bttrflyvld Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 I've finally figured out our Kindergarten year plans and calculate that it will take about 3 hours. That seems long to me. Maybe I need to cut back on something. How long do your days last? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegirlwhopaintedtrees Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 My 4 year old's doing kindergarten level work this year and he can't handle more than 1 hour max so we focus on reading lessons, learning to write his letters and doing some sort of math activity. i am not include the hours I read aloud to him. My dd at 5 was working about 3 hours per day willingly and happily, but it was more like 2nd grade work. I think it would depend on what those 3 hours comprised of and on the child involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carriede Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 We're doing a K4 year too. Our whole "school time" takes up 1.5-2 hours. In that time, we do calendar/weather, 1-2 learning songs, read alouds (2-3 picture books), and seat work which is Singapoe Math Essentials K, Rod and Staff prek workbook pages, and 10-15 minutes of Phonics Pathways. I let him set the pace for the workbooks. Sometimes we'll do something crafty, but that's extra besides the 1.5-2 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbecueMom Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 Phonics, geography, and handwriting take about 15 minutes each. Math (Singapore 1A) can take anywhere from 30-60 minutes, depending on if we're playing games. That's 1.5ish hours of "seat work", but he always gets art supplies (or more handwriting paper) out afterward. And there's usually a short break and a 3yo needing to potty in there. I'd say we're in the school room from 8:00-10:30am at least. DS reads to himself or aloud to me in the morning before breakfast. We read prehistory/science stuff at breakfast, and do other read alouds in the afternoon. He's trying to learn Spanish (his idea, fortunately I'm not too rusty), but that's nothing we use a curriculum for and goes on all day. If I were to add all of that together, it's about 4 hours, but most of it doesn't look like school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bttrflyvld Posted August 5, 2013 Author Share Posted August 5, 2013 I should add that time includes read aloud time I've set aside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewingmama Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 3 hours is what we do....but my DS is doing first grade work so he is working with his sister. It depends on the child really. My DS could quite happily go all day but my DD couldnt go more then 20 minutes at a time. I think 3 hours is fine if your child manages it easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abba12 Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 I think there is a big difference between seatwork time and the total school time. 3 hours of seatwork is far too much, I think, for that age. But if that includes read alouds, art, science, etc, it seems quite reasonable to me. I would think an hour or so of seatwork to be quite appropriate, plus an hour of reading, and a hour of hands on/games/art etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeartatHome Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 I think it depends on the child but personally I think that seems long. However, I have a super wiggly girl so 20 minutes tops with actual seat work. We take about 1 hour to 1.5 hours a day and most of that time is crafts or some sort of fun activity or game. You know your child the best though and It's only kindergarten so you can easily scale back if you find it's too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NASDAQ Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 More like 90 minutes, though we go 6 days/wk year round. I don't really do anything besides math and phonics until they're through the Lippincott 1-2. He's sitting in with his sister for art and science on a trial basis though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strange_girl Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 For K...maybe an hour? We do 1 page of The Reading Lesson, 1 Lesson Math (BJU K5), and HOD Little Hands to Heaven. This week we're adding in A Reason For Handwriting K. All of that put together takes no more than an hour. Art and reading aloud do not count as school around here :). It's more like an ongoing thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GPMommy Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 I guess I'm in the minority, but we do 3-4 hours a day. Our day includes calendar time, songs, reading, language arts, math, handwriting, geography, science, Spanish, bible, art, unit studies, and PE. Some are daily activities, some are twice a week, a couple are only once a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 I think there is a big difference between seatwork time and the total school time. 3 hours of seatwork is far too much, I think, for that age. But if that includes read alouds, art, science, etc, it seems quite reasonable to me. I would think an hour or so of seatwork to be quite appropriate, plus an hour