Tell me about your 8 year old boy.....

[jkl]

Our daily routine is due for an overhaul after the new baby comes. I'm trying to list my daily/weekly priorities for my ds8 now so that, when I'm playing around with our routine in a state of extreme sleep deprivation, this part will already be done for me :) So, I'd love to hear about your 8 year old son's week. How much time outside daily? (This is a big one for me because my son has tons of energy. Right now, he's outside for a total of 2 hours daily--more on the weekends--year round, but it doesn't seem like enough for him. He does soccer for half the year, and I wish we had the time to do another sport, but with a new one coming, we're going to be stretched thin.) How much time per week playing with non-siblings? (No neighborhood kids around his age, sadly, so we have to set up specific playdates). How much free time daily? Does he do a quiet time? About how much time on each subject per day? Reading what other people do almost always sparks my creative juices, so anything anyone wants to share would be terrific. Thanks!!!

[MinivanMom]

We just rearranged our schedule so that ds8 is doing all of his schoolwork in the afternoon. This way I can spend more time with my toddler and preschool age boys in the morning. Our current schedule is approximately:

7 am - He gets up, dressed, eats breakfast

8:30 - Piano practice

9:15 - Plays indoors

10:30 - Send him & dd6 outside to play or we all walk down to the park

11:30 - Lunch

12:00 - Seatwork (math, lang.arts, writing, French)

1:30 - Read aloud (literature, science, history)

2:30 - Quiet time (usually he reads, but sometimes he draws or writes in his journal)

3:30 - Playtime (except on Th when ds has his piano lesson)

5:30 - Dinner

7:00 - Daddy reads aloud

7:30 - Bedtime

 

When the weather is good, ds probably plays outside for about 2-3 hrs a day. When the weather's bad he might not play outside at all. He does fine either way. On rainy days he tends to do more reading and lego building. We do a playdate about once a week. He also plays sports for three seasons, but right now is his off season. We only do one sport for him at a time, though, because that's as much as I can juggle with his sisters in activities also (not to mention the little boys to drag along). He's a pretty easy-going kid, but he does have a lot of energy. I find that *for him* sleep matters more than outdoor/physical playtime. Yes, he needs to expend some energy everyday, but being well-rested makes a much bigger impact so getting him into bed early is always my higher priority.

[happypamama]

Right now, my 8yo (9 in a month) isn't out much, because it's bitterly cold and windy, but in nice weather, he can go outside a lot. If he's working diligently, schoolwork might take him four hours, just kind of depends. He's a good reader but not that all fast yet.

 

Typical schoolwork for him:

-1 WWE lesson -- 10-20 minutes, depending on whether he needs to read a passage first or not.

-20 minutes of math and geography practice games

-10-30 minutes of math -- depends on whether he needs help from me or if he can just do it -- he's in Singapore 3, and I have him do a section a day, so 2-4 pages. The fraction pages are super fast, but the lengthy subtraction problems, while easy for him, take a while.

-a chapter of a book, something of decent literary quality -- right now, he likes the Childhood of Famous Americans books -- a chapter might take 20-30 minutes.

-either a lesson from Mango Language or a page from GSWL with me -- about 10 minutes

-history -- under 30 minutes -- varies, but yesterday, he read a couple of pages from Usborne and looked up a definition in a dictionary. Another day, he might read a chapter of SOTW or CHOW, although if he's had a particularly long day otherwise, I might just have him read half of the chapter that day and half the next, and sometimes he is supposed to write two facts he learned or do a map. I miss doing history with him, but he's not at all an auditory learner, and with reading to himself, he's really thriving and enjoying history.

-10-30 minutes --- rotating group subjects -- geography, art, picture study, etc.

-science -- 10-30 minutes -- We were doing Mr. Q as a group, which takes about 15 minutes a day, but then we took a break to work through the SnapCircuits student guide as a group, and we might spend longer on that because they're so cool.

 

Plus readalouds at breakfast, lunch, bedtime, and in the car, and memory work at breakfast.

 

In his free time, he draws, builds with LEGO, plays with any available sibling, does origami, does SnapCircuits projects on his own, reads. . . He doesn't get a lot of screen time, but when he does, he likes playing games. He plays with friends at co-op get togethers but not very often, as we live in the middle of the country, a hike from most of our friends. In nice weather, he and his next youngest brother often go down the street to play with the two boys who live nearby.

 

He helps with the younger brothers, takes out the trash and compost every morning, helps clean up around the house, and helps DH with hauling firewood. He generally seems happy and is a sweet boy and a great big brother.

[LindaOz]

We just rearranged our schedule so that ds8 is doing all of his schoolwork in the afternoon. This way I can spend more time with my toddler and preschool age boys in the morning. Our current schedule is approximately:

7 am - He gets up, dressed, eats breakfast

8:30 - Piano practice

9:15 - Plays indoors

10:30 - Send him & dd6 outside to play or we all walk down to the park

11:30 - Lunch

12:00 - Seatwork (math, lang.arts, writing, French)

1:30 - Read aloud (literature, science, history)

2:30 - Quiet time (usually he reads, but sometimes he draws or writes in his journal)

3:30 - Playtime (except on Th when ds has his piano lesson)

5:30 - Dinner

7:00 - Daddy reads aloud

7:30 - Bedtime

 

When the weather is good, ds probably plays outside for about 2-3 hrs a day. When the weather's bad he might not play outside at all. He does fine either way. On rainy days he tends to do more reading and lego building. We do a playdate about once a week. He also plays sports for three seasons, but right now is his off season. We only do one sport for him at a time, though, because that's as much as I can juggle with his sisters in activities also (not to mention the little boys to drag along). He's a pretty easy-going kid, but he does have a lot of energy. I find that *for him* sleep matters more than outdoor/physical playtime. Yes, he needs to expend some energy everyday, but being well-rested makes a much bigger impact so getting him into bed early is always my higher priority.

