How many hours at a time (seatwork, 4th grader)?

[madteaparty]

This is our first semester homeschooling, and compared to the signatures here, I feel like I am doing HS-light :) I am okay with that for this semester.

I've learned that we get our most productive window 8am-noon or thereabouts. The subjects I am teaching him are  Math, English, History and a foreign language. Chemistry, tennis, and FLL are outsourced, and that is the extent of it.

how long is your "seat work", or was, at that age?  did you do it in one fell swoop, or did you do an afternoon session? we have to teach everything everyday when I am home because I work 2 days a week. Many thanks!

[Clear Creek]

My 4th grader does it in one long session between 8-12...she does get a 15 minute break mid-morning, but other than that she works until she is done.  She works quickly (as in she doesn't let herself get distracted), so she is often done by 11.  My 6th grader took longer than that in 4th grade (with less work); she usually had another 30-60 minutes after lunch because she has a tendency to get distracted by every single little thing around her.

[MinivanMom]

My 4th grader does all her work (except reading) in one fell swoop between 8 and 11 am (no breaks).  That includes Singapore Math, MCT Grammar, writing, French Prep, literature, and history/science (on alternating days).  Usually it takes her about 3 hrs to get everything done.  She also has a 2 hr silent reading time from 1-3 pm in the afternoon, but she reads much more than that in her free time.

[madteaparty]

Thank you both. You've reinforced my intuition of insisting on 8-12 as the school time.

[sbgrace]

I have two fourth graders. We do breaks. We start with math, break, then do language arts subjects. In the afternoon we do the things that are less seat work (science, history, etc.) oriented. I must get those morning subjects done. The others are ok to skip a day if it turns out that way. One of mine has major attention issues. Maybe if I had two of his brother's type of learner, we would work straight through to lunch and get all of it done. I don't know! I know where I want my sons to get. With one child, that means we basically complete a lesson in each subject (math, spelling, grammar, etc.) daily. I usually vary only if he needs extra practice to master something. However long it takes, it takes. The other child I complete what I can in a lesson for as long as he's attentive/engaged enough to be learning. The time he spends on seat work varies too--but based on him more than the lesson itself.

[Farrar]

We headed into fourth grade at the end of the month.  I think we'll still be doing about 7:30-12:00 with breaks as our core seatwork time.  I tend to mix that up a bit between reading aloud, reading independently, writing, math, etc. so that the type of focus changes.  And they tend to eat a snack in there and go jump on their trampoline for a minute in between absolutely every. single. thing.  We go longer for days when we're home and can - we'll do a history or writing project, watch a documentary, etc.

[sarawatsonim]

We just started 4th and go from about 9ish-1:30, that is with a break in there and lunch.......she is also a slow poke. If I can actually get us started right at 9, than it would be more of 9-12 with some quiet reading time in the afternoon. 

[umsami]

I want to say we do about 2 to 3 hours of actual seat work in the a.m.  Then maybe 1/2 to an hour in the afternoon.

 

I'm not counting reading time, because it's tough to get DS to stop reading.  There is no delineation between pleasure and school reading for him.

 

Usually what we do is start with math.... then we do something physical like a workout tape, walk, biking.... then we go back and do either English (grammar/spelling) or History.  Depending on how his mood is we might do some foreign language or science or not.  Afternoons are very casual and involve a little language and art.  Once or twice per week, we throw in a science experiment or field trip or what not.  DS likes to read science books for pleasure, we're not doing a lot of formal science.  Just working through the Galore Park Jr. Science book slowly, along with the various science blocks of Oak Meadow and some fun labs.

[pollo_la]

1 - 1.5 hours for math. 15-20 minutes for writing. 10 minutes or so of typing on the computer. Reading is done on the couch (only about 1/2 hour - and hour of assigned reading).

[fairfarmhand]

Fourth grade....four hours not counting free reading and day to day work.

 

My 6th grader is often done in less time though.

[briansmama]

My 4th grader works from 9-12, with 1/2 hour later if needed in the afternoon.

[Camelfeet]

When mine was in 4th we were with k12 so it was a rushed 9-3 day.

 

Now we usually do 9:00-2/3pm for everything including lunch breaks and music practice.  

