Do you set a time limit or go until finished?

[Mom28kds]

What are your thoughts? What if the subject or test is taking hours? If I let them just take a long time because they just sit there and stare or daydream am I doing a disservice when in the world there are limits and need to learn to work within those limits. Such as a job in the future. Does it teach them to be lazy? I know some of the benefits of homeschooling is to be able to move at their own pace but at what point does it begin to hurt them. Do you set a limit, move on to another subject then come back to it?

[Mrs Twain]

We work on a couple of subjects until they are done, and then we take a break.  Sometimes I have to keep rechecking my kids to make sure they are working and remind them to keep working.  This is especially true after a long weekend or holiday.  My kids want to have their break, so that is one motivation for them to finish the assignments. 

 

I don't assign too many assignments at once because my kids would get too tired and be less efficient. 

[Ellie]

What are your thoughts? What if the subject or test is taking hours? If I let them just take a long time because they just sit there and stare or daydream am I doing a disservice when in the world there are limits and need to learn to work within those limits. Such as a job in the future. Does it teach them to be lazy? I know some of the benefits of homeschooling is to be able to move at their own pace but at what point does it begin to hurt them. Do you set a limit, move on to another subject then come back to it?

 

I would not allow a child to sit for hours. I would figure out what needs to be done so that doesn't happen. Is the thing too easy? Too hard? Totally and completely not interesting? Not necessary? Completely wrong learning method?

[SonshineLearner]

I'd ask my kids what they thought... I'd wonder learning disorder/ ADD.... I'd want to know "why" :)

[Dolphin]

Both. We have a timer with my elder son. He does 20 minutes of work and then takes a 5 minute break. He is not allowed to sit during the 5 minute break. Sometimes a subject (especially writing) might take 2 or 3 blocks of 20 minutes, but the timer means he is never starting into space for more than 20 minutes.

[...................]

Go until finished!

If my kids knew school was finished at a certain time no matter what, they would never get anywhere.

[Alice]

How old are your kids? That would make a big difference to me in how I answered the question. 

 

With my oldest, a 5th grader, I make weekly goals. He knows what he needs to do and has some choice in deciding how much he does each day. The only subject I really give him a time on is Math, the goal is that he works about 45 min-1 hr daily. He goes off and works, at about 45 minutes I tell him to finish up what he's working on and he does. If I see that he did very little in that time, we'll talk about why. Sometimes it's that the problems were really hard and it's ok, sometimes it's that he was being inefficient with his time and we talk about that. 

 

I don't do timed tests or things. Even so, the older one has taken some standardized tests and had no problem getting it done in that time period. Before the test we talked about test-taking issues (like filling out the bubbles) and one thing I mentioned was that he couldn't just zone off if he was bored. He was able to do that when he needed to. 

[1pageatatime]

following as i continue to wallow in my moment of hsing crisis. ;)

[regentrude]

I require that a certain amount of time spent on school work daily. I do not give a fixed set of assignments. I require an hour of math, and the remainder of the time can be spent on whatever school work my student chooses. I expect this time to be spent actually working, and not daydreaming. This calls for at least some amount of supervision, even with young high schoolers.

If the student is too young, or not mature enough, to work independently in a concentrated manner, I would sit with the student and make sure he stays on task.

Under no circumstances would I allow a student to sit for hours without accomplishing anything.

 

ETA: As for tests: I do not give timed tests in my home school. I have found that it takes a lot of experience for an instructor to judge the amount of time needed for a test correctly, and even with a decade of experience in my professional teaching, I sometimes misjudge. I let my student have however much time is needed to finish; we sometimes break a math final into two portions to be completed on two separate days.

[Dmmetler]

Go until finished, but if one subject took a huge amount of time, I've been known to trim others or push them to the next day, That's assuming solid work. We've had days that all that gets done is a single AOPS problem before lunch, with neither of us realizing it until stomachs started rumbling, and if so, I consider that time well spent, and adjust the rest of the day/week accordingly.

[Critterfixer]

I prefer to keep to a set time. But my guys are pretty good about staying on task for most subjects. Math is sometimes one that can go over if I'm not careful. But frankly, after about 45 minutes of math, we need a change anyhow. So what isn't done will generally get done a lot faster as homework. That's their time they waste then, not mine. Funny how that tends to put a priority on getting done!