I have a 9yo boy with a lot of energy. We have read aloud and seat work in the mornings (math, writing, vocab/English skills) then an outside break. After break we have history and journal time, and maybe then science or drawing. After lunch is quiet time for an hour where he does assigned reading. I catch up with him after that sometime to read a bit to me and talk about his reading.

 

He plays outside a lot around these times, sometimes with neighborhood kids, or siblings, but will just play around outside on his own if no-one else is available or willing. He also rides his bike in the street outside our house, and goes on mountain bike rides with dh. He has his own vege garden to look after which gives him another outside project. It's summer here at the moment (and stinking hot) so he needs to water twice a day. He drums as well so will spend part of his day drumming either on his own or with a sister playing along on keys at the same time.

[jkl]

Thanks everyone! This is helpful! Anyone else want to share?

[Wheres Toto]

My son is 8.

 

He wakes up around 7:30/8:00 am.  He is slow to wake-up so starts the day watching tv while drinking a Pediasure (doesn't like to eat in the morning, has sensory issues).

 

He does a lot of worksheets because that is what works best for him.  He is very visual so it's all about him being able to see it.  He has a binder with 5 tabs - one for each day - and each tab has a bright sheet of paper that divides the work he does by himself with the work he does with the teacher.

 

By himself he does:

Handwriting without Tears

copywork from WWE (some days)

Algebra Readiness Made Easy (a Scholastic book - similar to logic puzzles)

a multiplication math riddle (another Scholastic book - basically drill but in a fun way)

Evan Moor Word-A-Day (he looks it up in his dictionary to get another definition before answering)

Evan Moor Spell and Write (except Friday for the test)

Evan Moor Daily Reading Comprehension

Sometimes another math page like Daily Math for review of topics already learned.

Reading - sometimes an assigned book or magazine (Ranger Rick, Kids Discover, etc.), sometimes whatever he wants, sometimes a little time spent with both.

 

While he's doing that their teacher is working with dd.  Once dd is done, the teacher checks over his independent work to see if there's anything they need to go over together, then while dd reads she works with ds on:

 

Math Mammoth

Writing with Ease narration (some days)

Logic Puzzles

Spelling test (on Fridays)

 

That usually takes until lunch time.  After lunch is usually a break to play outside, play Wii when it's crappy outside, do some drawing, painting or other crafts.  The rest of the afternoon is usually spent with history, science, field trips, etc. 

 

Time with kids not his sister varies from week to week.  It's a lot more now with the nanny than it was when it was me.  They had activities three days last week - one day was supposed to be 4-H but it ended up cancelled because the library lost power so they went sledding instead, one day was a walk and activity at a local county park, one day was a craft activity at the library.  They also have homeschool ice skating, homeschool swimming, and walks/activities at a second local county park.   In a few months we will probably be signing them up for a few classes at our local Y.

 

We don't have many neighborhood kids his age and our weather has been particularly cold and crappy lately so he doesn't play outside for more than an hour at a time.

 

[robsiew]

My 8 y/o is our youngest so keep that in mind!  He's extremely distractable and distracting!  He is ALL little boy and has a hard time sitting down to focus.  He'd much rather be playing tricks on his older brothers and sis.

 

We do short bursts of school.  Each subject lasts no longer than 20-30 min.  Really, that's his attention span.  Math is his favorite subject so we spend more time on that, but we do 2-3 different things during that time.

 

For my young ones I keep school to a minimum and aim for literacy in the basics....

 

math (about 30 min.)

reading (reads alone for 30 min)

writing (we do IEW with older brother most work done together)

history ( 3x's/week I read real literature books from history period to him)

science (2x's a week, read one day, experiment the next, I read to him about 10-15 min)

 

We listen to audio books together as a family during meal times.

 

He plays with siblings for most of the day.  He's probably done with school within 2 hours. 

 

We have a neighbor friend over several times a week for 2-3 hours at a time.

 

No outside right now, but try to have him do something active in house (xbox kinect or treadmill) each day.  It's been horribly cold here.  In the nicer weather he's out a couple hours a day.

 

At this age I'd err on the side of letting him have more free time than not.... they are young for such a short time and before you know it they'll be 7th grade and having to do much more school each day with less and less time to play....

[Peaceful Isle]

My son is almost 8. He is a pretty active guy. I usually give him more breaks in school than my girls. He loves to run around and play with his little brother. I do make him have quiet time in the afternoon while little guy is sleeping. My older kids usually read during that quiet time, and it helps me to recharge and relax as well. 

 

 

[MrsH]

Mine just turned 8 yesterday, and is still de-schooling a bit. We do some together time with various read-alouds after breakfast, then he goes off to play. What her does really varies, k'nex, mazes, outside, trampoline, building a fort... Then we take our time to walk to school for his reading or speech sessions, after which we have lunch. I read aloud while they finish, then the girls start rest time while I do seatwork with him. He has test hour, and then we have the afternoon for chores, playing, play dates, wii/air hockey, outside with neighbors, errands, projects, or a little tv...

 

One a week e have co-op during which he sees friends and has about an hour of outdoor time.

 

While he does need exercise daily, sleep and unstructured time are even more important in terms of helping him regulate...

[jkl]

Thanks, everyone! I think I'm going to try to give him more outside/free time by streamlining some of our LA... Still worried a bit about time with other kids. I'll have to work on that :)