[boscopup]

We work straight through from 8-11ish (sometimes 11:30 or even 12), then break for lunch, then finish up anything that's not done yet. If we worked from 8-12, we'd probably get most done in that time.

 

I found that breaks tend to cause my son to get too distracted. He does better if he works straight through. The key is to change up what we're doing. For example, if he's been working on writing for 30 minutes, the next thing he might do would be reading. Reading is a "break" from writing. ;)

 

I also school my 1st grader straight through without breaks, because once he starts playing, there is no getting him back. :tongue_smilie: Again, I alternate subjects that involve writing and reading. Each subject is only 15-20 minutes, so it's not like he's sitting at a desk doing one thing for an hour.

[2_girls_mommy]

I have a majorly distractible 4th grader.  She works from 10-noon or so w/me in the morning and that is her intense work.  It is her hardest subjects that I try to get finished w/her in that time frame (L.A stuff mostly, begin math if we can.) But she can zip through her math lesson any time of the day on her own and often does it in the evenings or in between afternoon activities out of the house, and the days we are home we spend a couple of hours in the afternoons together on literature, science, history, geography, etc.  So in general 3-4 hrs a day, with a couple of longer days a week.

[Mommyfaithe]

I have a rule of thumb. 1/2 hour plus 15 minutes per grade level....so, my 4 th grader is scheduled for 2.1/2 hours of table time work. That does not include our read aloud or family school time. It does take this guy a God Awful time to do ANYTHING. He is the most resistant booger I have EVER had to contend with!! This year he is in y baby boot camp. He is learning MOM is queen boss!!! 👸 And he better do what is required. He is not taking kindly to it at all! 😡

[Chrysalis Academy]

Mine did about 3 hours in the morning and another hour after lunch - not counting reading time.  She did math first thing and definitely needed a break after that.  Then she could do another couple hours before lunch.

 

I can't say it was "seatwork" though,  ;) At this age, she had a tremendous amount of energy and a really hard time sitting still all morning - she could do it for the math hour, but after that she needed to move.  Since we were doing a lot of the rest of our stuff orally at that point, she would often scoot up and down the walk, hula hoop, or bounce on the yoga ball while we did English, history, etc.  It worked out fine.  She can sit in a sustained way for 5-6 hours a day now.

[PeacefulChaos]

This is our first semester homeschooling, and compared to the signatures here, I feel like I am doing HS-light :) I am okay with that for this semester.

I've learned that we get our most productive window 8am-noon or thereabouts. The subjects I am teaching him are  Math, English, History and a foreign language. Chemistry, tennis, and FLL are outsourced, and that is the extent of it.

how long is your "seat work", or was, at that age?  did you do it in one fell swoop, or did you do an afternoon session? we have to teach everything everyday when I am home because I work 2 days a week. Many thanks!

 

We start later - around 9-10 - but we are done by lunch. 

Link does Latin (which probably takes the longest for him), math, spelling, handwriting, grammar, and geography daily.  Plus his assigned reading time, which is 30 minutes - sometimes before lunch, sometimes after.  After lunch we do our read aloud and then they're done. 

We do that 4 days a week.  On Friday we do science, history, anything they need to catch up on from the week, and one or the other does art.  That takes about the same amount of time.

[Meriwether]

Ds spends at least 6 hrs./day doing school. He is a slow worker. We also have a lot of daily work that not everyone has (all common things but things outside of core subjects) or that they would count as life rather than school - Bible, piano practice, TKD practice, both Latin and Spanish. I read aloud for 1/2 - 1 hour. He reads for an hour. We've been doing both drawing and art projects each week, and he has memorized a full page of information each week. Math, English, spelling, and reading take less than three hours. All the other stuff adds up, though.

[Tonia]

We're late starters as well... dd does a few morning drill things (typing, math drill, recitation, devotions) and we have 2 hours of "school with mom" time 10-12 where we cover all the subjects that I teach (math, grammar, Latin, French, etc). Then it's a break for lunch, read aloud time, then quiet reading time followed by "study hall" all the assignments and work that dd does independently. Takes an hour or two depending on dawdling. I like having this last because if she's slow and pokey about it she's only wasting her own time. No nagging from me to get moving.

[Chelli]

1 1/2 hours, an hour break (while I school my first grader), 1 1/2 hours again., and then she does her independent work which takes about 30 minutes or so.