[regentrude]

Go until finished, but if one subject took a huge amount of time, I've been known to trim others or push them to the next day, That's assuming solid work. We've had days that all that gets done is a single AOPS problem before lunch,

 

And this is exactly why I do not feel competent assigning a set assignment to be completed in x amount of time. I do not possess the expertise to judge how much time each assignment will take. Even if I were working every math problem beforehand, this would still not tell me where the student would have a problem and take longer. I can identify a math problem as difficult; I do not presume to judge whether this means DS will spend 30 minutes or two hours on this problem.
I can also not judge reading speed, as this greatly depends on the difficulty of the book and the engagement of the student. Thus, I find it impossible to assign for example a set number of pages. How do you all come up with accurate estimates for the time assignments will take your child? (Which is what one would need, in order to judge whether a certain set of assignments constitutes a reasonable request or is demanding too much of the student)

 

Even in my job, with 12+years of experience teaching the same subject and several thousand students as a sample, I can not accurately predict how much time an individual student will need for any given assignment.

[Penguin]

We go with a set number of hours for the school day.  I agree with everything Regentrude said above:)

 

Most days, I set the timer for math.  That is to keep ME in check and make sure that math doesn't go much over an hour.

 

But it is just the two of us here, and it is very easy for me to nip dawdling in the bud.  If I had more kids in my homeschool, I might have to do things differently.

Also, I am nearly always in the room with DS.  I have my own work / studies to do while he is working independently.  That also makes it easy to keep dawdling to a minimum.

[Alice]

And this is exactly why I do not feel competent assigning a set assignment to be completed in x amount of time. I do not possess the expertise to judge how much time each assignment will take. Even if I were working every math problem beforehand, this would still not tell me where the student would have a problem and take longer. I can identify a math problem as difficult; I do not presume to judge whether this means DS will spend 30 minutes or two hours on this problem.
I can also not judge reading speed, as this greatly depends on the difficulty of the book and the engagement of the student. Thus, I find it impossible to assign for example a set number of pages. How do you all come up with accurate estimates for the time assignments will take your child? (Which is what one would need, in order to judge whether a certain set of assignments constitutes a reasonable request or is demanding too much of the student)

 

Even in my job, with 12+years of experience teaching the same subject and several thousand students as a sample, I can not accurately predict how much time an individual student will need for any given assignment.

 

I don't really assign a specific amount to be done in a set time but I do have some idea of what it will take them based on what I know about them and what I know about the assignment. So if I ask my son to do an assignment in Singapore Math which we've been using for 6 years, I have a fairly good idea of how much he can do in an hour. If he comes back and has done three word problems, I'll just ask him what happened. This particular kid is really honest so he'll just tell me "I got distracted by my Legos" or whatever. But usually in that scenario he'd say it was just tough and I'll say ok. 

 

I don't set specific times or a set amount we have to get done each day or week but I think of it in terms of goals that are flexible. Sometimes I find I vastly overestimate how much can get done and then we just do the work the next week. For us, it doesn't work to say "Do all of page 80 and then you are done" because sometimes page 80 is way harder (or way easier) that I realized. So instead it works to say "Work for about an hour" and then to assess whether the work done seems reasonable. And then to reevaluate if it seems that my expectations are always way out of line with what is getting done.

 

I also agree with what you said earlier, I find that with my kids I mostly need to be nearby even if I'm not actively teaching in order to help them stay on task. I find that it works best when the atmosphere is that "we're all working on school during these hours" even if what we're doing is varied. My oldest, however, does get distracted by his sister and brother, especially doing math or trying to write. So I will have him go somewhere where he feels he can get the work done. But I will still go and check in to see if he needs any help or has come across any problems. Lately he's been doing his math in the bathtub for some reason (without water, just sitting in the tub). 

[Critterfixer]

I like what Alice says about being present during school hours. But that's relatively easy for me to do, because I only have two, and they typically want to get done with school because they do most of their daydreaming outside. I don't know how many children the OP is homeschooling, but I suspect that the more children are doing school at one time, the greater the tendency to find somebody dreaming instead of working.

