French

listened to one chapter in CHOW and orally narrated the chapter to me

completed a menu for a narration tied to The Little White Horse reading

read one chapter in RS4K Astronomy and drew a picture of two different types of telescopes and labeled them

 

 

This doesn't include the free reading she does daily and the piano practice she still has left to do today.

 

 

I don't think we are hitting the right amount of time....I think she did all of this in about 3hrs and 40 min. (approximately)

 

She does seem to get grumpier and has less attention to detail as the day wears on. We school before lunch, take a break and then finish after lunch. She also seems to droop as we get towards the end of these two sections of school time. We usually finish in 3.5 to 4.0 hours every day for her. I'm not sure if this is enough....but I'm also aware that she is a very compliant and hard-working student who only complains when she truly feels done. She really moves quickly through math some days. I had her do two exercises today, as I often do when she flies through one lesson, and even then it only took her about 20 minutes to complete her math. I can see that this may be one area I need to bump up for her. I've been meaning to do this anyway.

 

 

What do you think?

 

 

Rather than complete a certain amount of time, I try to make goals for each subject each year.

Then I buy or plan my curricula to meet the goals for each subject.

Then I determine how much work per day or week we need to do to get that amount of work done within the school year, and I plan my daily/weekly schedules accordingly.

 

I have the kids do their most difficult work in the first two sections of the day, and do the lighter subjects at the end.

My fourth grader does 4.5 hours per day of work time, though we spread it out over a 6.5 hour period.

 

If you think your child is getting done too quickly, maybe you need to increase the difficulty in certain subjects.

[Mommy22alyns]

Rebecca does:

One lesson of math (CLE, about 4 pages)

One lesson of reading (CLE, this only has 5 LU so she'll finish it soon)

One lesson of grammar - not 100% of it; I assign varying amounts daily (R&S)

One spelling lesson, about 15 words

One day of WWE 4

One day of handwriting

1-2 pages in MCP Phonics E

One logic page

 

We also do MFW ECC - she'll have a Bible reading, work on a memory verse, make a science page after some reading, make a flag page or John 3:16 sheet for a new country, and listen to a read aloud.

 

She does LFC B, I break down one chapter per a 5 day week - she'll watch chants, make flashcards, and/or do some workbook/activity pages.

 

We school from 9-3 due to her gymnastics schedule. I aim for all morning work and ECC and lunch to be done by 2 so she can spend 30-40 minutes on Latin.

 

Crafts, one day per week, one project. Vocab sheets, 2 per week, Fridays only. She does small research packets, one or two pages per week. Art is on Fridays (usually), one project. Book basket, free reading on current countries and science topics, daily for about 20 minutes. We also do challenging math one day a week.

 

I think that's it....

[stm4him]

This is what I plan for my daughter to complete daily next year but I have no idea how long each thing will take her yet. I could give my time estimates but I'm sure it will vary greatly per kiddo (even in my own home).

 

Math- 1 Saxon Lesson per day (Saxon 5/4), xtramath, and Tables/Squares/Cubes (total of 15 min of drill)

 

Logic- 1 page Building Thinking Skills 2

 

Greek- 1 page Hey Andrew 4 and flashcards

 

Latin- 1 page Latin's Not So Tough 4 and flashcards and 1 Latin chart per week

 

Memory Work- current week of CC together on apple TV, catechism and poetry by herself, once a week written test

 

Enrichment: 45 minutes together going over information about our memory work, assigned notebooking pages to correspond (rotating subjects, see below)

 

Spelling: Testing and/or Dictation with me (5 sentences per day), work on trouble words from weekly list, review rule cards and phonograms

 

Grammar: 30 minutes together at the whiteboard on various rotating topics, 30 minutes go over Essentials Task Sheet

 

Writing: 2 pages in copywork book (1 page is usually drawing related), IEW assignment or write presentation for CC

 

Reading: read McGuffy lesson to Mom, take McCall-Crabbs Test (Book C, takes 3 minutes) and fill out passage analysis chart, 30 minutes reading from literature list or writing guided narration, 30 minutes book basket on enrichment subject(s) of the day

 

Enrichment:

 

Wednesday- History, 1 Timeline Card, 1-2 Science Experiments or Project/Model (read history)

Thursday- 2 Timeline Cards, 1-2 Science Cards (read science)

Friday- 2 Timeline Cards, Geography (read miscellaneous)

Saturday- 2 Timeline Cards, Nature Study (read nature)

Monday- Fine Arts and Bible (read fine arts and Bible)

[Tidbits of Learning]

It honestly depends on the day of the week for us.

My 4th grader does-

Math, Literature, and Language Skills daily. Language skills rotates GUM grammar, composition, and vocabulary. They are each 1 lesson a day and 1 hour per subject. Art is 2x a week and music is 2x a week. Science is 2-3 x a week with labs here and there. History is 3 x a week. Spelling is daily.