Evening and weekend schoolwork

[daijobu]

Do your middle school students do school work in the evenings or on weekends?

 

We have only had minimal work with my 6th grader outside of 8am-2pm Monday-Friday to date, but I need to find more time. Or maybe just use the morning time more efficiently. Or start waking them up earlier.

[tammieb]

We do --- every weekend!

 

We don't do evening "homework" (extra work) as we have extensive extra-curricular obligations. We usually do the equivalent of a full day of independent work on Saturday and any unfinished work or extra study on Sunday afternoons.

 

They don't seem to mind, and I've found it helps keep their "brain function" running more smoothly! Especially with Life Science (pre-biology) and Pre-Algebra :blush:

 

Hope that helps!

 

Happy Homeschooling!!

[FriedClams]

No. We don't work on weekends or nights unless the kids didn't get their work done. By that I mean - they had a reasonable amount of work, and they either dawdled or had to redo somthing. This has happened maybe twice this school year, and its been an hour or so of work.

 

My 6th grader works from about 8:30 to 2 and gets done what I expect of him. Have you looked at your workload to see if its reasoanable? Meeting your goals? Not redundant?

 

While I'd like to do EVERYTHING in every subject, with every cool add on daily - I can't do it all at once. So every year we work on doing one or two of the "everything"s that I'd like to do, and when we have a free afternoon or the kids are bored we do some small extra projects. I guess I look at it as adding in richness and creating a culture of learning a t home more than hard scheduling everything.

[burfhe]

I've started my boys on about 15 mins of schoolwork, about 3 nights per week - just a review of the Maths they've done during the week. I will slowly increase that time over the next few years and also get them to do some other subjects too. This is not because we need more time during the day, but because I want to prepare them for college or uni where they will have to do assignments and study in the evenings after a long day regardless of whether they're tired or not.

[lewelma]

This is what he does in the evenings and weekends:

 

45 min history read-alouds with dad

30 min violin practice

6 hours of classes: 1 hour mandarin, 3 hours music lessons, and 2 hours PE

2 hours math, *with* him on the weekend - we are working on math olympiad problems at the cafe

1 hour lit reading every night before bed

1 documentary almost every evening

 

So yes, we do quite a bit in evenings and on weekends, but none of it is independent work, so it does not seem like work to him.

 

Ruth in NZ

 

ETA: I should have stated that we finish by 1pm every day, and play from 1 to 6. So I consider our schedule as having 2 time slots - morning and night (with a few classes on the weekend.)

[tammieb]

I've started my boys on about 15 mins of schoolwork, about 3 nights per week - just a review of the Maths they've done during the week. I will slowly increase that time over the next few years and also get them to do some other subjects too. This is not because we need more time during the day, but because I want to prepare them for college or uni where they will have to do assignments and study in the evenings after a long day regardless of whether they're tired or not.

 

 

 

:iagree:

 

Good Point!!

 

So many times as homeschoolers, we're able to get everything finished without needing homework. We (or I) often forget about the intense CULTURE SHOCK that will await them when they enter college if they've never been required to do homework! I've always been pretty tough on outside projects and deadlines, but not so much on actual homework. Thanks for the reminder!

 

Happy Homeschooling :)

[regentrude]

No, I do not require any schoolwork on weekends and evenings at that age. (My 11th grader who is taking outside classes is often using the weekends to work; she is in charge of her schedule).

At this age, I require five hours of school work per day, starting at 8am. When my 6th grader attended a rigorous college prep school in my home country, she had six 45 minute periods per day.

We use weekends for enrichment activities: nature hikes, field trips, concerts, theatre, reading, audiobooks.

[regentrude]

So many times as homeschoolers, we're able to get everything finished without needing homework. We (or I) often forget about the intense CULTURE SHOCK that will await them when they enter college if they've never been required to do homework!

 

It does not have to be a shock. In middle school, we school very relaxed, with short school days, without deadlines. Transitioning to dual enrollment classes at the university in 9th grade was no problem for my DD. IMO, it is sufficient to ramp up the pressure in high school. She learned fantastic time management by taking college classes that required it; I did not have to mimic that in our home school.

[2_girls_mommy]

Yes, mine is a dawdler quite often. She often must finish something at night or on the weekends and she doesn't mind. She is just a slow girl and she doesn't feel the need to hurry with anything. Today both of my kids worked all afternoon on a couple of scout projects, so that is homework, but not from me. I guess they would have that even if we were in school somewhere else. It seems pretty normal to me to be working on reading or projects for school or extra curriculars on the weekend a bit by this age.

 

And I know many of their friends have homework in the afternoons, so I don't mind. After school sometimes the neighborhood kids come to play. When they go home for homework, mine comes in to finish hers too. It also helps her to stop and move on when she is staring into space during the day. When she gets in that staring at the wall phase, there is no coming out of it to finish what she is on. Putting it up, moving on to something else, and then picking it back up later often does the trick here.

[lewelma]

 

It does not have to be a shock. In middle school, we school very relaxed, with short school days, without deadlines. Transitioning to dual enrollment classes at the university in 9th grade was no problem for my DD. IMO, it is sufficient to ramp up the pressure in high school. She learned fantastic time management by taking college classes that required it; I did not have to mimic that in our home school.

 

This is very interesting to me. I have followed a similar approach of relaxed, short, deadline-free school days, and I was beginning to wonder if I was doing my DS a disservice. It is nice to hear that at least for your DD there were no negative consequences.

[Arcadia]

This is very interesting to me. I have followed a similar approach of relaxed, short, deadline-free school days, and I was beginning to wonder if I was doing my DS a disservice.

 

I won't call preparing for the math olympiad, ABRSM or chinese tuition deadline-free. Maybe not hard and fast formal deadlines but still deadlines :)