(At least, I was that kid....the one who smuggled books under the table to read when I was supposed to be doing my math. My Mom went with the go until finished routine, which meant most days I was doing Algebra 1/2 at suppertime, and bawling my eyes out. There wasn't all that many math curricula to choose from back in the day....Don't know how well work till you drop worked for me. Maybe that's why I'm a time and move on person. I don't mind coming back to finish something.)

[Meriwether]

Depends on the subject, kid, and day. Ds9 cannot be given just a time limit, though. He is quite capable of dawdling for hours. The biggest challenge I have during the school day is helping him focus.

[RootAnn]

I agree with the previous poster who said their age is a huge part of this answer.

 

I'm generally right with all my kids except the oldest while they are working as I'm teaching, asking questions, and we are reading together.

I have a rough schedule to our days, so either we get the amount done that I want to cover before time is up, or we move on after a certain amount of time.

 

I have one kid who has a timer for math. It doesn't matter if she gets once page done, half a page, or three lessons -  she does it for 45 minutes every day. Otherwise, it is like the above.

 

Eldest daughter has a weekly list of things to get done. She decides how much to do each day. If she doesn't get them done during the week, she does them on the weekend. Her stuff is all the type where I can gauge how long it'll take her - if she doesn't space off. The only thing she uses a timer for are the 'speed drills' that are part of her math program.

 

[KrissiK]

We just do a lesson per day with each subject. Time has never been a problem. My kids are generally pretty efficient and pragmatic...if they get their work done, then they can play. They are all very social critters... Playing outside with their friends trumps everything. School is something we do because we have to. Although, don't get me wrong, they enjoy what we are doing for the most part. I am not torturing them, and they are all pretty bright. They just like to play.

[Above The Rowan]

We go until it feels right to stop. I know that is not terribly specific, but basically we do more if everyone is paying attention and into it and we do less if not. No point in spending hours staring off into space and foaming at the mouth.

This is us. I only have two so we switch between each child - ie: DS starts his LoE first, when we complete a lesson then it's DDs turn for LoE. Then DS comes back for math, dd gets a break. We work for as long as they are able to focus. Some days we get a ton of work done, others not so much. After lunch we usually do history, science, and reading all together.

Its impossible for us to set time requirements or even lesson requirements. Some days they just aren't into it - and we declare class dismissed for the day.

[matrips]

What are your thoughts? What if the subject or test is taking hours? If I let them just take a long time because they just sit there and stare or daydream am I doing a disservice when in the world there are limits and need to learn to work within those limits. Such as a job in the future. Does it teach them to be lazy? I know some of the benefits of homeschooling is to be able to move at their own pace but at what point does it begin to hurt them. Do you set a limit, move on to another subject then come back to it?

Both. I now have a time each day when I am done. That means I will go run errands with them or go to a park or whatever, but homeschooling for me is over. If someone is not done, they need to continue with their work in the car or the park or outside their extracurriculars. Amazing how fast, and accurately, my slowpoke can work when his activity or sport is really on the line. His two same age siblings work just fine and it's rarely an issue. I just got tired of feeling chained to the house by him. I don't think it's the curriculum or anything else; one day he will be my fast one and one of the others will turn Into the slowpoke. (It's been like that before). It's this merry go round we've been on for several years now. I keep saying, it's just a phase. They have a daily and weekly schedule with everything laid out. Some is independent and some we do together as a group and some we do together one on one. They usually decide the order they want to do things (with the understanding that all work with mom needs to be done before my done time). I will suggest if I notice him really going slow on something to switch to something else easier to get something accomplished. I also try to have him work in the kitchen because if I am around he is spurred on a bit more.

[Tracy]

First, you have to nail down why it is taking so long.  And lazy would be the last thing that I would assume.  Some kids (like my ds6) are born with great executive skills and can just get the job done.  But most kids need at least some instruction and guidance with regard to executive skills (how to focus, how to avoid distractions, how to manage time, how to organize both things and thoughts, etc.)  And many kids (like my dd9) need a lot of guidance and handholding and assistance long past the time when their age-peers no longer need it.  I don't think it is at all helpful to make a child sit for hours, expecting that doing so is sufficient motivation to self-teach these skills.  