of reading, and a hour of hands on/games/art etc This. If you're including everything in that three hours, including snuggly read-aloud time, hands-on art, active science experiments, etc, then it sounds great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeking Squirrels Posted August 5, 2013 Share Posted August 5, 2013 My schedule has us going about 2.5 hours a day. We've done some through the summer so I'm basing this on how long these things are taking us now. We just don't do all of it each day right now. Calendar - 5 minutes Phonics/reading - 15 minutes Handwriting and DEL - 15 minutes Math - 30 minutes Read alouds - 30 minutes Critical thinking - 10 minutes Once a week subject - 30 minutes (science, art, geography, languages) "Star bins" - 15 minutes (independent activities like dot to dots, mazes, puzzles....) She decides the order. I'm hoping this will work out okay. I've been worried it's too much but I don't know where to cut back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Last, year my K'er did about 30 minutes of seat work (phonics, handwriting, math) and 30 minutes of read-aloud time (me reading to him), which didn't include the novels I read to the whole family, or Bible reading (probably another hour all together). Even in 1st grade, he still only has an hour of work between phonics/reading, handwriting, math, grammar, and composition. Then I read a little bit to him for tag-along history. Our focus is learning to read. Our reading time is longer this year, now that he can handle it. He couldn't handle more than 10 minutes last year. Handwriting was about 5 minutes last year, and we spent about 15 minutes doing 1st grade math last year. This year, the math is about the same, handwriting is about the same, and phonics/reading gets more time since he can read some books to me now. Grammar is about 5 minutes (FLL1 is very simple), and Writing (WWE1) is maybe 10-15 minutes. I like to do roughly an hour per grade level. So my 4th grader has about 4 hours of work, and my 1st grader has an hour of work. K is 30 minutes of seat work. That has worked well for my kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftyerin Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 My Kers also have about 30 min of seatwork, plus 30 min of FIAR. We do some other reading aloud later in the day, and we do bible memory, etc at breakfast, but I don't add up all those little bits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 It really depends on the student.. My dd did 2.5 -3 hrs, my ds did more like 2 hrs. We ramp up to about 3 hrs for 1st and 2nd grade, and this year 3rd is taking about 4 hrs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 Probably about 2.5 - 3 hours for Junior Kindergarten here. Phonics Math Lit activities Religion Music Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 30-45 min of seatwork This is my 3rd kindergartner. All of my kids have been doing 1st grade work (or higher) when they were in K, but we have never spent more than 30-45 min on seatwork. I can teach at a higher level without spending more time on seatwork than is age-appropriate (for my children). This leaves us plenty of time for snuggly read alouds, art, and play. My kindergartners spend a lot of time in imaginative play. Even if I count reading aloud and art as part of our "school", we still spend less than 2 hours per day on homeschooling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 I think that's normal. My Kinder sat down for about 10-20 minutes tops, maybe twice a day. I didn't count hours because K stuff was happening all.the.time!!! Read alouds, science activities, arts and crafts, and so on.....everything is a teachable moment for pre-K. So my vague answer is all day! My more exact answer....2 hours? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lea_lpz Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 About 2 hours but only about 30-45 minutes on actual seat work. The rest was read alouds, Bible, hands on projects, and Spanish (alsoore hands on). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lea_lpz Posted August 8, 2013 Share Posted August 8, 2013 About 2 hours but only about 30-45 minutes on actual seat work. The rest was read alouds, Bible, hands on projects,crafts, nature walks , Spanish (alsoore hands on), etc. Not all in one day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hmrees Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 This is really helpful for me - my oldest is a rising kindergartner (he's 5) and we hadn't planned to homeschool until about a month ago so I'm still trying to figure out how this is going to look. I also have a 3 year old and a 1 year old at home. We've been doing about 30 minutes a day of reading (mostly me reading to him but working in more him reading to me) but I'm tentatively planning to do about an hour in the morning when I have someone here to help with the littles and an hour in the afternoon when the littles take their naps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Depends on what you count. We spend about 45 min. on phonograms/reading and handwriting. She gets folded into family things throughout the day, read alouds, memory work, circle time, scripture reading, preschool activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanikit Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 My DD is doing 1st and 2nd grade work in K and she does about 30-45min a day of seatwork (spelling, writing and math mostly), but actual school goes on a lot longer than that with read alouds, experiments, chatting, her reading to me and so on. Seatwork for my DD is actually never more than about 15 min at one time. I took a video recently of a math lesson we had - she was doing 2nd grade Math but was almost lying across the table and kicking and wriggling the entire time - she still got it done. I only fight her to sit properly when it involves a handwriting lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeaganS Posted August 15, 2013 Share Posted August 15, 2013 We spend about an hour and a half plus 30 minutes for read alouds. That includes calendar, memorization, math, reading, handwriting, spelling, and map. We also do family scripture study and daddy reads to them every day, but all our children participate in that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlemommy Posted August 19, 2013 Share Posted August 19, 2013 We do circle time (bible, read aloud, and memory work) for half hour, math for 15 minutes, phonics for 15 minutes, handwriting for 10 minutes, reading to mom for 20 minutes, tea time (poetry and read aloud) for half hour, science/history reading for half hour, and experiment/art/history project (these are each once per week) for half hour. So three hours total, but only 40 minutes of seat work. Also, our 'school day' starts at 8:30 and ends at 4, so there are plenty of breaks, snacks, play and rest times in between. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lea_lpz Posted August 19, 2013 Share Posted August 19, 2013 This is really helpful for me - my oldest is a rising kindergartner (he's 5) and we hadn't planned to homeschool until about a month ago so I'm still trying to figure out how this is going to look. I also have a 3 year old and a 1 year old at home. We've been doing about 30 minutes a day of reading (mostly me reading to him but working in more him reading to me) but I'm tentatively planning to do about an hour in the morning when I have someone here to help with the littles and an hour in the afternoon when the littles take their naps. I think that sounds good. An hour one on one is plenty. The other stuff you could probably include your 3 year old in. We did k last year and my ds did all the hands on stuff and read alouds with us. We also did not plan to homeschool. Good luck and hope all goes well :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyofsixreboot Posted August 19, 2013 Share Posted August 19, 2013 Probably 1.5 to 2 hrs, some of which is science and history with bigger sibs. That doesn't count all the random stuff like singing educational songs, discussions in the car, pointing out stuff on walks. You know...life stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrale Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 I would do 3 hours total school time. Full of lots of play. But limit seat work to 2-3 15 minute segments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleepymom Posted September 23, 2013 Share Posted September 23, 2013 Actual work? Maybe 30-45 minutes. That includes one Singapore math lesson, one OPG reading lesson, two ETC pages, and two HWOT pages. The rest of the stuff gets worked into our day as "fun," like art (painting, drawing, etc,), reading comprehension (I read to her), science (mostly BrainPop Jr videos), history (CC), and geography (chats in the car about our community). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted September 23, 2013 Share Posted September 23, 2013 about a year... :lol:wait, you meant per day...I spent about 1 hour of "school time" if they dawdled but lots of extra stuff could have counted as school if I wanted it to. After school time they had centers to do activities in, arts/crafts, music etc. All things that could count in a kindy school day.What we actually did was math, phonics, printing, with ds10 I used before five in a row for him, with dd6 I used sonlight P3/4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHaveNoIdeawhatIAmDoing Posted October 4, 2013 Share Posted October 4, 2013 We take 2 hours in the morning for reading, writing, and math (although that includes a few small breaks and much stopping to cater to my 2 year-old), a half-hour read aloud time after lunch, and we do Adventures in America in the afternoon and complete any unfinished work from the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 It was an hour with my olders and maybe not even that much with little ds--"enough" is when he complains that his lessons are too short and mean mommy won't let him do more school and when he talks about what he's been studying and spontaneously applies it to his real life. I'm not counting reading aloud, chores, games, or anything that wouldn't get you flamed off an unschooling board in that. I read to my kindy kids for three or more hours a day sometimes and flake off on the housework for all day "field trips". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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