How many hours . . .

[scrapbookbuzz]

. . . per day do you think a College Prep schedule should take?

 

I need to revise our schedule. And I'm looking at having dd do a different curriculum as of January. 

The one I'm looking at suggests that the high school student should be working on the school work 6-7 hours per day.

Does this sound right to you?

 

thanks.

[Jenny in Florida]

As with everything, this is going to depend hugely on:

 

1. your student.

2. what you consider "college prep."

 

So, a capable-but-not-brilliant student who is carrying a full load of rigorous classes intended to qualify him or her for admission to a highly selective college (including multiple honors and AP classes, three or more years of foreign language, etc.) could easily spend eight or more hours a day on schoolwork. That would be roughly an hour a day as a baseline for each subject, plus some time for reading and "homework" and such. If the student is taking multiple outside classes, through dual enrollment or even online classes with expectations for specific time committments, that contributes to a lengthier day, too.

 

But a bright student who is motivated to scoot through schoolwork efficiently and who is doing a respectable but not especially demanding workload and is aiming at a good state university or a batch of colleges that accept 50% or more of their applicants might regularly finish school in half that time.

 

My son, for example, is definitely college bound and is, in fact, somewhat accelerated academically. His typical courseload includes one or two honors classes a year, and he's covering all of the bases for college admission requirements. But he's planning on applying to liberal/performing arts programs at non-Ivy League colleges. So, he isn't worrying about a ton of advanced math and science, and he'll have just two years of foreign language and no APs (although he is dual enrolling this year and may do a few CLEP exams). He keeps his grades up, but not perfect (mostly A's, a couple of B's). Last year, he often finished his schoolwork in three or four hours a day.

 

I would guess that, for most students carrying a typical college prep courseload, six - seven hours a day is a reasonable estimate.

[regentrude]

6-7 sounds right if the student is an effective worker and fast reader and these hours are actual time on task, and if the student is not taking any dual enrollment classes or time consuming AP courses.

 

One high school credit requires roughly 1 hour of work per day for a school year. A rough rule-of-thumb estimate:

So, working 5 hours per day gets in the five core credits at high school level. That gets you four years of math, science foreign language, english and history.

Adding two electives per year gets you to 7, and the student to 28 credits. Plenty.

 

In reality, some courses may take significantly more time, especially if the student takes dual enrollment classes, where he can easily spend several hours per day on the subject. Also, students who are slow readers need to plan more time.

 

I have my 9th grades start with 6 hour days. We do some electives over the summer.

But all bets are off once they add university classes; i could not even say how many hours DD is working.

 

[G5052]

Yes, about an hour a day per class.

 

For higher math, more like 1 1/2 hours.  For AP classes, we're running like that and more.

 

Every kid is different though.  Mine whip through some subjects more quickly and others take awhile.

 

 

 

 

[Jean in Wisc]

Another post that might give some ideas:

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/162666-are-we-all-crazy-how-can-a-kid-get-everything-done-in-hs-homeschool/

 

I haven't been on these boards for some time. My babies are all college and beyond. :) Jean

[Greta Lea]

I noticed that your dd is an Aspie.  At that age (14-15yo) my ds could NOT work on school for 6-7 hours. He's a strong reader and likes to think deeply about what he reads, but does struggle *greatly* with math. He's a slow, methodical worker (and reader). 

 

Last year when he was a senior, he *finally* was working about 6 hours a day on school. BUT he didn't get as much done in that 6 hours as a peer might get done because of being SO incredibly slow and methodical. (He also has some OCD type things he does that just simply adds time to his work...adding a certain amount of little marks to each number he writes when doing math, or tracing over and over AND OVER a number when doing math, or having to rub the bottom left corner of the book page a certain amount of times before just turning the page, etc...).

 

 

[Mom22ns]

I noticed that your dd is an Aspie.  At that age (14-15yo) my ds could NOT work on school for 6-7 hours. He's a strong reader and likes to think deeply about what he reads, but does struggle *greatly* with math. He's a slow, methodical worker (and reader). 

 

As a counter point to that, my ASD kiddo works slowly and the first two years of high school he spent 8-10 hours/day on school. He carries what I consider to by a typical college prep load, but it takes him longer to get through some things. He has always been quite capable of spending long times glued to anything that interests him and has gradually learned to focus even on the things that don't.

 

In case you look at my sig, this year is his lightest ever and he is spending more like 6 hours/day right now, although I do expect that to increase as the year goes on.