 

Anyone who is letting their kid sit for hours for a single assignment needs to read Smart but Scattered.  It was a huge help in teaching me how to help my dd9.  

[abba12]

Combination. I set assignments, and so we work until everything is 'done'. But I have an idea in my head of how long I want them working and I plan the assignments to that time. So if I want them to spend an hour on math, I will assign enough math that it should comfortably fit in about an hour, given their personal speed, skills, etc (a child gifted in math would have a larger assignment than a child who struggles with it, both aiming to take about an hour). Of course, this cannot be fully predicted. Some days they will rush through and finish in half an hour, that's fine and they get the benefit of extra time. Sometimes they might struggle and take longer, and that is true of time estimates in work and life as well. Once I set an assignment, unless I have made a major mistake in timing it or it needs to be put off for a specific reason (resources, interuptions not the fault of the child, etc) the assignment doesn't change. This works both ways, it means sometimes they will finish much quicker and are rewarded with more free time, not more schoolwork to 'fill in' the school hours. It gives them a concrete 'end' to reach, but if they dawdle they learn they are wasting their own time, and if there's a challenge they learn to accept it and push through, even if they're disappointed it's taking longer than it should.

 

If they are working diligently and it's taking longer than expected I will try to work out why (did I mess up in my assignment estimation? Is there a specific concept they're stuck on? Is this a one-off delay or is it happening repeatedly? Am I expecting too much?)

 

If they are not working diligently AND it's a one-off behavioral issue, they can sit and work until it's complete and the consequences of stalling and procrastinating are less free time. Sometimes kids just have a bad or foggy day, but as an adult things still need to be done on those days, and yes, they often do take longer, it's part of life. Obviously, if foggy days are happening regularly then they need to be looked into further as well, is there enough sleep, are they eating right, etc etc.

 

If they are consistently taking forever in a subject or consistently not doing their work diligently I will investigate further. Is it a bad match? Am I approaching this badly for them? Are they trying but not understanding or are they just not trying? Do they need something different? Is it just that they hate this topic and can I/should I do something to change that? Sometimes a change may be needed (this history curriculum is completely uninteresting and a drag to do, lets find something new) and sometimes the child needs to just sit longer and get it done because sometimes we all have to do things we don't want to do, and learning that dragging their feet will make it go away is not a lesson I want to teach (I'm sorry if you don't like math, I'm sorry you find it dull and frustrating, but this curriculum appears to be a good fit for you, the only issue is you don't want to do math at all, no matter how I present it, so you'll just need to deal with it and the quicker you finish the quicker it'll be over, it still has to be done, just like I still have to clean the toilet each week)

 

So, in short, what to do about it will vary on a case by case basis and you need to work out the cause before deciding how to respond. A child who is struggling a lot with material that isn't working for them should not sit at the table for 3 hours on one book, there should be a limit. But, at the same time, a child who just doesn't want to do an assignment should not be 'rewarded' for stalling and procrastinating by having less work to do, they need to learn that sometimes in life we just have to suck it up and do things we don't want to. It's all about balance, as usual.

[SeaConquest]

We go until it feels right to stop. I know that is not terribly specific, but basically we do more if everyone is paying attention and into it and we do less if not. No point in spending hours staring off into space and foaming at the mouth.

This is us too, but it tends to work out to about 45 minutes of math, a 20-30 minute break, and then about 45 minutes of reading and writing. The rest we do informally.

[Camelfeet]

We have time limits for some things - Math, Reading, spelling practice, handwriting.  Goals/Assignments for others - Latin, History/Science, LA projects...

 

Like others have mentioned, I find if I am not actually present and giving them reminders to stay on track, mine with stare off into space, start colouring or otherwise get distracted.

[Catherine]

It depends. Generally, we go until we are done. I take this approach because my son has a poor grasp of time, because his natural tendency is to go slowly, procrastinate, and not finish assignments. I maintain flexibility because sometimes things to not click and take much longer than I anticipate. But as a rule, I have to prevent his naturally very slow pace from holding him back.

Editing now that I've read some of the earlier responses. Yes, one of my roles as a teacher is to explicitly teach the executive function skills that my son will need once he's moved on. In turn, this means helping him to see that in general, he must be the one to fit his work into the available time.

[boscopup]

I give specific assignments, based on what I know the kids are capable of doing. Sometimes an assignment turns out to take longer than I expected, and I adjust the assignment. For example, recently I gave my 4th grader a short paragraph to copy in cursive. He worked for 15 minutes and got just a little over 1 sentence done. I realized that I had way overestimated his ability, so I adjusted the assignment. He was working that whole time. He just wasn't ready for the assignment I gave him. (He can copy a paragraph quickly in manuscript, just not cursive)

In math, he's doing AoPS, and I usually assign one problem set or one exercise set. Occasionally, the problem set is really easy for him, do I have him go ahead and do the exercises also. Sometimes the exercise set is harder than expected, so I'll tell him to work for 45 minutes, then do the rest the next day. I'm flexible.

If a child is dawdling for hours, the parent should have stepped in long ago. Sometimes switching subjects and coming back fresh will take care of the problem. Sometimes sitting at elbow and redirecting the child is necessary (my first grader is kept at elbow for this reason).

[RoundAbout]

We go until it feels right to stop. I know that is not terribly specific, but basically we do more if everyone is paying attention and into it and we do less if not. No point in spending hours staring off into space and foaming at the mouth.

This is exactly what we do. There are days where we are both on the ball and get a lot done and other days not as much. My son is young so attention span is usually the limiting factor, thus I try to keep things short and sweet with a lot of variety.

[Kevin'sMom]

http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/81_brain.pdf

 

 

I found this very helpful.

[Mom28kds]

I am HSing 3 right now. My DS is 9. It is only with his Math that he dawdles and stares at his pencil. He knows what is required of him and I have even been crossing out some problems that I feel are overkill. Sometimes I set a timer and when the time is up he needs to move on with his other work. When he is done with everything he can come back and finish his Math. I am in the room all morning with the kids. By the afternoon if he needs me and is still working he can come to me. With the amount of work he has, he can be finished by lunch if he wanted to. It isn't too hard for him...he just stares into space. I have noticed that when he is dawdling and I set a timer he seems to get a little more focused. It's good to hear what others do. It gets frustrating when he just sits there and I have to keep on him to do his work. Thanks for the replies :)

[Cottonwood]

We go until it feels right to stop.  I know that is not terribly specific, but basically we do more if everyone is paying attention and into it and we do less if not.  No point in spending hours staring off into space and foaming at the mouth.

 

this is us too.  Our work is set up by lesson so ideally I encourage getting a lesson done in ea subject by day, but we often get pretty bogged down, sleepy, bored, restless, and just stop when it seems to be a good thing to do.  Sometimes I bring that work back later, sometimes we go outside and play.  Seems to be working.  we will be done w/ 7th grade around the middle of May so I guess it hasn't slowed our pace, really. 

[Korrale]

I have to read all the posts yet, but I had a thought about what I might do here... Granted this is theoretical and I have yet to implement it.

I think I will set a time limit per subject each day. If the work set for that day is done I will have him keep going, until time is up. I will also have a weekly goal. If he dilly dallies with his work he can do make up on the weekend until he finishes the required work. I figure this will become incentive.
This is how it works at my husbands work. It is factory work, a quota is set for the week. If it is not completed they do overtime on Saturday.

Read thought them all and I see that others do what I just thought up. :)

[My3girls]

I do time, and if they finish early, then yay!  They get to play.  I never want them to feel like they are being punished with more work if they get doner sooner than the time limit.  Sometimes, they don't get finished in the allotted time.  If they have truely worked, then we roll to the next day if they dilly dallied then they have to finish it up later on their time.

[Ravin]

Both. We use a loop schedule, so we don't skip assignments and everything gets done, more or less in order. However, I also keep track of time spent and don't let any one subject/task go overly long, and shoot for quitting at a reasonable hour.

If DD fritters away too much time, we go longer, though. Time spent on distractions does not count as time spent on schoolwork, and she is quite capable of wasting an hour for every twenty minutes of work done. I am for a balance that includes ample breaks, but still gets a reasonable amount done.