[Catwoman]

My feeling is that you choose the courses that your student needs for the year, and see how long it takes her to complete her lessons each day. If your dd finishes more quickly than the "recommended" number of hours, good for her! If she takes much longer than expected, then perhaps you might want to scale back a bit on her workload.

 

I guess what I'm suggesting is that suggestions and recommendations aren't carved in stone. If your dd ends up only needing 4 hours a day to do her work, I wouldn't add more subjects just because she "should" be doing more hours of schoolwork.

[Pretty in Pink]

It's my understanding that one credit is generally equivalent to 150 hours of instruction. Six credits per year @ 150 hours each, divided out over the course of a 180 day school year comes out to 5 hours per day. Of course some courses require more or less work than others, so this is just a rough estimate. Six to seven hours per day does not sound unreasonable so long as your child is able to keep up that pace.
 

I like what Catwoman said and will echo that here. ^^^

 

[scrapbookbuzz]

Thank you, all! This really helped put it into perspective for me. And helped me to put it into perspective for my daughter.

She thought I was criticizing her but I told her it's my job to train her, which includes laying out what needs to happen and letting

her know what the consequences will be if what needs to happen doesn't happen. Also now trying to figure out what else we need to fit

in if anything. Good thing we'll be schooling year 'round!

[SailorMom]

Our day is 6.5 hours plus homework/study time.

[AllSmiles]

There was a thread back on 2/8/2010 about how much work a 9th grader accomplishes in a day.  I printed out a few responses at the time, but I don't have names to go with the schedules (sorry!).  I hope they don't mind me reposting here.  I couldn't find the thread in the archives.

 

From Jenny (maybe Mad Jenny Flint)

6am - read 20 pages of Oedipus the king and briefly discussed

7am - answered three shorts questions re: parts of speech in AG reinforcement book, did one section in vocabulary book, and read DK History and Grunn History and took notes for context page for Oedipus to be done tomorrow

8am - started laundry, made his bed; hygiene and got dresses

9am - practiced guitar briefly

9:30 - rode out to a nature trail with me and sis to walk for 20 minutes

10:30 - snack, watched a Chalkdust lecture and completed half a lesson

11:30 - practiced guitar briefly

12:00 - ate lunch

12:30 - 25 minute essay for rhetoric

1:00 - read last half of biology chapter for the week

2:30 - guitar lesson (instructor comes here)

3:30 - teatime, current events, chat

4:00 - Spanish lesson and review of vocabulary and conjugation

5:00 - school day finished

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Rhondabee (she said she adapted as follows)

7:00 - Literature with Mom (Coffee, Discussions, Reading Together)

8:15 - Breakfast, Get ready for the day

9:00 - Grammar, Vocabulary, Spelling

9:30 - practice guitar

10:00 - exercise

10:30 - Math (grab a snack while watching video)

11:40 - Bible

12:00 - Lunch

12:30 - Biology

1:30 - Logic, Memory

2:00 - Latin (class on Tuesday)

3:15 - Read Aloud

4:00 - History

4:45 - Writing

5:30 - school finished / dinner

 

----------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not sure who posted this one, but it was for her dd

5:30 - rise and shine

6:15 - 6:45 - Geometry homework

6:45 - 7:25 - Omnibus III Primary Homework

7:30 - 9:00 - Composition Class

9:30 - 12:30 - Geometry Class and French II at public school

Lunch break / relax

2:00 - 3:30 Piano Lessons (includes walking time)

3:30 - 4:15 - Omnibus III Secondary Reading

4:30 - 6:00 Omnibus III Secondary Class

6:25 - 8:00 - Swim Practice

8:15 - Dinner and collapse

 

 

Sometimes, I think it is helpful to see an actual day.

[Catwoman]

The single biggest thing that stood out to me in the schedules posted above was that those families sure do get up and moving EARLY in the morning. :D

[ThisIsTheDay]

180 hours per credit is what public schools use.  We work much more effectively at home.  My kid rarely--as in hardly ever--worked 7 or 8 hours a day throughout high school and did just fine on her college testing.  She just moved into her dorm and begins her freshman classes next week. She was accepted into the honors program at a great school.

 

I know everyone's experience will vary, but I wanted to add our shorter days to this thread.  I know there are others out there, and I don't want them freaking out if they read these posts, thinking they are not doing enough.

 :)